Too much NS = onion?

[JaseH]

I just brewed a Black IPA hopped entirely with Nelson Sauvin, inspired by Kooinda's Black IPA.

I amped it up a bit though - from my previous IPA experiences I found that with more complex malt in the background you tend to need more hops to cut through. So I went all out and dry hopped with about 3.5gm/l of NS.

Now I'm regretting it, I've tried it after a week in the keg and I get a big initial whack of onion/raw garlic type flavor from the dry hopping. Is this what happens when you over do the late NS? I'm hoping it will mellow out a bit with some time?

 

[Phillo]

Wow. Never had that. Whenever I have used too much NS (don't use it at all now) I just get a passion-pop, white wine type flavour. :icon_vomit:

 

[GalBrew]

That's a shiteload of NS there. I have never had the onion thing going on, but at those hopping levels I would expect it to go down like razor blades. I imagine it will drop out a little over time though.

 

[Dave70]

Yuk.
I've heard Vinnie Cilurzo describe Columbus and Tomahawk in this fashion (in a nice way), but that's it.
Never had it from NS myself.

 

[QldKev]

Only time I've known a onion / garlic taste was from those Chinese hops. Did you recently find a new hop supplier?

 

[JaseH]

Yeah I new I was going way over the top with the dry hopping but was hoping for the best! For me Kooinda was a bit underhopped for an IPA! The typical NS gooseberry/white wine is there in the background, there's just a harsh - best I can describe it is spring onion like flavor up front. I've sensed something subtly similar in some other highly hopped beers but not as prominent as this.

I dry hopped twice, half for a little over a week added at about 1.020 and the other half for 3 days just prior to cold crashing. Hops were from my usual supplier, never had a problem with any of their fresh ingredients before. I know NS tends to change a little with age so I'm hoping it mellows a bit with time!?

 

[krausenhaus]

I did get onion from NS once. I hopped pretty aggressively but didn't have the malt bill to back it up. I've used more than that in the past, but in a big IPA and didn't pick up any onion. I can't remember if it cleared up or not, I think I might've ended up tipping the keg because it was such a shit beer.

 

[mabrungard]

A recent revelation for me was that onion and garlic perceptions seem to be short-lived in the glass. I've had several Mosaic hopped beers that initially presented onion and garlic but those perceptions faded after a minute in the glass and left the fruity notes.

Do try a glass with some swirling and time to see if it dissipates.

 

[bradmccoy]

I recently brewed with NS and Motueka together. There is a slight savoury note there (not sure if I would call it onion), but I'm not sure which hop it's from. I dry hopped with 30g of each and probably left it in too long (two weeks).

 

[JaseH]

Well a couple of weeks in and this is starting to come good, the spring onion is still there for me but its not as offensive now and starting to move more towards the typical NS flavor that I was aiming for. I'm thinking maybe I just found the upper limit of NS dry hopping?