Extract #1 Cascade IPA - First Post - First Brew

[Pjam]

That's a great idea, a single hop brew. You'll really get a handle on the hop character. I notice it totals 100g, so you won't have thoughs opened, half used bags cluttering up then place.

I'm just about to start something very similar, though I've got 4 different hops in mine and I'm kinda wishing I'd done a single hop brew now :?

 

[TRXnMe]

Cascade is my favourite hop for now :)

I brew a cascade pale ale almost every other brew and love it.

If you want a similar aroma and flavouer, but with added bitterness try Calypso, similar citrus base, but it's higher in alph acides than the Cascade :)

 

[Strongarm]

It will improve. More fizz and a cleaner flavour with much less dirty taste to mask the freshness of the hops.

Thinking about it, it's hard to know what young tastes like with no reference point, so I'll need to see how it improves with age before I can compare to what it's like now, lack of fizz withstanding. Definitely looking forward to finding out.

Extract does cost more than AG but used to take me less than half the time. Quality was good. I managed to make beers which were, in my opinion (which is what counts), better than the best bottled beers in the supermarket...............even Oakhams Citra and Williams Joker IPA.

Yeah, extract isn't the cheapest. I think I had about £22 of ingredients in this brew, to get 21 x 500ml bottles. Still cheaper that buying them (forgetting kit cost) but already realising home brew not really (for me anyway) about saving money. If I can turn out beers I find comparable (or better even, but I'll give myself a bit of practice time on that one) then I'm happy with a bit of cost. I'm sure my future will feature AG, but 2 young kids are going to delay that for a while.

 

[Strongarm]

That's a great idea, a single hop brew. You'll really get a handle on the hop character. I notice it totals 100g, so you won't have thoughs opened, half used bags cluttering up then place.

I'm just about to start something very similar, though I've got 4 different hops in mine and I'm kinda wishing I'd done a single hop brew now :?

I think chucking lots of things in very tempting, brew number 2 has already increased to 2 hops (Citra and Nelson, not to mention the bittering hops that were in the Coopers lager tin) and number 3, planned but not started, has 3 (Columbus, Amarillo, Nelson). Maybe after that I'll return to some single hop stuff to learn them inside out.

 

[Strongarm]

Cascade is my favourite hop for now :)

I brew a cascade pale ale almost every other brew and love it.

If you want a similar aroma and flavouer, but with added bitterness try Calypso, similar citrus base, but it's higher in alph acides than the Cascade :)

It is a very tasty hop, as soon as I opened the foil pack I knew it was a hop I already unknowingly loved from some favourite brews.

Will look out for some Calypso, although I went a bit crazy hop buying recently (100gr each of Cascade, Citra, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Columbus in the freezer) so may be a little while.

 

[TRXnMe]

Yeah, extract isn't the cheapest. I think I had about £22 of ingredients in this brew, to get 21 x 500ml bottles. Still cheaper that buying them (forgetting kit cost) but already realising home brew not really (for me anyway) about saving money. If I can turn out beers I find comparable (or better even, but I'll give myself a bit of practice time on that one) then I'm happy with a bit of cost. I'm sure my future will feature AG, but 2 young kids are going to delay that for a while.

Read the Brew in a bag threads, especially the over night mash ones. You might be able to work in an AG brew in a lot less time than you thought.

Heat the water up in the evening, mash the grain over night, boil over breakfast, leave to cool while you do parent stuff in the day and put in FV and pitch the yeast after the kids have gone to bed.

All you need to do is ensure the boiled wort is kept under an airlock so nothing nasty can get in, easy :)

Not pushing towards AG*, just suggesting a way you can get the control you seem to want within the limits of being a parent





*If I was pushing I'd be telling you about all sorts of shiny, but nope, being good here

 

[Strongarm]

I'm sure there will be lost of shiny grain filled vessels in my future. No doubt on that.

With sons at 2 yr 3 months old and 3 months old it will have to wait though. Even an extract brew hard to fit in.

 

[Strongarm]

This is fully carbonated and very tasty.

Passed it off on a friend last night (for the first few mouthfuls) as a commercial brew, so must be alright without my rose-tinted spectacles too.

Head retention not that great though, what's the easiest way for an extract + steeped grains brewer to improve that?

 

[Asalpaws]

Maybe steep some malted wheat or rye, both seem to help in AG with head retention. T

 

[rodwha]

I'm curious why 30 mins was the longest hop addition, why not a 60 min bittering addition?

 

[Strongarm]

Babies and lack of time. Taking last night's brew as an example after putting kids to bed and eating it was 9pm. Even with a 30 minute boil I got to bed about 11.30pm, I was then up again at 6am (having been woken about 2am by one of the kids).

Give the kids a while to grow up and I'll be all grain with 90 minute boils, at the minute I'll take the extra 30 minutes sleep and increased hop cost over a 60 minute boil.

 

[rui]

i will do your recipe!!! sounds realy nice :thumb:

did tried already??is it clear??and the taste???


:

 

[rodwha]

I'm very curious how this turns out. I've not seen where anyone cut the bittering time down that far.

I know all about the lack of sleep with kids! Between my little one and noisy neighbors I didn't sleep much. I was VERY grumpy for the first year and a half or two!

 

[Strongarm]

I'm very curious how this turns out. I've not seen where anyone cut the bittering time down that far.

I know all about the lack of sleep with kids! Between my little one and noisy neighbors I didn't sleep much. I was VERY grumpy for the first year and a half or two!

The recipe I based it on was a 15 minute Cascade recipe on another forum

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/15-minu ... le-210253/

So mine had a positively lengthy boil time in comparison.

I'm only 3 brews in so very little experience, but they've all been very short boils for aforementioned reasons. Think the second one was only 15 minutes, but I've not had any issue with feeling underbittered (for some reason that word isn't in the dictionary), my friend actually complained the 15 min recipe was too bitter for his tastes.

I've just based it on brew software, aiming for IBUs of beers I know I like, and you can always get the same IBUs for a short boil, it just costs more in hops. I guess with the 15 minute boils you get a fair bit of aroma off your bittering hops too.

Graysalcehemy commented that the long boil was needed for ensuring you hit the hot break and dont have clarity issues later on, but I think that's probably more relevant to AG as looking in John Palmer's How To Brew he was suggesting 5-25 minutes for the hot-break with extract. My second brew is very clear and that's the 15 minute one.

I cant comment on longer boils though, as never done them.

Regarding how this turns out it's a very nice drink, good bitterness and hop flavour, hop aroma a bit lacking but think that's because I used a bag for my dry hopping and it kinda floated on top. Now I try and push under with a long spoon and got better results on next brew.

 

[Strongarm]

i will do your recipe!!! sounds realy nice :thumb:

did tried already??is it clear??and the taste???


:

I am drinking this, yep.

Tastes good, nice balance of malt, bitter and hop flavour, although next time I would add more dry hops as hop aroma not as much as I'd like, this could also be due to floating hop bag when dry hopping. I think I prefer more like 3gr/litre when dry hopping though.

It's not as clear as I would have liked, not sure if this due to the short boil time or because, with it being my first brew, I was pretty impatient and took it out the FV pretty quickly. Next time I crack one open I'll take a snap and post it on this thread.