Brew Number

72

Style

Cascade Pale Ale CPA 1/8

 Ingredients

1 kg light liquid malt - the NZ stuff from Osb Pk

1.5 kg Morgans extra pale liquid malt, colour 3 ebc in 23 l

1 kg Muntons premium extra light dry malt extract

15 g super alpha hops not labelled, 11%?

95 g cascade hops 4 to 5%

Safale yeast

Brewing notes

2 l water, add malts, bring to boil. Hop additions, 0 mins 15 g Super Alpha and 30g Cascade in single stocking bag, 40 min 20 g Cascade in stocking bag, 55 min 15 g Cascade in stocking bag. 60 mins stop boil. Put in tall fermenter, on to hose aerated water. Make up to 22 l with cold water and ice. Temp 24 degrees (new temp strip), sg 1.048. Rehydrate yeast in warm water 15 mins, add spoonful of wort, wait 10 mins, plenty bubbles. Pitch at 5 pm on 7 July. Give a good aerating stir. Ferment in laundry. 8 July, 20 degrees, going off, 1 bubble every 1 to 2 s. 9 July, 21 degrees, 1 bubble every 1 to 2 s, sg about 1.022. 10 July, 22 degrees, 1 bubble every 10s. 11 July, 18 degrees (cold night, 10 degrees), sg 1.018? - huge amount of flocculated yeast in sample, not bubbling. Apply some heat and give a gentle shake. 4pm 1 bubble every 50s. 12 July, 1 bubble every 1 min 30s, 18 degrees, sg 1.017. 13 July, 18 degrees, 1 bubble every several minutes, sg 1.016. Getting close, but maybe also getting stuck. Decant through 12 mm tube into cube (holds at least 22 l), onto 30 g Casscade pellets. Pellets float to surface and form green scum. Keep cube in laundry (fermentation temps) and tighten lid to see how much gas is generated. 16 July, less gas being generated, hop scum still floating on top, put into fridge for cold conditioning.18 July, not much gas to release, looks like hops might be settling.

1 August, take out of fridge, let warm up an hour, siphon out using 8 mm tube, bulk prime with 140 g dextrose, not stirred, measured about 18 l in bottling bucket. Bottled and place inside. Letting it warm up was a bad idea, CO2 degassing in bottling tubes making things foamy. Quite a bit of suspended hop sediment floating around, dry hopping not such a good idea. Lost a lot of beer at base of cube, simply the wrong shape, better to buy a better shape one than use the free one and lose beer every time. Used one shot- bottles not rinsed! 5 August, give bottles a shake and put on shelf

Tasting notes

While boiling, bitter to the point of moderate tongue tingling.

2 days into fermentation, good hop flavour and aroma, could still take more up front bittering.

ABV 5.2% IBUS 45 (approx) (But high gravity boil, which might discount IBUs as much as 30%)

At bottling. Very strong up front bitterness, with a resiny, piney character, maybe a little harsh/astringent but probably OK with time. Not enough cascade flavour to go with up front bittering. Not much aroma although it was still very cold.

10 August, 9 days old. Small hiss on opening, definitely gassing up OK but not there yet. Some head but not much retention yet. Greenish piney hop aroma, also a very slight toffee aroma, maybe carbonation sugar, maybe from boiling the LME. Quite a dark colour, dark golden to amber, lighter malts had very little impact. Sweetish malt up front, maybe a typical extract residual sweetness, then the grapefruity piney bitterness kicks in, followed by fruity floral cascade flavour and lingering tingly bitterness along the sides of your tongue. A flavour explosion and quite lovely. Not really astrigent except at the very end of the aftertaste when there is a very slight medicinal/numbing taste/feeling on the tongue. See how it ages, maybe would consider similar or slightly less total IBUs and slightly higher proportion of IBUs from Cascade. But to my palate, a particularly good beer.

27 August. Head retention improving a little. Quite dark colour. Very clear, no hop particles floating around. Lovely full on flavour. Still a tad too much hop flavour somewhere, slightly too greeny/grassy/piney. Not sure if it is the super alpha or the cold hopped cascade. A strong Cascade aroma, even a bit too much. Not really astrigent any more. Not hugely bitter up front. A very big flavoured beer, and jolly good, reasonably well balanced, but could do with a bit of tweaking.

15 September. Good gas, almost ice creamy, but fits in a jug. Froth decays to a lacy head with good retention. Very floral aroma. Very clear, moderately dark in colour, no hop particles floating around. Tastes more balanced now. Decent body, slightly sweet malt up front, also resiny piney bitterness up front, then tangy floral slightly grapefruity hops in the middle. and a long lasting citrusy hop tang at the end. Less grassy/greeny than before. Hugely flavoured, quite well balanced, to my palate a superb beer. Wouldnt change much, maybe a bit less priming sugar.

19 September. Yes, darkish colour, lovely head and retention, though a tad overgassed at the pour. Huge aroma, resiny piney bitterness up front and in the middle, lingering floral hops at the end, a superb beer for a hophead and one that needs to be repeated.

3 October.Good aroma, dark colour, vigorous carbonation, nice head retention. Hops flakes floating around in bottle and glass. Yes it is very nice now that it is smoothing out, but lacks the complex malt character you get from a mash, and now that the late hop flavour and aroa is smoothing out, the small amount of up front astringent bittering is more obvious. Its a lovely quaffable beer, but Brew 77 is clearly better.

20 Oct. Overgassed at this point but fits in the jug. Hop flakes floating around, otherwise clear. Nice, but a little musty and green from that dry hopping.

1 Nov. As above, a bit overgassed, not a very complex malt profile, a nice hoppy beer. Head retention still not so good. Retains that piney resiny character, no grapefruit or lychee.

25 Nov. About the same, bit overgassed, head retention average. Not quite as piney, flavour a bit more flowery and citrusy, with decent bitterness. Nice highly hopped ale. Amazing how different the malt character is compared to a partial mash.

9 Dec. Wahay, big hiss at opening, plenty foam in the jug. Overgassed. OOpps. Clear, except for hop flakes. Nice dark colour, good bubbling in glass. Nice bitterness, about right. One dimensional malt flavour, dominated by the hops, which are less musty and green but still piney. A pretty good beer in the highly hopped class, not way out of balance, very long lived tangy aftertaste.

24 Dec. 6 months old. Enthusiastic carbonation in glass, generous head on pouring (OK so I overprimed). Piney citrusy aroma. A much more restrained beer, plenty of up front bitterness, lots of piney citrusy notes in the middle, long lived bitter aftertaste. Very nice, but I am now sure the piney flavour is the super alpha and I think I am tasting extract residual sweetness at the end. Quite enjoyable, but better with no super alpha and a mash instead of extract.