Cascade Four Seasons Summer Blonde
Cascade Brewery Company Ltd.

the best part of this beer was opening the bottle. the hop aroma jumps out at you before you can even think of pouring it into a glass. everything else about this beer says pale lager, and thats not a good thing.
there is that characteristic fruity aroma and a bit in the flavor but just barely. other than that it is fairly bland, and finishes with a wimper. too similair to thier premium than a "seasonal" wheat.

Summer '03 - '04 version.

Clean straw gold in colour with a small head and little retention. Light carbonation.

Nose is dominated by green/herbal notes followed by fruity aromas of tropical fruits, mainly pineapple.

Strange taste on this one. Spicy on the front of the palate, big in the mid palate and then it disappears without a trace. No real finish. Wheat flavours not really present.

No real suprises here. Didn't expect much, didn't get much. Too expensive for what you get ($4.50 ea or $15 for a 4 pack!)

now that cascade is a subsiduary of CUB, and has now become like their craft beer arm, what else can you expect but disappointment? when i heard they were going to do seasonal beers i was a little excited, but then i thought, nah, carltons involved, lets watch them fail spectacularly. and, well, bingo!

this is the best of the range they have done this year, and thats not much of a commendation. ive only given this around the three mark because all up its a quite bizarre beer. i could not detect anything wheaty about it, another reason ive marked it up slightly i guess. its quite strange in that it looks, smells and tastes a bit like a white wine with a head. whats good about that you might ask? two things, one, coming from these guys, anything that doesnt taste like one of their beers is a bonus, and two, it was good to drink on a stinkin hot day.

its extremely light in appearance and body, it didnt have that rocky, creamy head you would usually see on a witbier. the nose was fruity and vinous, with traces of grape and stonefruits. similar on the palate, but not overly sweet, and a nice level of hops that added a crisp element overall. fortunately it didnt have the crappy aftertaste most CUB related beers leave behind. it was almost like a spritzer in the mouth, quite interesting for a beer, but again, this wasnt a bad thing if youre looking for something to polish off when its 96 degrees in the shade.

while ive said it was interesting as far as beers go, it certainly isnt a classic by any stretch of the imagination. i hoped in vain that this would be a good starting point for some fine beers to come, but nope, none get near this one. everything following in this range has been totally half assed and disappointing.

Well says on the label its a "crisp and zesty wheatbeer", well its a touch crisp, but not particularly zesty or wheat-beerish. Uninteresting aroma, some sweet malty aromas, myabe some hops. Palate is lihgt-sweet, finishing dry, lightly crisp, lightly bitter, lightly malty, lightly hoppy, uninteresting, and too clean tasting, nothin much happening, OK balance i suppose, but a bit of a joke, especially at $15 AUS as 4 pack!!! i also refute the fact that this is a wheat beer, its probably bottom fermented and lagered and all that stuff, tastes like a lager, hold on, it actually tastes like water.