AG#56 – C.N.S Hops²

Posted by: pdtnc on: May 28, 2011

• In: Brewing
• 3 Comments

C.N.S Hops² – For today’s brew I had the company of Gordon from Elland Brewery, we’d sorted our recipe idea via email using an interesting selection of Cara-Crystal style malts for a ‘hopefully’ multi-layered maltiness with a host of New-world hops. The Bittering addition was to be Pacific Gem & Magnum with the Citra, Nelson Sauvin & Simcoe as a 80c Steep… though… Just a slight hiccup, and subsequent name change, not a major problem just a bit more bitterness than planned 🙂 I managed to throw in the 80c steep hops as First Wort Hops!! (Doh!)
So the beer has been rationalised with its hop varieties now and about 30 EBU’s higher than the original idea.

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 78%
Vienna Malt – 10%
Cara Red – 4%
Crystal Malt, Extra Dark – 4%
Cara Munich Type III – 4%

Hops:
Citra – 9.5 % @ 60 mins – 30g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin – 11.3 % @ 60 mins – 40g (FWH)
Simcoe – 12.9 % @ 60 mins – 20g (FWH)
Citra – 13.8 % @ 0 mins – 25g (80c Steep for 30 mins)
Nelson Sauvin 11.7 % @ 0 mins – 41g (80c Steep for 30 mins)
Simcoe – 12.2 % @ 0 mins – 20g (80c Steep for 30 mins)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.057 (actually missed this, and got maybe 1050-ish)
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 5.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 13.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 94 EBU
Colour: 55 EBC

The rest of the day was myself & Gordon chatting about brewing and beer, tasting a few of my homebrews and a few commercial beers. Thanks go to my brew-monkey for the name change from P.M.C.N.S to C.N.S Hops²  (Hops Squared).

Some of the Hops being weighed out:

The regular Mash Tun in the 3-Tier Setup:

First Wort hops should have been Pacific Gem & Magnum (oops!):

Good rolling boil with the chiller in to sterilise:

Think I may have over-sparged a litre or so due to being too busy nattering:

Hop Left-overs and Trub, now going into my new Compost Bin:

A good day, fairly simple recipe, fairly simple brewers! Good to see you again Gordon.
Probably not going to dry hop, though I may do a small trial with some Styrian Hop oil from The Malt Miller cheers for the freebie, dry hopping with drops… weird!! Cheers Rob.

*Bottled 12th Jun ’11 with 75g of White sugar

*17th Jun ’11 Early taster!!
This is a week-ish in the bottle so far, so a very early taster. Dropped bright and is a lovely amber-red colour.
It has a very full on juicy fruit aroma followed by a good fruitiness in the mouth and a smooth teeth sucking / coating bitterness, maybe just a tiny hint of alcohol warmth.
The flavour is one that lingers on the pallet, bitterness is quite balanced and the body good.
I think you get a bit of malt on the nose too.

Aroma = Spot on.
Flavour = Just a bit green, one more week and it will be getting good.
Bitterness/Body = balanced, maybe it will dry out as it matures.

*26th June ’11
This tastes bloody good now!! Very nice.. Mmmmm Bitterness just where it should be, nice body and fruity and feck Mmmm!

Tags: AG#56 - C.N.S Hops², all grain, brew monkey, brewday, cara munich type III, Cara Red, citra, craft beer, extra dark crystal malt, full mash, garage brewer, home brew, hops, hops squared, malt, nelson sauvin, pale malt, safale us-05, Simcoe, us-05, vienna malt, yeast