Mayan Bourbonic
Cascade Brewing / Raccoon Lodge & Brewpub

 

 

 

on draft at the brewery in Portland

very dark brown in color, thin head. Dark fruits, dark chocolate, cinnamon. Fairly sour. Don't get much chili pepper. thin to medium bodied.

Pours with no head, looks still, very dark black-ish color

Nose souring funk, tart funk, not quite cheesy but lambic-like earthy sour funk, some fruits like date plum fig thing, but also sour cherry and sour grape, hint of baking spice and cinnamon, hint of pepper, vanilla spice and buttery oak, with a bit of bourbon and a little port-like dark red wine

Taste starts sour again, more of the tart lambic-like earthy funk, tart acidity but a mellow acidity, a bit of cocoa and chocolate notes, some dark malts but not roasty, some baking spice, barrel spice notes with buttery oak and vanilla, a mild bourbon background but very mild, quite fruity as well, dates and fig up front, a bit more tart cherry and sour grapes and rich dark red wine, a little berry and cranberry kinda tartness thing, light alcohol adding to more like a cranberry juice with bourbon vodka blend late, very light cinnamon and pepper spice late, tart mild flemmy finish

Mouth is med to a little fuller bod, smooth mild alcohol, but just about no carb

Overall not bad, not usually a dark sour fan but they know how to do it right, nice sourness, lots of good fruit, low alcohol, not a lot of barrel but it's more to round the beer and likely 3rd or 4th fill, the cayenne pepper and cinnamon are way too low as well, and really wish there was a bit of carb, but in general it's nice

Wonderful nose, with everything coming to play: souring bacteria, wine and bourbon barrels, cinnamon, cayenne, chocolate. Every ingredient has its own role to play, even in a bottle 3-4 years old.

On the palate, the sourness takes charge initially, but recedes just enough to let the complexity of the beer start to shine. The bottle age means that the cinnamon, cayenne, and cocoa have faded too much for it to really recall a Mayan chili chocolate drink, and any sweetness of the bourbon mash has similarly faded - but the result is still damn tasty.

I can only imagine how complex and rewarding this beer would be fresh, and I hope they consider re-releasing it again some day in the future.

 

 

 

 

500ml bottle. Northwest Sour Series, dated 2017. Label lists the ABV as 11.3%.
Impervious to light, but the color looks to be black. Brief light tan head, which reduces to a thin ring. No lacing.
Aroma has whiffs of sour over dark roasted malts and dark chocolate. There is a light layer of cinnamon but no pepper.
Taste is sour, but it is tempered with cocoa and dark fruit (dates). The higher ABV% lifts the cinnamon into the nostrils. My tongue is numb but is this from peppers or from the alcohol? When the beer is held in the mouth for a half a minute or so, the peppers do express a little but the sour base quickly washes this away when swallowed.
Mouth feel is mixed around the medium range. The sourness quickly brings dryness to the mouth. The cocoa and cinnamon bring a different dry element to the mouth. The dates bring a little syrup. Quiet carbonation.
The barrel contributes an oak and wine component to the sourness, but the bourbon note is only very brief as the beer warms. This has to be one of the more distant American Porter beers I have tried. The beer is more reminiscent of a cabernet and port combo than a dark beer. Kudos to Cascade for taking the time and effort to make this.
Label says to serve at 40 degrees F, but I think the beer is best experienced at room temperature; this provides a richer blend of flavors and smells.

a fun one to encounter on tap, and they did a good job moderating the extra ingredients, they are accents to a one of a kind base beer, they dont redefine it, and i think that is a success in this context. i always forget that this is pretty sour, its odd in a big porter, but it works. the dates add balancing sweetness, and there is absolutely more red wine barrel fruitiness here than i recall in the original, pronounced in nose and taste alike. looks a little thinner though, not much head in this format and with some light coming in, leggy and viscous but near still. the nose and taste are close to the same, a woody spiciness, almost a rye element to me among the sweeter caramel malt, lots of cocoa, and then less of the cinnamon and hot pepper. to me the cinnamon is there mostly in the finish, warming and nice with all the oak and alcohol, the cayenne is more a feeling than a flavor, a little warmth in the throat, exacerbated slightly by, or maybe exacerbating itself the alcohol. sweetness through it, raisin character, rum too with the bourbon, dry bitter cocoa for balance and a little less dark roasty malt than i recall the original having. quite a bacterial pucker to this, which plays up the wine element in the blend, there is just so much going on here, you kind of have to let it sit and open up and do its thing, its cohesive and it works, but i definitely prefer the original, these extra ingredients are a little strange in this base, distracting, not off, but this is almost overly complex. it could also use a little more carbonation, even in a beer for sipping like this, the lack of life slows it almost too much. enjoyable, better than a novelty item, but these flavors are positively strange in a sour beer...

2017 vintage, which I believe is the only year this one was bottled. 500ml corked & caged, popped with hardly a sound and poured into a teku;

A: Dark brown pours out into jet black in the glass, but where is the head? Worried about carbonation with only a few large bubbles, but smaller bubbles start to rise and cling to the glass after 10 or so seconds - maybe this one needed a more aggressive pour?

S: I am not a sour expert but this smells like a lot of other Cascade sours - lacto, lemon, cherry tartness, with a very mild sweetness behind it - maple syrup or chocolate, I would say.

T: Leads with that punch of lacto tartness but there is a dark, cocoa-y and dark fruity sweetness and richness to compete with the sourness ever-so-slightly. Not roasty per-se, though I get the impression of coffee at times, with notes of dark caramel blending with figs and dates under a wave of lemony-lacto-cherry tartness. The barrels make an appearance as this warms, with discernible red wine characteristics as well as bourbon, and though it is mild the bourbon barrel blends well with the dark fruits. Spices are very subdued, I can only pick them up in passing when looking for them.

MF: It is always tough to gauge sours on mouthfeel - this one finishes with a dryness that seems to belong in a sour beer; the booze is subdued but there is a little heat, which complements a beer like this in my opinion.

O: Don’t know exactly how to grade this one; not my favorite style, and not one I’d go out of my way to find again; however it is one of the more complex and enjoyable brews I’ve sat down and tried to pick apart in recent memory. Cascade is definitely talented with these. A small complaint; overall the quality and complexity of this brew is excellent, however I do not think the ‘Mayan’ portion of this Bourbonic shines through. You could have told me this was a regular or barrel-aged sour porter and I wouldn’t have questioned it (except for maybe the dark fruits/figs). The spices are almost nowhere to be found.

2017 date on the bottle. The smaller 500ml bottle at a lower price point than the 750ml Cascade bottles but without doing the math, I am sure I am not getting a better price per ounce.

The regular Bourbonic Plague is about the only dark malt, sour beer that I really enjoyed, so I feel confident I will enjoy this. Dark brown color with a finger of head that settles to a thin cap. No lacing. Aroma is the usual Cascade sour formula. Faint hints of cinnamon and bourbon but it is mostly the tart, vinous parts that dominate. Flavor wise they could of just called this regular Bourbonic Plague and I do not think I would of known the difference. The only difference, knowing it is there, is a slight heat in the finish. But it is ever so slight. The sour just overpowers everything else. Big body for most sours and appropriately carbonated.

This is still a good sour, but I feel I did not drink what was advertised on the label.

 

 

2020-06-07
500ml bottle served in a little Cantillon glass. 2017 vintage. Bought if from Total Wine, of all places.

Pours dark, small head, tons of carbonation. Small head. Smell is plummy, tart, fruity, barrel, booze...smells real good, brothers and sisters.

Taste is along the same lines. Super tart. Lots of plum/raisin/date, very bright.

Mouthfeel is surprisingly light and dry. Overall, really, really good.