Grapefruit Sculpin clone?

[madscientistbrewNq]

Well this is not a recipe for those of you who viewed this thread. BUT I did have the pleasure of drinking some this weekend AND now I'm wanting to find a way to replicate. Anyone found clone recipes anywhere as I didn't have any luck on the world wide web...

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

BTW this would be for all-grain.

 

[Colbizle]

I picked up sculpin at a the local liquor store a couple weeks ago it was $18!

But after drinking the sixer I understand why. It is one of the best IPAs I have ever drank.

There may be an all-grain conversion hidden in here some where: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/ballast-points-sculpin-ipa-228765/ but I didn't look.

Apparently this was the closest recipe but it was taken down by BA (maybe it was too close if not dead on.. that is why..) http://www.beeradvocate.com/forum/read/2318272/#2318703

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

Thanks bud, honestly if I hadn't tried pliny last week I probably would have put it at the top of my list. Even when compared to things like kern river double citra (my second favorite prior to the grapefruit sculpin), pliny, blind pig, enjoy by, and yes heady, I found it to be really interesting. It's not too often the wife and I are fighting over the last bottle in the six pack I had this weekend. Keep in mind I haven't tried any lawsons, hill farmstead or toppling goliath.

 

[airbrett]

I've been lucky enough to find Grapefruit Sculpin in a few unsuspecting places over the past month. There are still 3 12oz bottles left in my fridge.

Someday I want to attempt a clone, but I'm new to brewing so I'm starting with a few easier recipes first.

If anyone has any recipes for this one, please do share.

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

Yeah I bought a case of that stuff. I viewed the links that were attached above and unless i missed it I didn't find it.

 

[Colbizle]

Oh I just relealized I linked for the regular sculpin and not the Grapefruit Sculpin. My bad guys. :cross:

 

[Colbizle]

I suppose if you take the original sculpin recipe and sub in some galaxy you could get pretty close. Galaxy is intensely grapefruity, one of my fav hops.

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

Oh man no worries I appreciated the lead because I couldn't find anything.

 

[fab80]

Hey, I picked up very fresh bottles of the grapefruit sculpin at sunset beer company in LA last year (maybe October?) and one of the guys from Ballast Point was there promoting the beer. He told me it was just a regular sculpin with grapefruit zest added to it. He told me that many employees sat there and peeled lots and lots of grapefruits for the bottled release. I was very impressed by that beer and I recently found it again at the same store. I don't know if I am just picking up this right now, or if they changed the recipe, but the Natural grapefruit Flavor tastes kind of artificial to me. It tastes like Sculpin with grapefruit soda added to it. If you are not familiar with grapefruit soda, it's an Italian delicious soda and they sell it at trader Joe's.

 

[te-wa]

iirc, i read on one of the many forums... the zest of a medium grapefruit in the last 5 minutes is a good place to start.
im brewing a test batch tomorrow.

http://www.craftedpours.com/homebrew-recipe/ballast-point-sculpin-ipa-clone-homebrew-recipe

this is a decent recipe... but you may see my comment that C-40 is closer to the color... and i would also dry it out a bit with dextrose (maybe 6oz)

*amendment* - my curiosity has been piqued.. so i have decided to brew something similar to the link posted (which is not MY recipe) with my own recipe. i am going to change up the hops a bit, nix the centennial in the boil, and replace w/ cascade.

also, the zest of one grapefruit is roughly 1 tablespoon.. i think i'll shoot for zesting FOUR grapefruits, and boil for 10 mins.

 

[ditch]

Just a little input for thought. I have not made a clone for this. But, this beer has peaked my interest to brew a grapefruit IPA. I have been making grapefruit soda at home for a few years now. Per 2 litre I use the peel of 3 grapefruits boiled in enough water to cover. Boil for about 5 min. Add one cup of sugar. Let cool. Strain into 2 liter. Also add one cup of fresh squeezed juice and top up with filtered water. The aroma and grapefruit flavor is pretty intense. In a competition, a buddy of mine added 1oz of this soda to a bottle of Pale Ale and took 2nd place in the fruit category of a local homebrew competition. So my thought is. Take the Sculpin recipe. Add roughly 2-3 grapefruits worth of fresh peel last 5 or so minutes. Then make an extract from more rind and a bit of juice and add post fermentation. Just don't add the sugar I add when making the soda. Should be pretty potent. I will eventually get around to trying this myself. But, I don't know when. Cheers!

 

[Colbizle]

Honestly if you want a nice intense grapefruit character then just use a buttload of galaxy in a late addition and whirlpool. Not only will it taste better than actual grapefruit but it will smell better too. Have you smelled actual grapefruit in beer? It smells like @ss.

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

Yeah I can't put finger on this. I recently was drinking quite a bit of grapefruit ipas and grapefruit sours. They were not like the grapefruit sculpin. I'm actually planning a hoppy wheat with grapefruit zest.

 

[te-wa]

mine is in primary, 2 weeks now. i used a potato peeler to get the zest (with very little pithe) of four grapefruits, added late in the boil. the wort was good. about to rack in to a keg (secondary) and taste again. anyone want the recipe i used? reminder: this is not a gf sculpin "clone". it's prolly going to be very good, tho!

 

[madscientistbrewNq]

Are you putting any additional zest in or was it just at the boil? Let me know how it tastes it nothing else I will borrow your concept on my hoppy wheat.

 

[boondocksaint]

mine is in primary, 2 weeks now. i used a potato peeler to get the zest (with very little pithe) of four grapefruits, added late in the boil. the wort was good. about to rack in to a keg (secondary) and taste again. anyone want the recipe i used? reminder: this is not a gf sculpin "clone". it's prolly going to be very good, tho!

I'd be interested to see the recipe! My LHBS is planning a big parking lot brew day for National Home Brew Day in May and I was trying to think of a way to tweak an APA or IPA recipe. This sounds like a great idea

 

[TheCADJockey]

I think Ocean Spray makes a grapefruit sculpin clone.

Sub'd in case a good recipe shows up.

 

[te-wa]

13 lbs Maris Otter
12 oz. Crystal 40
8 oz. CaraPils
6 oz. dextrose (at high kruesen)
mashed at 153, strike water 170 (fly sparged)
last 10 mins of boil, the zest of 4 medium grapefruits
.5 oz. Warrior 16%a, 60 minutes
1 oz. Cascade10%a, 30 minutes
.5 oz. Amarillo 8%a, 20 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 13%a, 20 minutes
.5 oz. Amarillo 8%a, 10 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 13%a, 5 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 10%a, flameout
dry hop 7 days with 1.5 oz. Amarillo, .5 oz Cascade

i used chico cali ale yeast and ferm'd at 66

 

[kshuler]

13 lbs Maris Otter
12 oz. Crystal 40
8 oz. CaraPils
6 oz. dextrose (at high kruesen)
mashed at 153, strike water 170 (fly sparged)
last 10 mins of boil, the zest of 4 medium grapefruits
.5 oz. Warrior 16%a, 60 minutes
1 oz. Cascade10%a, 30 minutes
.5 oz. Amarillo 8%a, 20 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 13%a, 20 minutes
.5 oz. Amarillo 8%a, 10 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 13%a, 5 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 10%a, flameout
dry hop 7 days with 1.5 oz. Amarillo, .5 oz Cascade

i used chico cali ale yeast and ferm'd at 66

Please keep us posted on how this turns out. It looks great!

 

[GrowlerMonkey]

How did this turn out, Te-wa? I'm not so concerned about the malt and hops as I am the method of getting the grapefruit flavor. Would you say you got a similar grapefruit character to the sculpin?

 

[te-wa]

it was more orange than grapefruit. coulda been the amarillo. i used cascade to get more grapefruit. maybe i'm so used to citrusy ipas that i can no longer pick up that flavor!! hahaha
next time i'll try 6 or 7 ripe ones in the boil for 10 mins.

 

[jeff62217]

I also have been wow'd by this beer enough to want to clone it. Interestingly enough I had my last bottle while drinking a hb all mosaic IPA and tasted a lot of similarities with the fruit flavor in grapefruit sculpin and the mosaic hops.. I might try a combination of galaxy, simcoe and mosaic along with a lot of zest/peel at 5 min.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Would love to hear if someone achieves something close, I'm loving the Sculpin Grapefruit IPA.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

I was thinking of doing the normal Sculpin IPA recipe that's been posted everywhere, then adding grapefruit seed extract to the beer (or even a pint at a time.)

Thoughts?

 

[jeff62217]

I made a clone on 6-6-15 using chinook as a fwh, then used columbus/mosaic/simcoe/cascade all late additions and dry hopped with cascade/mosaic/simcoe and used only one grapefruit's zest and juice at flameout.

Can't believe how spot on this turned out-- I now have to go get a 6er (or case) for further comparison. I would probably use 3 or 4 grapefruit next time, but the hops lend some serious grapefruit flavor.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

I made a clone on 6-6-15 using chinook as a fwh, then used columbus/mosaic/simcoe/cascade all late additions and dry hopped with cascade/mosaic/simcoe and used only one grapefruit's zest and juice at flameout.

Can't believe how spot on this turned out-- I now have to go get a 6er (or case) for further comparison. I would probably use 3 or 4 grapefruit next time, but the hops lend some serious grapefruit flavor.

Details, Jeff, details!

 

[jeff62217]

Details, Jeff, details!

ok I formulated for 70% brewhouse efficiency.
5.5 gallons:
OG 1.068
IBU 88
SRM 6.7

12 lbs great western 2 row
2 lbs briess goldpils vienna
0.5lb C40

1oz chinook (11.5) fwh
1oz columbus (15.4) @20
1oz mosaic (11.6)@15
0.5oz simcoe (12.0) @10
0.5oz mosaic (11.6)@5
1oz cascade (6.6)@0
0.25oz mosaic (11.6)@0
0.25oz simcoe(12.0)@0
0.5oz cascade dry hop 4 days
1oz mosaic dry hop 4 days
1.5oz simcoe dry hop 4 days

I mashed with 5 gallons RO water with 3.9 g gypsum and 2.3 g calcium chloride added.
Sparged with 3.25 gallons RO water with 2.5 g gypsum and 1.5 g calcium chloride. Preboil was 6.5-6.75 gallons,

mashed at 150 for 60, zest and juice (no seeds) of one grapefruit at flameout.
S05 fermented at 67-68 for 10-14 days

Just put it on gas today, really looking forward to getting into it. I have a feeling this will become my go to IPA

 

[butterpants]

I cornered the brewer pouring it at BN10 last week. All they do is add zest to the bright tank.

 

[NervousDad]

I cornered the brewer pouring it at BN10 last week. All they do is add zest to the bright tank.

Makes sense since the flavor is so intense. I wonder how they keep it sanitary. I would think there is lot of wild yeast stuck to a grapefruit.

 

[butterpants]

blanch or quick soak in starsan I'd imagine... then zest away

 

[Baja_Brewer]

For a split second I thought the first word you posted was "bleach" and my jaw dropped....

I'd say a through cleaning of the fruit would be advised either way- pesticides and all.

 

[barrooze]

I absolutely LOVE Sculpin Grapefruit... I'm going to have to make one of these soon!

Thank you all for the insight!

 

[butterpants]

For a split second I thought the first word you posted was "bleach" and my jaw dropped....

I'd say a through cleaning of the fruit would be advised either way- pesticides and all.

Na bro.... like the hot Golden Girl.... Blanche

 

[jbrace1]

I have yet to brew the Sculpin clone I found on HBT but I did make a grapefruit extract using the zest (no pith) of 8 grapefruits and a pint and a half of Everclear (the real stuff at 190 proof).

After 1 day, I added 0.2 mL, from a TB syringe, to a 16 oz glass of my Pliny clone and compared to the 'grapefruitiness' of a can of Grapefruit Sculpin and found the results very similar.

Therefore, I plan to brew a 10 gallon batch of Sculpin. I'll leave one keg ungrapefuited and add 8 mL extract to the other keg for a grapefruit Sculpin.

I am assuming the 190 proof solution will be sterile...

 

[grrickar]

I have yet to brew the Sculpin clone I found on HBT but I did make a grapefruit extract using the zest (no pith) of 8 grapefruits and a pint and a half of Everclear (the real stuff at 190 proof).

After 1 day, I added 0.2 mL, from a TB syringe, to a 16 oz glass of my Pliny clone and compared to the 'grapefruitiness' of a can of Grapefruit Sculpin and found the results very similar.

Therefore, I plan to brew a 10 gallon batch of Sculpin. I'll leave one keg ungrapefuited and add 8 mL extract to the other keg for a grapefruit Sculpin.

I am assuming the 190 proof solution will be sterile...

If 190 proof doesn't kill the germ, light it on fire because it needs to die

Anxiously awaiting results on your brew. This is easily one of my top 5 beers right now. I'd love to be able to make it, and not have to pay $16 a sixxer for it.

 

[Bambooshoot]

Therefore, I plan to brew a 10 gallon batch of Sculpin. I'll leave one keg ungrapefuited and add 8 mL extract to the other keg for a grapefruit Sculpin.

Did you end up brewing this? How did the everclear extract work out for you? Seems like it should be a pretty good method of adding a measured dose of flavor.

 

[Xpertskir]

First make a fantastic IPA. Then ruin it by adding way too much grapefruit, including too much pith.

 

[jbrace1]

Just kegged 10g of the Sculpin clone yesterday. Letting it condition and gelatin finings settle out before I dryhop with Galaxy and add grapefruit extract to one keg.

 

[njviking]

I personally love Grapefruit Sculpin, but that **** cant be zest.

Heres what I get when I have one.