Deschutes Brewery Tasting (Portland, OR)

I visited Deschutes Brewery’s Portland Public House for a flight and a sandwich.  The food was first-class, the staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and the restaurant is gorgeous.  A couple notes on beers tasted-

Deschutes Red Dawn Irish Red Ale

This Irish-style red ale was appropriately dry and toasty, with herbal hop notes and a slightly tart, bitter fade.

Deschutes Gluten Free Golden Ale

This Golden Ale opened dry, with some banana and a lot of esters coming through in the body. All in all, a strange beer that seems slightly Belgian, but not from the yeast.

Deschutes Solace Rose Sour Brown Ale

This sour ale, a blend of 4 Dissident casks with different Brett and yeast strains added, is aged for 26 months with a soured black weiss addition.  It opened sweet and creamy for a sour ale, very mature and settled.  Cherry and heavy, dark fruits made appearances in this less tart, slightly sweet-then-usual Flanders-Style ale.  Very delicious.

Deschutes Chainbreaker White IPA

This white IPA opened with a light, wheaty body and big Belgian yeast flavors akin to bubblegum.  The IPA-style hopping brought forth pine and lemony hops, but this ale was hardly an IPA-style hop bomb.

Deschutes Trojan Horse IPA (Casked)

This insanely hoppy IPA opened with mango, apricots, pine tar, and flowers.  Casking helped mellow it out (I did a head to head with casked vs. non-casked) integrate the different hops in a less aggressive fashion, even if it did smear the supporting malt profile a bit.

Deschutes Bachelor Bitter (Casked)

This ESB opened appropriately creamy and flat. The casking resulted in a richer body than the standard tap offering, but inevitably cut out some of the crispness.  This ale benefit from standing a while, and it clearly opened up as it approached room temperature.