CS4 - Nelson's Sauvin SMaSH

[Matthew]

Golden Ale SMaSH

100% Kolsch
100% Nelson Sauvin
US05
3.5% ABV

I both love and dislike this beer. We're about 6 month into this brewing addiction and this SMaSH marks a line in the sand. Up until now we were a bit naive and blind to a few things and it got us into trouble. Thanks to a local brouwmeester we were able to pin the error of our ways. Long story short... we fixed them and this SMaSH was the result of us heading back to the drawing board.
Unfortunately our focus on fixing the other stuff lead us to have a couple of oversights of which we'll let you come to you're own conclusions. It'll be interesting if they match our own thoughts.

Matthew, Tim, Ryan, Nick

[Reviled]

Well this is my first CS4 beer and im quite happy with it!! Pours a golden but not straw like yellow with almost no head and light carbonation, the yeast also seems very easy to kick up but I managed a pint which had brilliant clarity!

Aroma of sauvingon blanc grapes, wine gums, and some hints of malt sweetness, nice late hop character, more wine gums and a very almost wine like quality to it, slightly thin but not dry, but as far as other smash beers i have tried this has more 'oomph' (apart from a global Munich smash)..

Nice beer mate, cheers ;o)

[Barry]

Intriguing beer, pale slightly-darker-than-straw-coloured and lovely and clear.
Lots of passionfruit and gooseberry on the nose, promising.
Beer is light and tasty, refreshing, tangy and dry. Very quaffable. Malt is grainy and honey sweet.
It is a little thin tasting, I wouldn't say it lacked maltiness, just maybe lacked a bit of body, roundness and backbone, which even for a really small beer is important.
It's actually the reason I don't do SMASH beers - every one I've done has had the same quality, even with 100% Maris Otter. In a beer this small it's amplified. Even the smallest touch of [crystal somthing] rights the ship, to my taste anyway.

A thoroughly nice beer, I haven't used sauvin in ages so cheers for the hit!

[Reviled]

"It's actually the reason I don't do SMASH beers - every one I've done has had the same quality, even with 100% Maris Otter"

You should try a Global Munich SMaSH beer barry ;o)

[Matthew]

Correct. This beer was thin for reasons other than the malt. Long story short, I had a mare and diluted it it get my volume. I reckon I lost that middle through a No0b error of not checking my SG first. It won't happen again.

I've also discovered why I'm not getting the bitterness from my hops. I had been using a homemade hop sock that was obviously too small. Not enough of the hops were allowed to swim freely in the boil. I'm getting a lot of flavour from the hops but they're not boiling long enough for bitterness. The lack of bitterness in this beer also allows that thinness to shine through.

[Ally Mcg]

Had this one yesterday afternoon.
Lots of gooseberry and hints of something tropical on the nose - classic NS aroma's for me
More gooseberry in the mouth and a malty sweetness that makes for tasty drinking. Body for me, is a little thin and a bit one dimensional but certainly a very easy drinking beer and lots of flavour packed into the low abv

Cheers!

[Stu McKinlay]

The good:
Nice label (a rare thing in this swap!), gorgeous colour, lovely aroma, clean fermentation, pretty well balanced (see below)...

The bad:
Just a little too watery to get away with no negatives. I'm not usually a SMaSH man at all but this may well have been an outstanding beer had it not tasted watered down. Want to recreate it but don't want to brew it? 2 parts Three Boys Golden, 1 part Sparkling Water. Want to rebrew it and make it better... add around 5% of very pale caramel malt and/or use a less attenuative and slightly more estery ale yeast (esters increase perceived body).

The ugly:
For a newbie brewer this beer shows a scary amount of promise. You'll be whupping us good in no time.

Character match:
The Tall Skinny Man in the small car (Nelson's nemesis) in "22 Short Films About Springfield". Ha-ha!

[jt]

Yep, I told Matthew Sunday that he should rebrew it - and it would be a really good beer

[Matthew]

Thanks all. Really appreciate the feedback! Stu, are you suggesting S04?

So far everyone who's tried it has told me I should do it again. I'm still undecided. Is there enough Sauvin left in the country, that's the question... ;-)

[Stu McKinlay]

I'd probably suggest one of the less attenuative American strains first... or a hop promoting English strain... but, to keep thinkgs simple, maybe try a little the caramel malt first. It won't be a SMaSH any longer but does that really matter?

[Soren]

Good beer, clean, nice flavour and aroma, immensly quaffable which makes me wish I'd had it after work and not at 10.30 pm... only problem is that it's a bit too thin, especially lacking maltiness. make it a bit bigger next time and you're rolling.

[James P]

Thought I'd be cheeky and crack this tonight with everyone in bed early.

A little aroma from the cracked bottle, pours an L&P colour with very light carbonation even when poured hard (I decant into jug then pour into glass). No head to speak of with a couple of lively wee bubbles.
It's sounds a little clichéd however the aroma is of "sauvingon blanc", lychees and passionfruit. Mouth is quite thin which makes a good summer quaffer. I could certainly knock those off while working in the garden (probably not with the power tools though....). There is that sauvin bitterness all the way from front to back and if you had not have said it was 100% sauvin I would have had a guess that there was some Greenbullet or Southern Cross in there with subtle spiciness....

I'm liking it. I would probably rebrew it at a higher mash temperature or possibly add some carapils for body / mouthfeel and head retention, but in saying that you have already picked up what you will change so I'd say CS5 will be awesome.

Thanks guys keep it up!