Cascade Brewing Barrel House

JivanN

California

4.5/5  rDev -2.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | $$

This was the first brewery I visited on my US Beer/Food trip this summer with TroDerSark. We started off sampling all their beers and I loved all of them except for a few. We also bought bottles of Vlad the Imp Aler there, which is a fantastic brew. However, the highlight of my entire trip and visit to this brewery was when brewers Ron and Preston took us in back for a private tour. I cant tell you how funny and awesome these guys are. They not only taught us valuable things about brewing, they also personally blended some fantastic beers for us. In addition, they also invited us to a private tasting later on that night. Going to Cascade was the best way to start off our trip and I have them to thank for that. HIGHLY RECOMMEND VISITING THIS BREWERY AND THEIR BEERS.

08-08-2011 22:09:34 | More by JivanN

jdense

Oregon

4.55/5  rDev -1.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

Visited 10.19.2010.

Limited street parking though you could take your chances in the Grand Central off-street lot next store. Interior features 3 flat screen TVs, 10 seat stainless steel bar, 6 picnic tables and about a half dozen booths, with about 10 picnic tables outside in the converted parking lot, nice use of muted earthtones with several barrels featured prominently behind the bar. The beer is the key here, this is got to be the center of the American Wild/Sour Beer universe in the US, it's hard to imagine a better selection. Service is pretty good, the bar staff is knowledgeable, though the wait staff was still going through a shakedown period. Limited space can't do the selection justice, while there were several one-offs available, Bourbon Plaque, Vlad the Impeller and Sang Noir on tap gives an idea of the tremendous quality. Food features some sandwiches, soups, salads and small plates of nuts, meats, etc. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food. The most expensive beer on the menu was $6.50, a friggin' bargain. Kudos to Art and Ron for the diligence and vision for making this former produce warehouse into what will undoubtedly be a world class beer destination and a shrine to American Wild Ales. Absolutely essential for fans of the style.

10-29-2010 03:45:02 | More by jdense

inlimbo77

Delaware

4.58/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $

Dined and drank at the Barrel House on 9/2/12 with my wife. Amazing tap list that night, as with most nights there. I think there was about 18 or 20 things available. Also, 4 different bottles to carry out. We did a number of sampler pours along with a few full pours of stuff. The waitress was more than helpful with our selections and prompt in bringing our drinks. The food was very affordable but also delicious and cutting edge in a simple way. The only downfall was the lack of some nice dessert items to sample with the Diesel BA stout they were pouring, but they did provide us with some dark chocolate nibs that paired nicely.

Two big thumbs up for me and from my wife who isn't a beer drinker.

09-10-2012 20:34:21 | More by inlimbo77

cavemanlawyer

Oregon

4.6/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$$

Cascade Barrel House is the place in Portland if you like sour beers or are interested in trying them out. Brewmaster Ron Gansburg and his crack team blend up world-class barrel-aged sour beers such as Sang Royal, Bourbonic Plague, and the classic Kriek.

The food here is high-quality bar food. Nothing fancy, mostly nice sandwiches, wraps, salads, and soups. The beer-cheese soup is incredibly good, and the muffaletta sandwich when available is great. Their baked potato salad is well worth the extra buck as a side dish.

Next to the main eatery is the barrel room where the beers are aged in temperature-controlled rooms. Ron has the rough job of having to go around, day after day, sampling beers to come up with his amazing concoctions. I think if you ask to take a quick peek over there they will usually oblige.

Finally, a good day to visit the Barrel House is Tuesday. At 6:00 PM, they fresh tap a live barrel of beer right at the bar. This is truly straight from the barrel beer, usually straights not blends, and there are some real gems. Servus!

05-12-2011 15:16:03 | More by cavemanlawyer

colonelforbin

California

4.6/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | $$

Great selection of sours brewed by the Raccoon Lodge/Cascade folks on tap at this place. At least 8-10 delicious fruit sours were on tap during my visit.

They seem to be hesitant to do tasters, but I have no problem with this. If you go there with anyone else, you can easily try at least half the beers or more and get some nice pours and really get to enjoy the beers.

The Cascade line is mostly about fruit sours and the tasting room does not disappoint in this regard. We got to try some experimental blueberry and mixed berry sours and they were all quite a treat. Apparently they also tap barrels directly once a week, though I did not see this on my visit. The selection really is outstanding and I wish I was able to visit this place more often than the occasional trip to Portland.

The layout is bench style picnic tables which are great for groups, or couples or whoever really. Can't really complain about the way they set this place up.

If you are in Portland, definitely go out of your way to check out the Cascade barrel house in Portland.

06-17-2011 06:57:04 | More by colonelforbin

KDawg

Illinois

4.6/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

This is easily one of my favorite places to visit when in portland. Cascade has generally around 9 of their sours running with another 9-10 of their other brews.

The place is always relaxed and there is a rustic, yet sparse, feel to it on both the inside and outside. It doesn't get too packed here and you can generally find a seat even when it's popping.

The service is great. They are enthusiastic about their brews and very knowledgeable. They are always very friendly too.

The food is pretty good. It isn't completely amazing, but that isn't what it's about here.

07-02-2012 23:00:22 | More by KDawg

johnmichaelsen

Oregon

4.61/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Stopped by at long last today...

Atmosphere is not this place's best feature. It has a very sterile vibe, with a bunch of metal picnic tables in the front area, some unimpressive booths to the left as you walk in, and a bar area with roughly 10 seats in the central back area. There is also one large overhead TV back by the bar, serving God alone knows what purpose (in fact, they actually put additional flat screen TV's out at night, and had a good size crowd watching Monday night football this evening). OK, so this place isn't going to win any style points for looks... but given what they're pouring on draft in this place, I'm pretty certain most folks are going to overlook that.

On this particular day they were pouring some 18 different beers on draft (you could also order 4 different bottles for take home or on premise consumpation). Things like the porter and pale ale come in imperial pints, while the gose and lower alcohol beers come in 12 ounce "teardrop" shaped glasses. The barrel aged sours all come in 8 ounce chalices. On this particular day the latter included things like Nightfall, Sang rouge and Sang noir, vlad and bourbonic plague. They also typically have 2 beers on at any one time that are poured right out of the wooden barrel. I kid you not, the barrels look as if they're simply tipped on their sides with a spigot stuck into them. I was told that the barrel beers have CO2 injected into them, which surprised me. I ordered a glass of Bain de Brugge, and appearance and mouthfeel-wise, I would have guessed for all the world that I was drinking cask conditioned beer. In any event, suffice it to say that the barrel room has a diverse and interesting selection of beers at any one time.

As for quality.... stuff like the Vine, Kriek, Sang Noir, Vlad and Bourbonic Plague are clearly world class and among the best beers made on the planet. That's readily apparent, and all the more so when one has the opportunity to try these great beers side by side. The sang noir was so incredibly good that I found myself saying something I've never ever done before after having my first glass of this incredible wild ale/sour beer: "I'd like to order another please!"

Service is hard to rate, and I'll readily admit that I'm probably not being entirely objective. The currrent bartender today has worked previously as a manager at Concordia and Laurelwood NW, and she was the bartender at Concordia back when I lived in the area and was a regular there. So it was a treat to see her again in the barrel room, and given her background, it's no surprise to say that she knows her stuff, and was very quick, efficient and friendly. So yeah, service here was pretty darn good today.

I'll be completely candid... the beer here is so damned good, and the selection so incredible, it's hard not to feel privileged just to be able to stop by this place. As for prices, I guess they're on the high side ($6 for an 8 ounce pour is pretty much the norm for the barrel aged sours), but considering what you're getting (beers aged in both wine and whiskey barrels with massive amounts of fruit added, and then an additional couple of years of barrel aging after that seems to be the norm), I thought the pricing was very fair.

Food. Yes they serve it; I didn't bother to order any. It was difficult to even think about food given the beer selection here. So I have no idea if it's good, bad or indifferent.

What can I say? From just a beer selection standpoint, it doesn't get much better than this. Very, very impressive.

10-11-2010 22:55:15 | More by johnmichaelsen

zhanson88

California

4.63/5  rDev +0.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

This was another must stop beer destination on my trip to Portland.

Atmosphere: I really loved this place. Inside it was pretty small and simple, but the vibe was cool. I loved that their taps were mounted on barrels, and even more awesome was that they actually served several of their beers straight out of barrels. Also, the barrels as the "fenceposts" outside is a nice touch. It's easy to see that barrel aging is a focus here.

Quality: Suberb. The beer tasted awesome, and the small amount of food that we ate was very high quality.

Service: Good. No complaints and above average, certainly.

Selection: Amazing selection, especially if you like sours. It's probably the best tap line-up I've seen. They also have quite a few things other than sours for those who aren't as into them. My girlfriend was a big fan of their raspberry wheat. And as if their normal line-up wasn't good enough, they have two taps that they devote entirely to one-off beers full time and serve straight out of the barrel. Stupid good.

Food: My girlfriend and I had already eaten a small dinner, but got the vegetable plate with hummus. It was pretty solid.

I dropped a pretty penny here, but when drinking barrel aged sours it should be expected. For what I got, the price was appropriate. Overall, I loved the place. Definitely recommended.

07-05-2011 18:01:59 | More by zhanson88

CaptainTripps

Oregon

4.65/5  rDev +0.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

After going to the barrel house several times, I finally decided I needed to review one of my favorite places to go for beers in Portland.

A: The atmosphere here is great. Great people conversing over great beer. From first time sour explorers to seasoned vets, the place is always filled with friendly faces eager to see what Cascade is going to bring us next. Overal design of the place is cool with bench seating on the floor with booths, and bar seats. Cool "half" barrels stick out of the back of the bar were the taps come through. The barrel room is very modern looking but a great place on a wet oregon evening.

Q: They are in my top 3 as far as breweries go for the excellent quality of their beers. Bourbonic Plague and Vlad the Imp Aler are to die for as well as their season regulars. I can honestly say I have never really had a bad beer from Cascade.

S: Service great as well, staff is very knowledgeable about their complex beer -even the cooking staff.

S: They generally have a great selection of sours and non sours so that everyone can have a beer or two. They have new stuff on every week with their signature "Tap it Tuesdays."

F: I haven't had much of their food to behonest but I have had a couple sandwiches for their a couple of times and they have always been great and very reasonably priced.

Again, this is one of my favorite places to go to. A "must see" if coming to Portland.

07-07-2011 11:53:18 | More by CaptainTripps

Flightoficarus

Washington

4.65/5  rDev +0.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

The first of several stops of my mini-brewery tour on a Portland visit!

A - Despite being located more around the industrial/warehouse section of downtown, the inside is immaculate and clean. Nice and upscale, yet simple vibe to the place. A great environment to relax and savor the beers offered.

Q - Truth be told, I'm not even all that into sour ales that much (though I do like them), or maybe I just wasn't as much before? While there is a decent variety of options, this place specializes is sour and barrel-aged ales, and is the only place I know of like this!

Cascade brewing could to Portland as certain Abbey Monasteries are to Belgium. Tried a sample set of various offerings, my favorite of which was probably Nightfall (A wheat beer/sour ale hybrid). Quality of everything was top notch. There's only so much I can say from one visit, and this review, but from what I've seen, I'm not sure it gets better than this for the sour ale fans.

S - Service was great and friendly. The bartender did a good job of explaining the flavors of their many offerings.

S - As stated prior, the biggest sour ale variety I know of anywhere in the NW, at the least.

F - Tried some of the pork medallion w/orzo. Simply delicious!

V - I give like 2 and 1/2 $ signs overall. Most definitely worth the stop if you're looking for some unique beers to try. Be prepared to spend some time to try what you can though!

03-31-2012 22:58:04 | More by Flightoficarus