Cascade Brewing has closed; shuttering all operations

My cousin sent me the article last night….very confusing ownership situation.

 

I for one will miss them. I tried a handful of their beers over the years and Sang Noir, Noyaux, and Sang Royal still stand out in my memory. They occupied a unique space in the beer landscape. I think of them in the same class as Hair of the Dog and Logsdon, two other Oregon breweries that marched to the beat of their own drummer and, for varying reasons, are no longer with us. The beer world will be a little poorer for the lack of some of these somewhat quirky Northwest breweries.

 

Damn, this is sad. One of my favorite beer drinking memories is hanging with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and sharing samples at Cascade. So sad that the current state of the industry is leading to some of the most unique breweries being snuffed out.

 

it's sad to lose these singular breweries - no one else makes sour beer the way Cascade did. I have a lot of great memories in their SE barrel house, and splitting bottles with friends. Those 750s have a hell of a shelf-life, so at least we'll be able to drink 'em for the next 20+ years.

 

Kentucky Peach was a buy-on-sight, top 5 beer for me. Brambleberry Quad, Bottleworks XIV, Bourbonic Plague, Cherry Bourbonic… Cascade will be missed. Glad I got to visit all locations.

 

I missed the news on Logsdon. With The Ale Apothecary going up for sale, the possibility of De Garde up for sale, and now Cascade, it's certainly a very depression year that's only half over.

 

who besides these is still doing spontaneous beers in OR? w&p, block 15, solera, crux? hopefully dg & aa will be sold to people who care.

 

I didn’t know about those other two (AA and DG) but I’d certainly put them in the same class as the ones I mentioned above. I’ve tried to support all these breweries over the years by buying as much of their beer as I can afford, but it’s not really the kind of beer people tend to buy in large volumes. Things are sadly starting to look quite a bit more homogenous in the Northwest.

 

yeah that's one of the biggest bummers in all of this (outside of the obvious loss of jobs). we are losing the breweries willing to do weird/unique shit. who is going to make the new Bourbon Maple Fred? who is going to make Peche 'n' Brett ? who is going to make Bourbon Little Brother or Flemish Kiss ? Who is going to make Loak or Sahalie ? ugh, smh smh

 

I don’t know how often this kind of thing happens (ever?), but I wish there were a way for breweries that are struggling for whatever reason to pool their resources and find a way to carry on as some kind of joint operation. Other breweries will probably salvage their equipment and put it to good use, but these breweries all have long-established names and reputations, and it would be great to be able to continue to get a bunch of these breweries’ beers all under one roof. I’m sure there are all kinds of logistical and business challenges to this kind of arrangement but as a consumer I’d prefer to be able to continue getting Cascade sours, Ale Apothecary and De Garde wilds, Logsdon saisons etc. in some way rather than for all of it to just go away.

 

In Washington we still have Garden Path and Propolis doing these types of beers.

 

Makes me sad that the Great Northern is always a ghost town when I go there. I know you give them business but I wish more in Bellingham did.

 

Upright makes outstanding sour beers.

(Actually, Upright makes outstanding beers. Period.)

There's also Little Beast. They make a number of brett beers and wood-aged sours.

I think Draper Brewing does some wild ales too.

There's also Dwinell Country Ales out in Goldendale. I've tried a few of their beers, and enjoyed them.

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I'm sorry to hear about Cascade. I rarely drink sour beers, but they made the first one that I really enjoyed. It was a version of Sang Noir called Drie Zwarte Pieten which they served at the Holiday Ale Fest a good many years ago. (Maybe 2008?)

 

I'd go more often, but their hours don't mesh well with mine. They're closed Monday and Tuesday, which are days I often have off. And, they close relatively early, so when I get out of the theatre and feel like a couples beers, they're either closed, or closing soon, and I go somewhere else. They seem to do OK with folks stopping and grabbing a bottle of wine, and the Sunday School tastings usually have 6-8 folks.

 

North Fork has a nice little Wild/Sour program too.

 

I wondered how their school gatherings did in terms of drawing a crowd. Glad to hear they're well attended. I don't make it out much but try to stop by there once a weekend.

 

Hit me up next time ya go. Work is really slow for July and August (although, we do have a big show with The Decemeberists in early August) so I should be able to bip in more.

 

Funky Fauna