The Cave Craft Beer
12822 NE 85th St
Kirkland, WA, United States of America
Vital Statistics
Logs for this venue
I remember really liking the Fall Apple Ale that is this beer's base, but I've gotta say, this beer is a punch of brandy in the face. Underneath that there's a dry floral hoppiness and beyond that it's very hard to get anything else clearly. A lot to take.
Bottle
This was super-good, you guys. A sweetish light corn / cereal lager base but the flavor fades into a mellow, sweet, very light whiskey finish. A great combination that... is a little hard to figure out, but just works really well for me. I could drink a whole lot of this beer.
Bottle
Bale Breaker The Ossifier Stout (unknown release)
Quite hoppy, if you told me this was a CDA I would have believed you. Dry, roast with mellow, slightly chalky chocolate. I really didn't taste the Jameson at all but the White Chocolate could very well have burnt my taste buds.
Draft
The Bruery White Chocolate (2019)
This is for sure primarily a strong wheatwine. Hop-fruit, slightly tangy, with a ton of liquor on top. Not really sure I got chocolate or vanilla here, but it was surprisingly smooth given how much... everything... it was. Glass was certainly too big.
Draft
Unexpectedly dominant guava juice flavor in this hazy IPA. Could be that my palate was a bit burnt by the KBS, but this worked really well.
Draft
Roast coffee, not too sweet, light but present bourbon. Did not seem nearly as punchy as 12% ABV would predict. Pleasantly surprised by how understated this felt after the strong sweetness of CBS.
Draft
Watery lager. Doesn't taste premium at all. Might beat a Coors Light, but not much more than that.
Draft
Grapefruit-passion juicy IPA. Slightly more dry/bitter than others I've had, although like the best examples ends with the promise of bitterness rather than actual alpha.
Draft
As is usual with this beer, it was a bit much. Bit of caramel-soy and thick-sweet. What makes this beer solid though is its smooth, nutty, toffee finish.
Draft
Tea I didn't really get at all from this, but a very tasty wee heavy in all respects.
Draft
Sweet citrus IPA. On the edge of too fake, although there was something candy-like and appealing about the flavor. Lemonheads. This beer tasted like Lemonheads.
Draft
An excellent coffee porter, nutty and just on the edge of savory. Appreciated that this wasn't on the sweet side. Smooth and balanced.
Draft
Came across better, apparently, than last time. I think it's because this time it wasn't very flat; instead, a medium-tart berry flavor pleasantly sweetens out to a cereal finish. Interestingly, this did come across as cranberry again, rather than blackberry.
Draft
Ummm. Almost exactly like drinking a watermelon jolly rancher. It was okay, but startlingly artificial-tasting.
Draft
Rich, helles flavor, cereal and light sweetness. An excellent lager.
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Bubblegum and alpha. This is a much different flavor profile than I expect from a Firestone Walker IPA, so at first I thought it just tasted weird. Then I realized it was just my expectations.
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Dogfish Head Oak-Aged Vanilla World Wide Stout (unknown release)
Good, but barely disguised booze. Thick, pungent, sweet, and gets into your head very, very quickly.
Draft
Super-light in flavor, maybe the lightest beer I've ever tasted. No weird corn-sweetness or anything that makes me feel they went cheap, but it seems like a very watery version of a good beer. The lime is nice, but the beer part is understandably overwhelmed.
Draft
Great in small pour, very distinct coconut and lemon grass flavor.
Bottle
Thick, sweet coffee flavor with a very smooth coconut flavor that is mellow and sweet rather than toasted or nutty. It's more coconut milk than coconut. Faint hint of lime at the end. It's a little too straightfowardly sweet to love, but it's definitely high-quality.
Draft
This release is getting aged enough to be pretty good. Wine notes come out pretty clearly. Still very roasty and strong.
Draft
Unpleasantly salty-sour head, be warned (because there's a lot of it!), but once you get to the actual beer, it's quite good. Very tart, slightly salty. Clean finish.
Draft
Cream-stout sweet, thin-bodied Stout with slightly sour dryness. Flavor is very smooth; this beer goes down quite easily.
Draft
Tasted like a barely-tart pineapple-guava juice with a finish of sweet cereal milk. It was pleasant enough but it's a stretch calling this a gose, and it's a stretch calling this a beer. IMHO.
Draft
Less complex than the City of the Dead, but manages to be super well balanced and sweet without overdoing it. Light roast, medium thick, subtle coconut and mocha notes. Really very tasty - this brewery definitely knows how to do stouts right.
Draft
Not quite tart enough to be bracing, this tastes nicely of berry but isn't quite of the depth of flavor or as refined as other recent sours I've had. Finish is mildly sweet cereal, at least compared to the opening.
Draft
Very nice initial impression, kind of like a light coffee take on a Velvet Merkin. Slightly thin body. After a while, the alcohol and bitter finish come out a little more, making this seem less refined. This went from a Yum to a Decent over the course of 12 ounces.
Draft
Had to try a beer from a new brewery. A light brown ale, with a sweet caramel flavor. The sweetness is a bit uncomplicated, like cheap candy, which wasn't a great impression.
Draft
A decidedly unsweet Scotch ale, with caramel and a slightly savory character. Not salty, per se (salted caramel would have been interesting), but more kind of odd and off-putting. I kept going back and forth between liking and not liking this.
Draft
Thin but smooth texture; you could've fooled me by saying this was nitro. A bit over-smooth, almost soapy flavor, but lightly sweet with just the barest hints of coffee. I haven't tried them side by side, but this seemed really similar to their regular milk stout.
Draft
Not nearly as Peppermint Patty as Perennial's stout, this has just a hint of peppermint on top of a rich, creamy, but not particularly sweet beer. Lots of chocolate on top, but with a rather bitter, over-roasted kind of bitter finish.
Draft
Pleasant, thinnish brown with more of a straight malt sweetness than anything caramel brownie. There's a hint of salt but it kind of recedes into a general, drying minerality over time.
Draft
I don't know if this was mislabeled. The keg backs up the attribution, but it tasted more like a fresh hop IPA than anything alt-like - hoppy, yellow and fruity. So I have a hard time believing it was correct.
Draft
A thick, malty stout with more than a hint of umami and salt. If you'd told me this was an oyster stout I would have believed you for sure. Again, not sure if the labeling was correct - I did not taste chocolate at all.
Draft
Very interesting. This beer is slightly tart, and the overall impression is that of a mellow pumpkin pie ale mixed with a small amount of hard apple cider. It was actually pretty interesting, although I never quite got over the strangeness in a half pint. Will try again, though.
Draft
Unappealing, murky light color. Flavor is a mix of medium-heavy roast, chocolate, and a very round hop flavor. In fact, I'd have called this a straight CDA if not for the amount of roast on the flavor. Anyway, not really my style.
Draft
A delicious golden ale, with just a hint of Belgian spice character before hop perfume and an exotic bitterness from the grains of paradise kick in. Delicious, cereal malt finish. This is like an actually excellent mutation of Sam Adams Summer Ale.
Draft
Toffee and malt, with more than a little alcohol right up front. I think we know now that this beer is a great candidate for aging.
Draft
Very refreshing, though a bit on the hollow-side, body wise. A touch of fruit on the yeast that didn't quite sit harmoniously with the rest of the flavor. I'd say pilsner-like, like the Gaffel Kolsch, but maybe without the purity of flavor.
Draft
A creamy, thick stout with a lot of chocolate presence. Briefly tart, but also with a salty aspect that was a very pleasant surprise and squashed expectations set by the bourbon barrel stout from before. Like a salted hot chocolate - very, very yummy.
Draft
Smooth, nutty brown with a creamy cereal malt finish. Very solid brown ale for sure! More interesting is finding another bottle shop with good taps nearby!
Draft