Tasty-Takes.com

River Brew Review: 20” Brown Ale
Cascade Lakes Brewery

It’s Friday, it’s beautiful outside and we are heading to the Metolius tomorrow to try to finally break the 31” barrier. What are we doing tonight? Tying flies, watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs and drinking beer. Could we have planned a better evening? Maybe, maybe we could have thrown some horseshoes in there to really round it out, but all in all I think we’ve got it dialed pretty well.

We are searching for that big burly Bull Trout; we know he’s there, but so far we just haven’t been able to get him to hand. Broken hooks, broken tippet, missed strikes and epic fights lost; so far all Bull Trout bigger than 31” have gotten the better of us. In an attempt to get in the right mindset we searched out the beer with the biggest trout name we could find – Cascade Lakes Brewing Company’s 20” Brown Ale. Yeah, it’s the wrong species, yeah its still too small, but beggars can’t be choosers and we all know I love a good brown ale!

As far as brown ales go this is the best one that I have had in a while. It isn’t super exotic and it isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel it is just smooth, sweet but not too sweet and delicious.

Appearance: A very nice reddish brown color, kind of a reddish caramel color. Little to no head, what was there was a light brown/cream in color. Lots of bubbles.

Smell: Not super aromatic, pretty sweet smelling. What you do smell is very malty with a bit of caramel in it.

Taste/mouthfeel: Bubbly and light, which is a bit surprising for a brown, but definitely leads to some serious drinkability. Mid-sweetness with definite hints of caramel. Very well balanced taste, not overpoweringly sweet.

Overall: Easily the best brown ale that I have tried in a while. I like browns and I like this one.

5 out of a Six Pack Scale ©

Stats:

IBU: 35
ABV%: 5.3%
Brewed in Redmond, OR
For more information visit the brewery website at www.cascadelakes.com