When Cascade Brewing introduced Oblique Black & White Stout—a creamy, strong golden ale with robust roasty flavors courtesy of Oblique Roasters coffee—it became one of the first quote-unquote white stouts (a beer that’s naturally always nearly pitch black). This week’s Live from the Barrel tapping—Cascade Barrel House’s weekly series—blanches palates once again with Napoleon Cherry, a blend of blonde and wheat ales aged in white wine barrels with local Napoleon cherries (also known as Royal Annes), that are striking in their seemingly tie-dyed appearance of red and white. As opposed to the sour cherries used in their standard house kriek (taken from the Flemish word for cherry; cherry Belgian lambics are also called krieks), the sweet fruit imbues this beer with notes of apricot, loquats, and kiwis with a whiff of vanilla. Of course, being a Cascade Northwest-style sour ale, the end result is still tart, just less so than Cascade Kriek.
Napoleon Cherry is on tap now at Cascade Barrel House, but it won’t last long. Once this live barrel is gone, we’ll just have to wait until Double Mountain’s Tahoma Kriek is released likely in late July. That beer is made with brewmaster Matt Swihart’s own orchard-picked Rainier cherries, a yellower cousin of Napoleons.
Cascade Barrel House, 939 SE Belmont Street
Or you could just go buy some actual Belgian krieks that are much better and usually cost less even after importing than the astronomical prices charged by local brewers.
If you enjoy Lindemann’s Kriek that’s definitely your prerogative.
I was talking Hanssen’s, Oud Beersel, Boon’s Oude Kriek (not the syrupy regular one), or something similar. Real Belgian krieks, the ones brewers around here are attempting to imitate. Lindeman’s actually makes a nice Kriek Cuvee Renee that is very good but impossible to find, although I think their regular kriek is my favorite sweetened one out of that style which really isn’t my thing. Lindeman’s Gueuze Cuvee Renee is a very good gueuze and reasonably priced for the style.
I don’t like paying local merchants that have no import duties, lower shipping costs and arguably the same if not lower costs for production more money for an inferior product. I like to support local business but not when they are price gouging and taking advantage of their own hype.
By the way Lindeman’s is also one of the few brewers of Belgian Lambic that brew their own Lambic from Scratch. A number of other bottlers actually buy Lindeman’s base product or similar and then age, blend and bottle their own batches. Although Lindeman’s Lambics that are generally available in grocery stores are sweetened with fruit syrup the base lambic is a very fine product. Just because it has better distribution and is cheaper does not mean it is inferior.