Ithaca Cascazilla

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Amber Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

On tap @ Coles Buffalo NY. Huge hops in this amber colored beer. Not really impressed with Ithacas offerings until this one. well done

Bottle courtesy of thirdeye11. Clear red orange pour. Big hops on the smell. Also a fair mix of sweet red scents. Smooth upfront with almost a coffee taste? Interesting. Almost no hop taste with the large aroma. Mainly malty and sour taste.

Draft at GABF 2009. Pours a clear medium amber with a medium foamy white head and decent lacing. Aroma is caramel malt, earth, and piney C-hops. Flavor is not quite as hoppy as I expected. Maybe I am just too used to west coast IPAs. Sweet caramel malt, earth, resin, pine, and a tiny bit of citrus. Body is medium with some mild lasting bitterness.

12 oz bottle. Clear amber color with a tight head. Sweet malts and floral hops are the aroma. Taste is spicy hops blended well with sweet grains to make it well balanced. Really quaffable.

Sampled on draft this beer poured a red-amber color with a medium sized khaki head. The aroma was grapefruit and not much else. The flavor was dry nutty malts and grapefruity hops. Very one dimensional.

Full aroma of orange,piney hops, muted malt, orange/red colour, pours a firm long lasting, finger of custard head,some pretty lace also. Strong taste of orange/pine bitterness, fine malt underpins quite well. Full bodied, tongue tinglingly bitter, almost chewy texture. Terrific! Cascazilla is the right name all right!

Best By October; Sampled August 2008
A sharp pour produces a three finger-thick, light tan colored head that sits on top of a clear, deeply red stained, dark amber colored brew. When held up to the light the beer shows a brilliantly clear fully red, copper color. As I pour this really sticky, huge aromas of crystal malt waft from my glass. A closer inspection yields an ample hop character that helps to tame the crystal malt abuse; the hops contribute bright aromas of candied grapefruit peel, tangelo and some light lychee notes. The crystal malt character contributes toasty malt notes, sticky caramelized grain touches and a sort of toffee / brown sugar sort of Maillard-type note. The aroma is not nearly as bad as that first pure whiff of crystal malt suggested and is actually somewhat more balanced towards the hop character than that of malt.

Quite frothy and a bit over carbonated, the beer definitely foams a bit as it hits my tongue. Once this is vigorously swirled to a more manageable carbonation level I can notice that sweet, caramelized malt notes accentuate a sticky, citrus character reminiscent of tangelo zest and grapefruit. There are some notes of pine here as well, but these come in more towards the finish where there is also a substantial, but well tempered by the malt, hop bitterness. As the beer warms in my glass the crystal malt flavors become more pronounced; lots of caramelized malt sugars, sticky, with some astringent grain notes and an almost bitter malt character.

Not bad, but the focus on the crystal malt character can be a bit much at times. If I wasn’t focusing on tasting this beer the over-use of crystal malt really wouldn’t bother as much as it does.

Hoppy bite in the nose, ripe with grapefruit,pine and grass, with undertones of vanilla. Pours deep bourbon brown with little head. Taste is slightly sour hoppyness, with little malt balance.