Cascade IPA Recipe Advice

[JamesH]

Hi,

I am planning on making an IPA using Cascade next weekend. Can you let me know your thoughts on my recipe?

Brew Length 19 litres

Grist
Pale Malt 3,800g
Munich Malt 350g
Torrefied Wheat 150g
Gypsum 1/2 tsp

Hops
(90mins) Northern Brewer 25g
(5 mins) Cascade 22g
(flame out) Cascade 8g

Yeast - Nottingham Rehydrated

To be with any suggestions you might have, I should add that I have some crystal malt, lager malt and black malt. I also have Bobek, Saaz, Bramling Cross, Fuggle and Golding hops as well as Muntons Ale Yeast.

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks,

James.

[mysterio]

Grist is fine although I think you need more Cascade hops.

Do you have a beer in mind that you want to emulate ? What level of hoppiness are you after?

[JamesH]

OK I have more Cascade. How much should I go for. I don't have any particular beer in mind. Just a strong IPA that tastes nice really. Not really, really hoppy but a nice aroma would be good.

[chris_reboot]

load out on the late hops then.
dunno off-hand what IBU you're getting from the Northern Brewer, but leave that for 90% of the bitterness, and increase by 2x or 3x the cascade.

I'd do 20-30g at flame out, and maybe double-up the 10mins cascade.
Will give you more flavour rather than bitterness.
Just my 2p worth.

[coatesg]

Possibilities are endless, but the following is perhaps a good starting point: Townes IPA from Ollorson's book:

Pale 4.88Kg
Wheat 195g

Cascade 5.2% 96g 90min
Cascade 5.2% 27g 15min

OG 1045; 40IBU


You could easily adapt this and make it stronger (say 1055), up the bittering and flavour hops accordingly (say 1055, 48IBU and throw in aroma hops (14g? 28g?) if you fancy). It'd be very american in style, but I have brewed the original recipe using US-05 and it was a stonking beer (that lasted a total of 2 1/2hrs at a BBQ...).

Alternatively, you could use Fuggles and Golding to some extent (Northern Brewer/Fuggles for bittering, goldings/fuggles for flavour and cascade to finish perhaps?). Possibilities are endless - just decide what gravity you want, aim for a bitterness, and then fiddle with the hops accordingly - you probably want a fair addition late though!

[richc]

In my opinion your malt looks good but your hopping needs more, I'm unfamiliar with the previous recipe but it feels to me like a British interpretation of a US style. I quite like adding a lot of the hop later to get bags of flavour say something like the following...

40g Cascade @ 60 min
40g Cascade @ 10 min
20g Cascade @ 0 min

That should end up at about 35-40 IBU if my late night mental arithmetic is vaguely right

[rimski]

I brewed this yesterday for the first time not sure how it will do but I can certainly let you know

5.250 kg Maris Otter Malt (89.74%)
0.250 kg Crystal 120 (4.27%)
0.200 kg Torrified Wheat (3.42%)
I added these two with 30mins left on the mash to get more colour without to much of there flavours
0.100 kg Amber Malt (1.71%)
0.050 kg Chocolate (0.85%)


----------------
42.0 g Cascade Leaf (5.5% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes
28.0 g Cascade Leaf (5.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
28.0 g Cascade Leaf (5.5% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes
15.0 g Cascade Leaf (5.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes


Single step Infusion at 65°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermenting at 19°C with Safale S-04

Brewmate tells me this should give me an ABV of about 6%
Good luck with your brew

[mysterio]

I like richC and chris_reboots suggestions of hop quantities, that will give you some Cascade flavour without being over the top.

[JamesH]

Thanks for all the responses! Sounds like upping the late hops is the way to do. I have looked at the multi-step mashing process yet so I will probably just keep it simple for this brew and do as Chris_R says and double the Cascade. So my recipe will be as follows.
Brew Length 19 litres

Grist
Pale Malt 3,800g
Munich Malt 350g
Torrefied Wheat 150g
Gypsum 1/2 tsp

Hops
(90mins) Northern Brewer 25g
(5 mins) Cascade 44g
(flame out) Cascade 16g

Yeast - Nottingham Rehydrated

I think I have 60g of Cascade left but, if not, I will probably just top up the 5 minute hops with Fuggles, leaving the flame-out hops as all Cascade. Unless anyone thinks my other hops would complement the Cascade better.

Cheers,

James.

[richc]

Sounds good, let us know how it comes out.

[JamesH]

Will let you know.

I haven't taken any brew photos so will do so for this one. I've upgraded my equipment a bit as well and changed premises (to my mum's garage).

My brewery is really starting to take shape!

[calumrobertson]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out as am brewing something similar this weekend (a Sierra Nevada clone)...sounds really good

[JamesH]

Well, I'm having second thoughts about Cascade now. I had a bottle of Liberty Ale on Friday night, which, according to the label, is full of Cascade, and I didn't find the hoppy flavour that pleasing. Thinking about using Bramling Cross or Bobek for the late hops now. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

[196osh]

Depends on what you want in a beer. You can have shed loads of flavour in a beer without any harshness.

You could easily late hop with 200+ grams of Cascade in a regular IPA

[leedsbrew]

Well, I'm having second thoughts about Cascade now. I had a bottle of Liberty Ale on Friday night, which, according to the label, is full of Cascade, and I didn't find the hoppy flavour that pleasing. Thinking about using Bramling Cross or Bobek for the late hops now. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

you may have had a bad bottle! I had a bottle of Anchor Steam over the weekend and it wasn't a patch on it's normal self! I was very disapointed!

As 196osh said, you can flame out and get loads of aroma/flavour without harshness!