NZ Pale Ale Recipe Advice

[Cozzyb]

I'd remove the Amarillo myself, it may clash a little with the nz hops plus you want to be able to tell what those lovely nz hops brought forward, I loved a nelson sau beer I made.

[AdyG]

I'd remove the Amarillo myself, it may clash a little with the nz hops plus you want to be able to tell what those lovely nz hops brought forward, I loved a nelson sau beer I made.

Yeah I agree, Amarillo has been dropped so it will be all NZ as the original plan. I will work out a proper hop schedule this week and post it.

[AdyG]

Right, after much thought I've decided on a hop schedule for my NZ pale. I'm doing it as a 25L BIAB with original recipe aiming at 5.5% ABV and 40 IBU so I'm about right, although the hops look a bit light compared to US IPAs... but I have been warned not to over do it with these NZ hops incase it is too overpowering or turns grassy.

It also said to dry hop at a rate of 5g/litre equal parts of Moteuka, Wai-iti and Pacific Jade... but that would be 125g which I think might be too much for NZ hops. I'm going for half that as it's my first go with them.

Batch Size (fermenter): 25.00 l
Mash Time: 90 min
Boil Time: 90 min

Ingredients

5.00 kg Pale Malt 78.7 %
0.65 kg Munich Malt 10.2 %
0.50 kg Caramalt 7.9 %
0.20 kg Crystal Malt - 10L 3.1 %

15.00 g Green Bullet [13.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min
10.00 g Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min

20.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min
15.00 g Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min

3.00 g Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining

20.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
20.00 g Wai-iti [3.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
10.00 g Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min

1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale

20.00 g Motueka [7.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Wai-iti [3.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %
Bitterness: 42.2 IBUs
Est Color: 12.4 EBC

Any comments or advice welcome

[AdyG]

Right, I'm brewing this tomorrow at a mini beerfest as a demo, we are trying to get friends who are real ale drinkers into brewing.

I will post an update when the beer is ready.

[AdyG]

Just to update on progress as I'm really happy with the way this ones going, and the taste from the NZ hops when sipping out the trial jar is amazing... it's got a hoppy tang like nothing I've brewed before.

I ended up dry hopping in 2 stages with the first stage of 60g equal mix of Motueka/ Wai-iti/ Pacific Jade going in at a gravity of 1018 in the first fv, then once final gravity was reached and fermentation had stopped I transferred to the 2nd fv with the same amount of hops added. Both dry hop batches were pureed with a bit of the beer and stirred in. The 120g of hops will remain in there for a total of 7 days, so will be strained and transferred to the bottling fv to rest for a few days before finally bottling.

Really can't wait to try this one after 4 weeks in a bottle!

[CestrIan]

I'm not sure I've ever waited 4 weeks to try a beer. If I knew where you lived there'd be nothing left after a fortnight!! Sounds lush!

[AdyG]

I'm not sure I've ever waited 4 weeks to try a beer. If I knew where you lived there'd be nothing left after a fortnight!! Sounds lush!

Hopefully I have enough beer to see me through until it's ready! I will be trying the odd one before then... purely for quality control purposes of course!

[Cpt.Frederickson]

That looks really spot on Ady, I've not tried any NZ hops so far but I'm definitely going to give this a go before the summer is out. I think the only modification I might make is to lower the crystals a bit but that's only because I like my beer pretty dry. Let us know how the two stage dry hop works out though, sounds like a technique worth experimenting with.

[AdyG]

That looks really spot on Ady, I've not tried any NZ hops so far but I'm definitely going to give this a go before the summer is out. I think the only modification I might make is to lower the crystals a bit but that's only because I like my beer pretty dry. Let us know how the two stage dry hop works out though, sounds like a technique worth experimenting with.

I bottled 40 pints of it last night, still a bit cloudy but doesn't look like it has any hops left in it. It has a really great taste from the little sample I had, hoppy but not in the same way as the US fruity hops... time will tell. I will update in a few weeks when it's ready for drinking, but hoping this will be a good one!

[seymour]

...It has a really great taste from the little sample I had, hoppy but not in the same way as the US fruity hops...

Sure sounds promising, nice work there!

[AdyG]

...It has a really great taste from the little sample I had, hoppy but not in the same way as the US fruity hops...

Sure sounds promising, nice work there!

Cheers Seymour! I can't wait to try it...

[AdyG]

I thought I had better update this thread to say that I have now sampled a bottle of this, and it's a really nice pint! It's approximately 5 weeks old but expecting to maybe get even better with the hop flavours coming out a bit more.

It's a nice balanced rounded ale, the NZ hops weren't as extreme as I was expecting considering the amount that went in! They seem lighter and zestier than US hops like Simcoe and Amarillo, but still give off plenty of aroma and flavour.

As I still have quite a lot of different NZ hops left I might try a new world hopped IPA at some point like beers from Kernel Brewery or Blue Monkey with a US/NZ hop blend.