cascade pale ale

This was beer #3 in a series of late summer beers, brewed using the US-05 yeast cake from the Nelson and Golden Hop/Idaho 7 beers. This beer turned out great. Excellent balance between malt sweetness and citrusy flavor and bitterness. As with the previous beers, this beer also was made with some old ingredients, including two pounds of Avangard pale malt that I've had since 2015 when I bought a 55-pound bag (uncrushed). The leaf cascade hops are from the 2017 crop. I obtained them from the 2018 AB hop giveaway in St. Louis. They were vacuumed sealed this whole time and no worse for wear. Still great citrus/grapefruit flavor. And no stale flavors from the old malt. 

Recipe:

5 gallons

US-05

7 lbs 2-row

2 lbs Avangard pale ale

.5 lb Crystal 60 

.5 oz 8.9 AA Cascade 60 minutes

.5 oz 30 minutes

1 oz 5 minutes

1 oz 1 minute

Golden Hop / Idaho 7 IPA

As mentioned in the previous post, following the Nelson beer I made another IPA using the hops in the title. I'm not sure I had tried these hops before in a commercial beer, and I certainly hadn't in a homebrew. These hops, too, were very old. I bought them in 2015 but never used them. However, the vacuum seal remained intact this time, and that made a big difference. This was a rare evening brew, and on a weeknight at that. I was up very late brewing. 

The hop flavor is sort of dank, maybe kind of white wine-like, melon. It's very bright and fresh. I'm impressed that they held up as well as they did, and some homebrew club members who tried it also seemed impressed.

Very clean fermentation. No issues with the expired US-05. It's a tad bitter for a northeast-style IPA, and it's cleared up a lot too, despite the oats. Still, not a bad beer overall, especially considering the age of the hops. 

Nelson Sauvin IPA

I think old hops will stay flavorful and fresh for a long time, but they need to be sealed and not exposed to oxygen. That’s my conclusion from brewing an ipa using a bunch of old ingredients, including nelson hops from 2015, some 2 row malt (crushed) of unknown age, and expired yeast (March 2022). I based the recipe on an amazing all galaxy "hazy" ipa from 2015. 

But the malt and yeast are not the problem. There are no yeast off flavors, no stale taste from old grain. It’s the hops that ultimately did in this beer, and what a shame. 

So why did I put off using these? Since they’re expensive and maybe rare, or at least they are at the time I bought them, I wanted to save them for the right time. Or a special occasion. Sort of like saving that special bottle of wine. 

Unfortunately over time somehow the vacuum sealed bag they were contained in somehow developed a small hole. I couldn’t actually see it, but the vacuum seal had obviously failed. So of course that meant exposure to oxygen. I don’t know exactly when this happened, but I know I discovered it some time last year, maybe a year ago. 

Finally in August 2022 with some empty kegs I decided I’d use them. They didn’t look bad, but the aroma was definitely not fresh. ​I used to brew ipas all the time, but in the last 5-6 years I’ve focused a lot on lagers and lower alcohol and more balanced beers. Having taken a break for awhile, it sounded nice to make one again. Post fermentation, the flavor was pretty good. A fruitiness that I did think was in the realm of white wine, a typical descriptor for this hop. 

Dry hopping really changed things. It made the beer overly bitter. Dry hopping shouldn’t impart bitterness, so maybe it was all in my mind. It definitely had a harshness. That harshness has subsided thankfully but now the beer just tastes old. Like an ipa sitting in the back of your fridge for a year or two. 

So the lesson here, which all brewers already know and I did too, is to use hops and while they’re fresh. If you don’t, then you’re bound to be drinking old-tasting beer. That said, I still think hops can stay “pretty good” for a long time if properly stored. Around the same time I bought these, I also got some “007 golden hop” hops from Yakima valley. I think they’re rebranded as Idaho 7 now. Anyhow, these too languished in my freezer for years, but the seal remained intact and the finished beer is much tastier. 

Recipe:

5 gallons

10 lbs 2 row

1 lb flaked oats

US-05

All Nelson hops:

.5 oz 20 minutes

.5 oz 15 minutes

.5 oz 12 minutes

.5 oz 7 minutes

.5 oz 6 minutes

.5 oz 1 minutes

.5 oz 0 minutes

Dry hop 2 oz