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Whilst I've been happy with the simple house/visitors/bbq beer of Coopers pale al/BE2 and extra hops I thought I might give the cascade one a try.

Has anyone done the two pretty simply and give me feedback on the differences between your two brews? I find the coopers is decent after 2 months and if I don't go with the cascade option I'll try using coopers yeast from the bottle this time.

Thanks guys.

had 2 goes at the cascade pale and felt a bit let down both times but its all gone so it must be drinkable
had a kind of sour smell thought it was infected thats why i tried again but it finished the same both times, few years ago now but remeber it was dark in colour for a pale with nice head retension but i wouldnt buy it again.
the coopers be2 is still my staple but just put down a malt shovel pale see how that goes.

Ok thanks mate

Coopers 1

Cascade 0

I've done the Cascade PA twice... both using the same recipe of adding 500g dex 500g LDME 15g Hallertau @ 5 min, made up to 23l. This was the first recipe of my own devising that I did after the Coopers Lager + Brewing Sugar that came with the fermenter. I thought it "just okay", although my mates kept bugging me to brew it again. So I did, and the second time around I got a godawful sour smell, so I'm guessing it might have been just a tad infected.

The Coopers PA I have only brewed once... mixed with 1kg LDME and 30g Cascade @ 10 min, and fermented with a US-05 yeast. This was much better, and came out tasting very close to Mountain Goat Pale Ale. I only got to try a couple, as the whole batch was polished off at a christmas function. So my vote is in favour of the Coopers kit too, however I still think the Cacade kit would be quite usable, provided you find a recipe that works with it. Maybe try the same hops, malt and yeast as I used with the Coopers?

I think the Coopers is better as well, though I've used the cascade kit as a base for fairly ambitious brews with lots of grain and hops and they've come out well.