How best to use my Nelson Sauvin Hops

[Jon _DH]

Hi All,

I have brewed half a dozen or so AG brews and all going well. Been using the Graham Wheeler book and copying or tweaking the receipes in there.

Like a lot of us I am huge fan of big hoppy beers, like Punk IPA, Thornbridge Jaipur etc so have recently taken arrival of some new hops, Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo, to start giving my beers a bit much punch.

All the receipes in the GW book follow the standard start of boil hops / end of boil hops process whereas I notice receipes for most 'hoppy' beers put in hops at many more stages through the boil. So what I really want to know is how much and when in the boil should I use hops to get the sort of hop profile in the beer i like? For info I have 200g of NS and 100g of Amarillo.

Hoping brew this weekend so any advice this week much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dunfie]

Nelson Sauvin are fantastic for giving a big citrussy, gooseberry hit to your beer. It is also a constituent part of Punk IPA so you will recognise the flavour when you try it.

I think you just need to experiment with some brews to see how you get the best out of the hop but here is a suggestion to get you thinking. I tend to pile them in at the end of a American Pale Ale so you might want to think of something with an OG of around 1055 (mainly pale malts and adjuncts). Bitter hops (your choice) to about 40IBU at the start of the boil. I would then stick to a single hop for bittering and flavour

eg

20g NS @ 15 mins from end of boil
30g NS @ 5 mins from end of boil
50g NS @ flame out

Leave for 20-30 mins and then chill.

I would also use an american ale yeast like US-05 or WLP001 and ferment at around 18C if possible.

 

[robsan77]

Best thing with those hops is not to bother. Just send them to me and I'll dispose of them for you

 

[Jon _DH]

Thanks Dunfie. I was planning on basically cloning the Summer Lightening receipe in the GW book I have already tried (100% Pale Malt) and i'll then follow your suggested hop ratio for flavour hops -will probably leave the Amarillo and go 100% NS.

Robsan - thanks if i don't like it i'll send the rest of the hops your way!

 

[richc]

What I've done with NS before is not actually put any hops into the boil until 20-30 minutes from the end, then throw in loads to get the bitterness you want. This allows you to put in a lot of high alpha hops without bittering to much giving maximum flavour and aroma.