By James Atkinson
Cascade head brewer Mike Unsworth is in Sydney this week to officially launch the brewery’s 2014 First Harvest Ale.
Unsworth, together with Carlton & United Breweries beer ambassador Jamie Fox, launched the thirteenth vintage of the beer to trade and consumer media at The Grounds of Alexandria on Wednesday.
Unsworth told TheShout this year’s First Harvest is once again limited to 5000 cases, despite internal pressure from CUB staff who would like to see the sought after brew available in larger volumes.
Cascade First Harvest is created every year from three different hop varieties that have never been used in commercial brewing before.
“If we are going to use experimental hops each year, we’ve only got a certain amount of them,” Unsworth said.
He added that working with 120 kg of fresh hops, as compared to 20 kg of hop pellets that would typically be required for the same-sized brew, has its own complications.
“When you put hop pellets in it’s a relatively clean process, but when we chuck all these fresh hops in it’s a bit of a task to clean all the vessels. You wouldn’t want to brew it every day.“
Cascade Brewery in Hobart
The hops that form the flavour profile of the thirteenth vintage are named after the roads that lead from the hop fields in the Derwent Valley to Cascade Brewery in Hobart – ‘Argyle’ for flavour, ‘Brooker’ for aroma and ‘Macquarie’ for bitterness.
The 2014 Cascade First Harvest Ale is now available at Dan Murphy’s nationally and can also be found on tap in a handful of selected venues in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with an RRP of $19.95 per 375ml four-pack.