Nelson IPA feedback requested

Hi all,

I'm going to brew an IPA featuring Nelson Sauvin and am wondering about 1) the grain bill and 2) the hop schedule. Please let me know what you think. I'm thinking of changing my mash temp to 150 or so to try to get a bet drier a beer to showcase the Nelson. Also, my thought with using magnum in either FWH or a 60 minute addition is to get some clean bittering without imparting much flavor to give the Nelson the spotlight. I could also use Centennial, Chinook, or Columbus to bitter. Or should I just go ahead and use Nelson?

Boil Size: 8.41 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.28 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 66.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 81.3 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 6.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) 6.3 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 6.3 %

1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 40.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min 9.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min 10.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min 6.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
3.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 days 0.0 IBUs

Wyeast Denny's Favorite 50 (other options are 1056, US-05, etc)

Alpine brewery makes an awesome Rye Nelson IPA. One thing I would consider with your recipe is to scratch the crystal, and add a little bit of sugar say 1-1.5lb.

Bsquared said:

Alpine brewery makes an awesome Rye Nelson IPA. One thing I would consider with your recipe is to scratch the crystal, and add a little bit of sugar say 1-1.5lb.

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Yeah, I started with the Alpine Nelson clones out on the web and worked from there. I scratched the rye because my brew buddy doesn't want to use it, and Alpine uses Southern Cross along with the NS, and the SC is unavailable and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of substitutes for it.

I'm a n00b at recipe formulation...what will subbing sugar for the crystal achieve? What kind of sugar?

Just plain table sugar, or you can use corn sugar. This will help to dry the beer out, taking crystal will remove that caramel sweetness that , personally I feel does not belong in IPAs but that's just my opinion.

Nelson Sauvin is a New Zealand Hop, I am making a New Zealand Rye IPA tomorrow. Here is my Hop Schedule:
2 oz of Pacific Jade (bittering) 60 min
1 oz of Pacifica (flavor) 20 min
1/2 oz of Pacific Jade (flavor) 15 min
DRY HOP:
1 oz Nelson Sauvin
1/2 oz Pacific Jade

I recommend looking into the Pacific Jade (14.4%) instead of Magnum......Then you are sticking with two hops from the same area that will complement each other better

I wouldn't use the Magnum in FWH, b/c though it does impart a smooth bitterness (which magnum has anyway), its also been said to provide much more of a hop flavor than a regular bittering addition. NS has a nice high AA for bittering but I'm not sure it will be as smooth...so, personally, I would just stick to what I know and rock the NS for flavor/aroma. Cause its friggin fantastic at that!!

Nelson Sauvin is extremely pungent. I *LOVE* it. But it's one of the strongest aromatic hops out there, IMHO. The amounts you're using will result in an extremely hoppy beer. If that's what you want, then cool. Guess it is. But of course, taste if before you dry hop it. I haven't dry hopped with it myself but have used it in a few beers otherwise. It's unique and awesome. It reminds me of an American hop but is really not the same as any other hop.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd consider splitting the batch and dry hopping half.

I made a Vienna / Nelson Sauvin SMaSH IPA before and it came out great, I would suggest using Nelson at FWH instead of Magnum.

Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G using Home Brew Talk

Old thread, but I brewed this beer and it's history now. So good, it went really really fast...my mom and sister don't usually like hoppy beers, but they both loved it. I ended up using rye in the grain bill, FW hopping with Nelson instead of using Magnum, and splitting the dry hop between Nelson and Galaxy, another great NZ hop. It came out beautifully, and I can highly recommend this hop schedule for anybody who wants an extremely hoppy but smooth beer that showcases the NS. I actually had a fresh bottle of Alpine Nelson last night that a west coast trader sent to me, and I think that this brew (though different) stacked up nicely to it.

Did you still use the crystal malt?? And how much Rye did you use?? I'm brewing a Nelson IPA for my local HBC next month and any info would be appreciated! Thanks

Brkstoutfeind said:

Did you still use the crystal malt?? And how much Rye did you use?? I'm brewing a Nelson IPA for my local HBC next month and any info would be appreciated! Thanks

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I did end up using a touch of crystal malt, mashed around 149, and the beer was not too sweet. 3lbs of rye with the 2-row scaled back. The Nelson was extremely pungent coming out of fermentation, to the point that I was worried that I'd overdone it. It mellowed beautifully in the bottle though. Also, my LHBS was out of carapils, so I used a little bit of wheat and had nice results.

Thanks for thinfo I'll post the final recipe and results as soon as it's finished!:rockin: