Grapefruit ale

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
H

heckler73

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2012
Messages
381
Reaction score
38
Location
North Vancouver
I'm making a grapefruit ale recipe. The last one I made was pretty good, but I just had a Whistler Grapefruit, which has grapefruit and coriander.

Would I use grapefruit rinds ground up, juice, or pulp to "dryhop" the secondary fermenter?
 
Make a zest and vodka concoction and add it right before you bottle/keg.

Citrus aromas are very volatile and will likely gas off with CO2 not leaving much aroma.

The alcohol in vodka will keep those aromas nicely.
 
Zest is only the colorful part of the rind. The white stuff below the zest is extremely bitter and tastes horrible. If you have a cooking store go get a zest grater.
 
Just the outside colored part of the rind, the white part inside is the pith and is bitter. Take a cheese grater and slowly shave off the outside part, add to some vodka or stars an to sanitize and add to ferm for about a week before bottling and it should all settle out.
 
Oh man, I have a grapefruit honey ale (Brooklyn brewshop) in the fermenter now and I put the whole peel of a grapefruit in with the boil according to the instructions (or at least I thought that was what the instructions had said to do) I wonder if I ruined it... I did taste a sample from the fermenter at three days and there was a weird taste... I sure hope I haven't ruined it...
 
gatorsactions said:
Oh man, I have a grapefruit honey ale (Brooklyn brewshop) in the fermenter now and I put the whole peel of a grapefruit in with the boil according to the instructions (or at least I thought that was what the instructions had said to do) I wonder if I ruined it... I did taste a sample from the fermenter at three days and there was a weird taste... I sure hope I haven't ruined it...
Click to expand...

If you boiled it it shouldn't be a big deal. And tasting at at 3 days will be slightly weird. So many different flavors that the yeasts are producing which will be re absorbed and mellow out over the coming weeks.
 
my first batch without grapefruit zest was indeed Cascade. It turned out really good.

my second was with Chinook (shop was out of Cascade), but added zest in the secondary. It turned out phenomenal!

Apologies for the glass style fail. :(

attachment.php
 
gatorsactions said:
Oh man, I have a grapefruit honey ale (Brooklyn brewshop) in the fermenter now and I put the whole peel of a grapefruit in with the boil according to the instructions (or at least I thought that was what the instructions had said to do) I wonder if I ruined it... I did taste a sample from the fermenter at three days and there was a weird taste... I sure hope I haven't ruined it...
Click to expand...

No, you are fine. That recipe does call for one grapefruit peel - not zest - used instead of a 5 minute hop addition for bitterness and flavor. I found Brooklyn Brewshop's Beer Making Book on sale (50% off) during a recent trip and have the Grapefruit Ale recipe flagged for production soon.
 

Similar threads

F
blasphemus beer blending?
Replies
31
Views
2K
madscientist451
madscientist451
W
Adding fruit juice to the secondary. How much? Do I need to sanitize?
Replies
8
Views
1K
BeerNsteadofH2O
BeerNsteadofH2O
J
No carbonation after 3 weeks
Replies
20
Views
2K
VikeMan
VikeMan
B
Help fixing a JAOM
Replies
6
Views
1K
amber-ale
A
Brooothru
Turbo Yeast (help) for White Claw Seltzer Knock-off
Replies
20
Views
990
ba-brewer
ba-brewer
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top