Cascade Brewing's Red Eye Rye

Red Eye Rye on draught
Cascade Brewing (Raccoon Lodge)
Portland, OR
Friday, February 16, 2012

Cascade Brewing shares the same building as the Raccoon Lodge, which has a restaurant upstairs and a bar downstairs.  We chose the downstairs bar since we were only there for a beer.  The bar is quite unappealing since it is harshly lit, poorly decorated and littered with video poker machines.  But we were there for the beer and not the ambiance, so no worries... right?  We read over the beer menu and were quite surprised to read the most colorful, flowery descriptions I have seen for beer.  Being in this bar reading these descriptions was like being in a car wreck with one car being Napa Valley pretense and the other a run down casino.  Bizarre.

We both ordered the Red Eye Rye, described as "A splash of Rye and Crystal hops give this hop forward but balanced red ale notes of pine resin, spice and toasted malts in the nose.  A sharp, though not aggressive hop bitterness from the Fuggle, Delta & Golding hop medley intermingles w/the malts to finish off with a slight hop spice."  See what I mean?  Here is a list of words that should NEVER appear on a beer menu:

SPLASH

FORWARD

BALANCED

NOTES

NOSE

INTERMINGLES

(That one is worth repeating) INTERMINGLES!

FINISH

SLIGHT

Red Eye Rey is 4.7% alcohol, which is on the low end for micro brews.  The taste of this beer was bland, light and flat.  It was like a cross between a Miller Lite and a good beer.  It is not what I expect from a craft beer.  I would categorize this beer as an introduction-to-good-beer beer or a beer-ish beer.  It didn't have much flavor so I can't really describe it.

Conclusion:  Big loser.  Perhaps one day I will try another beer from Cascade Brewing but I am not in a hurry to do so.

Rating:

One half beer.  The lowest rating north of Budweiser.