Cirque Brewing Company
(short notes/brewery closed)
Prosser, Washington, USA
All beers sampled draft at the 1997 Herbfarm Microbrewery Festival. Tastings in 1998 and 1999 at various Seattle locations indicated an increasing quality in this decoction brewery. Good lagers are difficult to find in the PNW, a niche that Cirque filled admirably. It is unfortunate that they went out of business, as the offerings were full of promise.
| Cirque Lager | Export? | * * * |
| Golden and malty. I suspect that an export is attempted. The malt is not as deep as other decocted exports that I have tried, and it is a bit on the cloying side. |
| Cirque Dark | Munich Dunkel? | * * 1/2 |
|
I am not making up these names. OK, but fairly innocuous. This
attempt at a dunkel had a decent, but again, not deep, maltiness. Munich
spiciness was not evident. The Cirque beers are not in the same league as Victory. My speculation is that Cirque relies on domestic malts (this speculation was supported by somebody familiar with the brewery). Domestic malts just don't seem up to the task of supporting a decocted continental lager. |