Specialty IPA: White IPA Citrus IPA inspired by Grapefruit Sculpin

[Bokonon_Isidore]

Recipe Type

Extract

Yeast

SAFALE US-05 American Ale Yeast, 11 g.

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.056

Final Gravity

1.0105

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

Color

Amber

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

21 days @ ~72 F

Tasting Notes

Great citrus aroma, malt not overtaken by hops

This was inspired by Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin, which is too expensive to be a daily beer. The aroma is not pointedly grapefruity like the Sculpin, nor is it quite as hoppy, but I actually like it better and so does my boyfriend, for whom I made this beer--so he wouldn't keep paying $12-18 for a 6-pack. I've had a lot of positive reviews from friends. Note that it isn’t very bitter and the hops aren’t too sharp, so if you are a big hop head you could easily increase the hops bill.

The citrus oils are from Surfas in Culver City, CA; I imagine any specialty food store would have them or you could probably find them online. I measured them in the caps which is why I don’t have an exact measurement.

Ingredient List

5 lb Breiss organic pale dry malt extract
1 lb Great Western Organic Crystal 40 Malt

1 oz. American Magnum Organic Pellet Hops
2 oz.New Zealand Cascade Pellet Hops
2 oz. American Simcoe Organic Pellet Hops
2 oz. American Centennial Organic Pellet Hops

2 whole grapefruits
~ 1/8 tsp bergamot oil
~ 3/4 tsp orange oil

11 g. SAFALE US-05 American Ale Yeast
¾ cup corn sugar to prime

In a nutshell:

• The crystal malt steeps for 30 min at 150-170F.
• Hops schedule
• • 1 oz Magnum 60 min
  • 1/3 oz of each of the other 3 hop varieties at the last:
  • • 15 minutes
    • 5 minutes
    • Flameout
  • Dry hop 1 oz each of the 3 hop varieties for 1 week
• Grapefruit and citrus extracts at flameout

You can use a more traditional method, but here’s mine, which I find to be the easiest.

My Method

The night before, clean your fermentation vessel, and dump 3 boiling gallons of water in it and close the lid. Make sure you have one that is made of the right type of plastic to handle this. It will warp, but that’s ok. The steam will sterilize it so you don’t have muck around with SaniStar.

1. Next day, bring 1 gallon of water and 1 lb crushed caramel malt (in bag) to 170F, put on the lid, and turn off the heat. Check it after 15 minutes, and turn the heat back on if needed. Don’t let it get below 150F. It should steep for 30 min.
2. At the same time that you have your caramel malt heating, bring a gallon of water to boil in another pot and add your hops at these times:
   a. 1 oz Magnum 60 min
   b. 1/3 oz of each of the other 3 hop varieties at the last:
   - i. 15 minutes—after 45 minutes
   - ii. 5 minutes—after 55 minutes
   - iii. Flameout
3. After you get your caramel malt and hops heating up, heat up another pot with another gallon of water. Bring it to a boil and then turn it off but leave the lid on.
4. Squeeze the water out of the malt bag and then put the bag in the hot water pot from step 3, stir it around to milk a little more wart out of it, strain and discard the bag. Combine pots from steps 1 and 3.
5. Add DME to wort from step 4, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. At flameout, add:
   a. 2 whole washed grapefruits (preferably organic, due to the pesticides on conventionally grown ones). Don’t cut it or you will get the nastiness from the pith.
   b. About 1/8 to ¼ tsp bergamot oil
   c. About ½ to 1 tsp orange oil
7. When the time is up on the hops, remove and squeeze out the hop bag, then pour it through a strainer into your now cooled 3 gallons of water from last night.
8. About 10 min after flameout of the wort remove the grapefruit and pour it into the fermenter too. Use a sterilized spoon and give the liquid in the fermenter a vigorous stir to incorporate oxygen.
9. Replace the lid and let it cool to whatever temperature it says on the yeast bag. I made this in summer so used the most heat tolerant yeast I could find. Once it’s cooled enough, sprinkle the yeast on top.
10. Let it sit for 2 weeks. Then on the third week, carefully add a hops bag with the remaining 1 oz each of Cascade, Simcoe, and Centenial hops with marbles or something to weigh down the bag. Be very gentle so as not to stir anything up.
11. Let it sit another week and then prime and bottle.

A note – I rinse my bottles immediately after use, then just throw them into the dishwasher with no detergent to “sanitize” the night before I bottle. My dishwasher gets up to about 70C which is about 158F and I haven’t had any problems.

 

[KramE]

Excellent write up! I'll have to keep this recipe close.

 

[alexacuna]

excited to try this with my gf

 

[scinerd3000]

how did this come out-any feedback from people?

 

[Bokonon_Isidore]

I just made it a second time--still tastes good.

Since it's so expensive (all those hops!) I also milked a little more use out of the hops by boiling up 2 gallons of water with 1.5 lb dme and 1.5 lb cheap molasses from smart and final for 10 min, plus another saucepan with 1 gallon of water with with a couple oz of home grown hops divided up and added at 45 min, 10, 5 min (I think), plus a handful of chamomile at 5 minutes. A couple cinnamon sticks went in with the hops too. Then I let all that cool down with the lids on for a couple hours, and added to the fermentation bucket after bottling--which still had the yeast and hops in it. I let that sit for 2 weeks before bottling. It's not a showcase beer, but it's perfectly tasty on a Tuesday night.

I've used this method a couple of times for 3 gallon batches on bottling day--you get an extra half batch without having to do the sterilization or much other prep, plus don't have to buy yeast. It's especially nice when you dry hop, cause you get some more use out of those hops.

 

[Bokonon_Isidore]

Also, I didn't meant to be an ass about organic stuff, I was just copying and pasting what I had used from my receipts. No harm done in conventionally grown things, except that the citrus should ideally be organic because you are using the peel. The second time I did this, I also added a pomelo.

 

[Bigfly]

Would it work using just the zest of the grapefruit. I make lemoncello using just the outside layer of the lemon. I also prefer organic lemons for the lemoncello.

 

[Bokonon_Isidore]

I imagine that would work, but be very careful not to zest down to the pith, as I read in researching for this recipe that citrus pith will add an unpleasant bitterness. I'm lazy and have a big enough pot that I thought it was easier just to toss the whole fruit in for a few minutes.

Also, while I thought the amount of citrus was perfect, don't be shy about putting in "too much". The citrus does dissipate after a while. This beer was at its best 2 weeks after bottling until ~ I want to say 6-8 weeks after bottling, then it lost a little of its flavor. This is the only beer I've made that was actually at its best shortly after bottling, rather than continuing to get better with age.