Manhattan NW
Cascade Brewing / Raccoon Lodge & Brewpub

Big 750mL corked bottle poured into Teku glass. 2015 vintage picked up recently from a liquor store, so 6 years old or so. Forgot how much it was, maybe $15 or so?

Appearance - Gotta say, this bottle looks a whole lot more elegant than the corny label currently pictured for this beer. Maybe that's what the smaller, new bottles still look like. But this 6 year old vintage is classy lookin'. Has a very thin white head that doesn't last very long at all before becoming a thin ring. The body could pass for some sort of fruit juice. Like a slightly thinned out cherry juice. 4.5

Smell - Dry tarty cherry. A little bit of earth and wet hay under it. 4.5

Taste - Dry tarty cherry. 4.75

Mouthfeel - Dry, tarty. Medium bodied. A perfect astringency that just cuts through everything and keeps everything clean and relatively crisp, and above all, refreshing, despite how bold this is. And it is bold. 4.75

Overall - Pairs amazingly with smoked gouda cheese. 4.75

 

Nice sour with cheery and wood flavor. Slightly too sour and not quite malty enough to be world class.

 

 

L: An odd light brown color with a hint of yellow.
S: An odd type of wood.
T: A slow start of cherries and wood into a stronger spice body.
F: Wood and cherries.
O: A memorial and unique fusion of cherry and wood.

 

 

Five year old bottle. Initial pour is gold but takes on bright red hues. Cloudy. Still plenty of carbonation and foam (dissipates quickly). Smell is, in order, funk, cherry, wooden barrel. Taste is more tart than sour on the top of the tongue but then a sour finish. Plenty of cherry flavor, but very little barrel presence. Light bodied, slightly dry feel, booze is mild for a ten plus abv. Pleasant, enjoyable, and I’ll miss seeing this is my fridge.

 

2014 Project

A: Poured into a Duvel tulip to a deep reddish orange topped by a minuscule dense and slightly rocky white head which quickly fades to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing.
S: Smells of sour cherries, funk, leather, and christmas spices
T: Taste is sour cherries up front with an almost sour cherry candy feel to the taste, funk, leather, and some nice christmas and mulling spices with some more sour cherry. On the finish there's more of that sour cherry candy flavor with some additional funk, leather, and spices.
M: This beer has a fairly moderate amount of body with a slightly creamy feel on the palate. Carbonation is low but it doesn't detract from the experience while the beer has a drying finish from the acidity.
O: Overall this is a really nice beer. It has some great flavors with a good amount of complexity. All the flavors are balanced and play well together. My only real knock is that the cherry flavor sometimes comes across as too strong and that makes it seem artificial at times. Definitely worth a try if you can find it.

Had on tap at the Bulldog.
S; has a rich tart berry smell with some alcohol and oak.
L: It is red with a slight haze, a thin white cap with good retention.
T: lemon level tartness balanced by big varied berry flavors, hint vanilla, bourbon and oak.
F: medium body and carbonation. alcohol is smooth and not hot.
O Well done sour with a good balance between the fruit, sour and alcohol.

 

 

2014 Project in July 2019.
L: creamy light pink with light carbonation, no retained head, and slow rising bubbles.
S: cherry oak barrel, sweetness and delicate fruit.
T: slight pucker with lingering cherry at first then the punch of sourness gains and builds numbing strength as I go down the glass.
F: sourness overtakes the mouth
O: enjoyed this one. Might have been past due with the vintage, but we'll worth another try.

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a clear strawberry blonde with about two fingers of head. Head retention is good,and on break there is a nice cap and collar. Good lacing.

Smell is quite impressive. Cherry, raspberry and apricot come to mind. And then there is the nice barrel aroma balancing things out across the spectrum.

Tart as all get out, but you get some quad aspects, fruits, and that barrel stays throughout. Definitely the cherry is the strong fruit.

Feel is lighter weight, high carbonation,puckering and dry. A very nice feel to this one.

I would drink this one slow to avoid a pucker overload. A lovely beer that I would happily have again.

 

Bottle: Poured a blonde color ale with a large pure white foamy head with OK retention and light lacing notes. Aroma of acidic notes with light barrel-aged notes with some subtle candi sugar notes also perceptible. Taste is also a mix of acidic notes with some light oak notes, some barrel-aged notes and candi sugar are also noticeable. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. More complex than other beers from this brewery but still too acid for my taste.

 

 

Sample at Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen 2018, Red Session. Aroma has sweet pollen, floral honey and orchard fruits. Taste is sour, puckering, really dry, woody, acidic with some background fruit preserve sweetish notes.

 

 

 

On tap at Cinder. Raspberry smoothie cherry. Very tasty and smooth for a sour.

Tasting next to 10 year and 20 year Pappy Van Winkle. That's kind of not really fair.


**

 

 

 

2014 Vintage Great nose. Tart cherry, apricot, vanilla, subtle oak and smooth caramel. Acidic and fairly dry.

 

 

 

 

 

Holy sour.