Oakshire Makes First Cascadian Dark Ale
Eugene’s Oakshire Brewing has received label approval for a new beer, O’Dark:30 Cascadian Dark Ale. Oakshire’s brew team will begin brewing this beer on Thursday February 11, 2010. Unlike Widmer ’10 and Hopworks Secession, two other excellent commercial examples of the beer style to be recently released, Oakshire elected to make the leap and clearly label their beer as a Cascadian Dark Ale instead of a Black IPA.
Oakshire Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk the beer will be “Nearly jet black in color, and low to medium bodied, the beer is deceptive for sure. With aromas and flavors of Pacific Northwest hops interwoven against a subtle background of roast and chocolate flavors, this Cascadian Dark Ale is an ode to balance.”
Van Wyk adds “At Oakshire Brewing, we’re not claiming to have made the first dark and hoppy beer, we’re just supporting the movement to name this style properly. We hope that we can be leaders in helping people not only enjoy, but also understand ‘better beer’.”
Here’s some statistics:
OG 15 plato, IBUs 70, ABV 6.3
Malts: 2-row, Wheat, Carfa III
Hops: Nugget, Cascade
When we asked Van Wyk what he though about other breweries using Black IPA instead of Cascadian Dark Ale on their labels. He said “It is a tough situation for sure re-labeling. At the end of the day, you have to sell beer and the best way to do that is make sure the customer knows what they are getting. We didn’t go “all in” so to speak because we added “aka Black IPA” to the side. But, we do feel strongly that having a different name for this beer style is important and we were going to feature it prominently on this label. It’s pretty hard to help educate the consumer if the only place they can learn about CDAs is from a handful of beer writers and a little word of mouth. I can’t speak for other Pacific Northwest brewers and their decisions, we just know what this should be and as a company are going to stand behind the movement. Change is hard for people. But as someone told me repeatedly, ‘If it was easy, everyone would be doing it!'”
What sort of stuff do you guys have lined up for Zwickelmania?
More from Oakshire on this beer:
So we’re calling it A Cascadian Dark Ale. Yep, not scared. New nomenclature for a beer that’s has been made for a while. Customer confusion? Maybe for a little while. But you’ll all eventually come over to the Dark Side, right?
And because I couldn’t upload a bigger graphic without covering the whole screen, I’ll tell you what the verbiage is under the graphic:
“Dawn has not arrived, But we are awake-making beer. A tribute to Oregon’s brewers, O’Dark:30 is a beguiling blend of dark malt and NW hops-A beer style as unique as our heritage.”
Oh yeah, release date: March 3 is the scheduled date. Enjoy it all spring on draft and in bottles.
About The Author
Angelo
Angelo grew up in Maine and is proud to call New England his original home. Cascadia is now his home. He fell in love with great beer in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. He has been a correspondent for the Portland Tribune's Guest on Tap column, LivePDX.com, and has been featured in publications such as Beer Northwest and PDX Magazine. Angelo also has a great interest in independent music, and has been a booker and organizer for shows around the Portland under the name Pop Tomorrow! Angelo garnered much knowledge regarding beer from his experiences homebrewing, working at Belmont Station, Pyramid Brewing, Upright Brewing, By the Bottle, Beer Revolution, Olde Depot Public House, Falling Sky Brewing, Cascade Brewing, and from many many knowledgeable, passionate, and loving people along the way. It is Angelo's mission to bring "infotainment" and "edumation" to the readers of this website. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to contribute, please contact me at angelo@brewpublic.com
It’s really good to see Oakshire taking a bold step to fully get behind the Cascadian Dark Ale name.
I think it’s awesome that they’ve found a way in this label to ‘teach’ people about beer as well – rather than calling it a Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale, the CDA is emphasized with a small ‘aka Black IPA’ stamp to help people better understand what a CDA might taste like. In a subtle way, it also seems to correct people who may be calling this style of beer a Black IPA.
In my mind, I think the next few months will be the tipping point for Cascadian Dark Ales. If the name is going to be adopted, now is the time for breweries use their ablilty to influence and really make this happen. I’ve heard of at least one other brewery that will release a Cascadian Dark Ale (using CDA, not Black IPA) in a couple months – I’d like to see more join these guys in doing the same.
I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this CDA – with a great name by the way – in early March.
I remember a conversation about 4 or 5 years ago at a little pub in Eastern Oregon about whether or not to call a hoppy dark IPA a “black IPA”. They decided to call it TURMOIL. The first and the best Cascadian Dark Ale. Not as publicized but its been on tap for FIVE YEARS (Maybe SIx) Anyway, It is nice to see that a category was finally created for Turmoil and that other breweries have tried this Style. Great Job Barley Brown’s and Shawn Kelso!
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