I’ve been here before but it was a date with my wife on one of those coupon things. We got a “flight” of samplers and a pint each, plus a lovely commemorative “pint” glass to take home. It was a good deal I guess. But today I am by myself and having their version of a CDA.
It’s not very dark, kind of a dark brown actually. So I guess it’s a CnvDA
Actually “Cascadian Dark Ale” is not even an officially recognized style by the BJCP It just kind of evolved a few years ago, and there is even some debate on weather it should be called a “Black IPA” since other than it’s nearly black color, the fairly bitter and hoppy flavor is it’s most prominent characteristic. Typically they are made by adding some roasted malt into the mash of an otherwise, standard hoppy pale ale or IPA, right at the very end just long enough for the color to come out of it. So you get a dark nearly black beer with just a little of the roasty flavor. Like any style, some examples are very good, others, not so much.
Beer style analysis aside, it’s a little bit awesome I must say to look across from my table at see row of 600 gallon, stainless steel fermenters lined up like missile silos, knowing that barely a week or two ago, one of them had in it, this very beer I was drinking. Kind of the beer version of “farm-to-table”
It’s a small place, Payette. Seats 30-40 maybe, with a few TVs. It’s just a tasting/tap room, and not intended to be a restaurant, per se. Local food trucks come by and set up shop outside on a rotating basis, though for the busies time so you can get a bite to eat.
With fermenters that big, you cant move beer fast enough out of a little tap room, and Payette has a mobile canning unit come regularly to crank out thousands of cans of their Mutton Buster Brown and what ever other brew they have ready to package.
It’s good to see Idaho representing a bit and to see cans on the shelves in local supermarkets, that were filled just right down the road.
