Cascade Vlad the Imp Aler
Wood aged Pale Quadruppel. Imagine a blend of Scaldis and Cantillon Pure Kriek. Forget it, there is nothing like it (yet). Vlad is shocking to your sour beer senses and taste buds, which do not understand that such a balanced delicate sour beer can be so drinkable and appeal to so many people while being extreme. But don’t forget, it will still open a can of 10.6% whoop-ass on your ass after all the pomp & circumstance of what an amazing beer it is subsides.
3.9
381 reviews
Portland, United States
Community reviews
Sour cherries, moldy wood, alcohol. Cloudy orange to light brown color with almost no head. Sweet and sour taste, some sugar and alcohol, sour fruit. Medium body, flat carbonation, bit astringent and some alcohol warmth. //tap at IMBC 2018
Keg at indy man beer con. Session 1. A mostly clear amber orange coloured pour with a a halo go white head. Aroma is semi sweet, toffee, alcohol, sour, paint. Flavour is composed of semi sweet, sweet, sticky and sour wood, musty white grape, enamel ripper. Palate is sour and sweet, spicy, highish carbonation. Harsh. Funky apricot. Weird one.
4Oct2018 Sour, funky citrus fruits, orange, marmalade, oak. Hazy gold, small, creamy, off-white head. Medium sour. More sour citrus fruits, orange and lemon peel, oak, soft carbonation, medium bodied. Outstanding aroma. Keg at IMBC18, Manchester.
Keg at IMBC. It pours hazy deep amber to brown with a small white head. The aroma is oily, tangy, vinous, sauerkraut, birscher museli, candied fruits, cherry and jam. The taste is crisp, dry, tart, big kick of acidity, dried fruits, berry, citrus peel, bourbon, oak, leather, booze, zingy, lemon sherbet and minerals with a drying finish. Medium body and fine, prickly carbonation. Decent, if a bit acidic.
(Draught at Muted Horn, Berlin, 19 July 2018) Amber colour with brief, foamy head. Fruity, sourish nose with red fruit, pomegranate and pink grapefruit. Malty, tart taste with notes of dried fruit, oak wood, red fruit, pomegranate and a finish with a mild citric bitterness and a fresh tartness. Full body, with a certain sweetness. Tasty and fresh, with a fruity sourness and alcohol fairly well hidden. Nice one.
Draught at Mikkeller SF. Light brown color, white head. Sour taste with citrus, toffee, vinegar, red currant, bourbon, oak and a bit of alcohol. Sour finish with citrus, toffee, red currant, ripe fruits, bourbon, oak and gooseberry. Excellent sour ale.
Vom Fass im Muted Horn Berlin 2018-08 getrunken. Dieses leicht saure Schwergewicht verbindet die Stile Sour Ale und Quardruple hervoragend. Hier trifft eine tolle Säure auf etwas Malz und sensationellen Backpflaumenaromen. Das Ganze ist sehr hervorgend balanciert und das gilt für Aroma und den hohen Alkoholgehalt. Traumstoff!
Pours dark orange with no head. Aroma is dominated by peaches, bourbon, spices and a touch of dried fruit. Taste is super complex, with a litter bit of sourness balanced by the quad maltiness, a sour touch in the palate. All this combined with a little spiciness. Super complex and awesome.
Draft: pours dark amber, sour aroma, taste is tart, candied orange peel, thin bodied. Nice!
Draft at Taphouse. Clear cobber with no head. Sour, some wood, lemon, light strawberry. Ok
Cherry, wood, almost acidic sourness but still some sweetness from the berries. I also sense some vanilla and cloves. Very nice
2oz on tap @ Cascade Barrel House (2013 vintage). Pours cloudy amber with a low creamy head. Aroma is sweet complex tart malts with some berries. Flavor is sweet, complex, tart, sour, fruity, totally hiding the ABV. Superb.
An excellent sour. Too often, sours seem to rely on funk to carry the load, but Cascade did a good job of balancing out the funk with a nice array of spices and a sweet finish. Tried as a guest tap at Banger Brewing in LV during NCPH in 2018.
03-04-18 // tap at Protokoll Berlin. Unfiltered ambergolden. Wild red malty nose. Sour red malty, red berries, some krieky notes. Nice.
Tap at BeerTemple, 22nd March 18. Pours copper, no head. Aroma is intense, vinous wood. Taste is rich, sour, barrel, resinous, oak, really intense and fun. Loved this.
Draft to mini-snifter at The Pint Room. Looks as advertised; a fairly transparent burnt orangish caramel with eggshell head that steadily dissipates into lacing. Smells tart, oaky, and funky alongside notes of raspberry and plum. Tastes like it smells, but more fig than plum. Mouthfeel is medium full-bodied, mildly warming, and pleasantly tart, and finishes with moderate acidity that's masked lightly from the big malt bill. An enjoyable sipper, but one's plenty.
W aromacie słodko owocowe, morelowe. W smaku bardzo kwaśne, cierpkie, morelowe, trochę typowej Belgii, delikatnie octowe.
"Pale quadrupel" (aged on wood) - a contradictio in terminis and I don't like that, but this brewery has amazed me a few times so curious for this one. Anyway: intricately cobweb-lacing, off-white, medium thick head, hazy peach blonde robe - looking like a tripel and not a quadrupel, so to speak. Aroma of purple gooseberries, blackcurrant jam, dry white wine and grape peel, stewing rhubarb, pear juice, cider, biscuit, sweat, fermenting apples, glue or white vinegar, light touch of a smoking bonfire somewhere. Sweet-and-sour onset, ripe pineapple, pear and passionfruit notes but most of all a strong gooseberry impression; the initial sweetness quickly makes room for a thorough, drying, very fruity tartness, way less vinegary than expected (and than in many other Cascade sours) but instead very much reminiscent of sour berries and raw rhubarb; carbo is soft, mouthfeel quite thick and vinous, but supple. Bready malt background, some honeyish sweetness hidden in the berry-like tartness, ending crisp, drying and pleasantly warming, with a calvados-like alcohol note and a lot of lingering sour berry tartness. Your typical modern American sour ale pumped up to 10%+ ABV - so by no mean anything near quadrupel - but a very good one at that, complex, hiding its alcoholic load well and finding a perfect balance between sour and sweet which is not always the case in modern craft sours, not even those produced by Cascade themselves. They really seem to have transcended themselves here, this is among the very best of Cascade's sours I had to date.
@ BCBF 2017
Fruity nose with krieken in the distance, peach, apricot, vinous. Juicy smooth mouthfeel. This is top notch. Balance is perfect. Sour is nicely countered by the fruit.
On draft at Pizza Rock DTLV. Cloudy Dark Golden with medium head. Sour aroma and taste!
Thick hazy light orange peach color full lasting fluffy white head. Terrific tart slightly wild slant. SOme vanilla and maybe coconut in there. Nice light tropical medley of flavors. Sweet and tart, more vanilla and light peach and coconut flavors. Very good and a bit bizarre.
12.25% draft at BLAH. Pours hazy amber/red with a fizzy off white head. Tastes like vinegar, booze, tart fruit, and woody malt. Smells like vinegar, booze, woody malt, and tart fruit.
Tap. Pours hazy amber. Aroma and flavor are oak, Belgian yeast esters, dark fruit, lactic acid, faint alcohol spice, and red berries. Medium body.
Sampler at yellow brick. Sour for real. Strong and the bitterness hides the %. Good. $12 for 5 oz here. Would do if cheaper. Really refreshing.
fantastic sour. on tap at cask days last day.. orange olour and flavour, oak, mixed ferment.
Tap @ Beer Temple, Amsterdam, 14/09/17. Aroma has bourbon, vanilla, some oak, slight caramel. Taste is fairly sour, vanilla, some caramel, fruity, some balsamico.
Draught @ Beer Temple, Amsterdam. 2013 vintage. Pours clear dark reddish orange with a bubbly head. Aroma of bourbon, oak, wood, sourish berries, vinegary yeastiness, funky notes and vanilla. Taste is sweetish, malty and earthy with some caramel, toffee, plum, wood, oak, bourbon, vinegar, vanilla and berries. Finish is smooth, sweet and sourish with some vinegar, vanilla, oak, bourbon, wood and toffee. Complex and sweet.
Draft @ Beer Temple. 2013 issue. Rather clear amber color. Off white head. Aroma's: sour, wood. Retronasal it's sourish, sweetish, vanilla, wood. Flavor is sweet-moderate sour. Medium bodied, and it doesn't really feel like 10+ ABV. Finishes sweet, sourish, woody and something typical. Interesting.
Tap; pours cloudy amber with a khaki head; aroma fruity aroma with some wood and a hint of vanilla; taste is lightly tart fruit with a touch of maltiness and some wood and vanilla notes; finish is dry and tart
on tap pours dark copper very thin white head aroma is very rubbing alcohol and tart fruits taste is very sour and will turn your tounge inside out loved it