Grapefruit IPA for BJCP 29A Competition

[nwburman]

Hey everybody

Going to an inter-varsity home-brew competition in a couple months and one of the categories that we need to brew is 29A - Fruit Beer.

We were thinking of doing a grape fruit IPA, not just a IPA that has some hop based grape fruit flavours to the educated palate, but a full on grape fruit experience that fufills the criteria of the fruit beer catagory i.e.
" A harmonious marriage of fruit and beer, but still recognizable as a beer. The fruit character should be evident but in balance with the beer, not so forward as to suggest an artificial product."

Personally i dont think one can go wrong with a grape fruit IPA, but this is going to be judged by BJCP judges so if we wanna win we need to get it to style.

If anyone has some experience with brewing a grape fruit ipa according to bjcp style 29A please can you share some knowledge.
Things im trying to figure out are when to add grape fruit, what part of the fruit to add, how much to add, other recipe considerations etc.

If you have experience with brewing/ entering/ judging this style your advice would also be great.

Thanks in advance!!!!

 

[Pappers_]

Hi Nick and welcome to HBT. I've never brewed a grapefruit beer, so can't respond directly to your question. I think I would consider adding grapefruit flavor in two ways - adding grapefruit zest and grapefruit juice, both probably in the secondary. I think one of the challenges of a grapefruit IPA is how to get the big hop flavor and aroma to meld with the grapefruit, rather than clash, but I've had some excellent grapefruit IPAs. Let us know what you end up doing!