Brew Review #4 – Cascade Brewing
April 24, the architect & I headed to Raccoon Lodge for our 4th brewery review. Raccoon Lodge is the home of Cascade Brewing company – the only “C” brewery on my list.
As recommended by fellow beer enthusiast, Mr. Pi (the Ambitious One’s hubby), we started with the sampler tray.
I do love a good sampler tray – it’s fun to try all the different beers with very little commitment! We had the following:
- Razberry Wheat – I thought this was barftastic, but I really hate fruity beers. The architect also gave it two thumbs down, this was one of two samplers that wasn’t finished. (Also irritated that they spelled it RAZberry. That is not funny, people.)
- Mouton Rouge – a sour beer. Again, I hated on it, although the architect was actually able to finish this one. Neither of us are fans of the sour.
- Dubbel Trubbel – a Belgian double ale. The architect liked this one, although I didn’t. It takes a pretty special Belgian to impress me.
- 8 Monks – this was a Belgian brown, and this was the other we didn’t finish.
- Ring Tale Pale – surprising, this was a pale ale. It was alright, but I’m not a pale fan & it was reminiscent of a cheap macrobrew.
- Celtic Copper – I was most excited for this one – I love coppers & reds. It was surprisingly disappointing. It had very little flavor. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t worth ordering a whole pint!
- Blond Bock – another gold beer – nothing special.
- India Pale Ale – this was probably the second best beer on the sampler. I have recently been enjoying the IPAs more & more, and although this wasn’t the best I’ve ever had (currently Amnesia’s Desolation & the Ninkasi IPA are tied for that honor), it certainly wasn’t the worst.
- Black Snout Stout – obviously a stout! I really liked this one, but stouts are just too rich for me to drink more than a sampler size.
- Venetian Delight – this was a brand new tapping that night, and it was superb! It was such a good flavor, great balance between malt & hop; plus everyone at Raccoon Lodge called it ‘VD’ which was amusing.
After our sampler tray, we ordered dinner (their happy hour menu was not exceptionally exciting, so we ordered off the dinner menu):
‘The architect got the turkey, cranberry & avocado sandwich with fries. I got a chicken taco salad. The fries were great, and although neither of us were blown away by the food, we had no real complaints, either.
Of course, we each ordered another beer – a VD & an IPA.
Overall, a decent experience. Decent beers, alright food. The service was actually quite good, something I wasn’t expecting from the online reviews I’d read. We spent $46 that night including tip, so still more than what I’d like. I’m hoping we do better with our next review.
Brew Review #5 will be postponed – I found out my half marathon is this Saturday instead of this Sunday, and I just can’t do happy hour the night before a race. However, the architect has no such qualms, so we are on (like Donkey Kong?) for May 15, 2009 at Deschutes. Since the architect will be doing a ridiculously hilly century ride the next day, we’re planning on showing up fairly early that day – likely about 4-4:30. Happy hour runs from 4 – 6, so if you’d like to join us, let me know & we’ll save room for you!
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