Cascade Blackberry Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Very well carbonated, I get two fingers of beer and about five-fingers of head in my 25cl tulip glass after a reasonable pour. The head is a tight, tan colored head and the beer is a deep, purple / amber color that shows a hazy, cherry red color when held up to the light. The aroma has quite a bi of dark, fresh berry / light jam fruit notes to it. Underneath this is some cracker like malt, a light tartness, a touch of mustiness and some substantial toasted malt character (this last only if you are really digging around, but it is significant). The fruit is definitely the most noticeable aromatic note of this beer, but it is not overly strong and allows the other notes to come through pretty easily. The nose is pretty tame though, only faintly tart and there isn’t much in the way of funkiness. As the beer warms a musty, almost woody, damp wood aroma starts to become noticeable.

Lightly tart tasting, more like a fruit derived acidity than anything. The beer finishes with a tart, unsweetened, berry juice like flavor. This beer is pretty darn dry and actually pretty light bodied as well. There is a touch of tannic structure (seemingly contributed by a sort of berry skin character and a touch of oak) that keeps this from being watery.

With a very careful second pour I get an almost even split between head and beer. The head, once it stops growing actually falls fairly quickly, but doesn’t seem to completely disappear. I retained a lot more of the carbonation in the second pour and the beer becomes quite fizzy as it hits my tongue. There seems to be an almost roast character to the finish and there is definitely some toasty malt character here. The flavor is dominated by tart, fruity flavors, though not overly so. This is definitely lacking a tartness approaching that found in most sour beers, and I could almost be convinced that the acidity is solely derived from the blackberries. As the beer warms it begins to pick up a jam like berry character without really picking up much in the way of sweetness.

Definitely a bit disappointing, I was quite excited to see this called a "Belgian Flanders Style Red Ale," unfortunately I would be hard pressed to call this anything but a fruit beer. The typical tartness and balancing funkiness, plus the caramelized malt character is all lacking here. Not a bad beer, just needs a substantial boost before it can live up to its "style" designation.

Purchased: Raccoon Lodge