New England IPA "Northeast" style IPA

[HopsAreGood]

I also usually do the Janish dip tube filter method. I usually wrap the mesh canister in a hop bag for extra insurance. I have had issues with just the canister on really big dry hops loads but I didn't use a grommet on the hole I drilled or even cover the little holes in the cannister top so that was probably it. Wrapping in a mesh bag has pretty much eliminated clogs.

I know you get better utilization with the hops loose but I'm also not sure how much better. But since it's really no extra hassle to do it that way seems like a no-brainer especially when it's a really big dry hop

The way it appeared to me when purchasing it was to use a number 6 or 6.5 stopper. Drill a hole in the stopper and run the dip tube through it. I know what you mean with the canister but hopefully the stopper will work well.

 

[BoilerInSoCal]

First of all, I just want to say what an amazing thread this is! Thanks to everyone for all their input.

I have made a number of batches using the base recipe in 5803 which is boss. My latest with that was a 40 min. boil with 0.75 oz Amarillo at 30 min and 2oz:2oz:2oz whirlpool of Citra:Mosaic:Amarillo at 175 for 20 min. and the same hops/amounts in the DH. 1318 yeast. Simply amazing. I'd highly recommend.

A few weeks ago I decided to try a new base, well, just because. I went with 80% Pilsner, 13% white wheat, 3% honey malt, and 4% dextrose for an OG of 1.078. This time I went with the Trillium-ish Columbus start. 0.5 oz at 60 min., 1 oz. at 10 min. and 3 oz. in whirlpool at 175 for 20 min. And for the first time, I went with all Vic Secret in the DH (7 oz) and used A38 Juice. I cannot thank enough the poster that recommended an all Vic Secret DH somewhere in this thread. This one is really nice! Although the AA was a whopping 19.2%, I am not getting any hop burn like I have in Galaxy heavy DH beers. It is going to be fun pairing VS with other varieties.

 

[hopfenstopfen]

The way it appeared to me when purchasing it was to use a number 6 or 6.5 stopper. Drill a hole in the stopper and run the dip tube through it. I know what you mean with the canister but hopefully the stopper will work well.

View attachment 715102

Just wanted add that I’ve used one of these since I bought my first keg and have never had any issues. One of the more reliable pieces of brewing equipment I use. Highly recommended! I also use silicon #6 stoppers from amazon.

I’m curios what you think of this setup when used with the recipes you’ve posted recently!

 

[chieftain]

I am on the 3B train as well. My beers have never stayed as fresh and tasted as bright until I started doing 3B six batches ago. I thought it would be detrimental to keep the hops at ferm temps for 3 days but its just not, especially since they get a good flush of CO2. Having said that, I wait until fermentation is steady to prepare the DH keg and then unhook it and put it in cold storage following day 3 of fermentation. I think the math determined you need about 50 points of fermentation to get a good purge (5 ppb).

Taking this a step further, could you place the DH keg inside a keezer while the fermenter stays outside, thereby keeping the hops cold while the keg is purged? I just brewed an NEIPA yesterday and was going to try 3B for the first time. Might give this approach a shot.

 

[BeerFst]

First of all, I just want to say what an amazing thread this is! Thanks to everyone for all their input.

I have made a number of batches using the base recipe in 5803 which is boss. My latest with that was a 40 min. boil with 0.75 oz Amarillo at 30 min and 2oz:2oz:2oz whirlpool of Citra:Mosaic:Amarillo at 175 for 20 min. and the same hops/amounts in the DH. 1318 yeast. Simply amazing. I'd highly recommend.

A few weeks ago I decided to try a new base, well, just because. I went with 80% Pilsner, 13% white wheat, 3% honey malt, and 4% dextrose for an OG of 1.078. This time I went with the Trillium-ish Columbus start. 0.5 oz at 60 min., 1 oz. at 10 min. and 3 oz. in whirlpool at 175 for 20 min. And for the first time, I went with all Vic Secret in the DH (7 oz) and used A38 Juice. I cannot thank enough the poster that recommended an all Vic Secret DH somewhere in this thread. This one is really nice! Although the AA was a whopping 19.2%, I am not getting any hop burn like I have in Galaxy heavy DH beers. It is going to be fun pairing VS with other varieties.

great report! my next hazy will be a citra/VS with 50% wheat, glad yours worked out

edit: also you technically made Farnsworth Street, but a different grain bill

 

[JoeMamasIPA]

Taking this a step further, could you place the DH keg inside a keezer while the fermenter stays outside, thereby keeping the hops cold while the keg is purged? I just brewed an NEIPA yesterday and was going to try 3B for the first time. Might give this approach a shot.

While that sounds like a good approach it might lead to a lot of condensation in the DH keg with humid, 65 degree air getting pumped into a cold chamber. Probably wouldn't matter though, its just some liquid. In my experience the room temps for 3 days don't hurt the hops at all. I am getting killer hop flavor at 1oz per gallon dry hop rates so I don't feel the need to make it more complicated.

Also, this is going to sound LODO, but I keep the keg-to-keg jumper tubing short out of fear of Oxygen ingress through the tubing. That vinyl tubing lets in a lot of O2 but I feel like if I keep it short and essentially in a CO2 environment (keezer is flooded with fermentation CO2) it keeps the O2 ingress low.

Give it a try though if its easy enough to do and see what you think.

 

[aaronm13]

What's the timescale like on doing this. Typically I'm at about 8-10 days minimum before I can start dry hopping, between fermentation, diacetyl rest and soft crash. So I'd imagine at least10 days at room temps is way too long for hops to be sitting in a keg if you connect up the dry hop keg as soon as you pitch the yeast. How long does it take to totally purge a keg? I'd imagine you need to have it connected as soon as active fermentation starts to get as much co2 as possible.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

While that sounds like a good approach it might lead to a lot of condensation in the DH keg with humid, 65 degree air getting pumped into a cold chamber. Probably wouldn't matter though, its just some liquid. In my experience the room temps for 3 days don't hurt the hops at all. I am getting killer hop flavor at 1oz per gallon dry hop rates so I don't feel the need to make it more complicated.

Also, this is going to sound LODO, but I keep the keg-to-keg jumper tubing short out of fear of Oxygen ingress through the tubing. That vinyl tubing lets in a lot of O2 but I feel like if I keep it short and essentially in a CO2 environment (keezer is flooded with fermentation CO2) it keeps the O2 ingress low.

Give it a try though if its easy enough to do and see what you think.

I've never actually thought about this and not sure how big of a deal it is since fermentation activity should keep O2 at bay, but I think your logic/reasoning is sound. I've been using the same vinyl tubing for my main jumper for awhile and when I need more jumpers I use EVABarrier since I bought a big spool of it from Morebeer with the duotight fittings. Love those things and EVABarrier is supposedly much more impermeable to O2. Check it out if you want to maximize your LODO nerdiness(joking)

 

[HopsAreGood]

What's the timescale like on doing this. Typically I'm at about 8-10 days minimum before I can start dry hopping, between fermentation, diacetyl rest and soft crash. So I'd imagine at least10 days at room temps is way too long for hops to be sitting in a keg if you connect up the dry hop keg as soon as you pitch the yeast. How long does it take to totally purge a keg? I'd imagine you need to have it connected as soon as active fermentation starts to get as much co2 as possible.

I’ve had them in the dry hop keg up to 10 to 12 days before. I will usually do a couple of 30 psi purge cycles immediately after hanging the hops in the keg. Then once the fermentation CO2 kicks in it finishes off the job. You can even do a couple of manual purges as well if you want after. It seems like a leap of faith if you’ve never done it before, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen any negative effects Of having the hops in the keg at room temperature for an extended period of time.

 

[aaronm13]

I’ve had them in the dry hop keg up to 10 to 12 days before. I will usually do a couple of 30 psi purge cycles immediately after hanging the hops in the keg. Then once the fermentation CO2 kicks in it finishes off the job. You can even do a couple of manual purges as well if you want after. It seems like a leap of faith if you’ve never done it before, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen any negative effects Of having the hops in the keg at room temperature for an extended period of time.

Yeah it seems to go against everything we've been told about hop storage, haha. Would suck to loose a lb of dry hops but you've done it many times by the sounds of it so sounds good. Going to try this on my next brew, ordered some mesh bags today so should be all set.

 

[HopsAreGood]

Yeah it seems to go against everything we've been told about hop storage, haha. Would suck to loose a lb of dry hops but you've done it many times by the sounds of it so sounds good. Going to try this on my next brew, ordered some mesh bags today so should be all set.

Try it out. The way I see it is keeping hops cold is important for long term storage. If you leave a vacuum sealed bag of hops at room temp for a week or two I highly doubt you’ll notice a difference with one that’s been kept cold. Containing the hops within a purged keg is very similar to a purged bag or any other oxygen free container. As I said, I like to do a few manual purge cycles prior to the ferm co2 kicking in. You could also wait until ferm starts before putting them in.

This is one of my favorite podcasts. I suggest listening to to the whole thing but if you go to 50 minutes in you’ll hear them talk about hop storage. Apparently Alvarado Street has intentionally stored their hops at room temp.

Tons of awesome discussion throughout the whole podcast though.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hdWywkrXWHBkaG2iKs1O2?si=T3hdmvpZQeORjIqrB6JmRQ

 

[JoeMamasIPA]

I've never actually thought about this and not sure how big of a deal it is since fermentation activity should keep O2 at bay, but I think your logic/reasoning is sound. I've been using the same vinyl tubing for my main jumper for awhile and when I need more jumpers I use EVABarrier since I bought a big spool of it from Morebeer with the duotight fittings. Love those things and EVABarrier is supposedly much more impermeable to O2. Check it out if you want to maximize your LODO nerdiness(joking)

Funny thing is that I have a bunch of EVABarrier lying around but no more fittings to get to the QD's. Just need to stop being cheap and grab some. With vinyl my beer would get noticeably oxidized in the lines after 2 days. It takes 10 days to even start changing with EVA. Probably waaay overkill but its all so easy so why not?

 

[aaronm13]

Try it out. The way I see it is keeping hops cold is important for long term storage. If you leave a vacuum sealed bag of hops at room temp for a week or two I highly doubt you’ll notice a difference with one that’s been kept cold. Containing the hops within a purged keg is very similar to a purged bag or any other oxygen free container. As I said, I like to do a few manual purge cycles prior to the ferm co2 kicking in. You could also wait until ferm starts before putting them in.

This is one of my favorite podcasts. I suggest listening to to the whole thing but if you go to 50 minutes in you’ll hear them talk about hop storage. Apparently Alvarado Street has intentionally stored their hops at room temp.

Tons of awesome discussion throughout the whole podcast though.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hdWywkrXWHBkaG2iKs1O2?si=T3hdmvpZQeORjIqrB6JmRQ

Thanks for all the advice. When you think about it, it does make sense. I'll give that podcast a listen too. Desperate to get more hop bang from my brews so will try anything at this stage.

 

[JoeMamasIPA]

Thanks for all the advice. When you think about it, it does make sense. I'll give that podcast a listen too. Desperate to get more hop bang from my brews so will try anything at this stage.

My hop flavor improved the most when I started soft crashing before the DH. I like to go fairly cold (45) and longer than most (72 hours) taking care not to disturb the fermenter before transferring to the DH keg. Minimizing O2 keeps the flavor bright.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

Boil (10.3% of total hops): 60min - Columbus 0.50oz, 10min - Columbus and Riwaka 0.50oz for each (1.5oz total)
WP @ 155 (34.5% of total hops): Riwaka - 3.0oz, Galaxy - 1.5oz, Nelson - 0.50oz (5oz total)
DryHop (55.2% of total hops): Nelson - 4.5oz, Galaxy - 2oz, Riwaka - 1.5oz (8oz total)

So I brewed this up a week ago and just took the hydrometer sample and its great. Very smooth, has a nice fruit but earthiness depth as well. Heavy Riwaka on the hot side compared to nelson and galaxy. Tasting my hydrometer sample side-by-side with my riwaka single hop pale ale, I notice a little "peppery" type of vibe on the pale ale but its not evident in the hydrometer sample of the current beer (No DH additions yet). So Im thinking that since I want the white wine of nelson with passion fruit of nelson and galaxy as well - might not keep riwaka in the DH. So Im up for suggestions on the DH portion of this now. I know galaxy has high oil content so thats why Ive hit nelson hard here in the DH. Thoughts on the DH addition would be appreciated. Im probably second guessing myself lol.

EDIT: FWIW, all three hops (riwaka, galaxy, nelson) are 2020 lots. I haven't used 2020 nelson yet, so wasn't sure how much it differed from 2019 when I got VERY nice white wine/gooseberry type vibes.

 

[Dgallo]

Thanks for all the advice. When you think about it, it does make sense. I'll give that podcast a listen too. Desperate to get more hop bang from my brews so will try anything at this stage.

What’s your dryhoping rate? There has been a lot of talk here over the past few pages that in my eyes is far too much for clean varietal specific profiles to show themselves. More hops is not always better and can actually mute and muddy the aroma and flavor. Granted there is more oils and thoils in more hops but you are also increasing the amount of any undesirable compounds and Plant material profiles from the hops.

For a 5 gallon finished batch, I target my dryhop amount as followed,

-6-8 oz for a single ipa
-8-10oz for a double
-10-12oz for a Triple

Practically 1.2-2.25 oz/gallon in respect to OG

I get nice bright flavors and aromas with these amounts

 

[secretlevel]

So I brewed this up a week ago and just took the hydrometer sample and its great. Very smooth, has a nice fruit but earthiness depth as well. Heavy Riwaka on the hot side compared to nelson and galaxy. Tasting my hydrometer sample side-by-side with my riwaka single hop pale ale, I notice a little "peppery" type of vibe on the pale ale but its not evident in the hydrometer sample of the current beer (No DH additions yet). So Im thinking that since I want the white wine of nelson with passion fruit of nelson and galaxy as well - might not keep riwaka in the DH. So Im up for suggestions on the DH portion of this now. I know galaxy has high oil content so thats why Ive hit nelson hard here in the DH. Thoughts on the DH addition would be appreciated. Im probably second guessing myself lol.

EDIT: FWIW, all three hops (riwaka, galaxy, nelson) are 2020 lots. I haven't used 2020 nelson yet, so wasn't sure how much it differed from 2019 when I got VERY nice white wine/gooseberry type vibes.

That's been my exact experience with Riwaka from YVH - huge peppery diesel note that's a bit off-putting. It really overpowered the other half of the dry hop, which was Citra. I think you're on the right path there to get the white wine from Nelson.

Janish came to a similar conclusion in one of his recent blogs:

Unique from most of the other varieties regularly used in hop-forward beers, I find it can have a fruity candied-grape character with a little spiciness (which can come across as diesely to some)...
Citra or Galaxy might be great choices to pair with a beer like this rather than the post-fermentation Riwaka addition.

 

[ChiknNutz]

What’s your dryhoping rate? There has been a lot of talk here over the past few pages that in my eyes is far too much for clean varietal specific profiles to show themselves. More hops is not always better and can actually mute and muddy the aroma and flavor. Granted there is more oils and thoils in more hops but you are also increasing the amount of any undesirable compounds and Plant material profiles from the hops.

For a 5 gallon finished batch, I target my dryhop amount as followed,

-6-8 oz for a single ipa
-8-10oz for a double
-10-12oz for a Triple

Practically 1.2-2.25 oz/gallon in respect to OG

I get nice bright flavors and aromas with these amounts

What constitutes a 1X, 2X or 3X IPA? From what I've read thus far, they are a bit arbitrary and there is nothing really definitive of where one begins or ends.

 

[HopsAreGood]

What constitutes a 1X, 2X or 3X IPA? From what I've read thus far, they are a bit arbitrary and there is nothing really definitive of where one begins or ends.

Nothing is set in stone but typically a single is around 6, a double around 8 and a triple around 10....ABV

 

[Dgallo]

What constitutes a 1X, 2X or 3X IPA? From what I've read thus far, they are a bit arbitrary and there is nothing really definitive of where one begins or ends.

The only one that doesn’t have a style guideline in the BJCP is the triple, so I would argue that it is defined. But as @HopsAreGood stated, those are the typical ranges. TH Is the only brewery I can think off the top of my head that sets a double below 8%. They start their doubles at 7.8. That being said bjcp goes 5.5 for single and 7.5 starting double

 

[HopsAreGood]

The only one that doesn’t have a style guideline in the BJCP is the triple, so I would argue that it is defined. But as @HopsAreGood stated, those are the typical ranges. TH Is the only brewery I know of tht sets a double below 8%. They start their doubles at 7.8. That being said bjcp goes 5.5 for single and 7.5 starting double

Good point....the numbers I listed are simply what I see from the far majority of breweries. A good baseline to use.

 

[chieftain]

While that sounds like a good approach it might lead to a lot of condensation in the DH keg with humid, 65 degree air getting pumped into a cold chamber. Probably wouldn't matter though, its just some liquid. In my experience the room temps for 3 days don't hurt the hops at all. I am getting killer hop flavor at 1oz per gallon dry hop rates so I don't feel the need to make it more complicated.

Also, this is going to sound LODO, but I keep the keg-to-keg jumper tubing short out of fear of Oxygen ingress through the tubing. That vinyl tubing lets in a lot of O2 but I feel like if I keep it short and essentially in a CO2 environment (keezer is flooded with fermentation CO2) it keeps the O2 ingress low.

Give it a try though if its easy enough to do and see what you think.

This is helpful thanks. The condensation I had not considered. I just switched over to eva barrier lines, so less worried about the O2 ingress.

 

[Dgallo]

So I brewed this up a week ago and just took the hydrometer sample and its great. Very smooth, has a nice fruit but earthiness depth as well. Heavy Riwaka on the hot side compared to nelson and galaxy. Tasting my hydrometer sample side-by-side with my riwaka single hop pale ale, I notice a little "peppery" type of vibe on the pale ale but its not evident in the hydrometer sample of the current beer (No DH additions yet). So Im thinking that since I want the white wine of nelson with passion fruit of nelson and galaxy as well - might not keep riwaka in the DH. So Im up for suggestions on the DH portion of this now. I know galaxy has high oil content so thats why Ive hit nelson hard here in the DH. Thoughts on the DH addition would be appreciated. Im probably second guessing myself lol.

EDIT: FWIW, all three hops (riwaka, galaxy, nelson) are 2020 lots. I haven't used 2020 nelson yet, so wasn't sure how much it differed from 2019 when I got VERY nice white wine/gooseberry type vibes.

My last double that I did used Riwaka/cascade hotside and Nelson/Galaxy in dryhop. I planned to do a 3:2 ratio of Nelson to Galaxy but out of the bag the 2020 Nelson character was extremely strong (10.4 AA batch believe from YVH.) The Galaxy was great too but the Nelson trumped it. So I switched the 3:2 to Galaxy to Nelson. It came out really good but Nelson still took the lead. I would say smell them first and see how they compare and come up with a ratio you think will give you the best shot at the profile you’d like.

You can even do a mini scaling in .25oz intervals of the hops in a cup, shake them up and smell them blended to see which ratio would work the best and then bump it up to the scale you need for the beer. Not perfect science by any means but it definitely will help guide you

 

[Noob_Brewer]

That's been my exact experience with Riwaka from YVH - huge peppery diesel note that's a bit off-putting. It really overpowered the other half of the dry hop, which was Citra. I think you're on the right path there to get the white wine from Nelson.

Janish came to a similar conclusion in one of his recent blogs:

Thanks for the insight. My Riwaka pale ale only had 2oz in the DH and its great overall. The spicy/pepper/diesel is definitely present but not overpowering, mostly complimentary. But that may be only because I used 2oz lol. Based on my hydrometer sample today (pre-dry hop) with mostly riwaka on hot side, there is really no diesel/pepper so leads me to believe the pepper aspect of riwaka comes from the dry hop side of things. I didn't see that blog, but good reference from what Im experiencing for sure. FWIW, I like some diesel-like qualities from NZ hop varieties, but for this beer, I just don't want it to take the front seat ahead of the white wine/passionfruit Im after from the dry hop. Because I haven't used riwaka with anything else before this beer, my fear is the "diesel" from both riwaka and nelson might be amplified when considered together rather than simplifying my dry hop charges to just nelson and galaxy. I know nelson will give me some diesel punch anyways by itself (at least it did for 2019 lots). Hmmmmm, got a lot to think about here, but its fun trying to figure this all out. Cheers!

 

[Noob_Brewer]

My last double that I did used Riwaka/cascade hotside and Nelson/Galaxy in dryhop. I planned to do a 3:2 ratio of Nelson to Galaxy but out of the bag the 2020 Nelson character was extremely strong (10.4 AA batch believe from YVH.) The Galaxy was great too but the Nelson trumped it. So I switched the 3:2 to Galaxy to Nelson. It came out really good but Nelson still took the lead. I would say smell them first and see how they compare and come up with a ratio you think will give you the best shot at the profile you’d like.

You can even do a mini scaling in .25oz intervals of the hops in a cup, shake them up and smell them blended to see which ratio would work the best and then bump it up to the scale you need for the beer. Not perfect science by any means but it definitely will help guide you

WOW! This is great insight given I haven't used the 2020 lot of Nelson. If anyone would've ever told me that any hop can take the lead over galaxy despite using more galaxy, I wouldn't believe it lol. When you say Nelson trumped it, is this in terms of the white wine aspect or diesel character or both? My hydro sample today was great as it has lots going on and its a beautiful flavor profile overall: has some earthy depth (probably due to columbus) with nice tropical aspect but not one-dimensional. But I want/need the DH to definitely brighten it up some with the passionfruit and white wine characters. Agreed that my final ratio may be based on smelling them out of the bag because, galaxy (from YVH) was hit or miss in terms of potency prior to 2020 IMO, but the 2020 galaxy Ive had was pretty intense and glorious. Haven't opened any bags of nelson 2020 yet. In the end, as long as I keep sound processes to minimize oxygen, Im 100% positive this beer will end up being killer either way, but Im trying my best to be more strategic with my additions now to achieve flavor profiles I am looking for so your assessment of Nelson 2020 is helpful. Thanks again as always man!

 

[HopsAreGood]

WOW! This is great insight given I haven't used the 2020 lot of Nelson. If anyone would've ever told me that any hop can take the lead over galaxy despite using more galaxy, I wouldn't believe it lol. When you say Nelson trumped it, is this in terms of the white wine aspect or diesel character or both? My hydro sample today was great as it has lots going on and its a beautiful flavor profile overall: has some earthy depth (probably due to columbus) with nice tropical aspect but not one-dimensional. But I want/need the DH to definitely brighten it up some with the passionfruit and white wine characters. Agreed that my final ratio may be based on smelling them out of the bag because, galaxy (from YVH) was hit or miss in terms of potency prior to 2020 IMO, but the 2020 galaxy Ive had was pretty intense and glorious. Haven't opened any bags of nelson 2020 yet. In the end, as long as I keep sound processes to minimize oxygen, Im 100% positive this beer will end up being killer either way, but Im trying my best to be more strategic with my additions now to achieve flavor profiles I am looking for so your assessment of Nelson 2020 is helpful. Thanks again as always man!

I’ve used a ton of the 2020 Nelson from YVH and have to say I’ve been underwhelmed. It’s not bad in any way but it’s also not great if I’m being honest. I bought several pounds of it all in 2 oz. packages with plans of doing several Nelson “and another hop” beers but kind of veered away from that.

I’ve done a single hop all Nelson Beer, a Citra/Nelson, a galaxy/strata/Nelson, and a few others where I blended the Nelson in at 20-40%. None of them exhibited the typical white whine characteristic that it’s touted for. Again, in my opinion it’s not bad at all, but if I’m being completely honest..it’s lacked the punch I was hoping for. Your mileage may vary.

I’ll also add that some of the 2019 YVH Nelson did in fact provide some of those characteristics that are so sought after. My processes have remained largely the same.

 

[Dgallo]

WOW! This is great insight given I haven't used the 2020 lot of Nelson. If anyone would've ever told me that any hop can take the lead over galaxy despite using more galaxy, I wouldn't believe it lol. When you say Nelson trumped it, is this in terms of the white wine aspect or diesel character or both?

The pellets smelled great. Very white wine with some pleasant earthiness. It just had a stronger overall aroma than Galaxy. When switching the ratio to lead with Galaxy, the Nelson still lead the flavor but not to an extreme extend (if I kept the original ratio, I think it may have been) In the final beer, it had some underlying earthy-dank/diesel notes but much stronger grape/white wine with complementary passionfruit.

The more Nelson you use, the more machine oil/earthy-dankness you will get, as it’s part of its profile. for reference, I used 6oz of Galaxy and 4 oz of Nelson. If I brewed the beer again I will drop the dryhop to 5.5oz of Galaxy and
2.5oz of Nelson

 

[Noob_Brewer]

I’ve used a ton of the 2020 Nelson from YVH and have to say I’ve been underwhelmed. It’s not bad in any way but it’s also not great if I’m being honest. I bought several pounds of it all in 2 oz. packages with plans of doing several Nelson “and another hop” beers but kind of veered away from that.

I’ve done a single hop all Nelson Beer, a Citra/Nelson, a galaxy/strata/Nelson, and a few others where I blended the Nelson in at 20-40%. None of them exhibited the typical white whine characteristic that it’s touted for. Again, in my opinion it’s not bad at all, but if I’m being completely honest..it’s lacked the punch I was hoping for. Your mileage may vary.

I’ll also add that some of the 2019 YVH Nelson did in fact provide some of those characteristics that are so sought after. My processes have remained largely the same.

Interesting, but what a gut punch/downer eh? Seems based on peoples experiences here that the 2020 Nelson may simply be more inconsistent than 2019 when I always got the white wine with NZ diesel that I loved. So I guess this is where the "art of brewing" comes into play. My 2020 lots of galaxy, riwaka, and nelson are all in 2oz packs, so if/when it comes time to DH, Ill bust them open and smell em to decide. My palate/nose is still in "training" lol but it is obvious to me at the extremes for sure.

 

[Noob_Brewer]

The pellets smelled great. Very white wine with some pleasant earthiness. It just had a stronger overall aroma than Galaxy. When switching the ratio to lead with Galaxy, the Nelson still lead the flavor but not to an extreme extend (if I kept the original ratio, I think it may have been) In the final beer, it had some underlying earthy-dank/diesel notes but much stronger grape/white wine with complementary passionfruit.

The more Nelson you use, the more machine oil/earthy-dankness you will get, as it’s part of its profile. for reference, I used 6oz of Galaxy and 4 oz of Nelson. If I brewed the beer again I will drop the dryhop to 5.5oz of Galaxy and
2.5oz of Nelson

Thanks again! Yeah my beer clocked in at 7.5% so Im calling that a "low" double IPA lol. So will be sticking with 7.5-8oz DH which for me adds plenty of aroma/flavor and I feel like Ive built a solid flavor profile on the hot side thus far too. Will keep ya'll posted on what I decide when I open up some 2oz hop packs!

 

[HopsAreGood]

Interesting, but what a gut punch/downer eh? Seems based on peoples experiences here that the 2020 Nelson may simply be more inconsistent than 2019 when I always got the white wine with NZ diesel that I loved. So I guess this is where the "art of brewing" comes into play. My 2020 lots of galaxy, riwaka, and nelson are all in 2oz packs, so if/when it comes time to DH, Ill bust them open and smell em to decide. My palate/nose is still in "training" lol but it is obvious to me at the extremes for sure.

Sorry for the gut punch...not my intention at all. Just sharing my experience. The Nelson you have may be incredible. Report back and let us know how it goes.