How Texas Sun Came To Be & How You Can Make It At Home

How Texas Sun Came To Be & How You Can Make It At Home

It started, as most good ideas do, with a pint and a bit of curiosity.

We were chasing a hazy pale that didn’t just shout tropical and stone fruit. Nice, but samey. We wanted balance—brightness to cut through the sweetness, shape to the haze, and a finish that made you want another.

Enter Nelson Sauvin. That sharp white grape snap and zingy acidity gave the beer its backbone. Paired with Citra and Simcoe, it stopped the juice from getting overbearing and turned the whole thing into… Texas Sun.

Kitchen Experiments

We did what an obsessed brewers do, tinkered.

Base was simple: extra pale malt, oats, a touch of crystal for sweetness, wheat for body. Then the hop trio: Citra, Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin.

  • Simcoe for juicy stone fruit and a bit of pine.
  • Citra for clean citrus and lift.
  • Nelson Sauvin for that white grape bite and brightness.

Batch one? Juicy, too sweet, not hazy enough, a shade darker than we wanted. Probably mashed a bit high.

We went back to the notes (and our hazy bible Scott Janish, The New IPA) and tightened things up:

  • Trimmed the crystal for a lighter colour.
  • Bumped the oats.
  • Added chit malt for stable haze and pillowy mouthfeel.

Better. But we still wanted more saturated hop flavour & aroma.

Batch three got more whirlpool, more dry hop, more oomph.

Batch four was small tweaks: switched onto the same New England-style yeast we use on the big kit and nudged the malt bill again. At that point we were ~90% there.

The Big Leap

Convincing Joe we didn’t need a fifth test batch took some doing (cheers, Fergus). We scaled up and brewed it for real. Most expensive beer we’d ever made at the time. Full tank tied up, weeks of waiting, no guarantees.

Three weeks later we tapped it.

It shone. Cleaner, rounder, juicier. The hop aroma leapt out of the glass. Somehow it scaled even better than the test batches.

From One-Off to Taproom Hit

We launched Texas Sun in December 2024 thinking it was a one-off. The entire 800L went in three weeks. Christmas helps sure, but it absolutley flew, and people kept asking for more.

This was our first properly modern hazy pale and people were buzzing. Even lager only regulars were having a go and coming back for seconds. Walking down Devonshire Street one night we heard a lad drag his mate towards the brewery: “You’ve got to try Texas Sun, its absolute nectar, ey.”

After the January break the decision was obvious to make it a core beer. We’ve brewed seven batches since including one for cans, and it sells neck and neck with our best selling lager Too Easy.

Why “Texas Sun”?

Because it feels like that Leon Bridges x Khruangbin track we had on repeat on brew days - bright, warm, laid-back, a bit dreamy. Sunshine in a glass. You can find a link to our Texas Sun playlist here.

Brew It Yourself: Texas Sun (Homebrew Guide)

Use this as a template, not a bible. Good hazy beer is process-led: clean transfers, oxygen control, smart hopping, patient cold side. The details aren't the most important thing, good practice and processes is.

Grain Bill (by %)

  • 70% Extra Pale
  • 25.6% Oats, Chit Malt & Wheat combined (find a ratio that works for you!)
  • 3% Dextrine
  • 1.4% Crystal Malt

Hops (grams per litre)

  • Any bittering hop @ 60 min boil – 0.5 g/L
  • Citra & Simcoe @ flameout – 0.4 g/L combined
  • Citra, Nelson Sauvin & Simcoe @ whirlpool (80°C, 20 min) – 3.3 g/L combined
  • Citra + Simcoe + Nelson Sauvin @ Dry Hop Day 3-5 – 3.1 g/L combined
  • Citra + Simcoe @ Dry Hop after fermentation complete – 4.0 g/L combined

Yeast

  • New England-style strain (e.g. London Ale III)

Practical Tips (from The New IPA and our own scars):

  • Mash lower for a drier, snappier finish; higher for plusher body.
  • Get a portion of your dry hop in during active fermentation for biotransformation.
  • Oxygen is the enemy—especially on dry hop and packaging. Keep everything tight.
  • Aim for a chloride-forward profile for that soft, pillowy mouthfeel.
  • Take notes. Change one thing at a time. Don’t be precious. Learn and iterate.

Let us know how yours turns out, and if you want to pick up your own cans to compare you can do so here.

— West Walls Brewing Co.

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