Bièropholie Cascade Plus

Formerly brewed at Bièropholie
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
, Canada

Bottle provided to me by Martin T and served in a simple pint glass:
Nice deep amber hue with a heavy frothy head and excellent lace coating the glass from top to bottom. The aroma has notes of juicy Cascade hops and biscuity pale malt and a touch of yeasty esters. The taste is rather straight forward but hardly bland with a nice balance of those Cascades and mild malt base. Easily drinkable and I finished the pint glass in no time flat. I found myself digging this single hopped beer a lot, get ya some if you can.

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. I expected this to be a hop bomb, but it really wasn’t overly bitter and 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.

Bottle shared with blankboy, HogTownHarry & tupalev - courtesy of blankboy. Slight hazy amber with a healthy head. Lots of juicy grapefruit in the aroma. Flavour is hoppy, but well balanced, with a lingering bitter aftertaste. I prefered this slightly to the regular Cascade, but found them very similar.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow & tupalev -- my bottle. We rated this one after the "Cascade" which I rather liked and I expected to like this one even more due to the higher IBUs. Pours a cloudy dark orange with an average size frothy white head. Aroma and flavour of primarily cascade hops balanced with some caramel malt. Medium bodied. Not as hoppy as I thought it would be and not that dissimilar to the "Cascade" -- still, it’s a really good IPA and one I’d love to be able to get regularly.

(341 ml bottle: Obtained in trade with Rastacouere on 25-Jan-06, thanks David!) Compared side-by-side with Bièropholie Cascade. Much more carbonated than the regular Cascade, I couldn’t get more than a few inches of beer poured without filling the rest of the glass with airy off-white head. Once the initial head dies down a bit, the second pour is much easier, but the army of carbonation bubbles keeps the fluffy head tall and alive with fresh supplies much like how our skin works. The body is the same hazy, dark amber color. The nose is musty, grassy, hoppy, but isn’t as sweet or caramely as the standard Cascade. I suppose this isn’t unexpected, but the flavor is much the same as the standard Cascade, chiefly grainy maltiness balanced by grassy, piney hops, but with the difference being the bitterness level. Tasting the two beers with several minutes in between, Cascade Plus doesn’t seem much more bitter, but it is definitely noticeable when I go back and forth in quick succession. But honestly, the supposed 104 IBUs doesn’t seem hugely bitter to me. Has the West Coast really affected my IBU sensitivity that much? Or is the 104 IBUs an exaggeration? Maybe the hops has faded a bit since bottling? Anyway, body is medium "plus", with the same dusty, chalky mouthfeel as Cascade. Unfortunately, the carbonation is so powerful, each mouthful shows a fair amount of expansiveness which tends to get in the way of enjoying the beer. The head never dies away, maintaining a solid quarter-inch atop the beer for the entire session. As I’ve been drinking the beer, the head has left a dense curtain of lace on the glass that shows exceptional staying power. In fact, the lace is so thick and foamy, it looks more like a fuzzy blanket than a thin, lacy curtain. A very good beer overall, nicely balanced but not different enough from their standard Cascade. Appearance has been the major difference. It basically tastes the same but is more hoppy and more bitter. You could have figured that one out, eh?

Bottle (341ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow and tupalev - blankboy’s bottle. Murky deep amber with a huge creamy shiny tan head. Pleasing aroma of orange-citrus juicy slightly resiny hops with solid malt backing it up - simple and decent. The flavour was milder than I expected, the citrus hops were muted, some yeast accompanied the mild malt, and there was more "Canadian" grainy flavour happening. But it was clean, free of "extras" with a sharply fizzy mouthfeel, average body - decent, mild, and drink it again no problems.

Shared bottle with Hogtown Harry, Blankboy, and GregClow, Blankboy’s bottle. Darker orange than the previous Cascade, with a thick white/orange tinted head. Soapy orange citrus mild aroma. Nice balanced hop, malt, bread taste. Not near as overpowering as expected, this almost tasted lighter and milder than the normal cascade, which either means it was balanced extremely well or it was lacking flavour, I’m not sure. In any case, I was a little let down. But, don’t me wrong, this is a very good beer to drink and I would love to see this on tap at my local watering hole.

bottle. orange-copper with a fluffy white head and sticky white lacing. the aroma is very nice ripe orangey citrus. orange flavour is prevalent here with a sharp pine presence. more resiny than anything and not overwhelmingly bitter. some bready malt character in the background.