Cascade APA Homebrew - Recipe and Results

A Love Affair with Cascade

My first batch of beer was from a Cascade single hop IPA kit Mrs. Brew gave me for my birthday. This hop holds a special place in my heart, as it does for many homebrewers and craft beer drinkers, and rightfully so. To pay homage to that first batch, we came up with our own Cascade single hop Pale Ale recipe. 

I researched some recipes (including Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale), and came up with something that was easy to follow, inexpensive, and (hopefully) aromatic and hop-forward for our one gallon batch.

Brewing

Mash:

We started with 1.8 lbs of 2-Row Pale Malt and 0.2 lbs of Caramel 20, amounting to a percentage of 93% Pale to 7% Caramel 20. We then mashed those grains for one hour at 150℉ in 2 ½ quarts of water. 

After mashing I sparged with 170℉ water (4 quarts) to get the wort (approx. 6 quarts). Then began the boil.

I wanted something really hop forward and powerful, so I started with 0.8 ounces of Cascade pellets.

I divided the hops into thirds, with the one portion divided into half and one of those halves divided in half. Keeping up? To avoid more confusion (not so simple to follow as I see), I’ll write it out:

Boil:

• Cascade -- 0.067oz at 60 min (start of boil)

• Cascade -- 0.067oz at 30 min (Halfway point)

• Cascade -- 0.13oz at 10 min

• Cascade -- 0.27oz at 0 min (Flame out)

• Cascade -- 0.27oz Dry-hop (After vigorous fermentation ends or when applying airlock)

After the boil, we chilled the wort to 70℉, put it in our fermenter, and pitched the yeast. We used S-05 dry yeast (⅓ of an 11 gram yeast packet) that was preactivated in about 40 ml of 95-105℉ tap water.

We applied a blow-off tube, and when the vigorous bubbling subsided we added our dry-hop addition and applied the airlock. We let it work its magic in the fermenter for two weeks before adding our priming sugar (2.5 TBSP honey dissolved in ½ cup water; use what you feel comfortable with) and bottled it. Our yield was 10 bottles that were conditioned for an additional 2 weeks before we chilled it and drank. 

Verdict

This beer turned out pretty good, especially after we let it sit for a while. The longer this one sat, the more its flavor improved. It had decent clarity and a pleasant golden color topped with a nice head, but I think the use of caramel 60 over caramel 20 would have made it more robust on the malt side. Either way, the beer could have used more malt sweetness when considering the amount of hops added to the hot and cold sides. 

Speaking of the cold side, the beer turned out quite aromatic and full of that dense Cascade citrus. Dry hopping with such a small batch is always risky when considering the chance for oxidation, but this one turned out all right. The hops could have all been added on the hot side and maybe even boiled longer for a denser flavor, but we enjoyed this beer quite well.

So, what about the flavor?

I really enjoyed this beer the longer I let it settle in the fridge. It wasn’t very complex, but it had some pine and citrus bitterness with some gentle floral flavors to balance it out.  It did taste a little over-hopped, but the longer conditioning helped that out quite a bit. It was effervescent and had a nice head that maintained pretty well through the end. I haven’t gotten into figuring out the alcohol content yet, but I would guess that it sat around 5.5-6%. And, the last important question:

Would I make it again?

As I said before, it could have used more malt complexity, but this beer really was a decent, middle-of-the-road Pale Ale that wouldn’t be too difficult to improve upon. I think with a few minor adjustments this would be a beer that I would continue to make and even consider doing a larger batch of when we get it honed in. 

One awesome thing about homebrewing is how many options there are in just the simplest ingredients. They’re endless. And that’s why so many craft brewers and homebrewers are doing some really amazing things everyday to push the boundaries. We brew to learn and make better beer every time we drop those grains into the pot. 

Keep brewing and keep learning!

Mr. Brew