Cascade Cuvée du Jongleur

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

Courtesy GodofThunder. Pours a hazy,dark orange color with a small cream colored head that settles quickly to a thin film. Little spots of lacing are left behind. The nose shows sour citrus, peaches, grapes, and a touch of funk from the sour oak. Some sweet lactose and candy sugar keeps the tartness in check. THe flavor is again very tart with cherries, apricots, and peaches. The funky oak and lactose sweeten things up a bit and add complexity. The oak seems a bit old though which lends that funk in there. Medium bodied with a lot of carbonation, but still easy to drink. The finish is long and dry as the tartness lingers in the background. Nice little sour ale.

In short: A weird sour ale focussing on woody/barrel flavours. Far from clean. Not very good but interestingly strange.
How: Bottle 750ml, corked and caged. Consumed (probably fresh) a few weeks after purchase
The look: Cloudy dark golden body topped by a little off-white ring of foam.
In long: After letting the beer warm-up a bit the nose was intense with lots of barrel, strong vinous character, dirt, wet wood and a little vinegary touch. Intriguing to say the least. Taste is surprisingly not so intense. Lots of wood (oak, cedar, pine-tree), a little bit funky, a few drops of cheap wine a little vinegary tartness/acidity, medium sourness. An overall impression of a dirty old beer. Definitely an odd little brew. Bottle describes the process used to make this beer and it seems to be an extremely complex recipe, especially for someone like me who sometimes make really messy grill-cheese sandwiches when I don’t get the “bread-cheese-bread” order right.

Bottle shared by Willblake. Pours a nice mostly clear light copper deep golden and a fluffly slightly diminishing white head and some lace. Aroma is lacitic along with a weird funked out pedio cherry pit, oak is pretty strong some vanilla- and reminded me a bit of IH Oak Aged Old Tom a bit- with a bit more light pear and apricot fruits. More pedio and brett funk in the flavor with a sweet tripel/quad malt backbone, orange zest, honey and an ok lactic tartness in the end but seemed a bit on the yeasty dirty side to me. Definitely unique and bit weird.

Courtesy GodOfThunder. Pours a lightly hazy, dark orange-amber color. A fizzy, cream colored head settles relatively quickly to a thin layer with a prominent, bubbly edge. A soapy wash turns to micro-spot lace. The nose is quite quirky, funky, tart grape and cherry notes accompanied by a strange herbal element that reminds me of mint and thyme. Candy malt underpinnings and hefty sour oak finish off the aroma. Flavors are tart, with cherry and dusty apricot fruiting up the lactic acidity and old, funky oak. Again, some candy sweetness keeps the acid in check. Medium bodied and a bit overly carbonated, the mouthfeel is a bit to soda-like for me. Nice brew, but the weirdness does not overcome some inherent flaws.

Bottle... GSRARO Throwdown... This beer rocks!... Murky caramel-colored ale with a small, creamy, off-white head. Good retention. Citrusy, acidic nose provides buffering notes of caramel, toffee and warm bread. Medium-bodied with tingly carbonation. Complex and wonderful array of yeasty, malty, tangy, earthy flavors. Acidic, semi-dry finish. The blending and barrel aging of this beer works so very well. Thanks to GodOfThunder for sharing this fantastic bottle of beer with everyone!

Orangey color. Funky sour nose. Sweet and fruity (apple, pear, peach). and tart. Nice funk. A touch citrus with fruit pit, pie crust and graham crackers.

750mL cork&wire green, bottom heavy bottle poured into a long stemmed tuliped Cantillon glass. Pours a thick, dark orange color with a small head but a sticky lacing. Cannot see through the beer, not murky, just thick and dark enough to not allow it. Aroma is definitely a mixing of sour and oak, fortunately it is not buttery (I hate buttery), it’s more of a leafy, wet, old wood. The sourness is lightly solvent-like and a bit vinegar. With the combination of the wood the aromas turn very musky. It is bit nose tingling. Taste has a little leftover sweetness, I am think from one of the blended beers just being so strong that even the wild yeast has not fully eaten away at it (maybe the weird Blond Quad, never heard of that before). The oak comes through, again no butter though. Then a long tartness and dryness lingers. There is a hint of fresh tangerine sourness at the end as well. It is decent stuff, a bit too much wood coming through and overall tastes a bit old, aged malt and aged sourness comes through for me. Seems like it is missing something to protect it from oxygen. But still rather fun to drink and a lot more sour than any of their other bottled stuff.

Bottle shared by MaxxDaddy. Nice sour aroma, lemon, chestnut, yeasty, some white wine. Mostly sour but not like a lambic, with more complexity and malt/yeast character. Flavor is similar, revealing some of the characteristics of the quad and tripel while still showin a good sour character. Easily drinkable. A solid beer.