Cascade Brewery is moving its specialty operations to Beaverton.

The brewer, known for its sour beers, has maintained a warehouse off Southwest Denney Road for about a year but is expanding it to handle all of its sour/tart beer operations from fermentation to bottling.

Its barrelhouse on Southeast Belmont in Portland will remain but largely for retail not brewing, said Ron Gansberg, brew manager. And, of course, Raccoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills will continue as a pub and brewery as it has since 1998.

The site near Denney Road allows Gansberg and owner Art Larrance to expand from the 7,000 square foot former produce warehouse on Belmont to a 23,000 square foot warehouse with a 19,000 square foot cooler.

"We're increasing our market," Gansberg said, adding that it's also closer to Raccoon Lodge.

Already, 1,200 barrels fill the center of the warehouse and other areas with room to spare. Some are aging and some are ready for blending. Eventually, Gansberg said, 2,000 barrels will fill the warehouse.

Gansberg is the brew master. He started making fruit wines and ciders as a teenager and has been a professional brewer for 29 years.

During a tour of the Beaverton warehouse, he pointed to various barrels, some large, some huge (1,781 gallons), some new, some old, and talked about the blending process.

He considers the "toast" of the barrel, which is the heat used inside as part of the barrel-making process. He knows what the barrels previous held, such as rum or brandy, or if they previously held nothing, and factors the oak flavor in as well. Then, come the fruits.

"It's up to us how to layer (all of) that in," he said.

Gansberg ticks off the varieties of beer: cherry, apricot, blueberry, pumpkin, grapes, gingersnap, strawberry, dates, figs, elderberry, dried lemon peel, dried pineapple, among others.

They, of course, must sample as they blend it.

"It's controlled chaos," he said. But, "it's that ragged edge where creativity resides."

The champagne style bottles of Cascade's sour beer can't be found in your local grocery, but it can be found at Raccoon Lodge, 7424 S.W. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, the Belmont Station, 4500 S.E. Stark St., Cascade Brewing Barrel House, 935 S.E. Belmont St., and in Hillsboro at ABV Public House, 23588 N.W. Clara Lane.

The company ships across the United States from California to New York and Florida and as far as Hawaii. It recently added British Columbia, Canada to its list, Gansberg said.

The Beaverton warehouse has about five employees, he said. That will likely peak at about 15 this summer when the bottling and packaging begin.

-- Wendy Owen

503-294-5961