Grapefruit IPA

Joshua Peterson

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Any idea's on the best way to have the grapefruit tartness and flavor really standout?

Extract kit, 5 gallons, and i do not plan on adding any more extra hops then the kit calls for.

1. I bought two, 32oz bottles of 100% organic juice yesterday?
2. on the ropes about buying about 5 pounds of Pomelo, slicing it thin and freezing it adding to secondary?
3. bombing 2 or 3 cans of frozen concentrated at some point?
4. and.... i have some dried zest packs still?

I kinda like the idea of just maybe making the IPA, primary it in the 6.5 gallon carboy.... maybe add a zest pack in there? maybe dump one of the bottles of juice on top of the wort before pitching the yeast?.... and then when i rack to secondary, rack it to my 7.5 gallon bucket and really add a whole bunch of some type of grapefruit?

Like the cherry taste in a Cherry Kriek, that's how i want the taste of the fruit in this IPA to be like.
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Not really answering your question, but be careful who you give this beer to. Not sure which kinds, but some medicines interact very badly with grapefruit. No matter how good your beer is, if it sends someone to the hospital that's all they'll remember
 
Any idea's on the best way to have the grapefruit tartness and flavor really standout?

Extract kit, 5 gallons, and i do not plan on adding any more extra hops then the kit calls for.

1. I bought two, 32oz bottles of 100% organic juice yesterday?
2. on the ropes about buying about 5 pounds of Pomelo, slicing it thin and freezing it adding to secondary?
3. bombing 2 or 3 cans of frozen concentrated at some point?
4. and.... i have some dried zest packs still?

I kinda like the idea of just maybe making the IPA, primary it in the 6.5 gallon carboy.... maybe add a zest pack in there? maybe dump one of the bottles of juice on top of the wort before pitching the yeast?.... and then when i rack to secondary, rack it to my 7.5 gallon bucket and really add a whole bunch of some type of grapefruit?

got this off the Northern brewery website, they say its got a good grapefruit taste
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/318667/grapefruit-grove
 
Schlafly Grapefruit IPA, which was one of my favorites, they claim to put grapefruit puree I believe in the primary, so that those sugars ferment out leaving a big grapefruit aroma.

Urban South's Grapefruit Holy Roller took the cake for me, I woke up the next morning burping and could still taste the grapefruit, dunno how they did it, I do know their regular holy roller has Centennial, Cascade, Mosaic, and Citra. And maybe zest and puréed grapefruit in the secondary or something.
 
Most excellent guys, thank you!!!

I just got off work so i will let all this good info sink in for a couple days, hopefully i can start to boil some wort by Tuesday
 
I tried making a grapefruit/basil hefeweizen last year by adding 1oz dried grapefruit zest and 1oz chopped basil to the very end of the boil (5 gal batch). It was a pretty good beer but the grapefruit tartness was insane for the first week after kegging. It was like sparkling grapefruit juice for the first day or two.
With an IPA, it'd probably be able to handle 1-2 ounces of zest with no problem depending on what you're going for.
 
I havent but you can go on the Northern brewery website and look at the reviews
 
I used zest and peel from a grapefruit in my secondary. Definitely had some grapefruit taste and aroma but not as much as I wanted or have tasted in commercial offerings. Some say only use zest and peel and others say use the juice. I am still experimenting. Will be interesting to see how yours turns out.
 
Personally I'd limit the grapefruit but you may like it in beer better than me. I tried grapefruit Sculpin and couldn't finish it. I think the zest of a few grapefruits in the secondary would probably be as much as I'd like to add.
 
I used zest and peel from a grapefruit in my secondary. Definitely had some grapefruit taste and aroma but not as much as I wanted or have tasted in commercial offerings. Some say only use zest and peel and others say use the juice. I am still experimenting. Will be interesting to see how yours turns out.

I just drank one from the batch he is talking about. (I think. Is this the one you labelled "Fresh Squeezed" Brian ?)

If so it's damn good.
 
Not really answering your question, but be careful who you give this beer to. Not sure which kinds, but some medicines interact very badly with grapefruit. No matter how good your beer is, if it sends someone to the hospital that's all they'll remember

This is a very good point. I offered my Mother in law my NZ Pilsner with Grapefruit and she said she wasn't allowed any grapefruit at all. She was on High Blood Pressure tablets and grapefruit could increase the potency of the tablets by 200%! Which could be very dangerous. I suggested she not take blood pressure tablets and just drink my grapefruit beer.
 
I'm still on hold on brewing this beer...... my wife wants some jalapeno beer again so im going to have to do 10 gallons of that first, which should happen this week i think!

Hopefully in the next couple weeks i can get started with the IPA
 
Well you can't say know the boss there Joshua man I wish my missus wanted me to brew more beer for her not the other way around:p.
 
I brewed an orange IPA last summer and added a hop bag of orange zest to the keg and definitely got the taste of oranges. This is what I suggest doing. If you bottle secondary would work. If you add juice your into radler
 
For what it's worth, I brewed Northern Brewer's Grapefruit Pulpin (Grapefruit Sculpin clone) and two batches of their Kama Citra Session IPA. They all were very good, but for different reasons. The first batch I did on my quest for the perfect grapefruit ale was a batch of Kama Citra that I brewed using Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. I grated the peels of three, large, Ruby Red grapefruits, soaked them in vodka for two weeks, then add them to the secondary for two weeks and then bottled. It turned out good, and I could taste the grapefruit, but I wasn't blown away. (I was going for blown away.) My second attempt was to re-brew the Kama Citra using Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast and no grapefruit peel. I was officially blown away. My third attempt was the Grapefruit Pulpin, again using Wyeast 1272. This recipe features 2 oz of dried grapefruit peel and a lot of Cascade and Chinook hops, along with Amarillo and Simco. It was pretty good too, but my favorite was definitely the Kama Citra with Wyeast 1272.
 
I brewed an orange IPA last summer and added a hop bag of orange zest to the keg and definitely got the taste of oranges. This is what I suggest doing. If you bottle secondary would work. If you add juice your into radler

Interesting. Can you give some specifics?
How long for the taste to start to show?
How much zest?
Was it fresh or dried?
 

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