Two new hops!

New to me anyway! I just ordered 4 oz each of Nelson Sauvin, Summer (AUS) and Topaz (NZ) hops from farmhouse brewing supply.

Has anyone ever played around with the Topaz or Summer varieties?

Here are their descriptions....

TOPAZ: "Topaz was originally selected as a seedless high alpha-acid hop for the production of extract, but recent work has shown it to have excellent flavour potential, to the point that a beer hopped solely with Topaz was the most preferred of a group of five single hop beers by tasters at Brau 2010.

As a flavour addition Topaz can provide earthy notes similar in character to old English cultivars, and fruit flavour such as lychee can be detected in later additions and higher gravity brews."

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And...

SUMMER: (aka. Summer Saaz) "Summer is a unique seedless aroma hop developed and grown in Australia. Summer provides distinctive light apricot and melon fruit notes nicely balanced by a background hop character which can be used to great effect in many beer styles. "

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They sound interesting to me anyway!

Brew with them immediately and return here for feedback!

I've for Belma on the way from hops direct. I will do the same and report back.

Nice, they sound good!

Here is what I was thinking to showcase the Topaz, the grain bill is very loosely based on a gumballhead clone. All late hop additions (at 16%+ IBU's, the bitterness is going to get out of hand quickly, so trying to keep the total IBU's around 35 for this brew)

For 5.5 Gallons: (Partial Mash)

3 lbs Pilsner DME
3 lbs Pilsner Malt
1 lb Wheat Malt
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1/2 lb Aromatic Malt

20M 1/2 oz Topaz
10M 1/2 oz Topaz
5M 1/2 oz Topaz
0M 1 oz Topaz

Dry Hop: 1 and 1/2 oz Topaz (remainder of pkg); 7 Days

Yeast: London ESB, 2nd Choice S-04

Eh?

Any notes yet on summer or topaz?

Yes, I finially brewed the above recipe with the Topaz last night! (took me a while, this is a busy time of the year). So, should be able to comment on the flavors in about a month or so. Out of the bag they smelled fruity, but also- earthy- reminded me a bit of fuggles even or palisades. Curious to see if that earthy note carries through in the finished product. The hops themselves smelled GOOOOOD. Looking forward to updating when this one is done. Keep you posted!

While the Topaz Pale Ale is fermenting away (expecting to bottle it in a week or two), I'm contemplating what to do with the Summer hops. From descriptions I've read it has a more delicate flavor, I'm thinking a hopped up cream ale would showcase this hop in the right light. This is what I'm thinking, any thoughts?

3 lbs Pilsner DME
2 lbs American Two Row
2 lbs Marris Otter
2 lbs Flaked Corn

60M .5 oz Summer Hops
10M .5 oz Summer Hops
5M 1 oz Summer Hops
Flameout 1 oz Summer Hops
Dryhop 1 oz Summer Hops (5 days)

Yeast: S-05

Predicted ABV: 4.9%
Predicted IBUs: 21
Predicted OG: 1.050
Predicted FG: 1.013
Predicted SRM: 4

Eh?

Subbed!

Lychee is a descriptor used for Citra... you have my attention.

Curious, I had a topaz single hop a few months back and I wasn't boiled over by it. How's the summer coming along?

Sadly, I have to report that the topaz ale contaminated and had to be dumped after I tried (and failed, haha) to "fix" it with camden tablets (big mistake!). Which is a shame because it smelled absolutely amazing while it was fermenting. I still have an ounce and a half to play with, maybe I'll try again with a small batch.

The summer hasn't been brewed yet. I have a stout in the queue coming up next and then I will tackle the summer hop ale. Hopefully by then I'll have these contam issues resolved (pretty sure I've traced the source to the spigot on my bottling bucket). Its going to be a busy month, so might not get started on this one until the end of January, but hope to report soon! Stay tuned....

Any news on Summer smell at least? Contemplating pulling the trigger on some.

acidrain23 said:

Sadly, I have to report that the topaz ale contaminated and had to be dumped after I tried (and failed, haha) to "fix" it with camden tablets (big mistake!). Which is a shame because it smelled absolutely amazing while it was fermenting. I still have an ounce and a half to play with, maybe I'll try again with a small batch.

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Soo...I've been meaning to dump this batch for a while but never got around to it. Just for the hell of it, I decided to smell it the other day. Last time I checked it (months ago) it was like rotten eggs from the camden. I also repitched a packet of S-05 at the time. Now...it is back to smelling awesome again! I think I'm going to have a taste test soon to see if its possible a contam'd sulphited batch of beer somehow made a comeback, but I guess there are stranger things. If its good going to add the topaz dry hop and proceed as normal. Definitely wasn't expecting this!

acidrain23 said:

Soo...I've been meaning to dump this batch for a while but never got around to it. Just for the hell of it, I decided to smell it the other day. Last time I checked it (months ago) it was like rotten eggs from the camden. I also repitched a packet of S-05 at the time. Now...it is back to smelling awesome again! I think I'm going to have a taste test soon to see if its possible a contam'd sulphited batch of beer somehow made a comeback, but I guess there are stranger things. If its good going to add the topaz dry hop and proceed as normal. Definitely wasn't expecting this!

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So....I worked up my courage, gathered a small sample from underneath the rather scary looking pellicle and took a taste! I was expecting sour/funky/weird flavors, but surprisingly it tastes very clean! It is BONE dry, I would assume from (what I believe to be Brett) having eaten all of the residual sugars. It is also lacking in body from the same process. But it tastes ok! I am seriously considering adding some dry hops to mask whatever may ultimately seem off (though again, I didn't detect anything) and bottle.

Big question- how do go about priming this? Should I cut the priming sugar way back? If so, by how much? 50%? 0%?

Would you bottle it?

Ss long as you're 100% sure the gravity is stable, you're safe to bottle with the same amount of sugar you'd normally use. But you have to be 100% sure. And I just came here to get an idea of what to do with the Topaz I bought.

I'm with Kingwood, so long as your gravity is stable, you should be fine. Priming sugar is basically 100% fermentable by regular yeast, so it's not like the Brett will over-ccarb it. If it's not, give it time, Bret works slower than brewers yeast, but it'll get there. If you have a pellice on the beer then it would protect it from most other "stuff" that can get into it. Incidentally, if you have the room and time, you can do what lambic brewers do: wait for the Pallice to fall in on it's own, and then bottle.

You'll probably need to add some yeast as bottling, btw.

I'm brewing this next Friday. I'm hoping it turns out to be a pretty good summer session pale ale. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. I'm just hoping the nelson doesn't overpower the summer hops though.

Batch Size: 5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Est. Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

ESTIMATED STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 5.25%
IBU (tinseth): 40.45
SRM (morey): 6.69

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Extra Light - (late addition) (50%)
1.5 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (18.8%)
1 lb - Belgian - Munich (12.5%)
8 oz - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (6.3%)
8 oz - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (6.3%)
8 oz - United Kingdom - Golden Naked Oats (6.3%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Summer for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 5.9, IBU: 13.29)
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin for 15 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 12.5, IBU: 13.97)
1 oz - Summer for 15 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 5.9, IBU: 13.19)
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 12.5)
0.5 oz - Summer for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 5.9)
1 oz - Nelson Sauvin for 7 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 12.5)
1 oz - Summer for 7 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 5.9)

MASH STEPS:
1) Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 5.5 qt

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001

Mttfrog,

How did your sauvin/summer hopped ale come out? I just yesterday did an Amber Ale with those two and some Zythos. The summer smelled AMAZING! Tons of up front fruit with a subtle citrus/pine aroma. I put half an ounce of the summer at the last 5 min of the boil.

Travestian said:

Mttfrog,

How did your sauvin/summer hopped ale come out?

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It turned out great. I'm getting mostly fruity aroma, with only a little grapefruit bitterness. Less grapefruit and more of a fruity/flowery aroma than typical hops. I think I should've only dry hopped with 1 oz of nelson sauvin though. I'm assuming that the summer is giving me the floral aroma and nelson is the fruty aroma. I'll be brewing this again with only 1 oz of nelson sauvin dry hops, I'll be cutting the carapils in half, and only doing 6oz of crystal 40.

I have used summer a few times now but only as a dry hop as I read it lends it self best as a dry hop. Each time it adds a very distinct citrus orange aroma to it and I love it. I just bottled possibly my best beer to date an IPA with El Dorado Mosaic and Summer dry hop I highly recommend playing with it as a late addition/ dry hop

crash568 said:

I have used summer a few times now but only as a dry hop as I read it lends it self best as a dry hop. Each time it adds a very distinct citrus orange aroma to it and I love it. I just bottled possibly my best beer to date an IPA with El Dorado Mosaic and Summer dry hop I highly recommend playing with it as a late addition/ dry hop

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Reviving this thread from the dead! I've been searching for weeks about AU Summer! I am brewing with it this weekend and cannot wait. Trying to pair it with Cascade in an APA. How was the aroma for Summer?

Aroma is very pleasant lots of bright citrus orange notes


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