Cascade Sang Royal

Brewed by Cascade Brewing
Style: Sour Red/Brown
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle provided by Tertons. Poyrs brown with a tan head. Smells of cherries and tarte. Tastes tarte with a residual sugar bite and a sour lactic finish.

Bottle. Aroma big on the fruits with cherries, melon, and apricot with light brett and pretty strong lacto. Lots of brett comes out in the mouth, a bit too much even for my liking, but a strong tartness fortunately cuts through a lot of it. Huge tart cherries remain a staple throughout. Over time the sour bugs do end up dominating over the brett, creating a lovely tart cherry feel right through a lingering finish. Never got overly acidic for me, just delectably tart and superbly drinkable, which is the first time in awhile I’ve felt that way about a sour. Really lovely stuff.

Bottle. Pours a reddish brown with a thick, foamy tan head. Aroma is very sour with some lacto and a light fruitiness (apple skins) that could be cherries but is pretty indistinct. Flavor is super super sour, like sucking on a sour lemon with a tart cherry finish. Tart, sour, and lactic. I would like more cherry. Good beer, a bit tart for me though. 7/4/8/4/15 (3.8/5)

Bottle sample at Muckfest 2009 Day 1. Opaque brown pour with a thin tan head. Funky aroma with cherry and vinegar. Cherry and vinegar flavor with an acidic finish. Yep, it’s a sour. Oh wait, I think I was supposed to say "it is what it is".

Unlabeled 750 ml corked and caged bottle given to me by Ron. Pour is murky brown copper ruby with a one inch white reddish head. Head is thick and lasting, very sticky lacing lines the glass. Aroma of sour dark cherry, bright tartness, some residual alcohol. Nice bright nose. Very clean cherry smell. Taste is sour black cherry, oak woodiness, soft vinegar, really bright and alive sourness. Alcohol is pretty evident in the finish. Really nice. Palate is medium, slightly dry - woody finish. Quite drinkable and soft all around. Nice one, thanks for the bottle Ron.

Bottle shared at Muckfest 2009 in Lancaster Ohio.Pretty murky ruby red pour. Sweet and tangy aroma of cherries. Holy sourness batman! This one was not a delight for me. Overall way too sour for me. Cherry and lemons.

Unlabeled 750mL cork&wire provided by thesti, thanks for another PNW sour treat Tim. As other have said this is a little bit of a gusher. So of course its a thick and foamy off white colored head. The lacing on it is very sticky. Cannot see through the completely thick dark brown color that has a bit of a ruby tint to it. Aroma is cherry but nothing acetic or nail polish, which are often the problem for Cascade. Some thick bark and wild cherry syrup, very authentic Flanders character. Taste is sweet cherry with a wild barrel aspect. Real authentic and not aggressive at all. Has a thicker mouthfeel with a bit of a slickness at the end of it.

Pours ruby-tinged mahogany into a tumbler. Off-white micro head with excellent retention leaves spider lacing. Sour cherry aromas. Tart and refreshing with sour cherry and oak from front to back. Lasting port finish.

This beer is quite the gusher; I actually lost a couple of ounces before I could react to the foam over. A careful pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces an almost four-finger thick, amber tinged, tan colored head. As the head slowly subsides with a rocky, crag-riddled surface it leaves some nice fat lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a dark plum color that shows a hazy, rich red hue when it is held up to the light. The aroma is quite vinous and smells of dark fruit; notes of prunes, raisins, lots of black currant, as well as some bright cherry and berry notes (this last reminds me of blackberries, blueberries and mulberries). There is a backdrop of toasty oak in the nose as wellas a touch of toasted grain effect; some tannin, a spicy oak character and a hint of vanillin are noticeable. The nose on this beer is pretty nice, it is well integrated and rich smelling, though I could wish for a touch more complexity.

The beer tastes lightly tart up front. It has a palate fullness and heft to it, which a lively, effervescent carbonation tries to offset; it is actually a bit excessively carbonated, but the body of the beer still stands up to this excess quite well. A nice sourness can almost be bracing, it couples with a tannic bite towards the finish that makes this that much more puckering. Spicy oak and wood flavors play a more prominent role than they did in the nose, but the fruitiness is much more subdued in the flavor; this last is likely because this beer is quite dry tasting, with little residual sugars. Still the fruit notes are noticeable here and remind me of a dry, fruit forward red wine; notes of berry, dark-concentrated plum, tart currant flavors, some washed out cherry skin and even some port-like fruit notes are noticeable here. As the beer warms up the fruit does become more evident though. There is a tart bite from the acidity that is most lactic, but there also seemed to be a rounded acid influence from the fruit character. Especially after the beer settles down (from the initial carbonation level), the texture is lush and structed from the tannic influence, yet it is still quite drinkable; velvet-like and silky seem like apt adjectives for this brew. There is some spice character here as well and a bit of a biting note that is contributed by the rich fruit / malt character (sort of reminiscent of a spicy fruit skin flavor).

I like that this has a nice oak backbone to it; that and the tartness really helps to bring a suave balance to the jam-like, rich fruit character. I paired this beer with some fish tacos for the last 25cl and this brings out a peppery spiciness from the oak as well as more of the wood-like flavors, but what it really does is accentuate the rich fruit character that is in this beer. This is a really nice, rich, complex, layered beer that retains its ample drinkability. A fantastic beer, that I am quite happy to have polished a bottle off of.

Bottle @ The Trappist. Poured a dark ruby. Nose is cellar, acidic tartness mixed with unripe fruits, oak and some wine. Flavor is a sharp acidity, chardonnay, some sweet cherries, tart fruitiness, plums and sherry. Finishes dry with some sweet fruit undertones. This is an amazing beer. Refreshing, tart and easy drinking. I went through 3 bottles during my visit.