Verdant Putty

[Joetp]

How did the NEIPA turn out, and was it the one from Gash on Homebrew Network? I'm planning to brew the 'Even Sharks Need Water' recipe from Verdant next week, can't wait. Please do post the Putty recipe if it works. I had a few from Verdant in Jan, an IPA mix, a DIPA mix, and a 6 pack of Putty, all excellent and all subtly different. I thought the Don't Tell Gus and Maybe One more PSI DIPA's were excellent, and the Random Rules slightly weaker (still 6.5%) one of the best of the lot, although it was also the first one I tried so possibly elevated due to that!

I'm literally drinking a Putty as we speak! Super nice. I had a variety of different beers from Verdant, and couldn't help but think they are all very similar. Subtle differences as you say, but they definitely have a specialty and a certain character that dominates across the range!

 

[Kye]

I'm literally drinking a Putty as we speak! Super nice. I had a variety of different beers from Verdant, and couldn't help but think they are all very similar. Subtle differences as you say, but they definitely have a specialty and a certain character that dominates across the range!

jealous! finished mine last week. I'm drinking the last bottle of my Verdant IPA brew courtesy of David Heath. It's really good. 1st try and think it could be better but a really nice drink.

 

[Joetp]

jealous! finished mine last week. I'm drinking the last bottle of my Verdant IPA brew courtesy of David Heath. It's really good. 1st try and think it could be better but a really nice drink.

Looks good man! Is it this one? - Might give this a bash as I have the ingredients to hand if so (minus the yeast, but I'll probs just use US-05)

 

[Kye]

Looks good man! Is it this one? - Might give this a bash as I have the ingredients to hand if so (minus the yeast, but I'll probs just use US-05)

yep that's the one, he makes a big deal of the impact of the yeast esters so you'll defo get a different beer with us-05 as I think its a cleaner yeast (happy to be put wrong there as I've never actually used it), but give it a go if you have the ingredients. Personally it's quite bitter and I prefer really low IBU, I think this came in at nearly 40. But its a really nice drink and I smashed the whole keg pretty quick (had a few bottles too)

 

[BlackRegent]

@Kye

Good timing as I've just been drinking the neipa. I'm really pleased with it and I'll try and give you a proper write up over the weekend.

 

[Thebiggestal]

Hi all,

putty was great but did anyone try 40 watt moon? That was superb.

 

[Kye]

Hi all,

putty was great but did anyone try 40 watt moon? That was superb.

not yet, i did see it but couldn't justify any more spend after such a big haul last month! birthday's coming up though...

 

[BlackRegent]

As promised (albeit late), here's a review of the oat cream NEIPA I did.

To keep it related to the thread, I thought I would do a side by side comparison with Putty. I was pretty pleased with this effort and I was interested to see how it compared on a taste test where you could go from one to the other. I appreciate it's not a direct comparison as their makeup is totally different - mine used lactose and was hopped with Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe, with a little bit of Magnum in the boil for bitterness. Putty is hopped with Azacca, Galaxy and Mosaic.

As @Kye predicted, my recipe was an adapted version of the Home Brew Network's 3 oat cream NEIPA. I ditched the oat flour and reworked the hopping schedule and water profile, however.

Here they are side by side - Putty is on the left and mine is on the right...

Let's go through some criteria.

Colour

The image makes them look very similar in colour and appearance. However, in real life Putty was a far more attractive bright ochre colour which let some light through, whereas mine was much more opaque and almost chalky in its appearance. I deliberately didn't use protafloc in the boil to increase the protein content, but I think it took it too far in the other direction. Based on this experience, I will go back to using protafloc on NEIPAs. Putty is hands down the winner here.

Head Retention

This is probably the only category where mine was noticeably better. Much better head retention and lacing down the glass. Both glasses were cleaned with hot water only so I don't think the condition of the glass was an explanation.

Aroma

Lovely tropical fruit punch aroma off Putty, with pineapple, mango and citrus coming through. I have to say mine wasn't bad though! You can smell it being poured through the tap.

Mouthfeel

This is probably my greatest improvement on this batch. The mouthfeel had the full, silken texture that you expect from a NEIPA which I hadn't fully achieved before. The chloride to sulphate ratio was nuts (something like 20:1) and I took this steer from the very generous information given by James Heffron on the Malt Miller advert for the Sharks kit. If anything, the mouthfeel on mine was fuller and a little oilier that Putty and for sheer drinkability I preferred Putty, with the slightly thinner mouthfeel improving the overall experience. It was helpful to compare them because it made me realise that there is a limit to mouthfeel, beyond which it get a little too much.

Taste

This was where Putty simply disappeared into the distance. Putty was bright, fresh and with huge citrus zest. Mine was a little dank, with more piney tones. I appreciate this is partly due to hop choice, but the brightness of flavour didn't compare. Putty was out of sight on this one. There was also more residual sweetness in mine, no doubt due to the lactose. I have to say I prefer the unadulterated fruit freshness, so I might skip the lactose in the next batch.

So - the comparison confirmed what you're probably thinking was blindingly obvious - Putty is way better! Can you brew an enjoyable, quality NEIPA at home on equipment available to most - yes definitely. Can you compete with the big boys? Probably not! But I'll keep trying.

 

[Kye]

As promised (albeit late), here's a review of the oat cream NEIPA I did.

To keep it related to the thread, I thought I would do a side by side comparison with Putty. I was pretty pleased with this effort and I was interested to see how it compared on a taste test where you could go from one to the other. I appreciate it's not a direct comparison as their makeup is totally different - mine used lactose and was hopped with Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe, with a little bit of Magnum in the boil for bitterness. Putty is hopped with Azacca, Galaxy and Mosaic.

As @Kye predicted, my recipe was an adapted version of the Home Brew Network's 3 oat cream NEIPA. I ditched the oat flour and reworked the hopping schedule and water profile, however.

Here they are side by side - Putty is on the left and mine is on the right...

View attachment 41569

Let's go through some criteria.

Colour

The image makes them look very similar in colour and appearance. However, in real life Putty was a far more attractive bright ochre colour which let some light through, whereas mine was much more opaque and almost chalky in its appearance. I deliberately didn't use protafloc in the boil to increase the protein content, but I think it took it too far in the other direction. Based on this experience, I will go back to using protafloc on NEIPAs. Putty is hands down the winner here.

Head Retention

This is probably the only category where mine was noticeably better. Much better head retention and lacing down the glass. Both glasses were cleaned with hot water only so I don't think the condition of the glass was an explanation.

Aroma

Lovely tropical fruit punch aroma off Putty, with pineapple, mango and citrus coming through. I have to say mine wasn't bad though! You can smell it being poured through the tap.

Mouthfeel

This is probably my greatest improvement on this batch. The mouthfeel had the full, silken texture that you expect from a NEIPA which I hadn't fully achieved before. The chloride to sulphate ratio was nuts (something like 20:1) and I took this steer from the very generous information given by James Heffron on the Malt Miller advert for the Sharks kit. If anything, the mouthfeel on mine was fuller and a little oilier that Putty and for sheer drinkability I preferred Putty, with the slightly thinner mouthfeel improving the overall experience. It was helpful to compare them because it made me realise that there is a limit to mouthfeel, beyond which it get a little too much.

Taste

This was where Putty simply disappeared into the distance. Putty was bright, fresh and with huge citrus zest. Mine was a little dank, with more piney tones. I appreciate this is partly due to hop choice, but the brightness of flavour didn't compare. Putty was out of sight on this one. There was also more residual sweetness in mine, no doubt due to the lactose. I have to say I prefer the unadulterated fruit freshness, so I might skip the lactose in the next batch.

So - the comparison confirmed what you're probably thinking was blindingly obvious - Putty is way better! Can you brew an enjoyable, quality NEIPA at home on equipment available to most - yes definitely. Can you compete with the big boys? Probably not! But I'll keep trying.

Thanks for the detailed write up @BlackRegent , appreciate you posting this. Sounds like a success to me - would be pretty hard to get close to Verdant given their experience etc. As you say keep trying, there will be tweaks you can make as you mention above that will make it better each time.

I've got my Sharks brew in the Fermzilla now. Dry hopped with 180g of Citra and 120g of Galaxy yesterday through the (purged) collection jar after removing the yeast. I've never tried such a massive dry hop and it looks to have completely clogged the collection jar now and the hop matter is coming right up to the 4 litre mark. I roused it by pumping CO2 through the jar a few times yesterday and today to try and move the hops but they're pretty settled now. I'll cold crash tonight and keg tomorrow, hoping I don't lose a load of the brew to the hop matter.

The other slightly weird thing is I've put 5psi in several times and lose the pressure after a couple of hours (have a spunding valve set at over 10psi). I can't see any leaks and have sprayed sanitiser on the carbonation caps/seals etc to check. Is this just the liquid absorbing the CO2 maybe?

Will post when it's done, looking forward to the weekend!

 

[Keruso]

Funny isn’t it, I had my first putty this weekend. Not much change from £10, I have to say I’m fed up with hazy hoppy NEIPAs but putty was probably the best NEIPA I’ve had, has a citrus effervescence that was really good. I have a Hoppin Frog Goose Juice clone in the keg, much more a west coast IPA which I think I prefer, it’s a style thing for me.

 

[chillipickle]

The hops are greedy, they soak the beer up.My last neipa i went 20g/ltr and out of the 23ltr in the snubnose i lost probably 4.5ltrs.
Your co2 is almost certainly being absorbed.

I set my pressure to 5psi for the first dry hop day 2, then let the pressure rise to 10psi for the second dry hop.The pressure slowly went back to 10psi before the 3 day cold crash, and was left with about 4 psi.

 

[aaronm13]

Finally picked up this bad boy. The Mosaic is way stronger in the flavor than Galaxy. Going to make an attempt at this next weekend now so I can compare while it's still fresh in my head.

 

[An Ankoù]

That reminds me, I've got a litre of pressed orange juice in the fridge that needs drinking up.

 

[aaronm13]

Brewed my attempt at Putty yesterday. So we'll see in a few weeks how it measures up.

 

[Braindead]

What did you think of this years Putty?
Found it better than last years but not living upto the hype.
Found the latest Pomona Island stuff knocks spots off it.

 

[aaronm13]

It's a great beer but slightly hyped. The Mosaic seemed a bit stronger than last years which seemed more Galaxy forward. To be honest I think Allan is a better beer. Picked up another two of them today along with Gus which is probably as good.

Pomona Island are a great brewery. The Uvava and Eranu that was released just before Christmas were great.

 

[BlackRegent]

This year's now live on the website

 

[Pavros]

Aaaaaaaaand it's sold out now.

 

[Joetp]

For anyone from Sheffield or nearby, The Rutland Arms are having a Putty launch party and is going to have it on tap from 5pm on Friday.

 

[Sadfield]

As the beeb would say '... other hop custards are available'.