Cascade Brewing Barrel House

 

 

 

 

 

a special place
back in time with the classics of sours. must stop if you like these beers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humble yet formidable, blessedly untrendy temple of the Tart Arts. Splendiferous list of inventive barrel sours (some upwards of 8 years old and all the better for it). Old World knowledge and homebrew playfulness on display. Severly underrated—both in Portland rankings and national sour landscape—likely as a result of Web-1.0-era optics.

 

 

 

 

Relaxed, friendly, and fairly cozy and small considering how well known these guys are. It was late and a quiet week night in January, so there wasn't all that much going on. Really friendly staff, happy to talk about the beer; considering they were just wait-staff, they were quite knowledgeable. Food was pretty good...I had the korean tacos and the kale salad.

 

What a cool place! The clean, spacious interior is light colored and wood-centric with booths, high tops, a medium bar, and a few muted TV screens. Outdoors there is a huge urban beer garden--Portland really knows how to do the beer scene! Walk up to the bar and place your order, or belly-up and watch the action, which amps up rather shortly after open.

On our visit, service was extremely knowledgeable and skilled, pouring up to 30 taster glasses all at once from the massive wall of taps, adeptly and rapidly. This is not something you get to see often. The tap wall includes two large holes within which two actual live barrels have been shoved, with screw valves to release beer straight to glass right before your very eyes. The other taps are designed to look just like the barrels, so it all seamlessly flows together.

They have an absolutely insane list of beers on tap, too. The week we were here, fresh hops were all the rage and they not only had fresh hop IPAs of their own, but 3 fresh hop funky beers, which is something I'd never heard of before. For anyone out there that sees Cascade's bottles on shelves but balks at the price, this is an excellent place to get a broad selection and see for yourself the kind of quality they actually produce. I was able to try around 20 Cascade beers I hadn't had before, and loved them all--some new, some fresh, some classic, and some many years old. One was over 7 years old! It's absolutely bonkers, and so much cheaper than going full bore on a bottle you're not sure about. But then you realize, they're all so good, you start looking at the bottles in a whole new light--which haven't I had, or which did I enjoy the most?! A new conflict has arisen.

Food here is varied and good, and they even pickle their own veg with their own beer--something I'd not heard of before. However, I'd advise against it if that's all you're having with all these sour beers. It's good as a side dish to other more hearty things, but if you're primarily here to go through the list sampling, adding more tart solids to your gut just doesn't work all that well with a belly full of beer. Who needs food anyway?!

Sour beer heaven. On a recent trip to Portland, I made sure to stop by Cascade 3 times in as many days. I regret nothing. World-class sours a-plenty! On any given day they offer about 20 beers, 17 or so are sours and you honestly cant go wrong. I did stray from the sour path ever so slightly and tried a milk stout as well and it was also fantastic. Clean tasting room, friendly staff and you cant beat the selection. When in Portland, this is a must.

 

 

 

Visited by myself on a business trip. They don't do flights but you can order 4 oz'ers two at a time. The waitress asked what I wanted and I said, "All of them." So for the next 90 minutes every time she looked my way I held up two fingers and she brought two more - kind of a fun interaction really and I certainly benefited from a little pacing. Alas I was not able to finish a sample of everything (seemed like around 20 taps) but the waitress gave me an "A" for effort. Bottom line I've been to several of the well known "sour houses" and this one had the most consistently great stuff. Food was really nice too - I got some kind of cold asparagus salad and bruschetta which really paired well with the sours. Not as stuffy as you might expect from a place with such high quality beer. And an easy walk back to the trolley line which connected with the light rail back to my hotel which allows one to safely attempt to consume all their beers without getting behind the wheel.

 

 

 

Cascade is a real gem. Great in all areas. Food is good and pairs well with the main course, the sour beers. The service is amazing even when busy and their is plenty of outdoor seating. Favorite summer spot. Only downside for some is all of Cascades offerings are world class sours bar a single ipa and porter that are average.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any of the beers on tap at the Cascade Barrel House would be the best beer on any tap list in any other restaurant/bar/brewery. This place is the best brewery in the states, hands down. Nobody else's sours come close to these magnificent beverages.

This is the best brewery in America.

Nice location with a very enjoyable patio. I am not especially thrilled with the service there. I was told to sit down and waited at least 10 minutes before a waiter showed up. At that point, they were in a hurry to have my wife and I order even though the place was nowhere close to full (Considering the other reviews I read, we may have been unlucky this one time). The beers lived up to the standard I expected (very good) and my wife was happy with the IPA she got (not a sour fan). Food was also very nice.