Help with the hop schedule on a Grapefruit IPA

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m_sell31

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I am going to use the simple grain bill from the Jaded Dogs all Amarillo IPA

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/all-amarillo-ipa-28517/

I have Amarillo, Centennial, and Cascade hops that I plan on using. I also have some citra but I am leaning towards leaving them out. I plan on using 5 total ounces including dry hopping.

I want the most grapefruit taste as possible. I am trying to get close to Perrin's Grapefruit IPA(Grand Rapids MI). I plan on adding grapefruit zest at flame out and in the secondary and after tasting probably some real grapefruit or juice.

I was thinking
.5 oz Centennial 60
.5 oz Amarillo at 60
.5 oz Centennial at 15
.5 oz Amarillo at 15
1 oz Amarillo at 5
1 oz Cascade at flame out
.5 oz Cascade dry hopped
.5 oz Amarillo dry hopped

I have not run that through a recipe generator yet to see IBUs but it seems like a reasonable quantity?

Any thoughts or suggestions/past experiences with a hop schedule like this or Grapefruit IPA's in general would be greatly appreciate.
 
fermented grapefruit juice tastes like pledge furniture polish with a little perfume. it's a love hate. track down some "pink killer" if you want to try it.

of all the hops you've mentioned i'd say cascade is the most grapefruity. citra is more tropical fruit, amarillo is more of an orange/lemon like for me and centennial is a srtange tropical fruit and hint of spice/pine.

citra is my thing right now so maybe a small amount of that under loads of cascade would get you where you want. citra is there just for complexity though. this beer is going to be about cascade hops.
 
I'd say Comet, Chinook, and Cascade are the most grapefruity, in that order. I wouldn't use grapefruit juice, but would use the zest.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I am using some combination of the hops I listed, looking for more of a recommendation as to quantity and timing of when to use them.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I am using some combination of the hops I listed, looking for more of a recommendation as to quantity and timing of when to use them.


The hops schedule you listed looks tasty to me. I just don't think it will be a grapefruit bomb. Adding (maybe an ounce?) of fresh zest at flameout or maybe even after primary fermentation is over will help with that note. I'd dry hop with just cascade for more grapefruit.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I have brewed Northern Brewers Dead Ringer kit and a buddy referred to it as "Grapefruit Beer". That kit uses all Centennial hops. Their hop schedule is as follows:
0.75oz @ 60 mins
1 oz @ 20
2oz @ 5
1oz dry hop

Many reviews of the commercial version, Bell's 2-hearted also mention Grapefruit.

As others have mentioned, you should get good results with the Cascade as well. I would leave the Amarillo out or use it for your bittering addition. It has a very distinct orange flavor.
 
your times can work. I would do: 1.5-2oz of cascade at 60. sticking with the hops listed:

1.5-2oz Cascade @ 60
.25oz cent @ 15
.5oz cascade 15
.25oz cent @ 5
1.0oz cascade 5
0.5oz cent @ 0
1.0oz cascade @ 0

feel free to use more cascade. that's your grapefruit hop of the ones you mentioned.
 
I brewed the Permafrost IPA from Northern Brewer and it tastes EXACTLY like what you're asking for. There was zero real grapefruit additions, just certain types of hops. The schedule is as follows:

0.5oz Summit (60min)
0.5oz Centennial (30min)
1oz Amarillo (20 min)
1oz Centennial (15min)
1oz Amarillo (10min)
0.5 oz Centennial (5min)
1oz Galaxy (dry hop)

I might as well have been drinking alcoholic grapefruit juice, it's amazing, one of the best brews I've ever made.
 
I have brewed Northern Brewers Dead Ringer kit and a buddy referred to it as "Grapefruit Beer". That kit uses all Centennial hops. Their hop schedule is as follows:
0.75oz @ 60 mins
1 oz @ 20
2oz @ 5
1oz dry hop

Many reviews of the commercial version, Bell's 2-hearted also mention Grapefruit.

As others have mentioned, you should get good results with the Cascade as well. I would leave the Amarillo out or use it for your bittering addition. It has a very distinct orange flavor.


Maybe my palette is different, but I never really got any grapefruit flavor out of this kit. It was very good, just not grapefruity.
 
Here is the hop schedule I used for an APA that has grapefruit to spare, you could up the bittering additions to get more IBU's but the late hop additions sound like what you are looking for.

0.5 oz Chinook Pellet 13 First Wort
0.5 oz Chinook Pellet 13 Boil 20 min 10.55
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 10 min 6.17
0.5 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 5 min 2.94
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Boil 5 min 2.3
0.5 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 0 min
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 0 min
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Boil 0 min
1 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 7 days
 
The hops schedule you listed looks tasty to me. I just don't think it will be a grapefruit bomb. Adding (maybe an ounce?) of fresh zest at flameout or maybe even after primary fermentation is over will help with that note. I'd dry hop with just cascade for more grapefruit.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I am planning on some zest at flameout then tasting after fermentation to decide if more zest is needed. Thanks for the advise on just cascade, seems to be the advise of many.
 
I have brewed Northern Brewers Dead Ringer kit and a buddy referred to it as "Grapefruit Beer". That kit uses all Centennial hops. Their hop schedule is as follows:
0.75oz @ 60 mins
1 oz @ 20
2oz @ 5
1oz dry hop

Many reviews of the commercial version, Bell's 2-hearted also mention Grapefruit.

As others have mentioned, you should get good results with the Cascade as well. I would leave the Amarillo out or use it for your bittering addition. It has a very distinct orange flavor.

Thats funny on the Amarillo hops. I was reading on the American Brewers Association message board first and they all mentioned Amarillo, then I came here and searched and Amarillo almost never came up. I bought a pound so I am going to use some somewhere, maybe like you said just for bittering.
 
Here is the hop schedule I used for an APA that has grapefruit to spare, you could up the bittering additions to get more IBU's but the late hop additions sound like what you are looking for.

0.5 oz Chinook Pellet 13 First Wort
0.5 oz Chinook Pellet 13 Boil 20 min 10.55
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 10 min 6.17
0.5 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 5 min 2.94
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Boil 5 min 2.3
0.5 oz Citra Pellet 11 Boil 0 min
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 0 min
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Boil 0 min
1 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Citra Pellet 11 Dry Hop 7 days


Thanks for the schedule, I think you are right, I should do more late additions and less bittering.
 
Thats funny on the Amarillo hops. I was reading on the American Brewers Association message board first and they all mentioned Amarillo, then I came here and searched and Amarillo almost never came up. I bought a pound so I am going to use some somewhere, maybe like you said just for bittering.

To some extent, I think any combination of citrus and bitter makes me perceive grapefruit. But, for me the Amarillo definitely had a strong orange flavor. I brewed the Reds Rye clone on here which used Amarillo for flavor and Aroma. But, with the Dead Ringer clone which used just Centennial, all I could think of was grapefruit. Maybe you could find some commercial examples for comparison. Bell's 2-hearted=Centennial, Three Floyd's Gumballhead=Amarillo

It was the taste that really stood out as orange. It might be interesting to try using Amarillo for aroma but not for flavor.
 
I decided on this…

.7 oz Citra 60
1 oz Cascade at 10
1 oz Centennial at 10
.5 oz Cascade at 5
.5 oz Centennial at 5
.5 oz Cascade at 1
.5 oz Centennial at 1
1 oz Cascade dry hopped

Thanks for all the input, I will report back in a few weeks.

I also put the zest of 4 grapefruit in at flameout, about 7 oz. Most of it stayed at the bottom of the brew pot when moving to primary.
 
I decided on this…

.7 oz Citra 60
1 oz Cascade at 10
1 oz Centennial at 10
.5 oz Cascade at 5
.5 oz Centennial at 5
.5 oz Cascade at 1
.5 oz Centennial at 1
1 oz Cascade dry hopped

Thanks for all the input, I will report back in a few weeks.

I also put the zest of 4 grapefruit in at flameout, about 7 oz. Most of it stayed at the bottom of the brew pot when moving to primary.

I zested 3 more grapefruit and dry hopped it with the cascade. I added 1.5 cups of organic grapefruit juice the day before bottling to the 5 gallons. It carbonated up well and tastes great!
 
I zested 3 more grapefruit and dry hopped it with the cascade. I added 1.5 cups of organic grapefruit juice the day before bottling to the 5 gallons. It carbonated up well and tastes great!


Be careful with this... In my experience, juice continues to slowly ferment very slowly in the bottle, and can lead to bottle bombs (has several times for me). Maybe just make sure you store them someplace safe and where they won't make a huge mess.
 
Be careful with this... In my experience, juice continues to slowly ferment very slowly in the bottle, and can lead to bottle bombs (has several times for me). Maybe just make sure you store them someplace safe and where they won't make a huge mess.

1.5 cups Organic Grapefruit juice adds about 1oz of sugar. Adding it the day before I figured a small percentage of that fermented in secondary. Beyond that I added a small quantity less priming sugar as well because my last IPA was over carbonated, so all should be well.

It's been bottled for 3.5 weeks and the carbonation seems pretty good.
 
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