This is a cascade / cashmere hop beer start to finish. Small dose up front, small dose near the end of the boil and a whirlpool.
Dry hopped with 3 ounces each for a ~6 gallon beer in the fermenter. Though after sampling, I’m closer to 5 gallons
You can see it’s a bit on the hazy side, but TBF, there’s a pretty hefty whirlpool and dry hop. Fermentation was under pressure, at between 80-85F with the exception of night one, where I chilled to 78F hoping to slow the Lutra down a little.
SHYEAH. I woke up to a tilt reading of 1.026, so I pitched the dry hops that morning.
Fermentation went to 1.010 and I dropped temps to 72F for a few days and then cold crashed as best I could in TX heat. I actually hit 38-39F for a little bit but during the daytime couldn’t get lower than 42. I kegged it for a day and took this sample.
1) needs more gas for sure, but since it fermented under pressure, there’s a good start for carbonation.
2) best whirlpool hopping I’ve done - hat tip to the riptide pump.
3) it’s on the bitter side of balanced, with good aroma and hop flavor. Despite the 1.095-1.010 FG, body is nice, flavor is where you’d expect it to be for a 66IBU beer. Even so, it’s tentatively passed the neighbor test.
I’ll transfer it to the kegerator and get it on gas hopefully tomorrow. I’ve been charging it with co2 and letting it sit for the last 2 days due to a lack of room but as luck would have it I just finished off 2 kegs, so with some jockeying, I can get all the current beers charged. My current setup is:
1x full size fridge converted to a kegerator w/ 4 taps, and room for 5x 5 gallon kegs.
1x kegerator, 1 c02 tap, 1 nitro tap and room for one more keg on gas.
1x kegerator, 3 c02 taps for 2.5 gallon kegs. I could fit 2x 5 gallon kegs but it’s tight. This was my first kegerator, which I got with Amazon points + about $75. I upgraded the tower to 3 taps though.
1x full size fridge for 5x 5 gallon keg storage. If I get ambitious I’ll cut 1-2 taps into it, but the bigger need is to plumb in c02.
So, would I do this again?
Yes. I’d probably drop the initial hop charge entirely or to a really low amount as west coast IPA level IBU’s aren’t my wheel house. That said, the cascade & cashmere combo is complimentary. It should be since they’re kind of related. My target was 6.25%, I got 6.4% and IBU’s are right where I was targeting, about 65 IBU.
It’s a very clean ‘malt and hops’ flavor profile. No funky esters or aromas.
I don’t really celebrate Oktoberfest, mostly we celebrate the drought here, so my Märzens are called ‘droughtfest’. I just moved ’25 batch one on to the tap. It’s been on low psi c02 for, well months. My initial impression on batch 1 is ... heavy for a 6% lager. good flavor but really malt forward. Fortunately it’s not super sweet.
My Altbier. Very reminiscent of the first partial mash Alt I brewed those many, many years ago. I keep talking about adding in some more hops for a Dusseldorf style, but my neighbor- another brewer- shoots me down every time, browbeating me to not change it.
So the Lutra IPA will get done again, with a couple tweaks here and there. Though to argue with the turnaround time and results.
