Cascade Apricot Ale

Brewed by Cascade Brewing @ Raccoon Lodge
Style: Sour Ale
Portland, Oregon USA

GABF 2008. This was a highlight from the festival. An intense dry apricot aroma with a faint tartness. The body was incredible. Tart enough to still remain a sour and a faint oakiness, but for the most part incredible apricot flavor. A group of us went to Red Square and split a cheese plate that included dried candied apricots. As good as those apricots were, this beer had a stronger apricot taste and we made a straight line for the Cascade booth at the next session for another refreshing glass or five.

bottle. Wow. lots and lots of apricot in the aroma and tart apricot sourness in the taste. Excellent. Yellow foamy head. One of my favorites.

This beer rocked! Thanks to the people at Art Larrange’s Raccoon Lodge who brew this and got me some. Smell is strong fruit and the taste is an ultra-strong, and well balanced, mix of fruit, sour and alcohol. The sourness prevails, like taking a bite of a huge apricot Sour-Patch Kid. The fruit flavors are fresh and abundant. Then, the backbone is the Belgian Tripel, which brings an entire new element and alcohol kick and serious complexity. Yes, it is very sweet and very sour, but it is also complex, balanced and tasty. I loved this beer.

GABF 08’: Glorious apricot essence all over this beer, tending to be more like dried apricot than fresh, which is better when you’re looking for a strong apricot flavor. The nose was softly tart and full of apricot and the flavors were chewy apricot beyond recognition. Not sure how their kriek won the award and not this one, the apricot blows the kriek out of the water.

Thanks to bitbucket tasting. Huge fresh apricot aroma is decadent. The apricot flavors really come out in the taste, along with mild sourness. Fantastic balance and really came together smoothly. 8.35%? Would never know.

Bottle... Poured orange with a white head that stayed with a nice ring around the glass. Aroma of light fruit and tart wine-like characters. Dry palate. Very sweet, and the apricot was just perfect. Very subtle and played off the sour note perfectly.

Pure, pure aroma of apricots explodes out of the glass. Acidic, but not very funky; more clean fruit. Tartness is medium sour. A delicious expression of the apricot through this beer.

Bottle. Pours cloudy orange amber with a small but lasting white head. Smells tart and oaky with distinct apricot. Tastes the same. Apricot lingers through a dry finish.