NZ Cascade vs. US Cascade, a pale ale to compare

As someone who is living in the US but originally from New Zealand, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA - https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp) that has been in the news of late is very relevant to me. I had the idea for a beer that would make light of this deal and see which country ends up being better off. The two recipes below make up the Trans-Pacific Pale Ale, and I would love to get feedback before doing a split batch this weekend! The main idea is to learn about the difference between US and NZ cascade hops by using them alternately as bittering and flavour/aroma additions.

The grain bills are the same for each, but as the US and NZ cascades have different AA I've adjust amounts for those to give the same IBUs for both kettle additions.

Original Gravity 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.008
ABV: 5.09%
IBU (tinseth): 35.75
SRM (morey): 5.91

Grain bill for both
10lb (94.8%) 2-row
5oz (3%) Crystal 60L
3.75oz (2.2%) Flaked Wheat

Hop timings

TPPA - U.S.A - http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/349555/tppa-us-bittered-5g
1oz Cascade(US) @ 60 min (AA 6.9%)
1oz Cascade(NZ) @ 5min (AA 9.1%)
2.5oz Cascade(NZ) dry hop 5 days (AA 9.1%)

TPPA - NZ - http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/349556/tppa-nz-bittered-5g
0.75oz Cascade(NZ) @ 60 min (AA 9.1%)
1.3oz Cascade(US) @ 5min (AA 6.9%)
2.5oz Cascade(US) dry hop 5 days (AA 6.9%)

Mashing will be 1.5 qt/lb at 150F for 60 minutes, with 20g of gypsym added to all mash water. Fermented with Safale US-05.

The grain and yeast are pretty mild as I want the hops to come through. My main question is about the hop schedule, to see if this is the best way for me to taste/smell the difference in the final product and compare the two. Any other feedback is also greatly appreciated!

Note: I brew 1 gallon batches so I scaled these up with brewersfriend to make it easier to take feedback.

Looks pretty good, but why are you mixing them? Why not just do one with all NZ and the other with all US?

Good question! I wanted to have a beer that combined both hops and then find the right balance between them, so by doing the opposite ends of bittering/aroma I hope to get a sense of which blend I prefer and how it could be adjusted from there.

I agree. All one hop!

Fair enough! Will adjust for that and give it a brew this weekend. Thanks.

Both batches almost ready to be pitched:

signpost said:

Looks pretty good, but why are you mixing them? Why not just do one with all NZ and the other with all US?

Click to expand...

This was my first thought also. If you want to find the difference do one all US and one all NZ.