Cascade Plus
Brasserie Bièropholie

Pours an astoundingly dark ruby brown, more reminiscent of a porter than an IPA. The lacing and head retention are respectable.

The aroma is heavy with pear-like esters and roast with a little chocolate and a definite sweet grapefruit twang to it. As it warms a little caramel and earthiness comes out.

The taste is roasty and dry throughout, with a pronounced coffee-like bitterness that hits you right from the get-go. It's very dry in the finish with an interesting (ie. I'm not sure if I like it) minerally and metallic sensation that lingers long in the aftertaste. Much like their Cascade the grapefruit of the cascade hops is more pithy bitterness in the taste than the fruity citrus I would hoped for, which strikes me as a waste of a good hop.

With a name like Cascade Plus you'd expect it to have more oomph than their regular Cascade, and it has that and then some. Frankly I think they went a little overboard.

The mouthfeel is medium, and it's crisply acidic.

Overall, yeah, I like it but I'd probably reach for the regular Cascade over the Cascade Plus as this one is a little harsh in its bitterness.

Boottle courtesy of TURG, thanks buddy! Dark amber body, topped with a huge, bubbly, and active off white head. Nice lacing present. Superb hop aroma, tonnes of cascade and pine fill the nose. Great fruit rind, malt flavours with a nice hoppy bite. Slight mineral finish, with oily mouthfeel, and long lasting hop aftertaste. I find the regular cascade to be a little more balanced, but I am a sucker for hop ultra hoppy beers.Merci Francois!

Tasted on July 21, 2009.

The beer is brown color looking and hazy. No head... which sucks. I can't see through. The aroma is hops with citrus notes. Strong hops aroma. Some floral hops too. The taste is... wow... bitter. Your taste buds screams for more! This version is probably a new recipe, by reading other comments. It requires a little more work to make it perfect... just slightly unbalanced in my opinion. I would prefer a little less citrus. The taste is similar as the aroma. The beer fills the mouth with a very good after-taste and post-taste. A couple of minutes after the beer is finish, you can still get the beautiful taste. It feels like a double IPA for me... or imperial. Not a bad IPA but some finishing touch could make this beer truly awesome.

341ml bottle acquired in trade with MartinT (thanks!).

Poured a deep and cloudy amber color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of oranges, pine with some light caramel. Tastes of oranges, pine, some grapefruit and some caramel. It wasn't overly bitter and had a decent balance to it. Reading my review of the 'regular' Cascade, I pretty much said the same thing as for this one. That being said, I did enjoy this one.

Notes from 2/19/06

Poured from a 341ml. bottle

Appearance: Pale gold, hay-like color. Nice thick head forms.

Smell: Mild bitter smell, not much else.

Taste: Wow, hops hit you strong, very bitter (that's a good thing)

Mouthfeel: The overpowering bitter & acidity lasts well into the final sips. In fact, i still had the taste on my tongue a good couple of minutes later. As it warms though, the sting is a lot more mellow.

Drinkability: Very good sipping beer & drinking it is no problem as i'm discovering my inner hophead!

Overall: Very good beer from a brewer that i am starting to really enjoy. If hoppy beers are not your strength, go for something else. Me, i would definitely go for this one again.

Bottle courtesy of papat444. Very murky pour-walnut color with thick head. This looks like a thick beast! Nose of mostly grainy malt and some hops. Taste- big malt bill stands out. The grains are quite forefront with the hops. Very nutty. Hops slap you upside the head half way through. Grapefruit rinds and a leathery finish. Thick mouthfeel with good carbonation. The more you get into this beer, the more the hops take over in the finish. Nice effort from a canadian brewery. One of the better canadian IPA’s I’ve had.

Bottle part of CanBIF3. Thanks Patrick!

Drinking this beer in honour of Michael Jackson. Cheers!

Appearance: Pours a hazy orangey copper colour with a thick creamy off white head. Tons of lace, great retention.

Aroma: I can smell the pine and grapefruit with it sitting 8 inches away. Heavy pine and citrus aromas. Butterscotch and toffee thrown in there. Sweet, buttery and very herbal.

Taste: Bitterness is heavy throughout the drink. Starts off with some lemon zest fading to an extremely herbal quality, Finish hits with a flash of butterscotch, fading to piney and grapefruit bitterness, ending with a nice toffee flavour.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, creamy, perfect carbonation. Drinkability is high for me as I'm a hop head.

Final Statement: May not be well balanced, but that's why its called Cascade Plus! This is a wonderful beer. Thanks so much Patrick. Recommended to all hop heads.

106 IBU, 7%. Looks like it's bigger & better than ever!

A: Copper-bronze, fluffy off-white head, some retention, excellent lace.

S: Pine & grapefruit; initially some sulphery/metallic earthyness, hints of toffee in the background.

T: Piney hop flavour & assertive bitterness up front (and all the way through); some grapefruit; hints of caramel in the background, with a slightly earthy zest/orange-rind.

M: Very well-attenuated, plenty of hop acidity, dry finish.

D: It'll strip the tastebuds off your tongue.

341ml bottle poured in a pint glass. Thanks to Goldorak for the brew.

Hazy, amber in colour. Voluminous head overflows the pint glass. The light beige coloured head settles down to about 1/2 inch and looks like meringue on top of the beer. Impressive head and retention. Big gobs of lacing.

Hop dominated aroma of pine with hints of citrus and herbal. Pretty close to right on for the style, but a little unbalanced for my liking.

Flavour is not as dominated by hops as the aroma is. There is some sweet malt in the background, but it's still pretty damn hoppy. Piney, citrus and leafy hops throughout.

Mouthfeel is perhaps a tad thin. Moderate carbonation.

A pretty good representation of the style, but I perfer one that is a little more balanced, such as an English IPA over the American IPA. It's still nice to have a hoppy slap in the mouth every now and then though.

Bottle Inspection: Brown twisty, 6% abv., 341 ml (that’s 12 oz. to you and me) and no other information, oh, except 104 IBU.

Aroma: You’ll never guess. Of course it’s hoppy. Full rich pine perfume and citric overtones. Some candy sweet malt base promises to try to balance everything, but I have serious doubts.

Appearance: MAN what a head! The pour got away from me and foamed up over the lip, but the thick soapy head fell back to a finger topped by dried clumps of sticky foam. Amazing DNA looking strands of lace. The glass is dark ruby red with just a bit of haziness to it.

Flavor: Well, I doubt the 104 IBUs, as I’ve definitely had hoppier beers, but there is a full wet hop flavor going. There are hop in front, middle, and back, with the tail end bittering hops burning just slightly, but really not crazy bitter overall, the malt stands up. It’s in the neighborhood of Ruination from Stone. There is a yeast characteristic or something that really tastes like some of the beers from Dieu de Ciel, maybe it’s a Montreal water profile. Some tea flavors started to come out as it warmed a bit.

Mouthfeel: A bit astringent in the finish, it actually is drying my mouth out, that or all the alpha acids are just stripping off the top layers of skin. Carbonation and body are moderate to heavy.

Overall Impression: Wow, there still are big old clumps of foam that look like they will survive the next ice age. Heck of a beer, definitely worth trying. Glad to see some Montreal brewers going big.
Hand carried back from Montreal.

341 mL brown bottle advertising the 104 IBUs of this beer.

Pours a dark, clear orange with a nice white cap that clings to the sides of the glass.

Aroma is intensely citrusy with some resinous pine notes. Also some caramel maltiness coming through.

Sweet, bready malt is the first flavour to hit the palate but this is quickly dominated by powerful Cascade hops. Lots of grapefruit, lemon and hints of resin. This is followed by a faint but unpleasant metallic flavour. The beer finishes sweet and bitter. Alcohol is very subtle. Mouthfeel is smooth and carbonation is moderate to high.

I must admit that I was expecting something more intense. Although not as balanced as the regular Cascade, the hops are not overwhelming.
Good effort.

Appearance – Pours a very nice amber color with a tinge of copper. There is a generous amount of very frothy head which sticks all over the glass.

Smell – This one is dominated by hops. There is a slight citrus aroma with a touch of bread malt. Still the hops keep overshadowing all else.

Taste – The hops hit right away making this one very bitter to start. There is a slight sweetness to follow with bread like flavors as well. Dig deep enough and citrus flavors are there. Fairly nice to sip on.

Mouthfeel – Good consistency on this one…it’s got substance to it. Nice carbonation to compliment this as well.

Drinkability – Depends…if you are a hophead then you will have no problem, but the 104 IBU’s in this make it quite intense. Personally I liked that.

Bottle: Poured a deep orange amber color ale with a nice medium dark foamy head with great retention. Aroma of sweet floral hops with a good malt backbone. Taste is also dominated by the floral hops with a decent touch of bitterness at the end. Creamy texture make this even more enjoyable.

Amber in colour with a good amount of carbonation. Very potent cascade hop aromas, with some very fresh-green floral notes shining through. The flavors are dominated by the hops with the citrus and somewhat astringent tea being the most assertive. There is some earthy pine wood influance in there too, with the caramel playing a more supporting role. Quite bitter, but not nearly as over the top as you’d expect from 104 IBUs. An interesting counter-point to their straight-up all cascade offering.

Really good IPA. Hugh hop leaf bitterness. Citrus hop juice, though not wafting in aroma. A real hophead fix. Lovely drink, and sips to appreciate it. Though to the point of astringent, they have countered with malt so that it drinks and does menace the palate.

No this is not dishwasher detergent, this is a rotating offering from Bièropholie and their first 100 plus IBU brew hopped entirely with cascade.

Very deep amber liquid of crystalline proportions and russet caramel highlights. With a bit of rousing a decent size head builds and sticks admirably to the glass. Its creamy off white texture is only overshadowed by the fact that there is less retention than desired by this reviewer.

The aromas are not as overbearing as I was expecting. Rather, I was very pleased by the balance stricken between the malt and hops, slightly leaning on the hoppy side. After the foundation of malt one discovers a myriad of piney and resiny aromas ranging from the smell of freshly harvested pine trees to aromas of minty gruit and a hint of cedar in the finish. Very fresh.

Flavours and mouthfeel are again much more pleasant than expected. Through a thick and chewy body one discovers a solid underpinning of malt followed by a biscuity character. A hint of spicy pine acts as a hub for a tidal wave of resiny hops that ends up dominating the finish in a long and flavourful finish.

I was expecting a one-sided hop monster at 104 IBUs and only 6% alcohol. But I was pleasantly surprised by the complexity of this brew and the freshness of the malt and hops. This is definitely a re-purchase and a great beer.

Santé