Thinking about making a Southern Hemisphere IPA

Yes. All great hops. Heres a cut an paste from a dry hop test I did with each of them to give you an idea of what each brings to the table (note boil additions produced very similar flavors; have used all extensively (n>5) except Moteuka (n=1)):

AU Galaxy
Aroma: grassy, passionfruit (strong), slight cat piss, orange rind, dank (pot)
Taste: Exactly the same as the aroma. Passionfruit, fresh cut grass, and pot.

NZ Nelson Sauvin
Aroma: Musty, dank (pot), funky white wine
Taste: Big musty white wine and dankness. Slight peach flavor coming through.

NZ Pacific Jade
Aroma: Huge dankness (e.g. pot), earthy, black pepper, orange rind, just punchy/strong flavors across the board
Taste: Spicy, dank, strong citrus rind, dry wine
Misc: Nelson Sauvin with amped up with citrus and pepper flavors/aroma. Awesome.

NZ Pacific Hallertau (aka Pacifica)
Aroma: Strong dankness (Nelson like), earthy, musky citrus, slight skunk
Taste: Mild dankness, earthy, strong citrus lingers in finish, some white wine
Misc: One of my favorite hops. Mixed 50% Pacifica, 25% Citra, 25% Mosaic = dankness with ludicrous amounts of tropical fruit.

NZ Moteuka (Supplied for the Golden Road Brewing GABF Mystery Hops Competition)
Aroma: Very marijuana like, skunky (as in animal), citrus (orange, pineapple), dirt, stemmy
Taste: Funky (toe jam), marijuana, citrus (orange, pineapple), maui onion, spicy

NZ Moteuka (HopUnion)
Aroma: Cantaloupe, honey dew melon, flowers, honey, mango, peaches
Taste: Melon (Cantaloupe, honey dew) for days, pineapple, citrus (lemon & orange rind), peaches
Misc: Pretty amazing hop. In stark contrast to the GRB Moteuka, this one is amazing and will be used soon. 40% Moteuka, 40% Citra, 20% Pacifica is an awesome blend.

 

I used Motueka, Simcoe, and Citra together in an APA, and was quite happy with the results.

 

Pacific Jade or Nelson are probably your best bet if you're looking for smooth bitterness (If you believe the cohumulone levels are a major contributor) and looking to use the least amount of hops (Both high alpha hops). From personal experience, PacJade and Nelson are good clean, mild bittering hops, whereas galaxy comes across as harsh. My last beer, very close to a moteuka single hop (had some mosiac in the hop back) had a very mild bitterness, so it would most likely work as well.

As far as a beer to showcase the hops this is one that has been a crowd pleaser and comes out very well:

Notes:
1) grain bill from standard house IPA with my American and NZ hops replaced with your NZ/AU varietals with slight timing and amounts changed
2) Vary mash temp to hit your intended FG, as on my system I have beers finish too dry, hence the 158 F mash temp for me
3) I have a plate chiller and use a hop back, so you can change your chilling & whirlpool/hopstand accordingly.
4) This uses a lot of hops and my keggle boils off like a vicious beast (~1.75 gal/hr), so I collect 10 gallons of wort for the boil to ensure I get 5 to 5.5 gallons at kegging time.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: 054 Transcontinental Polynomial All NZ Hoppiness
Brewer: Barf Walkup IV
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: Very hoppy, maybe a touch too bitter, but very good beer. Nice pine, citrus, passionfruit, peach and dankness. Drop honey malt to 2.0% for next run. Everything else the same. Very dry as well, could mash higher for less dryness, but body of beer was perfect and head retention was excellent. Utilize hop back with simcoe or citra next time for bigger hoppiness.

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.65 gal
Estimated OG: 1.066 SG
Estimated Color: 5.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 41.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs 10.4 oz Rahr Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 88.0 %
1 lbs 1.4 oz Wheat - Red Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM) Grain 2 7.0 %
5.0 oz Honey Malt (Gambrinus) (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.0 %
6.2 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 2.5 %
1.2 oz Aromatic Malt (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 5 0.5 %

0.30 oz Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - First Wort 90.0 Hop 6 15.2 IBUs

0.75 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 8.6 IBUs
0.75 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 17.3 IBUs

1.25 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.25 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

2.00 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Pacific Jade [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Day Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 D Hop 15 0.0 IBUs


1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 13 -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 8.2 oz
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 29.81 qt of water at 170.3 F 158.0 F 60 min


Notes:
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25 minute hop steep at 210 F - 185 F.

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