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Thursday, March 4, 2021 • ThE BuLLETIN
BEER, WINE & MORE
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Cascade Lakes packages
Midnight Drift
BY JON ABERNATHY • For The Bulletin
O
ver the past two years, ownership changes have revitalized Redmond’s Cascade Lakes Brewing Company. The new owners of Central Oregon’s
second-oldest brewery have focused on innovation and experimentation, and in recent months they have rolled out major branding and packaging
updates, as well.
One of the latest beers to emerge from
these efforts is Midnight Drift, a barleywine
aged in Oregon Spirit Distillers bourbon
barrels for six months. Available in 16-ounce
cans, it’s the first barrel-aged beer packaged
by the brewery; previous barrel brews have
been draft-only.
It’s the second in the company’s nascent
“Midnight” series, according to brewmas-
ter Ryan Schmiege. The first was Midnight
Sojourn, an imperial porter brewed with
molasses that was aged in barrels for 11
months.
For Midnight Drift, the focus was on the
malt and bourbon interplay.
“I targeted caramel, nutty and honey el-
ements with the use of Weyermann Abbey
and Melanoidin malts,” Schmiege said via
email. “For additional depth of character we
included some Briess cherry smoked malt.
Smoked malt is not traditional in most bar-
ley wines.”
Smoked malt is unusual. However, he
notes, “The impact is there, but it’s not the
focus. It’s a layer.”
Its time in the barrels was “Enough time
to add delicate oak complexity and light
spirit character to the barley wine without
overpowering the malt character,” according
to Schmiege.
A quick refresher on the style. Barley-
wines trace their roots to English old ales,
strong, aged beers that developed complex-
ity from long-term storage in wooden casks
or barrels. In the late 19th century, the Bass
brewery first called its strongest ale “Barley
Wine” and the name caught on as its own
style in the years that followed.
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Submitted photo
Cascades Lakes Brewery has released the barleywine Midnight Drift in cans. It’s the first barrel-aged
beer to be packaged by Central Oregon’s second-oldest brewery.
English versions of the style tend to focus
on rich malt complexity, while American
examples tend to emphasize hops and bit-
terness to counter the malt sweetness. These
are beers that start at 8 percent alcohol by
volume and only go up from there; the
strongest can approach or exceed 12 percent
ABV, earning their “barley wine” moniker.
Midnight Drift is 9.2 percent ABV. It
was a small batch brew of 15 barrels, and
the brewery only canned 120 cases’ worth,
Schmiege said. The brewery provided me
with cans of it to review.
It pours a deep amber color with a slight
chill haze, with a fine layer of light tan-col-
ored foam that clings to the side of the
glass. There’s a prominent oaked boozy
aroma that is a bit hot, bourbon or brandy
with plenty of floral esters backed by Ital-
ian plum, raisin, brown sugar, molasses
and cedar.
The flavor is florid with alcohol notes
that offer up roses, red berries, and burnt
sugar flavors. It has an oaky character that’s
both vanilla-sweet and lightly resinous.
There’s a sweetness reminiscent of honey
and caramel, with a deep, dark fruitiness
that reminds me of brandied fruitcake.
There’s still some alcohol heat in the finish
with a long lingering sweetness. It would be
an excellent beer to age for a year or more.
With Midnight Drift being the second in
a series, I asked Schmiege about plans for
other beers to follow.
“We have additional plans for the ‘Mid-
night’ family, but no current plans for repeat-
ing specific beers,” he said. “We’re picking up
more freshly dumped bourbon barrels from
our friends at Oregon Spirits, the first week
of March. I’m excited to fill them with an im-
perial stout for a fall, holiday offering.”
In the meantime, Midnight Drift is avail-
able now, with rich flavors and bourbon
notes in a nicely sharable format. It marks a
new direction for Cascade Lakes under the
new owners, and I look forward to seeing
what else is in store in the near future.
e e
Jon Abernathy is a beer writer and blogger and launched
The Brew Site (thebrewsite.com) in 2004. He can be
reached at jon@thebrewsite.com.