Brew Number

83

Style

Cascade Pale Ale CA 26/10

 Ingredients

2 kg Joe White Pale Ale Malt 5-6 EBC

0.5 kg caramunich malt 60 EBC

0.5 kg wheat malt

0.25 kg Munich malt 12 EBC

42 g bittering US Cascade hop pellets 6.3%

4 by 20 g late addition US Cascade hop pellets 6.3%

40 g dry hopped US Cascade hop pellets 6.3%

1.8 kg DME

1/3 tablet whirlfloc

1 tsp dried breadyeast (as nutrient)

American Ale wyeast, 1056

Brewing notes

Remove yeast bottle from fridge on Monday 29 Sep, make all malt starter, split 400 ml back to fridge, keep at 15 to 24 degrees. 2 October, Put grains in pot, add 9L water at 78 degrees,mix, check temp, 66 degrees. In oven, 20 mins check temp 66 degrees. 1 hr, remove pot, temp 67 degrees. Put 1 kg grain in pasta colander in smaller pot, add 1.5 L water 80 degrees, check grain temp 74 degrees, put colander over bottling bucket, sparge withw ater in pasta pot. Halfway through reheat pasta pot to 80 degrees. Repeat for 2 more kilograms. Takes 1 hr in total. Wort volume, 9.3 l. Take a sample and cool in bath, check sg, 1.052, efficiency only 50%. Bugger again. Decant wort from bottling bucket to boiling pot with decant tube, bring to boil. Add 42 g Cascade in stocking bag. After 45 mins boiling, add whirlfloc, DME, bread yeast, bring back to boil. Then add 20 g Cascade in stocking bag, after 5 mins add another 20 g, after 10 mins add another 20 g, after 14 mins add another 20 g. 15 mins stop boil. Remove original hop parcel. Cool pot with some ice inside in cold water bath. Once cool, remove all hop parcels. Put in Wander fermenter with hose aerated water to make 23 l. Drop to another fermenter from tap at height of 1 m to aerate. Drop back to original fermenter, removing trub, and adding yeast. Get 23 l at 24 degrees and sg 1.046. Put in laundry. 3 Oct 7 am - NO ACTION. No airlock activity, no krausen, no CO2 smell, lots of trub floating around, possibly an occasional bubble breaking the surface, leave a bit longer. 1pm, foam building up, slow bubbling starts - Hooray! 4 October, 21 degrees, 1 bubble every 2s. 5 October, 22 degrees, 1 bubble every5 s, sg 1.026. Rack into another fermenter, taking some of the yeast scum on top of the brew. Wasnt a lot of dead yeast to leave behind in bottom of fermenter, but there was a lot of brown stuff I assumed to be trub. Glad to have the brew off that. after racking added 40 g of cascade pellets, steeped in boiling water, in a stocking bag. Bubbling returns immediately. 6 October temp strip says 24 degrees, just dont believe it, thermometer next to fermenter says 18 degrees air temp, slow bubbling when squeezing grommet on bubbler. 7 October, sg 1.020, fermenter says 23 degrees, air temp is 18 degrees. 9 October, air temp 18 degrees, sg about 1.016 - foamy. 10 Oct, air temp 20 degrees, sg 1.015. 11 Oct, sg 1.014. 12 Oct, decant to jerrycan, into fridge for cold conditioning. 26 Oct, remove from fridge, decant thru 12 mm tube to bucket, on to 140? g dextrose dissolved in boiling water, vol in bucket 20 l, bottled and stored in laundry.

Tasting notes

At racking, tasted pretty good. Nice bitterness, nice hop flavour. Added a dry hop to try to improve the aroma.

30 IBUS bittering 60 min boil plus some from later additions

ABV 4.5%

18 Nov. Taste test against LCPA. CA is slightly darker than LCPA but pretty similar colour. Influence of extract I guess. Carbonation in CA is a bit lower. Head in both is fine lacy white bubbles. CA has floral fruity aroma. LCPA has more dry aroma, bit of floral but also malt in the aroma. CA has good bitterness up front, complex layered light malt flavour, then floral and slightly grapefruity lingering aftertaste. LCPA has about the same amount of bitterness up front, complex but stronger malt flavour, then slightly fruity but quite restrained aftertaste. They are very similar, but CA has a more fruity hop character, while LCPA is a drier hop flavour and a more prominent malt profile. Very pleased with the similarity, but I like CA much better. To be fair, this LCPA seems much less floral and fruity than others I have had though.

13 December. Big hiss on opening, a bit frothy in the jug, a little overgassed. Vigorous carbonation in the glass. Creamy foamy white head. Fruity aroma. Restrained complex malt flavour overshadowed by citrusy floral hop flavours. Lovely.

\3 Jan. OK gas levels, not quite clear, excellent head retention, lovely flavour.

26 Jan. Good gas, nice head, very close to clear, citrusy hops aroma. Mild malt up front and then smooth citrusy tangy but not harsh hop flavour all the way through to tingly finish. Smoothed out merged flavours, probably about right for style, but maybe a few more IBUs for me.

2 April. Lovely golden colour, excellent level of carbonation, lacy well retained head. Hop aroma much diminished. Still a nice beer, but hop character much reduced, and has a slightly sour aftertaste, bit like chinook, not characteristic of cascade, maybe just getting a bit old, maybe a slight infection, doesnt matter much as there are only a couple left. Definitely better drinking when younger.

29 September, nearly a year old. A little overgassed, good head, very clear. Slightly winey aroma. Not a lot of hop character left. Light malt flavour, then a bit of hop bitterness and finishes a bit sour. To me the sourness is too much wheat and a bit of odd astringent taste from bittering with cascade. Not a lot of oxidation that I can taste, well maybe a little green apple. Generally a bit flat/slightly stale tasting though. Certainly past its best.