Liberty Sauvin Bomb (clone)

About This Beer

Liberty Sauvin Bomb is a single-hop American IPA built entirely around Nelson Sauvin. The concept was straightforward: take one of New Zealand’s most distinctive hop varieties and give it room to express itself at every stage of the brew, from a 60-minute bittering charge through to a substantial dry hop. The name plays on Nelson’s well-known “Sauvignon Blanc” character and the sheer volume of hops involved.

This was an early batch, brewed on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4. It also served as a trial run for pressure fermentation using a pressure kit, which was new territory at the time.

Ingredients

Nelson Sauvin does most of the work here. It is a variety that divides opinion because of its unmistakable white wine and gooseberry character, but in a single-hop showcase format that’s exactly the point. The additions are weighted heavily toward the late boil and whirlpool to preserve aroma, with a 120 g dry hop completing the picture.

The grain bill is deliberately minimal: Gladfield American Ale Malt as the base, chosen for its clean, neutral character that keeps the focus on the hops, with a small addition of Baird’s 35L Caramalt for a touch of body and colour. British crystal malts like the Baird’s can add a light toffee note, but at 6.8% of the grist it stays in the background.

Brew Day

Mash-in was at 71.7°C into 24.54 L of strike water, settling to a saccharification rest at 67°C. Sparge used 14 L at 75.6°C, which brought pre-boil volume to 31 L.

The 90-minute boil was longer than typical for a pale ale, but the kettle was over-filled. That high fill level meant achieving a proper rolling boil was difficult, which suppressed boil-off. Post-boil volume was 30 L, leaving only 1 L of evaporation across the full boil. The fermenter received 27 L, hitting the target volume, but the reduced boil concentration likely affected both hop utilisation and final gravity. A lesson noted for future batches: avoid filling the kettle this full.

Fermentation

Fermentation ran in a pressure-capable fermenter with the pressure kit set to around 4 PSI initially. Around day 5, the setup was switched to a bubbler airlock to coincide with the dry hop addition. A final gravity was not recorded for this batch, so the achieved ABV is unknown.

The Result

Bottled on 2023-02-10, roughly two weeks after brew day, targeting 2.3 volumes of CO2.

On first tasting, the beer showed the expected Nelson Sauvin character: white wine, gooseberry, and tropical fruit upfront. There were also some vegetal and capsicum notes that appeared early, which is a known risk with Nelson Sauvin, particularly from freshness issues or large late additions in warm fermentation conditions. Importantly, those notes were not permanent: they conditioned out over time rather than being a fixed flaw. The ABV came in below the 6.17% target, consistent with the reduced boil-off limiting wort concentration.

What’s Next

The main takeaway from this batch is kettle discipline: a full rolling boil requires headspace, and overfilling undermines both boil-off and hop utilisation. The vegetal note from Nelson Sauvin is worth watching in future batches with this variety, particularly around conditioning time before serving.