The Brew SiteCanned Beer Week: Caldera Pale Ale
Caldera Brewing in Ashland, Oregon, currently produces two canned beers: their Pale Ale and IPA. It was the first microbrewery in Oregon to can its beer, and it may be the only one; I’ll do some research on that. I reviewed their Pale Ale back in September; my overall remarks:
Hoppier than I expected—still fighting "can prejudice" I guess—and a nice flavorful beer. Slip a few of these amongst the PBR and see what happens.
Not knowing what to expect when I first opened it up, it was an enlightenment. It’s weird but I honestly find it tougher to take a beer seriously when it comes in a can… I suppose this is the indoctrination of years of exposure to mass-market canned macrobrews. Even as I opened the Caldera Pale Ale, there was the lingering doubt at the back of my mind.
Rest assured, it’s a good beer, definitely worth seeking out if you need to undergo a little "can therapy."
Since 2005, Caldera has been canning this beer, and they give a litany of reasons:
• Cans are simply a better package than a bottle
• Cans completely block out sunlight which erodes a beer’s flavor
• Cans are fully recyclable
• Cans chill quicker and keep the cold longer
• Cans are lighter in weight
• Cans are now lined to avoid any metallic taste
• Cans are easy to store
• Cans don’t break
• Cans are easier to construct pyramids and model airplanes from
I won’t speak to that last option, but I’ll definitely have more to write about that list.
BeerAdvocate gives Caldera Pale Ale a grade of B+. RateBeer scores it at 3.27 out of 5, in their 66th percentile.
Don’t know if you were planning on writing about it this week, but I picked up Caldera’s IPA (in cans of course) at Newport Market. It is delicious.
I plan on Caldera IPA, yeah–I saw it at Wild Oats but hadn’t picked any up yet. But I stopped at Newport Market today and they don’t have it… you sure it was Newport? 🙂
Bad memory on my part. You’re absolutely right … it was Wild Oats.
we suffer from "can prejudice" too 😉 none of our local brewers are using them.
something i was lucky enough to try a couple weeks back was a canned kona porter. it was quite good. from what i was told they’re gearing up to export it to the mainland.
When I started my blog, I tried to arrange blind tastings (ultimately a failure). One we did get off the ground was a pale ale tasting, and Caldera was in the mix. Everyone in the tasting, to a person, balked at the can and swore they’d pick it out instantly. Not only did no one do that, but Caldera was the favorite of two of the five tasters.