Nelson Sauvin
Named for Sauvignon Blanc and it earns it — gooseberry, white grape and a hard mineral edge. Polarising in quantity; a little makes a beer taste expensive, a lot makes it taste like a cat.
- Smells like
- White wine, Gooseberry, Passionfruit, Grapefruit, Tropical fruit
- Bitterness
- High (9.5–14.5% alpha)
- In the glass
- 167 beers here · Brooks has had 1
- Swap it for
- Nugget · compare them →
Brewing values
Alpha acid
9.5–14.5% typical 11.7
2 sources, and they disagree, spread of 5%
- Hopsteiner9.5–12Data sheet last changed 2020-08-20.
- Crosby Hop Farm11.5–14.5
Beta acid
4.5–6.5% typical 5.7
2 sources, and they disagree, spread of 2%
- Hopsteiner4.5–6Data sheet last changed 2020-08-20.
- Crosby Hop Farm6–6.5
Cohumulone
31–34% of alpha typical 32.5
1 source, spread of 3% of alpha
- Hopsteiner31–34Data sheet last changed 2020-08-20.
Total oil
1–2 mL/100g typical 1.4
2 sources, spread of 1 mL/100g
- Hopsteiner1–1.5Data sheet last changed 2020-08-20.
- Crosby Hop Farm1.2–2
Alpha to beta runs about 2.1:1, which is what governs how fast the bitterness fades in storage.
Oil composition
- Myrcene35.4%
- Humulene29.1%
- Other26.7%
- Caryophyllene8%
- Linalool0.5%
- Farnesene0.3%
Normalised to 100% so this hop can be compared like for like. The published components sum to 106.7% of total oil in the source data.
Aroma · tap one for every hop and beer with that smell
How it gets used
Added at bittering, whirlpool, dry hop.
Concentrated lupulin formats: Cryo.
In the glass · 167 beers from 16 breweries
Brooks has had one of them · 3.75 average
- Design Trends Fort George Brewery · 3.75
- Moon Calendar Aslan Brewing
- Pacific Cooler Aslan Brewing
- Palmera Aslan Brewing
- Rosé Sauvage Aslan Brewing
- Sauvage Aslan Brewing
- Fresh Flow Block 15 Brewing
- Fresh Pow Block 15 Brewing
- Albatross Breakside Brewery
- Bayside Breakside Brewery
- Beer that Benefits Breakside Brewery
- Cuddle Puddle Breakside Brewery
Brewed alongside · in 154 beers that use Nelson Sauvin with other hops
Counted from the hop lists of every beer in What's in the can: what Pacific Northwest brewers actually put next to Nelson Sauvin.
What to swap it for
Scored on aroma overlap, oil composition and acid chemistry, then nudged up where a brewer has vouched for the swap by hand. An axis we haven't measured earns nothing, so a hop known only by its acid numbers caps out around 30 — the score is how much evidence there is for the swap, not just how close the numbers happen to be. Anything under 50 is a different beer, not a substitution.
Pedigree
Smooth Cone. Smoothcone crossed with a New Zealand male selection.
Notes on this record
High humulene relative to myrcene, which is unusual for a fruit-forward hop and shows up clearly in the oil chart. Worth a lab citation.
For brewers and data folks: this hop as JSON · the source file