Summer Passion

[chuck_d]

Hey Folks,

I just received a big old package of hops from Craftbrewer, a bunch of varieties I've never used, some I'd never heard of. What's got me going is all this talk of peach, stone fruit, melon, passion fruit, all these summer fruit flavors. I recently picked up some of Rogue's yeast, Pacman, which to me produces some wonderful fruity esters. Having no experience with these hops, I've come to the folks with experience.

Here's what I'm working with so far.

10 gallons of finished beer (37.85 L)
10.6 gallons post-boil (40.2 L)
12.4 gallons pre-boil (47 L)

Malt:
15 lbs (6.8 kg) Golden Promise Malt
5 lbs (2.3 kg) Munich 8
1 lb (0.5 kg) Caramel Munich 40


Hops:
FWH Nelson Sauvin 2 oz (56.7 g) 35 IBU (or 18 IBU depending how you count FWH)
60 min Nelson Sauvin 1 oz (28.3 g) 15 IBU
10 min D Saaz 1 oz (28.3 g) 2.5 IBU
0 min Summer Saaz 1 oz (28.3 g) 0 IBU


Yeast:
Wyeast 1764 Rogue Pacman


Color: 7 SRM (14 EBC)
OG: 1.063 (15.4)
FG: 1.017 (4.2)
IBU: 52 (35 depending how you count FWH)
ABV: 5.7

I'll probably play around with the grain bill some more, but my main questions are about how to use the hops. I know that NS can take some time to mellow and so I plan to age this ale a bit longer than usual. Because of their high alpha, I've decided to use them at my bitter additions of 60 & first wort hopping. FWH is said to produce a flavor like a 20 minute addition, so I figure I'm getting some flavor from it which I want to try. D Saaz is supposed to have stone fruity flavors, so I'm putting that at 10, but maybe I should push it back to 15? What about the Summer Saaz. Passion fruit, melon aromas sound awesome to me. So I put those at flameout, I use an plate chiller, so the wort in the kettle stays hot while I pump it through my chiller into my fermenter, which means I should get some extra aroma pulled out than if I was using and IC. But do you guys think I should boil the Summer Saaz?

Aight, yeah, I probably have more questions, but I shouldn't ramble too much.

 

[jonocarroll]

I'm pretty new to these myself, but if you ask me;

The NS aroma is to die for - passionfruit and apricot - don't waste it on bittering. If you've done Ross' Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale you'll know what it's like :icon_drool2:

I've tried a beer with 100% summer saaz and it was certainly less floral/fruity than the NS. More earthy I think. Depending on the style you're going for (and what the alpha acids are), I'd say swap the NS and the SS. DS optional.

If you want an APA degree of aroma, dry hop with NS - you won't regret it.