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Stop the presses: It turns out the New York Times loves something in Portland, Portland makes good beer, and Cascade ain't half-bad at making sour beer.
After tasting 20 different sour, wild and farmhouse beers from all over the country, famed wine critic Eric Asimov just declared that the 2014 kriek from Portland's Cascade Barrel House—a sour cherry beer brewed in the Belgian style—was the best sour beer of them all, beating out Denver's Crooked Stave and Brooklyn's K is for Kriek.
Related: An Oral History of Cascade Kriek. Cascade's Legendary Barrel-Aged Cherry Beer has Roots in a Failed IPA.
Of all sour beers tasted, Cascade's 2014 Kriek was the only one to get an extremely rare four stars from Asimov.
Calling the sour-beer industry "immature" as a whole and rife with inconsistency, he declared Cascade a wonderful exception.
"One brewer that has mastered consistency is Cascade of Portland, Ore.," Asimov writes. "Its 2014 Kriek, flavored with cherries as it aged in barrels, was our No. 1 beer: bright, lively, distinctive and complex. We gave it four stars, our highest score, which is rarely achieved, except that Cascade's 2010 Kriek also earned four stars in our 2011 tasting."
Oh yeah—Asimov's liked this stuff for a while. Five years ago—the last time he did a ranking of all the sour beers in the country—Cascade's 2010 Kriek topped the list then, too.
Also very high on this year's list? Hood River's Logsdon, with its Far West Vlaming, "a funky, malty brew that seemed to combine elements of both the oud bruin and Flanders red styles" that received three and a half stars and came in fifth. It doesn't look like Asimov tried any Pfriem or de Garde, but maybe someone should send him some.
Still—no matter how many times they say it, it feels pretty good when the New York Times tells you they love you.
But it's a double-edged sword: Back in 2014, Asimov showered some love on Portland's urban wineries, naming Division Winemakings's 2012 Gamay Noir the best red wine to have with Thanksgiving dinner. New York responded by buying out the whole damn winery.
Related: New Yorkers Bought (Almost) All of Division Winemaking Company's Wine
Well, the Barrel House has about 15 bottles of that 2014 Kriek in stock, plus a bit more in the vault for safekeeping—so if you want to taste what Asimov tasted, get down there right quick.
But here's not much of a secret: Cascade Barrel House's kriek is good every damn year. And they've got lots of their 2015 kriek in stock. So drink that, and say a little thank you to the sky every time you remember you live in a town with beer this good.
Willamette Week