Little Bear Session Cascadian Dark Ale Recipe

With an average alcohol content of 6.5-7.0% ABV, Cascadian Dark Ale in quantity can be a real grizzly bear, but this session-fied version of the popular beer style is just a Little Bear.

Formulated specifically for Brewing TV and weighing in at an original gravity of only 1.040, Little Bear Session CDA delivers the dark malt and citrusy hop joy of a CDA in a smaller beer that you can drink throughout the entire evening (and not feel like you fell out of a Douglas Fir in the morning).

5 gallons, extract
Target OG: 1.040-ish

Steep:
- 0.5 lbs Weyermann CaraFa III

Boil:
- 6 lbs Northern Brewer Gold malt syrup @ 60"
- 1 oz Warrior @ 60"
- 0.5 oz Ahtanum (or Cascade) @ 10"
- 0.5 oz Ahtanum (or Cascade) @ 0" Primary fermentation:
- Wyeast 1272 American Ale II*

Secondary fermentation:
- 1 oz Centennial (dry hop)

* in Episode 28, we actually used Wyeast 1026 Cask Ale, which was a Private Collection strain for October-December 2010; 1272 is our substitute of choice, but you could use almost any moderate/high- to high-attenuating American or British ale strain and have a nice beer.

All-grain option: - Substitute 8 lbs of domestic base malt for the Gold malt syrup and adjust the 60" hop addition to yield a recipe grand total of 40-45 IBUs.