Birthday Brew #2: Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale

Obligatory hydrometer shot

The original extract version of this beer was one of my early brews in 2010. At the time I didn't know that different hops could have different levels of bitterness let alone what alpha acids were. For about 7 or 8 batches I brewed the same pale ale with different varieties of hops. The first 5 or so worked well because the hops all had an AA% fairly close to the original recipe, the 2 after that I used Saaz and East Kent Golding. They didn't give anywhere near enough bitterness but it did force me to work out what was going on.

Nelson Sauvin was a revelation. That crazy fruity aroma climbed out as soon as the bottle was opened. So fresh and bold. Of course there were plenty of commercial hoppy beers around but there weren't many highly hopped beers brewed in Tasmania and the hoppy beers from outside the state tend to lack something in the freshness department. Now I take the freshness of home brew for granted but it was so exciting back then.

The spine of the recipe is essentially the same as the wedding pale ale except that the gravity was increased slightly and the Crackerjack biscuit malt in the wedding beer was replaced with Victory in this one. The hopping rate is similar to the original extract recipe with the dry hops increased a bit.


Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale (22L batch)

Jason hard at work

OG: 1.054 (1.057 measured)
FG: 1.010 (1.011 measured)
IBU: 44 (estimated)
EBC: 12
ABV: 5.8% (6.1% measured)

95% Golden Promise
5% Victory malt

10g Nelson Sauvin @ 60 minutes
20g Nelson Sauvin @ 15 minutes
40g Nelson Sauvin @ 0 minutes
60g Nelson Sauvin @ dry hop

Estimated pitch of 230 billion cells of WLP 090

I added 9g CaSO4, 3g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 to up the calcium and lean the Cl2:SO4 ratio towards the sulphate and hoppiness. I also added 150g of acidulated malt to adjust the mash pH.

Stepped mash: 64C (45 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) and a 78C mash out.

21/12/13 - Brewed with Jason and Huw

01/01/14 - Dry hopped with 60g Nelson Sauvin

04/01/14 - Bottled

48 bottles ready for the birthday bash!