Sierra Nev Clone- strong grapefruit taste

My first batch of beer is now 5 weeks conditioned in the bottle. I made a Sierra Nev. Pale clone using the recip. in Clone Brews. The beer is not bad tasting per say and just to be clear, I'm not worried, but it has an unbelievably strong citrus/grapefruit taste to it. I'm curious if it's something that I did in the brew process, if it just happens, or should I expect that it will go away? My first thought was that I over-dry hopped with the whole leaf hops and that might be the cause.

Here is what I did:
Followed recipe in Clone Brews (extract w/ specialty grains, full boil 5 gal batch)-OG 1.059
Pitched Wyeast 1056 From 1 liter starter made aprox. 36 hours in advance
Fermented @ 74º in my basement
12 days- racked to secondary and dry hopped 1 oz Cascade whole leaf hops in a grain sock- SG 1.012
21 days- bottled, used DME to prime FG 1.012

I started sampling @ 8 days or so and drank one every other day. Since the first one the citrus flavor has mellowed out some but at this point it's not showing any sign of really going away. I would be happy with some "citrusy notes" but this one is powerful. I should just tell myself and friends that it's a Grapefruit Ale. Any thoughts on the cause???

I don't have that book, so I can't see the recipe. But it sounds like the hops you used were "grapefruity" hops.

Sounds delicious!

Doesn't sound like a fault to me - I agree with Yooper, perhaps the clone recipe was a just a little OTT on the grapefruity hops!

...I look forward to the day where I accidentally make a beer which is TOO hoppy!

Here's the recipe:
4 oz Crystal 60
6.5 lb light DME
1/4 lb Malto-dextrin
1 oz Nugget 8.5% bittering
1/2 oz Perle Flavor @ 15min
1 oz Cascade @ 1min
1/2 oz Cascade Dry hop ( I used 1 oz whole leaf)

That's probably coming from your flameout and dry hop additions. It should fade to some extent, with time. But SNPA has always had a hint of citrus to me anyway.

Now, Summit hops would have given you some real grapefruit. I made an all Summit IPA once. It was pretty dang good.

A hint of citrus? I must have different tastebuds.
I thought grapefruit was the whole idea of that beer.

I like the Cascade and Amarillo better for the grapefruit than Summit or Simcoe...
my 2 cents

however, if your clone tastes TOO grapefruity to you (as compared to the real thing), perhaps the Sierra Nevada you tasted was a bit older - dry hopping does not last long - a few months. So perhaps your fresh beer was "brighter" from the hops than your commercial sample. Fresh Sierra is indeed, nicely grapfruity.

Hang Glider said:

I like the Cascade and Amarillo better for the grapefruit than Summit or Simcoe...

Click to expand...

...but, I read on the internet that Simcoe hops will make my beer taste like grapefruit!!

Drinks3point2 said:

Here's the recipe:
4 oz Crystal 60
6.5 lb light DME
1/4 lb Malto-dextrin
1 oz Nugget 8.5% bittering
1/2 oz Perle Flavor @ 45min
1 oz Cascade @ 59 min
1/2 oz Cascade Dry hop ( I used 1 oz whole leaf)

Click to expand...

For future reference, we tend to refer to our hop schedules by the time remaining on the boil.

So your perle should be called the 15 minute addition and the 1 oz of cascade a 1 minute addition.

My sierra clone also taste grapefruity... but thats the exact way i wanted it. The recipe was very close to yours only I used a full # of caramel malts and no maltodextrine, also I used northern brewer instead of nugget.

Thanks for the input. Again, not worried about it, just thought the beer was a little overpowering on the grapefruit. I agree that commercial S.N.P.A is citrusy just not to the degree that I created (not even close) so thought that there was a chance that I may have screwed something up or altered things without realizing it. I'll just stop calling it a Sierra clone and enjoy it all the same.

AZ IPA- Thanks for the clarification!

I realize this is an "old as Moses" thread......but couldn't help noticing the same concern I have right now in my just-bottled Brewer's Best Belgian IPA kit batch.

Grapefruity as hell. And, as others have said....I don't mind a LITTLE of this sensation......but this one is overpowering to the point of almost tasting iodiney (that a word??)

I was wondering if I had an infection problem.......or bleach residue.......or ???

Did you use safeale 05?

That yeast always leaves a peachy grapefruit nasty flavor that a lot of homebrewers don't notice and some who don't mind.

This may not be your issue...just guessing.