The grapefruit hop

I have had several IPAs or hoppy PAs over the years that have had a very prominent grapefruit taste. What kind of hops are used to create this effect. Is it the Columbus?

cascade is the most common 1 for that flavor

I have used lots of Cascade over the past couple years, but it never has given it a truly grapefruit flavor. Citrusy, yes, but not really grapefruit... :-/

simcoe/amarillo do it in several clones.... look up a recipe online for DFH60 or for Ranger IPA. Both have what I consider great grapefruit notes.

I get grapefruit from both Simcoe and Centennial.

Doesn't Centennial have a similar flavor profile to Cascade, just with more alpha-acids?

columbus, centennial, and cascade all have a similar profile. they're even called "the 3-c hops"

kbuzz said:

I get grapefruit from both Simcoe and Centennial.

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Yup, those are the two that I would think of.

Riwaka is a grapefruit bomb!

I think all of the c-hops will give that impression. My all citra wheat beer tastes like grapefruit juice tho lol. Big grapefruit on citra. As good as it is I am after other citrus flavors. Want to use sorachi asap.

Hmm.... maybe it was the bitterness mixed with the armoa from one of the higher alpha three-c's

From my observations Centennial gives the most grapefruit like flavor. More so than Amarillo, Simcoe or Cascade atleast

I think that Simcoe is grapefruity/citrusy, but only in mild additions and moreso in later additions. I find that in early additions or in higher volumes it moves from being grapefruit/citrus to being spicy......not that its neceissarily a bad thing .

I am a big fan of BIG citrus aroma and flavor in finish hops in my IPA's, and I can't find one I like better than Cascade.

Alan

I usually get more pine-tree scents from Simcoe than any citrusy notes. Amarillo is usually peachy apricoty. Centennial, Cascade and Columbus Would be the way to go, me thinks.

Centennial is grapefruit juice. Not just my opinion, everyone(bmc) who drinks my ipa, say's it.


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Centennial gives me more of an orange/tangerine taste. Amarillo/Simcoe combo gives me more of that grapefruit impression.

I get it with Cascade. I made an APA with an ounce of Cascade for 60 min, .5 oz 30 min, 1 oz 5min, and dry hopped 1 oz in the secondary. It came out wonderful for me. It did have a pleasant grapefruit like taste to it

+1 to Amarillo. I made a SMaSH batch last summer and grapefruit was definitely noticeable.

#1 Simcoe
#2 Amarillo
#3 Cascade
#4 Centennial


If you mix all these in an IPA, I would think you would quite a prominent grapefruit note. However, I get big grapefruit for Sierra Nevada Torpedo...and that has crystal and citra for dry hopping and magnum and crystal for finishing.

Well, I guess I will have to experiment with several different type/combinations. It sounds like there is no one straight forward answer....

A lot of the C hop varieties can be very grapefruit like. I make several beers with only Centennial and they come out tasting like pure grapefruit juice. It's my favorite hop by far. Amarillo to me is more apricot, but has a slightly unpleasant almost metallic taste when used as a flavor addition. It's wonderful as an aroma hop though, I've been dry hopping a lot with Amarillo. Cascade of course is citrusy, but less grapefruit like than Centennial. I've really been liking Galena a lot too. Very citrusy, and bitter as heck.

You people need your palates checked, Amarillo is not grapefruit.


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permo said:

#1 Simcoe
#2 Amarillo
#3 Cascade
#4 Centennial


If you mix all these in an IPA, I would think you would quite a prominent grapefruit note. However, I get big grapefruit for Sierra Nevada Torpedo...and that has crystal and citra for dry hopping and magnum and crystal for finishing.

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you might as well soak a grapefruit in vodka, then eat i don't get that extreme grapefruit flavor from sn torpedo... just another way palates differ

Daparish said:

I usually get more pine-tree scents from Simcoe than any citrusy notes. Amarillo is usually peachy apricoty. Centennial, Cascade and Columbus Would be the way to go, me thinks.

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I agree with you 100%, my pale ale is a perfect example of that.

Fire Stout sounds interesting. Care to share?

I brewed EdWort's Cascade Pale Ale a while back. It uses only Cascade hops for all additions. Looking back at my notes, "tastes very piney. pine attenuates in, not out". EdWort is 1 of the best brewers i can think of; he just has a slightly different palate than i do.

It looks likeI'll have to do some experimenting with a batch of an dAPA over the winter. I'll brw a 5 gallon batch but I'll split it up into three batches before I add the late additions and dry hop the same. one batch will be cascade, one will be centennial, and the other Columbus. Someone better remind me cause right now I'm am posting a little

Later!!

I done a few AHS IPAs, they use Falconers Flight for flavering, and Cascade for dry hop addition. Very grapefriuty.

wildwest450 said:

you people need your palates checked, amarillo is not grapefruit.


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+ 1.

bniesen said:

It looks likeI'll have to do some experimenting with a batch of an dAPA over the winter. I'll brw a 5 gallon batch but I'll split it up into three batches before I add the late additions and dry hop the same. one batch will be cascade, one will be centennial, and the other Columbus. Someone better remind me cause right now I'm am posting a little

Later!!

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Absolutely the best way to do it. Scientific method and whatnot.

bniesen, that sounds like it is the best way to go about it. If nothing else, just for beer education. Splitting a 5 gallon batching into growlers and dry hopping them, you get to see what the dry-hop characteristics of 10 different hop varieties are. I am difinitely going to have to give this a try. Could be a good club activity too, kind of like trying samples of all the off flavors.

And if you really wanted to get into it, you could split it up 1/2 hour into the boil and boil each of the 1/2 gallons separately to see what their flavor characteristics are like.... I think that may be a little too much for me though.

bniesen said:

Fire Stout sounds interesting. Care to share?

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I would be happy to share, as it actually came out quite well. The roasted malts compliment the heat very well. But I am visiting family out of state right now. I will have to see if I can find the recipes when I get home. If I forget, someone send me a PM to remind me

All I can remember at the moment is I took a stout recipes I liked and just added habaneros in the secondary. I wanted the heat, but not the pepper flavor, so I added the hottest thing readily available. I thought 5 was good for a 5 gallon batch, but the overwhelming concensus was that it was way to much (even for me, who is a heat freak). If I do it again, I will use 2, maybe 3 habaneros for the 5 gallon batch.

Wait a second? Nobody posted that stupid video ?

I love hot peppers but have yet to use them in a brew. Do the oils from the peppers kill head retention? Not that I would really care, I'll probably be the only one drinking it.

Back on topic, I use a ton of Columbus, and I get very little grapefruit from it. To me its more herbal and slightly spicy with it's citrusy notes in the background. Of course, I mostly use it for bittering, but there are a few beers I make using only Columbus for all additions. You want grapefruit stick with Centennial. Some people mentioned Simcoe, you can use that if you like your citrus mixed with pine sap and cat urine.

Try using chinook as a late addition...

New Belgium's Ranger IPA uses chinook, simcoe, and cascade and I think it tastes like grapefruit

Chinook all the way for grapefruit, Ive never got grapefruit from centennial or cascade. If you want to try a commercial all centennial hopped beer, get Bell's Two Hearted Ale, there's no grapefruit in that.

Long Hammer IPA from Red Hook is a grapefruit bomb in my opinion. Very nice beer.

I don't see information on their website, but press releases and other information indicate that its dry hopped with Cascade. I also see that RateBeer says that Willamette and Alchemy hops are in it. I have not heard of Alchemy hops. Possibly that indicates a hop extract?