I finally got around to using the 2019 harvest Cascade that Kurt sent me a while back. Sorry it took so long to get around to brewing something up. Occupational hazard, when you have a 2 1/2 year old constantly finding new ways to make sure she has your undivided attention.
Anyway, hops smelled great, in spite of them not being from the most recent harvest. Hops that I'd be happy to have grown myself (but probably won't ever achieve out of my cascade, since like an idiot, I planted the cascade to close to the central air unit).
This is a highly experimental brew for me and I don't have much to report right now. Smells great though. My first crack at a NEIPA, using Omega's new thiolized strain of their British Ale yeast and a recipe inspired by the "average perfect NEIPA" recipe, with the addition of a mash hop and using all homegrown hop varieties for a total of 17 ounces of hops after DHing. Cascade is supposed to have a lot of precursors that can be released in mash hopping, so in addition to this being my first NEIPA attempt, it's also my first crack at mash hopping. 2oz of the cascade went into the mash, along with 2oz of columbus (which is also supposed to be a good source of thiol precursors), and an ounce of chinook for good measure. Completely guessing on this mash hop thing. No idea about the chinook. Cascade, columbus, and chinook aren't your typical flavors for a NEIPA, but we'll see what this new yeast can do. I'm not a complete fan of the style, but I have a freezer full of hops to use and my wife made faces when I described the Pliny-inspired brew I'd intended to make. So, here we go with something NEIPA-ish.
Thumbs up for the hops. I encourage everyone to give them a try.
Elliot