# Cascade Pale Ale Suggestions?



## Bribie G (19/4/12)

I'm nursing my kegs at the moment as I've got two clubbie meetings next week and don't want them to blow as they tend to do (bastards know when a club meeting is nigh) <_< 

So to give them a wee rest I got a slabby of Cascade Pale Ale (The Green) which I have always taken my hat off to. 





It's the real deal, 5% ABV, nice malt. Actually fricken gorgeous malt, perfect hop balance. Yes hops. It's one of those brews like Melbourne Bitter (in it's own way) that has probably just soldiered on for decade after decade without them screwing over the recipe like they have done with Carlton Draught or XXXX heavy. And yes please don't post that it's a lager, we know that but no doubt started its history as an ale  

Love the drop and IMHO it holds its head up proudly along with Dortmunders etc as a true flagship of style. 

Now I've put my violin back in the cupboard, what suggestions??

I'd say a lot of it is to do with the water? Very soft? 

I'll shortly have a sack of BB Galaxy and already have POR flowers. Maybe Danish lager yeast (have a smackie) - any sugar do you think? This stuff tastes all malt to me. 
Thinking maybe mix of Galaxy and BB Ale for a tad more malt flavour / sweetness?


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## ged (19/4/12)

Isn't there an old post here where a lady from Cascade gives the poster the exact recipe. All gardiner pale malt, 30% sugar (!!!), POR to 22 IBU at 60 with a small addition at 10, and lager yeast.
Strangely enough I think the exact same thing when I drink it - tastes far too good to follow such a megaswill recipe, including having a nice hoppy nose... but there you go.
I'll try to find the link.

Ged


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## Bribie G (19/4/12)

Legend ged - thanks for coming out of retirement  to answer my post :beer:


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## ged (19/4/12)

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...ic=36020&hl

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us at Cascade.

Producing an exact copy of our Pale Ale using a homebrew kit is a tough ask. 

Youd have to purchase pale malt (Gairdner variety) grown in Tasmania - yes it does make a difference. Crush the malt then mash, clarify and boil the liquid (for 90 minutes). Add hops (Pride of Ringwood) at the start of boil and 10 minutes from the end. Add adjuncts (liquid sugar - at 30% of total carbohydrates). Then cool the liquid (called wort) to 14 deg C and add the yeast (this last bit is a bit tricky because you cant purchase our yeast). When the fermentation starts keep the temperature at 14-16 degrees C for the duration of the fermentation; the fermentation will take at least 7 days. Cool the fermentation down to 4 degrees C thus allowing most of the yeast to settle in the bottom of the vessel. Transfer to sterile bottles and add a spoon of sugar for CO2 production. 

I havent included volumes and weights because unless you have a large capacity and lots of spare cash and time it is beyond the means of most home brewers. Your best and easiest option is to purchase a can of Cascade Imperial Voyage - and dissolve the extract in hot water (>80 degrees C) and add the secret ingredient - plain white sugar, homebrew shop attendants would faint at this suggestion because it costs a fraction of what they would sell you. All the good stuff is already in the extract why bother changing a good product and spending more money? 

Depending on Alcohol content add 1 kg for about 4.7% and 1.5 kg for a bit over 5% (Pale Ale). Thoroughly mix and make up to about 20L. 

IMPORTANT: Do not add the yeast sachet to the vessel as it will slow down the fermentation. The better option is to collect about 50 -100 mL of the warm liquid into a clean/sterile container and cool it to room temperature, when cooled add the sachet of yeast, close the lid and shake well for a minute or so. Allow the container to sit at room temperature for 4 - 6 hours giving it a good shake every hour or so, please release any pressure build up during this time. At the end of the hydration period add the entire content to the fermentation vessel. After 7 - 8 days at 20 degrees C you should have a pretty decent drop of beer, allow the vessel to sit in a cool place for a further 2 days before transferring the beer to bottles. 

It is very important to check the gravity of the beer before bottling otherwise bottles may explode - the final gravity should be below 1007. 

Following these steps and using plain old white sugar should give you a pretty decent drop of beer closely resembling our Pale Ale.

Please contact us again should you have any further queries we can assist you with."


It gives you some idea of where they are at down there.


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## Bribie G (19/4/12)

Yup as the lady say's it's beyond the means of most home brewers  Good to hear about that wort stuff she mentioned. Also the hops sound spot on, and really there's nothing wrong at all with the hop in Cascade Pale. I've got the flowers  

I'll give it a go with a mix of ale and galaxy and 30% sugar (that's thirty percent of gravity, not raw weight) and see how I go. 
I'll try the Danish yeast as I hear it's the nearest to CUB. 

Thanks ged


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## merlin032 (22/4/12)

Cascade Pale Ale is one of my favourite commercial beers, totally agree with your sentiments. Post back with your results.

I might give this one a go as well


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## kevo (22/4/12)

Just out of interest - are Cascade homebrew tins still produced?

Kev


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## Renzo (22/4/12)

would you use 30% (of gravity) *plain white table sugar *to the boil for this?


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## Murcluf (22/4/12)

Love Cascade beers especially those brewed in Tasmania h34r: far better then those brewed on the mainland. Definately noticable difference in taste from grain bill and water profile considering they do have their own malt house and water supply down there.


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## bowie in space (22/4/12)

kevo said:


> Just out of interest - are Cascade homebrew tins still produced?
> 
> Kev



Not sure, but I tried the spicy ghost a few years back and it was horrid. From memory it was the last kit I ever did, before moving to partials and eventually AG.

I think I found it at Woolies for $5...and yes it was in date.


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## Bribie G (22/4/12)

I'd add the white sugar to the boil to get a bit of caramelisation going. I used to chuck it straight in the fermenter but that probably whacked the gravity off a bit. I'm a tightwad but losing a bit in the trub isn't a big deal considering how cheap it is. 

Just a quick calc on Brewmate for a 25L batch I'd need to use about 4.2k of pale malt and 600g of sugar which isn't totally OTT considering I've used 300g often in a UK Best Bitter to no ill effect. I might go really soft water and just a touch of Calcium Chloride for malt accenting, and Danish Lager yeast at 14


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## kevo (23/4/12)

I think a Cascade kit was the last kit I used as well.

Mahogany porter? Does that sound right?

Kev


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## Renzo (23/4/12)

Bribie G said:


> I'd add the white sugar to the boil to get a bit of caramelisation going. I used to chuck it straight in the fermenter but that probably whacked the gravity off a bit. I'm a tightwad but losing a bit in the trub isn't a big deal considering how cheap it is.
> 
> Just a quick calc on Brewmate for a 25L batch I'd need to use about 4.2k of pale malt and 600g of sugar which isn't totally OTT considering I've used 300g often in a UK Best Bitter to no ill effect. I might go really soft water and just a touch of Calcium Chloride for malt accenting, and Danish Lager yeast at 14






I might try s-189 at 18-19C for the first time. I usually stick to 10-12C with 189 ( all my helles') but this sounds like the beer to do the higher ferment temp "clean" test.


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## Parks (23/4/12)

Interesting to note she says 30% of the total *carbohydrates*. This would be much less than 30% of the grain bill as you wouldn't be getting 1kg of carbohydrate out of 1kg of grain (this is just me thinking logically and with no proof whatsoever).

So say we get 70% extract that it would be 30% of the result. So 1kg of grain = 700g of carbohydrate. So we would use 1kg grain + 300g sugar to make 1.3kg of total weight or 23% of the grain bill.

-- and that's also dependent on whether she is talking based on grist or result.

No idea if this is actually right, wrong, or dumb - it's just some thoughts


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## Bribie G (23/4/12)

I just played around with Brewmate using a couple of parallel "dummy" recipes, adding this and subtracting that until I got the sugar contributing 30% and the malt 70% of the OG to end up with a 5% beer at 74% efficiency. 

Actually I reckon if I run through it again and do it a bit more accurately it will probably only require about 550g of da sugaz and around 4.2 kg malt, which sounds fairly well balanced for a "mega" Aussie style.


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## QldKev (23/4/12)

Looks like I've got another recipe on my fridge to make. I'll probably leave it until late winter so it will be getting served early summer. 

Such a simple recipe

4.2 Pale
0.55 White sugar
** I'm wondering if a handful of wheat? say 0.2 wheat, and drop the Pale 0.2 **

60min POR 22 IBU
10min POR 0.5g/L

Danish Lager (which I'll have some by then as I've just ordered it for my Grolsch)

QldKev


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## Mikedub (23/4/12)

nice to hear support for this beer, I've got a bit of a soft spot for it too, 
a good excuse for me to try POR flowers I've read so many good things about


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## merlin032 (23/4/12)

My crack at this:

24litre batch, 90% est. efficiency, 1.045SG, 22.0 IBU 5.0% alc, 1.007 est. FG

3.79kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.9EBC)
0.48kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (2.0EBC)
24g Pride of Ringwood Flowers 8.5% - Boil 60 min 19.4 IBUs
12g Pride of Ringwood Flowers 8.5% - Boil 10 min 3.4 IBUs


Bavarian Lager (2206) maybe?


I end up with something that looks more like a pilsner than a pale ale which is I guess a better approximation given how they make it, where did we get 22 IBU from? that looks quite low, might pick up a couple of bottles on the way home from work tonight and do some "research", I'm tempted to bump up the bitterness to 25IBU


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## Flewy (23/4/12)

merlin032 said:


> I end up with something that looks more like a pilsner than a pale ale which is I guess a better approximation given how they make it, where did we get 22 IBU from? that looks quite low, might pick up a couple of bottles on the way home from work tonight and do some "research", I'm tempted to bump up the bitterness to 25IBU



If you have a look back at the original topic she says (in a second email) that bitterness is between 21.5 and 24.5 BU, colour 6.5 - 7.5 EBC


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## Lecterfan (23/4/12)

I reckon wy1007 would be a cracker in this.


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## Nick JD (23/4/12)

So if I add a teeny sprinking of PoR flowers at 10 minutes to my Carlton Draft dead-ringer it'll suddenly be awesome and not the horrendous Aussie Megaswill much lamented on this site? 

You guys will be cloning VB next.  I'm going to have to used the much maligned acronym "LOL" here because I'm really giggling. 

LOL.


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## Bribie G (23/4/12)

Nick JD said:


> So if I add a teeny sprinking of PoR flowers at 10 minutes to my Carlton Draft dead-ringer it'll suddenly be awesome and not the horrendous Aussie Megaswill much lamented on this site?
> 
> You guys will be cloning VB next.  I'm going to have to used the much maligned acronym "LOL" here because I'm really giggling.
> 
> LOL.



Nick, Nick, how many times do I have to tell you, VB has already _been _cracked thanks to my late-mousing experiment.


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