Grapefruit taste

I ended up brewing my first ever home brew about 2 months ago. It was a recipe that my LHBS called a kick on a English mild ale. It sat in the fermenter for about 3 weeks then sat in the keg for another 3 weeks. I took a drink of it and was shocked. I am not sure what I expected it to taste like but it taste like grapefruit. My dad said it tasted like orange peel( he wouldn't tell me if it was a good or bad thing.)

Malt Base 5 Lbs DME
Specialty Grains 1/2 lb Carapils, 3/4 lb Mild Ale, 3/4 lb Cara-Brown
Hops: 1 oz Cascade (Boiling), 1 oz Cascade (flavor)
Yeast: Safale S-05

That is all I used on a 60 min boil and steeped the grains in water that was ~155F for 15 mins. The OG was 1.0 44 and the was FG 1.010

All I am wondering is should it taste like I am drinking grapefruit juice? If it should what impacted this flavor in this beer? the grains? hops? or both?

It depends... grapefruits are pretty sour. sourness could be the cause of an infection. However, infections are rare and if nothing really looks wrong with your brew, your cascade hops might have been on the fruity end of the trade. Does it taste bad?

Some people would say that Cascade hops impart a grapefruit or citrus flavor. Your perception, though, might also be influenced by your previous tasting experience - do you enjoy American pale ales or India pale ales?

American hops is his idea of a 'kick' on an English mild? I wouldn't trust his recipes again. The grapefruit is coming from the cascade hops. Mild Ale malt is a base grain. Not sure why it is in there since nothing needs converted.

I hope it is not a infection because the beer is drinkable. So lets just says the hops are doing it. Does that mean every brew that uses Cascade hops will taste like grapefruit, Or is this just something that will settle out with time... If it last that long.

Thanks for the quick replies,
Doug

It's the cascades giving the grapefruit flavor--not infection.

It will fade with time, but damn---cascades taste awesome! Enjoy them.

Honestly, I didn't mean to scare you about infection. If it's drinkable, it's not an infection. Sourness is a cause of infection, but it doesn't seem like this is the fact in your case. Cascades don't always taste like grapefruit, but they sometimes have a fruity flavor. This is probably why so many breweries use them as aroma hops.

What you should do (since you said "if it lasts that long") is take at least a 6 pack of your beer and put it away and forget about it. A few months down the road, try it. You will be shocked with the results. It won't taste nearly the same as it did originally, but it will have some of the same characteristics. The more you age, the better it will be.

Give me a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and I taste grapefruit. My son tastes orange. Sound familiar? You can get it from other hops as well, like centennial. WAY out of style for an English Mild where you expect little, if any, hop flavor.

Are you drinking from cold glasses/mugs or ones you have at room temperature? What's the temp of the keezer/kegorator (and brew)?? If it's cold (~35F) try serving it a little warmer, like around 40-45F... Or serve in room temp glasses and give it a few minutes to get a little warmer...

I find that my home brew has one set of flavors if you drink it really chilled, and another when it's warmed slightly (closer to the 45F mark)... I prefer the warmer range flavors...

Did it taste like this before you kegged it? If so, then it's probably more temperature driven than anything else...

Cascade hops will have the flavor you're describing, often described as 'cirtrusy' so what you think it is, and what your father thinks it is, are both in line there...

Personally, I wouldn't have used cascade for both hop additions... But that's just me. I'm sure there are plenty of people that love doing that.

Golddiggie said:

If it's cold (~35F) try serving it a little warmer, like around 40-45F... Or serve in room temp glasses and give it a few minutes to get a little warmer...

Click to expand...

That's what I'm talking about. Beer has been made for thousands of years. The refrigerator was invented in thew ~1750s. It wasn't a household item until the mid 1800s. So, prior to the last 150 years, beer was served at room temperature. This is one of the reasons that I test out my brews at room temperature to see if they are done. If they are done, I'll throw them in the fridge and let it sit there for a week or two before I let anyone else drink them (I'll always sneak a couple from time to time though).

bgrayson726 said:

That's what I'm talking about. Beer has been made for thousands of years. The refrigerator was invented in thew ~1750s. It wasn't a household item until the mid 1800s. So, prior to the last 150 years, beer was served at room temperature. This is one of the reasons that I test out my brews at room temperature to see if they are done. If they are done, I'll throw them in the fridge and let it sit there for a week or two before I let anyone else drink them (I'll always sneak a couple from time to time though).

Click to expand...

People get the wrong idea when they hear about people overseas drinking beer at "room temperature"... What gets lost in translation is how that 'room' is really the wine cellar where the beer kegs/casks are also kept. So, it's in the 45-50F range down there... Poured into a bar temperature glass (or maybe slightly cooled to the low to mid 50's) and you have a thing of beauty...

A side benefit of drinking home brew not fridge temp (or in a frozen glass) is chill haze is suddently greatly reduced/gone... :rockin:

When I eventually build my keezer, I plan to have it set to around 45F initially... I might up it a little once I've gotten a few brews in there... I can't see going too close to 50F though, but who knows...

I find that chilling the brew (in bottles) 2-3 days is a good minimum... That way, the trub gets to the bottom of the bottles, and is less to worry about when you pour...

First time I gave my mother a bottle I just emptied, she actually sucked down what was in the bottom... Before I could stop her... She's too used to commercial beer where you drink all of it (from the bottle)... I can only imagine what she went through the next day...

Golddiggie said:

I can't see going too close to 50F though, but who knows...

Click to expand...

Have you ever had a porter or stout, or any dark beer at 50-60 degrees? It's the only way to drink them in my opinion. When I said "room temperature" I meant, room temperature (60-65 degrees). I was not talking about overseas ways of drinking at "room temp," I was talking about pre-refrigeration days of room temp. The only way that they could get beer cold back then was to ship ice or use ice of their own. What would they do during summer months? Not drink? Of course not, they would drink it at the room temperature that they had