I have brewed this nice Trillium Streets inspired NEIPA with Nectaron.
"It tastes like tropical fruit juice! Mango, grape, pineapple, passion fruit. Easy drinking. This sh** is dangerous!"
RAW (No boil)
In WP kettle: 21 L (5.5 us gallons)
Into fermenter: 18.5-19 L (5 us gallons)
Into dry hop keg: 16.0-16.5 L
Into serving keg: 14.0 L
Water profile:
Ca 115 | Mg 15 | Na 100 | SO4 50 | Cl 200
OG: 1070
FG: 1013
ABV: 7.5
Mash: 62C 60min
Mash out: 76C 15min (169F) for pasteurization.
Pale Ale malt: 4500g
Wheat malt: 1000g
Honig malt: 300g
Chit malt: 200g
Table sugar: 250g
Mash hops: 18g Columbus (2018)
WP hops at 76C (mash out temp): 90g Columbus (2020)
WP hops at 42C: 35g Columbus (2019)
DH: 150g Nectaron (2020), 25g Columbus (2020)
Ascorbic acid, 1g, with DH
Citric acid, 0.5g, with DH
Yeast nutrient, boiled 10 min and added to WP kettle.
Yeast:
Mangrove Jacks M66 Hophead Ale Yeast (yeast and enzyme blend), 1 pkg, rehydrated with GoFerm.
Pitch 23C (73F)
Fermentation 19C (66F) for 7 days
Fermentation 23C (73F) for 3 days, PRV 1 bar.
Cold crash at -1C for 3 days.
Heat to 16C. Closed transfer to (fermentation purged) dry hop keg. Started a new cold crash right away. Shaked to 10 min after 4 hours (was chilled to 9C at that point in time) and force carbonated at the same time. Continued cold crash.
Cold crash at -1C for 4 days (still on dry hop).
Closed transfer to purged serving keg.
I tasted it before dry hopping: Not much aroma. Nice yellow. Not a hint of orange. Stable head. Solid haze. Taste: A little anonymous but dank base. Not much complexity. Burns a little (but is of course not ready yet). Suitable bitterness level. The M66 yeast comes with enzymes. But I can not point out anything in this beer that could be related to that enzyme activity.
Tasted again the day for the transfer to the serving keg: Zero hop burn. Ready to drink. Beautiful yellow. Mild aroma. Mild taste. Light body (relative to the style). Nice spring beer. Suitable and balanced bitterness in the aftertaste for my personal preference. The main contribution to the bitterness in this beer is not alpha acids but other different hop compounds. The bitterness is different from the bitterness from boiled hops. Different from what you normally find in a beer, but still balance out the sweetness.
It smells and tastes like tropical fruit juice! Mango, grape, pineapple, passion fruit. Easy drinking. This sh** is dangerous.
I think I will go back to S-33, which is my favorite NEIPA yeast until now (out of LA3, S-04, Lallemand NE, Horningdal kveik) given its incredible ability to boost aroma. S-33 will also result in a higher FG, which might give the beer a bit more body. I will also let the beer stay on DH at 16C for 4 hours before I start shaking and cold crashing hoping for more intense taste. I might also back down on the WP amount given the latest discussions in this thread, and the kind of disappointing tasting notes from the tasting before dry hopping.