Cascade Imperial Voyager Pale Ale?

[james82t]

Hi everyone awesome site, heaps of info. My first brew 'a practise' brew that came free was a cascade imperial voyager pale ale and be2 and I think por hop pellets. Fermented at20-21 degrees yeast was safale us5 and dry hopped with some cascade hops.
I don't seem to find much about these cans, are they crap. It's about 4 weeks since brew day and the beers are ok. Not that great really, a little bit average. I am not expecting much but my next will be better
Maybe in time it will improve
Any one ever use the same cans ?
Thanks

 

[yum beer]

A bit more info would help james, 4 weeks since brew day...way too quick to be drinking.
How long was the ferment....when did you bottle....most kits like a bit of time in the bottle to mellow.
Never heard of the above kit so cant comment on it, sorry

 

[JakeSm]

hi james, and welcome to the site...

the only cascade brand kit i have not done is the mahogany porter, in saying that, i had always had trouble with the cascade tins and getting them to taste good so i gave up on them and just used the more basic and cheaper ones.

you can try again and you may make a better one, but there is nothing special about the cascade homebrewing kits.

Looking at your recipe though, you may find that you personally dont like the POR hop for aroma as its mostly used for bittering and this could be the flavour your not into. im just guessing though i could be wrong.

cheers jake.

 

[james82t]

thanks for the replies, my info was a little off last night, about 4 and a half weeks in the bottle.

it had 2 weeks in the fermenter, dry hopped at about day 3 me thinks.

the cascade can came free with the fermenter, probably not stored well who knows? i thought i would use it for practise for my next batch, just to get the procedure right.

hardly anyone uses these cans it seems, so maybe they are crap and its not just me.lol

i'll let them sit for another month.

next batch is black rock pilsner blonde + galaxy and cascade

many thanks, james

 

[Rod]

IMHO

do not use brew enhancer

better to use a kg of light malt extract

makes a big difference to K&k

also wait at least 6 weeks to drink , better still 10 weeks or more

I know it's hard to wait

I do not drink the stouts until 6 months

 

[slash22000]

Am I the only one who doesn't necessarily wait months for every beer to age? :mellow: Maybe I just drink too much, but 2 weeks in the fermentor before I keg it is my normal turnaround for basic kits (I have made special exceptions in the past for stronger two-can style ales). I've made Coopers kits and kegged them after a week! Tasted juuust fine. I'm not recommending it but I think the whole "You need to wait 5 years before drinking" advice I see around the shop is somewhat misleading. Unless you screw up in a huge way, even the worst homebrew is almost certainly going to be better than most commercial swill.

All that being said, your beer will certainly taste better after many weeks / months. In no way am I trying to imply that young beer is equal to aged beer, juuust saying that it's not going to kill you and it's almost certainly still going to be a decent drop.

Regarding "Brew Enhancer", Brew Enhancer 2 is not bad. From what I understand it's 50% malt, 25% dextrose 25% maltodextrin for 1kg. It costs about the same as 500g of dry malt, so you're basically getting your 500g of malt and then a bit extra on top for essentially nothing.

Brew Enhancer 1 you should probably stay away from though since it's just dextrose and a crapload of maltodextrin.

In regards to the quality of Cascade cans, no idea, never used them myself. I stick almost exclusively to Coopers cans and never go wrong.

 

[Eyelusion]

I've used the cascade imperial voyager pale ale can before and havent touched that brand again. It was terrible. I've never brewed such crap before.
Left it for 6 weeks and it still sucked. Tipped it out on the lawn. (i dont think the lawn even enjoyed it)

I'm now use mostly coopers and morgans and find they are FAR superior.

 

[RobboMC]

Find yourself a Home Brew shop and get a can of the Thomas Coopers Series.
they are pretty good.
In lots of people opinion the Muntons kits are the best, but you pay for them.
I found them to be pretty good.

In the end you get what you pay for ( usually )

Coopers do a monthly recipe pack promotion with free freight and thtose are always worth looking at
as they come up with some new and interesting recipes for the packs.

I've just got the new Celebration Ale pack but haven't brewed it yet, but the pack looks like it has good stuff in it.

 

[GalBrew]

I was under the impression that BE2 was 50% dex, 25% LDME and 25% maltodextrin. I would go for 100% LDME, or use another tin of goo? I used a cascade 'spicy ghost' once in a partial mash beer with my leftover grain and hopped with a lot of galaxy and nelson sauvin. It ended up being one of my favourite beers and I am now trying to replicate this beer as an AG brew.

I would ferment a couple of degrees lower than 20-21 (just my opinion).

 

[dammag]

Am I the only one who doesn't necessarily wait months for every beer to age? :mellow:

No. You're not the only one. I normally start drinking my beer after 5 days in the bottle (10 - 14 days in the fermentor). This is because I can't wait to try the beer I've recently made and also because I am running out of older brews. Having said this, when you come across an older bottle and stick it in the fridge and try it you can go "gee, the taste has definately matured, I wish I hadn't of drunk them all so early!"

There's no bad tastes in my "young" beers, but they do evolve over time!

BTW I use Coopers Pale Ale tins as a base for a lot of my brews. They are available in the supermarket for a good price and are fresh, generally being well less than 6 months old. I then use some crystal, good yeast and some extra hops I get from Craftbrewer and am loving my beer, whether it is 5 days old or 5 months. It's all good and experimenting with hops etc is great fun.

My most disapointing kit brew so far has been Morgans Royal Oak Amber Ale. The name sounds great but the beer is boring.

Damian

 

[slash22000]

I was under the impression that BE2 was 50% dex, 25% LDME and 25% maltodextrin.

Crap. You are correct. I had my numbers wrong. Coopers brewer says:

Brew Enhancer 1 = 60% Dextrose + 40% Maltodextrin

Brew Enhancer 2 = 50% Dextrose + 25% Maltodextrin + 25% Light Dry Malt

In which case, yes, you're probably better off using LDME most of the time, although with a light pale ale the dextrose might be alright for thinning out the mouthfeel a little.

 

[thedragon]

I don't seem to find much about these cans, are they crap. It's about 4 weeks since brew day and the beers are ok. Not that great really, a little bit average. I am not expecting much but my next will be better
Maybe in time it will improve
Any one ever use the same cans ?
Thanks

I've made my share of K&Ks over the years and I have to say that I found the one Cascade Imperial Voyage I've done to be quite disappointing. Mates who've made it have felt the same way. It's a shame really as when visiting the parents in law down in Tassie I generally enjoy the bulk of the Cascade range on tap at the local.

 

[Aydos]

I tried a few kits with some including the coopers selection stuff and mangrove jack ones and I didn't mind some of the mangrove jack stuff. The draught was nice and the Czech pilsner wasn't half bad either. I started out with mostly dex and then started trying with some malt and moved my way to just entirely using malt and no dex and I found my beers tasted a hell of a lot better. They were quite thin with the dex only.

 

[james82t]

maybe we should have a thread of what to avoid??

 

[JakeSm]

haha i cant wait that long for my beers to age either, but i just keep around 12 tallies from each batch just to see how they age and try one every 2 weeks. works well for me and i get to drink the exciting new brews....lol

 

[neithan]

I usually leave my beer in primary fermentation for about 7 - 14 days depending on the style, ingredients I've used etc. Then once bottles, I leave them in secondary fermentation for about a week or two, sometimes longer depending on how thirsty I am :chug: but at the moment, I have around 150 beers of different styles that I've left in the bottle over winter... I'm going to be a busy boy!

Also, regarding the Cascade Imperial Voyager Pale Ale.. I've never actually heard too many good things about Cascades kits generally speaking, so I wouldn't be too keen to try it. I usually brew with Coopers, or Morgans and I find them to be just what the doctor ordered! :lol: