Fresh Hops and Stouts

It's harvest time here in New Zealand for Hops, and I was able to get hold of some very very fresh Nelson Sauvin Hops, still on the vine. So we decided to brew two beers with them,

The first a Pale Ale, with some extra Southern Cross Finney had freshly picked, along side the wet Nelson hops. The second was a little more ambitious, an American styled Brown Ale, with all the hops we could fit in the kettle. All of which was brewed in one day on the new fancy Grainfather system, that is now available.
BUT MORE ON THOSE IN ANOTHER POST:

Onto my review of the American Stout brewed, as per my previous post.
FV: 21 Litres
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.017
Yeast: WLP090 San-Diego
Hops: Nelson Sauvin and Centennial
Malts: Pale, Rye, Roast Barley Pale Chocolate and Caramunich II
Bottle Conditioned, carb to 2.1 volumes.

Appearance: Fluffy brown head, dark brown with ruby highlights. clear and inviting.

Aroma: Roasted malts, and hefty dark chocolate, fills the nostril, very nice, I pick up some hops, some slight citrus, but mostly malts. There are some higher alcohols there as well, which is an issue.

Flavour: High Bitterness, plenty of chocolate, but not really roasty, like I'd expect. some nice chocolate, and some rye in the finish. But again some Alcohol notes come through as it warms.

Mouthfeel: Good mouth-feel, nice and thick, plenty to it. The rye makes this possible.

Overall: Very nice, and a would brew again. Need to clean up the fermentation on it, and remove the Rye Malt. Increase late hops, and decrease Bittering hops to make it more balanced. Of course, I'll probably swap the ratio of Roast Barley and Chocolate around, to get some more roast character out of it. Nice or the impending New Zealand Winter.


On a separate note: Bad Wolf III has been kegged and is tasting good. that'll be reviewed very soon. I also have 90% of my new system built and running, so expect a post on that once It's dialled in slightly.

Primary1(Plastic): Fresh Hopped Nelson Brown

Primary2(Plastic): {Nothing}

Primary3(Bretts/Sours): {Nothing}

10 Litre PET Carboy #1: {Nothing}

Sour#1(Wide Mouth Glass): Guts & Glory Flanders Red

Sour#2 (PET Carboy): Gracy and Glory Sour Blonde
Barrel: Hail Caesar Oud Bruin Ale
Bottled: Chch Homebrew Club Barleywine / Braggot Ale / Secret Crusade American Stout / Night Crawler Imperial Stout

Keg1: {Empty}
Keg2: Bad Wolf Belgian IPA III
Keg3: {Empty}
Next Beer to Brew: Unknown