fastenova

Recipes 

I'm new to brewing beer, and I don't think I'm quite ready equipment-wise for all grain, but I'm happy to do partial mash or just use specialty malts with extracts.

I know it's a little early in the season to start thinking about summer ales, but I've currently got a Sierra Nevada Porter clone in the primary and I'm thinking of something nice and light for my next batch. I was wondering how I might go about making a grapefruit-flavored light ale. Either a light pale or a mild, and was thinking of maybe putting a little grapefruit peel in during the boil then putting some fresh grapefruit juice in the fermenter with the wort.

I'm concerned about a) too much bitterness from the grapefruit peel and b) too much acidity from the juice for the yeast to thrive.

Are my concerns not really worth worrying about, or does anybody have some tips on making a beer like I'm thinking of? I'd hope for a nice crisp ale, not too hoppy, with a light grapefruit/citrus note.

Thanks for the input!
Aaron

Double_D

Recipes 

You mention 4 kinds of beer: golden, kolsch, pale, and mild. I'd start by figuring out which style you want to do as the yeast character, malt and hop profiles are going to be different in each. That said, there's a thread about a grapefruit IPA that is supposed to turn out very well. Or you could just dry hop with some cirtusy hops like Citra.

If you're going to use the peel make sure it's just the zest. And put in it after primary fermentation so you don't lose to much aroma. The juice is mentioned it the thread I referenced earlier too I believe.

fastenova

Recipes 

I suppose that I haven't yet decided what style I want. After doing a little reading on the technical styles, I found the following - let me know if I'm off base here, as I am only starting to be able to really classify all the different styles as some of them are pretty similar to the uneducated palate...

Kolsch - brewed with pale malts and sometimes wheat, an ale which is sometimes lagered as well. Generally rather light hop flavors.

Mild - amber or pale in color, brewed with pale and caramel malts, lightly hopped, low ABV.

Pale - I was thinking more of a sessionable English Bitter than an American Pale here, as I was wanting something more light, I would tend to shy away from big hop flavor for this brew. But pales seem to be a bit more hopped than I am shooting for this brew.

Golden seems to be a catch-all that brewers sometimes use to describe their beer but isn't really a 'style' per se. I think that most clear milds and pales would fall under this category.

So, based on this, I would probably shy away from a Kolsch as wheat & citrus beers don't excite me that much. I'm also not really set up to do any lagering right now.

I would be more likely to go for a mild or a light mild, something that is <5% ABV and uses maybe just a touch of crystal malt... maybe crystal 40? I would do a small amount of bittering hops (Willamette?), maybe .75-1.0 oz for 60 minutes and probably either none or very little aroma hops, maybe .25-.5 oz for 10 min.

I think the zest is a better idea than peel, you'd get more of the flavor and less of the bitter.

Is acid a concern for the wort? Also what about using a commercially available grapefruit flavored extract (or making my own!)?

Thanks!
Aaron

Double_D

Recipes 

I think it's easier to say what you are calling a pale is a bitter. Which is mild and sessionable. Golden is usually a belgian. Kolsch tends to be a little more on the dry side in my experience compared to an english bitter/mild in terms of malt flavor.

Relatively speaking, all these could be lightly hopped. But speaking of that, hop bitterness, aroma and flavor are all sliding scales within a style so you can tailor these to suit your imagination. I'd probably go the route of the mild if I understand what you're implying.

I wouldn't expect the volume of grapefruit juice needed would change the PH to much. BTW, have you ever had the ruby red that shiner came out with last summer? Extract could work but I'd save it for bottling day. I'd still say zest and citrusy hops but I like IPAs so my tastes lead there.

fastenova

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So when people generally say 'pale ale' is that usually referring to an American Pale Ale, like Sierra Nevada Pale or Drifter or something?

Versus a (english-style) bitter or ESB, which usually isn't anywhere near as hoppy as a APA?

I haven't! Sounds great and refreshing. Never thought about extract at bottling time - I'll have to look into that. I think the hops I use depend on when I brew this - I have some leftover Willamettes from my Porter that I'd love to use but I could use Amarillo for that last 10-15 min for aroma. I also love IPAs but I'm going for something smoother that non-hopheads can dig.

I'm looking forward to making some single-hop IPAs though this summer which will help me be able to identify hops in commercial beers =]

Double_D

Recipes 

Train your non-hopheads. If you brew it they will drink it. I use amarillo in almost everything. I love it. Pale Ale is american or english. I've tried drifter once and it's not my style, to BMC. Of course I had two ice chests of the BMC stuff for new years so I'd not putting it down. I think if you compared Sierra Nevada to an english beer it would considerably overpower it. Even an english IPA like Samuel Smith is less hoppy. Bitter is a misnomer. It is the session beer over there, at least that's how I understand it.

HopHeadGrady

Recipes 

Ale yeast into the coopers lager makes a pretty cool pale ale base for my mash extract recipe. I used Hallertauer hops during the boil and dry hop a secondary with Fuggles. Pale malt and some vienna is in my mini mash (Thats just my pick). I get some very efficient mashes in my 4 gal pot... I will post a vid of mine when it's ready. It gets racked on Sunday.

As far as too early to think of summer, no way! I started a spring lager on Dec 30th that wont be ready till mid april. Never too early. Its sitting at 12C. Nothing like bringing in that first warm day with a fresh batch of kick ass lager... lmao

Now is time to plan your lawnmower beer....

fastenova

Recipes 

OK, well I picked up 8 lbs of light LME on Saturday. Planning to do 1 oz. of Willamettes at 60 min and .25 oz of Chinook at 10 min. The LHBS was out of Amarillo so Chinooks should be a nice substitute, and if I like the result of this beer I'll brew another batch after I can get my hands on some Amarillos.

I'm also going to try the late extract addition method as a lot of people seem to speak highly of it for lighter-colored beers, which is what I'm going for. So I'll do 3 lbs. or LME for the full boil and add the rest at flameout.

I'll add as much grapefruit zest as I can get from one large grapefruit to the secondary, and see what happens.

HopHeadGrady

Recipes 

You're heading down the right street very fast!

fastenova

Recipes 

Well, I brewed this beast up on Saturday.

4 lbs. light LME for 60 min along with 1.25 oz. of Willamettes,
Approx .25 oz. of Chinooks at 15 min
remaining 4 lbs. of light LME at flameout, and waited for 10 minutes after completely dissolving the LME to cool it.

OG of 1.085! That's a bit higher than I was expecting... But that's ok by me. If it gets down to .010 it'll be a little over 6% which was stronger than I wanted, so perhaps it'll peter out a little sooner.

Pitched yeast and saw vigorous activity in <18 hours, and it's been going crazy ever since at 66-68 deg. Actually had to rig up a better blowoff setup because it was foaming so much. That's a good problem to have! =]

It's smelling great so far, going to add the zest to the fermenter after it stops bubbling and I see a constant gravity for a few days.