Nugget aroma recipe wanted

I planted a nugget bine a few months ago and its now about 15 foot high and starting to flower. I didn't expect to get a crop this first year so I'm very pleased. I chose nugget because I was told it would thrive in my heavy clay soil which it does. Given my success I might try growing a couple more bines next year but they'll be aroma varieties, possibly mathon, pilgrim or WGV. It's been great to watch it grow and I can't wait to use the results. I've brewed beer for years and I've never grown any of the ingredients although I do use homegrown fruit and herbs when making mead.

I realise nugget was not the best choice as it's a bittering hop and I'm not able to measure the alpha content. I'll guess about 11% and see what happens. I've never brewed with nugget or knowingly tasted a beer that uses it. It's a virtually unknown variety in the UK.

Does anybody have experience of using nugget as an aroma hop and if so what is it like. Does anybody have a good recipe. I've seen the nugget nectar clone recipe but there must be more to choose. I understand it has a good clean taste.

If I get enough cones I was thinking of doing a single hop ordinary bitter using Maris Otter and medium crystal with the nugget at 60, 10 and flameout to give an IBU of about 40. That should allow me to see what nugget tastes like. What do you blokes reckon?

I think your recipe is a great idea.  You don't even need the medium crystal.  You could leave it out and do it as a SMaSh brew.  Whenever I want to learn the flavors of a new hop or malt, I'll do a SMaSH.  I would imagine you use MO a lot as your base malt.  Why not switch it up and use a base malt that you've never used before, so that you learn about the Nugget hop and a new base malt with the same brew?

I have the whole south side of the house covered with 3 nugget plants. this is there 2nd year and they are all covered with cones . I'm planning a smash brew myself with them, will use pale malt. going to hop at 60 and at 10 then dry hop with some more. the bittering addition will be small so the rest should shine though. So I think your right on with the ordinary bitter brew you talked about trying. just keep it simple so you high light the hop. let us know how it turns out, Ill do the same.   

Scott Ickes said:

I think your recipe is a great idea.  You don't even need the medium crystal.  You could leave it out and do it as a SMaSh brew.  Whenever I want to learn the flavors of a new hop o6r malt, I'll do a SMaSH.  I would imagine you use MO a lot as your base malt.  Why not switch it up and use a base malt that you've never used before, so that you learn about the Nugget hop and a new base malt with the same brew?

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That's a good idea. I haven't done a SMaSH for a while. I've been thinking for some time about trying the Crisp Clear Choice Ale Malt which is supposed to give a haze free beer but I'm sceptical.

I use MO in most of my brews. I live in Wiltshire where the MO is grown in the local chalk soil and floor malted by hand. It's a 4 minute drive to my local supplier who can crush it fresh on the day I brew. It's simply superb.

Saying that, I've used Golden Promise for my latest beer which is based on Caledonian Deuchars IPA. It's a beer I always search for when I'm in Scotland on holiday or business. It uses fuggles for bittering and bobek for flavour and aroma. I'm trying the WLP041 pacific ale yeast which I've been told is superb. It's bubbling nicely in the fermenter and smells great.

I would also like to hear of some recipes using Nugget Hops and Honey . My first year growing Hops and figured Nugget would be a good starter . The bines are some 20 foot up the side of my barn with plenty of blossoms coming on and since we have our own hives I would like to use honey from them .
Now let me ask , since Nuggets are up around 11%and are supposed to be a fine Aromatic also , could I add to the boil later say at 40 min. for less bittering then again as others say at last 5 or 10 min . for the aroma .
Please bear with me as I am new to the Art of the Brew !

since we have our own hives I would like to use honey from them

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In my experience honey doesn't add any honey flavor since it is a simple sugar and the yeast eats it all up. It will leave behind some flavor of whatever flowers it was made from. So clover honey leaves behind some clover flavor. Last time I used a bunch of store bought clover honey the beer had an aftertaste like chewing on a clover stem. I will not use it again. Your honey will probably add a nice flavor, but keep in mind it won't make the beer taste like honey.

nuggetmania said:

I would also like to hear of some recipes using Nugget Hops and Honey . My first year growing Hops and figured Nugget would be a good starter . The bines are some 20 foot up the side of my barn with plenty of blossoms coming on and since we have our own hives I would like to use honey from them .
Now let me ask , since Nuggets are up around 11%and are supposed to be a fine Aromatic also , could I add to the boil later say at 40 min. for less bittering then again as others say at last 5 or 10 min . for the aroma .
Please bear with me as I am new to the Art of the Brew !

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I move hop additions around quite a bit when formulating recipes.  My recipes can have anywhere from 90 minute additions all the way down.  It depends on what I'm trying to accomplish.  On most brews, the timing of a boil hop is based on hitting the bitterness level I'm after, so I will often not have the 60 minute addition and will have a 45 minute addition to reduce the amount of bittering from that first hop addition.

I have a Russian Imperial Stout recipe that I love to make that has a 45 minute addition, a 30 minute addition and a 15 minute addition.  It does not have a 60 minute addition.  It also has three or four different varieties of hops used at each of those addition times.  My goal was create a complex bittering profile, as I was adding cacao nibs and vanilla to the secondary and wanted to back up the sweet character of the chocolate/vanilla flavor with a complex bittering backbone.  This beer has been blended with a Belgian Strong in the past.  This time I brewed it as a stand alone RIS.  I just kegged it last weekend.

In my experience honey doesn't add any honey flavor since it is a simple sugar and the yeast eats it all up. It will leave behind some flavor of whatever flowers it was made from. So clover honey leaves behind some clover flavor. Last time I used a bunch of store bought clover honey the beer had an aftertaste like chewing on a clover stem. I will not use it again. Your honey will probably add a nice flavor, but keep in mind it won't make the beer taste like honey.
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Golden Rod will be the next honey run in this area , and I thought it would be interesting to pull that flavor into an Ale . The honey flavor loss would be okay by me , just investigating how much to use bearing in mind i`m a newbie to brewing and need to take small steps away from BB and the like .
I tweaked my second brew (Summer Ale ) and it is great , Also the same with the Pumpkin Porter I just put down to second stage , one can of pure pumpkin did the trick , like I said small steps .

I move hop additions around quite a bit when formulating recipes.  My recipes can have anywhere from 90 minute additions all the way down.  It depends on what I'm trying to accomplish.  On most brews, the timing of a boil hop is based on hitting the bitterness level I'm after, so I will often not have the 60 minute addition and will have a 45 minute addition to reduce the amount of bittering from that first hop addition.

Thats the info I was looking for Scott , using the nugget hops I don`t want to over bitter . Thanks ...

It's my pleasure.  You're welcome.