First time using Nelson Sauvin

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calebgk

Wishy-washy
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Decided on a whim to get a pound of Nelson Sauvin. Made a pale with what I had on me for grain.

10# 2-row
1# Carafoam
3 oz Crystal 40

1 oz Nelson Sauvin FTW
1 oz Nelson Sauvin 30 min
.5 oz Nelson Sauvin 10 min
.5 oz Nelson Sauvin flameout

I usually fly sparge, but this is also the first AG brew in the kitchen, so Beersmith defaulted to 2 2.26g batches.

WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast, no starter, because this was very spontaneous.

Chiller is at my buddy's, so I put the kettle on the deck in the snow. Just waiting for it to cool.

Also, this is my first time using treated tap water. Last time I used tap water, I had wicked chlorophenals. Hit it with some K-meta and let it sit for the afternoon before brewing. Hope it's not crap.

Any feelings on Nelson Sauvin?
 
Wow this is crazy because me and a buddy are about to brew a beer we call Nelson's touch with this in it
 
Post your notes/experiences when you brew it. I'm anxious for this to hit the keg and hear how others have used it.
 
I'm also curious as to the results of this brew. I was given an ounce of Nelson Sauvin for Christmas and I am completely unfamiliar with this hop. If you make it sound good I might buy a couple more ounces and brew with it.
 
Yea rob that's crazy how we just talked about how rare that hop is and now somebody is using it! The Nelson Sauvignon we got are hop pellets. Very white wine smelling! Gonna be a great brew! I'm stoked to get started rob! We gonna do it at your house not this weekend but next weekend? We will have the bottles by then.
 
Here was my 10gal batch from about 2mo. ago it is on draft now.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 11.01 gal
Post Boil Volume: 9.88 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 9.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 8.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 6.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 40.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12.00 gal Virginia Beach, VA Water 1 -
13 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 59.1 %
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 31.8 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.7 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.4 %
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.90 %] - Boil 60. Hop 6 21.0 IBUs
0.25 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 6.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 7.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Ahtanum [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 1.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
0.75 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30 Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Ahtanum [4.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
2.1 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 13 -


While I liked the recipe a lot, I would change up the malt complexity slightly and go for more 2row and much less vienna, I don't think the Sauvin and Vienna paired well. As for just hops sake...I think I should have hopped with more Sauvin at 10mins and flame out as well as done a dry hop. It just wasnt really screaming Sauvin flavors like i wanted it to. I will mention I wanted a hop forward pale, and this recipe was not it.

Also Sauvin (in my opinion) by itself does not carry a beers hop taste taste, it needs help(again stating...my opinion). The Anthanum was added in an attempt to give the hop taste some spiciness but it was not enough. I also think adding a small amount of citra/cascade/simcoe to both flameout and dry hop would have been a favorable addition, by creating more "desirable" citrus variety to the hop flavor overall.

Good luck with your brews!
 
Since your late additions were fairly small I would dry hop the $$$$ out of it. 2 oz should do the trick. But i am a whore for aroma. Most of my late additions are double of early additions since the IBU contribution is low, but the aroma is fantastic!!
 
We are going to brew our version if midis touch from dogfish head. Were using the nelson in place to the grape juice since it has such a wine like flavor to it
 
We finished our batch and we are now fermenting, there is a lot of bubbling in our airlock. This brew smelled like midis touch when it was finished hope all turns out well. Will update when complete.
 
We were banking on the Nelson Sauvin not having enough bite to carry our beer so we used liberty hops at 45 min boil Tim then continually hopped with Nelson Sauvin the last 15 min.
 
I'm not overly pleased with how mine came out. Lots of berry/grapefruit, with some rind pucker. I'm glad I tried it, but if I use the hop again, I think I need something to help balance it out.
 
Used Nelson solo for the first time period in a 100% Brett trois pale ale and its insane. The mix of fruit, citrus, and wild aromas is great.
 
I think its a good call to tweak it a little. I had a DIPA once that was Nelson for bittering and Galaxy late--really nice! Citra would also work well with Nelson.
 
TriggerFingers said:
I think its a good call to tweak it a little. I had a DIPA once that was Nelson for bittering and Galaxy late--really nice! Citra would also work well with Nelson.

I just got my first lb of galaxy in today and I'm brewing a s. pacific dipa tomorrow with Nelson, galaxy, and pacific jade and conan yeast. Thinking of doing the same hops scheme in a Brett ipa.
 
Just bottled a small batch IPA with Nelson in it. Great seeing all the results people are getting. I've never used it before and I'm looking forward to tasting it now.
 
I just got my first lb of galaxy in today and I'm brewing a s. pacific dipa tomorrow with Nelson, galaxy, and pacific jade and conan yeast. Thinking of doing the same hops scheme in a Brett ipa.

Where did you get the galaxy? I have been looking for some
 
Retire2016 said:
Just bottled a small batch IPA with Nelson in it. Great seeing all the results people are getting. I've never used it before and I'm looking forward to tasting it now.

If you like hoppy and different, you will love Nelson. It's in it's own category.
 
brewing a Nelson pale ale on friday was thinking about this hop schedule:

.5 @ 60
.5 @ 10
1 @ 5
1 @ 1
2oz dry hop for 5 days

I do have a variety of other hops that I was contemplating changing the 60 min from Nelson to one of: Anthanum, Citra, Simcoe, Warrior, Amarillo
 
I did NBs Kiwi Express IPA which used NS for bittering. I second all the white wine comments. Would definitely use NS for an IPA again.
 
So....my Nelson IPA had been in the bottle a couple weeks now. It was a SMaSH+a small bit of Honey Malt.I really wanted to see what the flavor and aroma of NS is like.

Wow...hmm...How do I even begin to describe this? It's almost sweet from the hops--a little fruity, but not so much citrus fruity, although there are notes of citrus. Maybe like an almost but not completely like unripe nectarine fruity? Green grape fruity? Maybe a bit of both. The taste really gets me on the back of the tongue. It's a pleasant taste, but with a slight edge. It's a good experiment to really get the taste, but I think it might go well mixed with a C-hop.

Anyway...my 2 cents.
 
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