Grapefruit APA

I'm trying to do a grapefruit, west coast style APA for the SWMBO (since she's discovered she likes sierra nevada-type beers) Here's my recipe so far, would love feedback:

4lbs Light Dry Extract
2lbs Wheat Dry Extract
1lb American Crystal 60L
12oz Corn Sugar

@45 mins 1oz Perle pellet
@15 mins 1oz Cascade pellet
@flameout 1oz Citra pellet

WLP041 & WLP001

8oz Grapefruit Zest in Secondary

Why not use "grapefruit-y" hops? Simcoe and amarillo taste very grapefruity, particularly together.

It's a good question. I suppose I could.
She really likes grapefruit and I think there's some tartness in them that the hops wouldn't exactly match.

What kind of schedule would you use for the simcoe/amarillo combination?
She doesn't like bitterness much, prefers the late hop addition flavor.

This seems like a pretty good beer and I don't even like grapefruit

I love the grapefruit taste that Amarillo provides. One of my favorite hops.

DanZarrella said:

It's a good question. I suppose I could.
She really likes grapefruit and I think there's some tartness in them that the hops wouldn't exactly match.

What kind of schedule would you use for the simcoe/amarillo combination?
She doesn't like bitterness much, prefers the late hop addition flavor.

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Bitter to about 25 IBUs (perle is fine for bittering), and then use .25 ounce of each simcoe and amarillo at 15 minutes, 5 minutes, and flame out. Dryhop with 1 ounce amarillo and .5 ounce simcoe if you need more.

I've never used grapefruit peel so I have no idea how to go about it.

Not too sure about the grapefruit, but I made a lemon APA not too long ago and added the lemon right to the boil...

added the zest of two lemons w/ 10 mins left and then another addition of two zested lemons at flameout...turned out super tasty...just enough of a lemon flavor in the beer and even provided some good citrusy aroma...

When I was researching, someone said they had added the zest of 3 lemons to secondary and it ended up tasting like lemon dish soap - too much lemon taste.

My recommendation would be to add it late in the boil as opposed to secondary. I'm only about 8 batches into my homebrewing "career", but I'm quickly learning that a little goes a long way for flavor when adding something to secondary...8 oz may not seem like a lot, but I think it might be a bit too much...unless it's only in there for a few days.

I guess you could check on it every once in a while until you get the taste you want.