never used cascade in an IPA, how does it look?

[Pelican521]

Strangely I've never used this very popular hop in any of my IPAs. how does this recipe sound? It's a partial mash.

4 lb 2-row
1 lb vienna
1/2 crystal 40
1/2 cara-pils
4 lb xtra dry dme

1 oz columbus - 60 min
1/2 oz simcoe - 30 min
1/2 oz cascade - 15 min
1/2 oz cascade - 10 min
1/2 oz simcoe - 5 min
1 oz centennial - 20 min hopstand
1 oz amarillo - 20 min hopstand

wyeast 1098 brittish ale

OG = 1.066
FG = 1.017
IBU = 69.6
ABV = 6.46%

Let me know what you think so far!

Thanks in advance!

 

[JonM]

I often use centennial in IPAs in combo with Simcoe and Columbus, and they're great together so your recipe looks good!

The only suggestion is make is to take all of those 30, 15, 10 and 5 additions and combine them into like a 10 and 5 additions of 1oz each, or one big 2pz adn at 10 or 5.

 

[m00ps]

^ exactly what I was going to suggest ^

Ive vastly improved my IPAs by concentrating on late hopping and hopstanding the beer before chilling. Learn from my several early IPAs with less than stellar hop character and move the 15 and 30 mins closer to the end. I personally like to do 4-6oz at flameout and then another 4-6oz a while into the hopstand. Ive found its pretty impossible to overdue it with hop additions after flameout. It gets you such a rich juicy hop character without bitterness.

 

[joshesmusica]

cascade is amazing. i haven't been brewing for long, and haven't really been drinking craft beers for too much longer than that, but in my minimal experience i haven't found a decent hop that doesn't pair great with cascade. don't be afraid to even try it alone.

 

[Pelican521]

I was going back and forth on doing my additions spread out like this, my last few IPAs focused on late/whirlpool additions so I thought I'd try this for a change. You may have convinced me otherwise

I think I'll combine those additions to a 10 and 5 min (1 oz each) like you suggested.

I also want to add another ounce for my whirlpool, any suggestions based on what I have so far?

 

[JonM]

I'd say two oz. in the hopstand/whirlpool is just right. Brew on!

 

[Pelican521]

Ok, so I brewed this on Sunday. Everything went well except I fell a little short of my OG, coming in at 1.060 instead of 1.066. Maybe my efficiency was a little low or I didn't mix up well enough when I topped off with some water. No big deal...

The only things I did differently from my initial recipe is to take the 30 min simcoe and move it to 15 min along with the 15 min cascade.

I also added an oz of cascade to the amarillo/centennial 20 min hop stand @ 170º

Going to do 3oz for the dryhopping. 1 oz columbus, 1 oz simcoe, and 1 oz cascade.

Not sure about the cascade for dryhopping, should I sub something better? I'm thinking of amarillo. decisions, decisions...

Any thoughts?

 

[JonM]

I routinely use a combo of Columbus, Simcoe and Centennial for late/dry hops. Cascade is similar to Centennial, so that combo you have there should be awesome.

 

[Pelican521]

Not trying to worry, but now on day 2 airlock activity has come to a crawl. I know it's not an indicator of fermentation, but this is usually when I have to resort to my blow off tube for all my IPAs brewed with my usual 1056 strain.

temp is set to 65 in my ferment chamber.

Usually I make a starter but didn't have time so I pitched 2 wyeast packs instead. One was dated from March and the other end of June.

 

[joshesmusica]

Not trying to worry, but now on day 2 airlock activity has come to a crawl. I know it's not an indicator of fermentation, but this is usually when I have to resort to my blow off tube for all my IPAs brewed with my usual 1056 strain.

temp is set to 65 in my ferment chamber.

Usually I make a starter but didn't have time so I pitched 2 wyeast packs instead. One was dated from March and the other end of June.

is there any sign there was a krausen? i would still wait another day, if there seems to have been no krausen at all, then pull a gravity sample. if it hasn't changed much, then try swirling up the yeast and raising the temps a bit. if the one pack was done (which i highly doubt it was, viability of yeast is much better than is touted by most "experts" these days), then the second pack prolly just needs a bit of time for the growth phase. was there any swelling of the packs?

 

[eadavis80]

Hopefully your fermentation situation improved. I'm guessing you're using a bucket, otherwise you would not solely be basing your fermentation status on the airlock, which, as you said, is not a sure indicator of fermentation. Still, it is is odd that the airlock stopped when it did, as I too would have expected it's most activity when it strangely stopped. Hope your beer turns out well! I will probably dry hop my pale ale with Centennial next week. It's got 3 ounces of cascade in there. I am also curious how your beer turns out using 1098. I used that for vanilla porter, Caribou Slobber and a chocolate stout - so all darker beers. For pale ales, ambers and IPA's I use 05. However, with my current pale ale, I'm using 04, so I salute your experimentation!

 

[IslandLizard]

It's probably just doing its yeast thing. Buckets are not sealed well, so lack of airlock activity means little. If you're using a bucket, you could peek through the grommet hole. Shine a flashlight through the side.

I'd avoid lifting that lid at all cost, except when you really, really need to.

If you decide you need to add yeast (ideally an active starter at high krausen) you can add it through the grommet hole with a skinny funnel or a funnel with skinny 1/4" OD tubing attached. You can take samples through that hole too. Some use a syringe with 1/4" OD tubing on it, or just siphon some out with that tubing. Yes, you can suck on it to get it started, just don't let it flow back, pull it out of the beer.

If and when you do have to remove the lid, spray Starsan liberally underneath that rim area and mop around it with a small Starsan-soaked washcloth. Then spray again.

After lifting the lid, wipe the rim and the top inch of the inside bucket with that Starsan cloth. Clean and sanitize the inside of the lid before snapping it back on.

 

[Pelican521]

Thx, checked today and it bubbling every few seconds or so. I guess having a lower OG of 1.060 instead of some of the IPAs I've done at 1.070+ could have an impact causing a mellow fermentation.