Brew Number

77

Style

Cascade Pale Ale

 Ingredients

1 kg pale malt 4.5 EBC

200 g caramunich malt 50 EBC

150 g light crystal malt 120-140 EBC

1 kg Muntons premium extra light DME, max 12 EBC average 8

1 x 1.5 kg Coopers light liquid malt, 5-8 Lovibond = 13 to 21 EBC

23 g US Chinook hops, 12.2%

100 g US Cascade hops, 5.7%

1/4 whirlfloc tablet

Wyeast American Ale yeast 1 1056

Brewing notes

First non-kit partial mash, made up recipe

Smack wyeast foil pack on 31 July, 5 pm. 1 Aug, 9am, hugely swollen to point of exploding. Make up 1.5 lboiling water with 1/3 cup dextrose and 1/3 cup light DME, cool. Put in 1.5 L sterilised coke bottle. Sterilise corner of foli packet and knife with vodka, cut, pour yeast into coke bottle, give a good shake. Tip off 400 ml into sterilised 600 ml coke bottle, put in fridge for reuse. Leave 2 L coke bottle at about 18 to 22 degrees, bubbling slowly builds up to about 5 mm of foam. Release gas regularly. Lovely creamy aroma from the yeast.

3 August. Put pale malt, caramunich malt, crystal malt in stainless steel pot. Add 3.5 L of water at 80 degrees. Stir, temp 66 degrees. Put in oven set to 50 degrees. 20 mins, check mash, temp 65.5 degrees. Add small amountb boiling water, return to oven, temp set at 75 degrees. 40 mins check mash, 67 degrees, turn oven down to about 65 degrees. 1 hr 15 mins, mash temp 66.5 degrees, tastes very sweet. Pour into colander over pot in 2 goes, sparge with 4 L 78 degrees water. Add DME, liquid malt, bring to boil. Add chinook hops in stocking bag. Boil, at 45 mins add 20 g Cascade in stocking bag and whirlfloc, at 55 mins add 20 g Cascade in stocking bag, at 1 hr add 20 g Cascade in stocking bag, heat off. Remove chinook hops. Put pot in bath of cold water with lid on for 40 mins. Take Coopers tall fermenter, fill with water from ghose spray nozzle, add wort through strainer. Much less foamy. Mix well, measure sg inside fermenter, 1.044. Vol 22 l, temp 20 degrees. Add yeast, 23 l at 20 degrees. Put in laundry. 4 Aug, 1 bubble every 30s, 18 degrees sg 1.044. Put on light box. 5 Aug, 20 degrees, 1 bubble every 4s. 6 Aug, 18 degrees, 1 bubble every 8s, sg 1.026 Rack into the old white fermenter using 12 mm tube, take a bit of sludge, but hop stocking blocks tap. No bubbling after transfer, but top on old white fermenter is seriously dodgy. Put 40 g Cascade hops in stocking bag, soak in 300 ml boiling water, cool, put in secondary after racking on 6 Aug. 7 Aug, no bubbling, temp gauge not working on this fermenter but will be 18 to 20 degrees, sg 1.020 so it is fermenting. 8 Aug, no bubbling, about 19 degrees, sg 1.018. 10 August, 18 degrees, no bubbling, sg 1.015. 12 August, 18 degrees, no bubbling, sg 1.012. 13 August, no bubbling, 18 degrees, sg 1.013. 15 Aug, sg 1.012. Rack into new blue jerrycan, put in fridge for cold conditioning on 15 August. No gas generation in fridge. 24 August remove from fridge, bulk prime with 130 g dextrose, vol in bottling bucket about 19.5 l - Blue jerrycans hold more than 20l. Tap on bottling bucket came off, nearly lost all the beer, had to put my arm in the brew to screw the nut back on the tap. Bottles stored in laundry. 27 August, give each bottle a good shake and return to shelf.

Tasting notes

IBUs 40 ABV 4.5%

At racking, nice amount of bitterness, creamy texture and taste, some aroma, still looking for more cascade taste and aroma.

After adding extra cascade in secondary improvement in flavour.

12 September. About 2 weeks in the bottle. OK hiss on opening, gentle but subdued bubbling in glass. Darkish toffee sort of colour. Crisp grapefruity aroma. Small amount of head, but looks pretty promising for head retention with some age. Mmmmmm. Its not LCPA, in fact its not much like LCPA, but it is bloody good, at least it will be in a few weeks. An incredible, crisp, grapefruity, almost sour hop flavour predominates, with a subdued cascade aftertaste, the malt is there but takes a back seat to the hops. Much less sweet than LCPA style, but very hoppy, very crisp, very clean, very lovely.

21 September. Nice colour, OK head retention, hop flavour smoothing out very nicely, delectable.

2 October. Not hugely gassy, but OK. Head retention still not quite there yet. Grapefruit aroma. Nice smoothed out flavour, reasonably malty but dominated by the hops, and very nice hops too. Tangy, crisp, grapefruity, zingy, zesty, lovely. LCPA would be less Chinook and more Cascade for a sweeter hop profile, but this beer is pretty good on its own, and to my palate the hops are better than LCPA, although the malt profile doesnt match the complexity of LCPA..

17 October. Vs LCPA. LCPA a lot lighter in colour. Head and retention better in CA. Bubbling in glass more vigorous for LCPA. LCPA has a very strong malt profile, maybe along the lines of Lowenbrau, followed by nice strong bitterness and grapefruity citrusy hop flavour. CA more subdued malt, less up front bitterness, much more grapefruit aroma and flavour, comparable aftertaste. Styles are certainly similar, but LCPA has a complex malty flavour while being quite a light colour. CA has a bit less hop bitterness but a lot more hop flavour and aroma. While it is not that similar to LCPA, it is a bloody good beer when tasted next to it.

30 October. Head retention gradually improving. Mmmm grapefruity, lovely.

20 November. Head retention OK. Actually a bit overgassed. Grapefruity and lovely.

7 December. Bit gassy but nice flavour.

22 Jan. Nice gas level, OK head. Slightly mellowed, but still grapefruity, very nice.

9 March. Crystal clear. Nice tight lacy head. Good gas. Citrus aroma. Hops have mellowed a lot but still dominate the malt. Grapefruit the predominant flavour, limited Cascade flavour left. Still pretty good, but better more fresh.