First Recipe

[jmarkus]

First off, I'm making this for my SO. She loves Abita's Grapefruit IPA, so to keep my obsess... hobby going, I figured I'd try to make her something similar.

Recipe type: Extract w/ Speciality Grain Steep

Yeast: Dry s-04 or s-05? (first question - which would be better)

Batch Size: 3 gallons

OG: 1.053

FG: 1.015

IBU: 47

Boil time: 60 min

Color: ?

Primary ferment: 4 weeks at room temp (~70F), dry hop at week 3

Grains:
4 lbs Pale LME
.5 lbs 120L Crystal Speciality Grains steeped for 30 min (second question - too dark? Should I go with 60L?)

Hop schedule:
.5 oz centennial (7.8%) @60min
.5oz cascade (7%) @20min
.5oz Amarillo (8.6%) @10min
.5oz cent (7.8) @5min
.5oz am (8.6) / .5oz cascade (7) at 0 min
Dry hop with which one of the three above?. (I don't know which one, but really want the grapefruit aroma to come through.) Third question.

Last question: do you think she will get the grapefruit flavor she's looking for with just the hops, or should I also "dry hop" with zest of one grapefruit (pith removed)?

Thanks for the help guys and gals! I'm just trying to please.

 

[jrgtr42]

4 lbs of extract might be a little light 0 though I presume you ran the recipe though one of the brew calculators to get the OG?
I wouldn't use any higher than about 40 lovibond in an IPA - the 120 is a very dark crystal and will give a lot of raisiny flavors. Some will say not to use any crystal at all... I like a bit of 30 or so in my beers.
Why are you planning a 4 week fermentation? Especially at 70degrees, that seems a bit long and warm. Many beers can be ready in a couple weeks. I generally let mine sit for 3 weeks - in fact I have an IPA brewed 2 weeks ago, I;m going to toss in dryhops today, planning to let go for a week.
Also, if you can, try to bring the fermentation temp down to around 65, you won't get as many esters and yeast flavors coming through.
I've never experimented with zest in the dry"hop" - don't see why it might not work, but if you choose the right hops in the first place, you will get a similar grapefruity flavor anyway. Amarillo and cascade are a great place to start. You might also want to think about Citra or some of the other new varieties around.

 

[chickypad]

I agree on the c-40, with 0. 5 lb of that and the pale LME I'm getting about 8 SRM in Beersmith which is what the commercial description says. I'm also getting 1.050 so you'll probably end up under 5% ABV depending on how well it attenuates with the extract, did you want the lower ABV?
Of those 3 hops I get the most grapefruit aroma from centennial, with cascade next. Not having had the actual brew I'd go with S-05 since it sounds like an American style. jrgtr's suggestion of mid-60's for 10-14 days sounds good then dry hop 5-7 days. I've only done zest in the boil, you may want to sanitize in something.

 

[jmarkus]

Thanks for the help, you two. I might try to add the zest in with the boil and throw some in with the dry hops. Centennial is my best bet for grapefruity goodness, it sounds like. Thanks, again. I hope MLSO is pleased.