So last time I was at the LHBS, I picked up 4oz of Cascade leaf hops but didn't end up using them in the last brew. Then I was lucky enough to come by 2 oz of wet Cascade through my job, so now I'm thinking of doing a quick smash pale ale and was wondering if anyone has any good partial mash recipes or malts that worked well with straight Cascade? I don't mind if there's more than 1 malt but I'd like to keep it simple. I was also thinking of tossing in all 6 oz of Cascade in the last 15 mins and bittering with some NZ hops I have sitting around. Thanks in advance!
The original New Albion brew, and the Sam Adams re-issue last year were SMaSHes using Cascade. They used 11.5 lbs 2-row, I think 2 oz total of hops, split 60, 30 and 15, I think. I brewed a version, tossed in half pound of Crystal 20 malt, and moved the hops to 60, 15 and 5. Got lots of compliments for that one, even from people that don't usually drink beer. Gonna keep that as a regular brew, though maybe upping the hops to an ounce each addition, and upping to C-30 or 40. IN your case, I would think about using the fresh hops as a whirlpool, get as much fresh flavor as possible as late as possible. Split the rest evenly or keep an ounce for another brew.
Well, being the unofficial smash advocate here... Fucking go for it!! SMaSH it up!! or just maSH it up, cascade is my FAV, so you'll certainly do well no matter what you decide. You know what? Bitter with a half ounce or so of [whatever] to get to about 30-40 IBUs. Then add your entire stock of cascade at somewhere between 3 minutes and flameout. I think I am reading this right... you have a few ounces of fresh hops and 2 oz dried leaf hops? That's what I'm assuming. For partial mash, try 2 lbs golden promise, maris otter, vienna, munich, or whatever base malt you like best. Add a quarter pound of carafoam or C-20-ish crystal, a quarter pound of C-60-ish crystal, and whatever extract you like. Make the OG in the 1.060-ish range. You could easily skip any crystal malts here too, and go straight smash or just partial mash some base malt. But if you're going to use crystal on this beer, I would keep it pretty low, 1/2 pound max. I am not part of the crystal police, but still, sometimes you don't want to blast your beer with crystal malt. This seems like one of those times.
I brewed a barleywine hopped exclusively with Cascade, about 4 oz, in fact. About 15 lbs of British 2-row and a couple of crystal. It's sitting in the fermenter right now, so I don't know how it came out yet.
