Many of my brewing ideas come from trying a great commercial beer and wanting to replicate its flavors at home. Today’s subject is Sapwood’s The Dragon which used a hop blend that I had never tried before: Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, and Hallertau Blanc.

Both Nelson Sauvin and Hallertau Blanc are typically described as having wine-like qualities. Nelson Sauvin in particular has a reputation for being very unique, and a bit polarizing. I thought The Dragon was delicious though, so I guess I might be a fan.

This won’t be a clone, just a recipe inspired by the hop blend from the original.

Recipe

This recipe is based on what has been my default NEIPA pattern these days: ~6.5% abv, ~60 IBU, and a 1:2 whirlpool to dry hop ratio.

(I like my NEIPAs a little on the bitter side, adjust the bittering charge to your tastes)

Some deviations from the original beer

• Lower gravity for a final abv of 6.5% instead of 8.2%
• I’m just making some wild guesses at the IBUs and hop ratios
• No rye. I’m using wheat and oats instead. I would’ve liked to try some rye in this but it wasn’t worth a trip to the homebrew store on its own. I already had everything else on hand.

Batch size:      5.25 gallons
Target OG:       1.062
Target FG:       1.014
Calculated IBU:  61.0
Calculated SRM:  4.1

Grain bill:
10 lb  US 2-Row      (83.4%)
1 lb   Wheat Malt    (8.3%)
1 lb   Flaked Oats   (8.3%)

Mash (Batch Sparge): 152 °F @ 1.5 qts/lb

Hops:
0.75 oz Columbus @ 30 minutes

25 minute hop stand starting at 190 °F
- 2 oz Mosaic
- 1 oz Hallertau Blanc
- 1 oz Nelson Sauvin

Dry hop 3 days into fermentation
- 2 oz Mosaic
- 1 oz Hallertau Blanc
- 1 oz Nelson Sauvin

Dry hop near the end of primary, or keg hop
- 2 oz Mosaic
- 1 oz Hallertau Blanc
- 1 oz Nelson Sauvin

Yeast:
3rd generation harvested Imperial Dry Hop (A24)
Most of a 2L starter (stir plate)
Saved a bit of the starter for future use

Notes

2020-07-26 - Brew day. Thought the grains looked a bit too intact after milling, but I left them alone because last time I double milled, I overshot my gravity target significantly.

Pre boil gravity ended up being quite low. Originally I was planning on just a 30 minute boil, but I lengthened it a bit and added 10 oz DME and 6oz dextrose (trying to keep the wort pretty fermentable). New target OG after my on the fly changes was 1.060, good enough. Guess I need to adjust my mill a bit.

Steeped whirlpool hops for 25 minutes. Stirred at 10 mins. Started whirlpool at 190 °F, at 10mins it was down to 180 °F, and at 25 mins it was 168 °F.

Actual OG 1.061. Chilled to 70 °F. Pitched yeast. Fermenting at 70 °F in the fermentation fridge.

2020-07-29 - Added the first dry hops loose in the primary fermenter instead using my traditional 80 micron nylon bag. I’m going to try putting the fine bag over my siphon when transferring instead.

2020-08-02 - Added second dry hops loose in primary with half of a crushed campden tablet (for its antioxidant properties). Will keg in a few days.

2020-08-06 - FG 1.013, 6.5% abv. Kegged with half a campden tablet. I wanted to keg a couple days earlier but the yeast was taking a while to wrap up fermentation.

Some of the hops were still floating when I kegged. Annoying! I think next time I’ll go back to using weighted bags for primary dry hopping

2020-10-08 - This kicked a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. It was a unique blend, though not totally out there weird. After this, I’m surprised at what a polarizing reputation nelson has. It just seems good to me. I’d like to experiment with using higher percentages of it in the future.

This was the first IPA I’ve made in a long time that didn’t get keg hops. All the dry hopping was in the primary fermenter. The intensity of the dry hops was excellent. I was ready to say “See keg hopping is the only way to go!", but really I think this was indistinguishable from my keg hopped beers. The sulfites I added with the hop additions may have helped. I don’t think I’ll keg hop nearly as frequently from here out.