Grapefruit IPA (with juice and fruit) recipe advice

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Unferth

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Hi all,

I really like Grapefruit and have had a few great BC beers with them involved:

In particular I like the Super Jupiter Grapefruit IPA and the Parallel 49 Grapefruit Radler. This is not a clone of either of them, but will hopefully be as good in its own right.

I definitely want to use grapefruit in the recipe, but I'm not sure how much, and I'm not sure whether to use juice.

I'm thinking of topping off wort with 2 liters or so of grapefruit juice before pitching yeast.

Ideally I would like to add some at kegging, chill the keg and force carb. but that will have to wait until I get a keg. :(

These are my recipe thoughts thus far:

I do partial mash recipes (space, equipment, yada yada), and can accomodate about 5 # of grain.

Anticipated OG: 1.075
FG: 1.015

ABV: 7.9%
IBUs: 82-ish according to calculator.

Nottingham yeast starter.

Grain bill:

1# wheat
1.5 # crystal 60
1.5 # 2 row
1# biscuit

infusion 60 minutes at 150F.

Other Fermentables.

8# light LME

1# Dextrose

4 grapefruit zests and flesh

2 liters of unsweetened Grapefruit juice

Hop Schedule:

I'm thinking an ounce of Magnum for a 90 minute boil.

then mixing together 1 oz each of Citra, Centennial, Cascade and Amarillo for the last 20 minutes.

Dry hopping with 1 oz of same mix and maybe some more Grapefruit zest depending on taste.



I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on any aspect of the recipe.
 
IMO drop the juice. Have you ever tasted a juice like OJ that has gone bad? Not good.

You can get enough grapefruit flavor with hops and zest. You can make a grapefruit bomb with just hops and zest.

The biscuit is also out of place in this recipe. I would drop that also. 1.5 lbs of crystal is also too much for my taste. Maybe .5 lb. Keep the grain bill simple and let the grapefruit flavor really shine.

I am sure others will have different opinions. Ask 10 brewers for an opinion and you will get 12 different answers.
 
Similar comments to Beergolf.

1 lb of biscuit is too much, but a small amount is not necessarily out of place.

1.5 lbs of crystal is too much.

I have never used it, but have seen in many places that citrus juice doesn't result in a pleasant product when fermented.

Stick to zest and hops. No flesh either, it doesn't add favor and is bitter.
 
Maybe its just me, but everytime i leave the zest in from 5 to end of boil through secondary, my beers develop a weird flavor. From here on out im taking the zest out after the boil. Just sharing my experience, as i tried a grapefruit ipa myself, and dumped it shortly after keging. Had a similiar experience with an orange pale ale that had orange zest in it.
 
I have used small amounts of citrus juice and had it turn out just fine. I have also had several commercial examples where either grapefruit juice or whole grapefruit was used. Many of them were great. See Hangar 24 Essence, Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin, Pizza Port Grapefruit Puncher.

I have also had commercial examples where only zest was used and they weren't good. See Stochasticity Grapefruit Slam IPA.

I think if you really want an intense grapefruit flavor and aroma, you do need to use at least some juice. The key to making it taste good instead of awful is the appropriate level of malt sweetness. I would use a small amount of honey malt to bring this forward, by cutting the crystal down to .5lb of 40L and adding .5lb of honey malt. When used judiciously it is perfect for balancing out dry and acidic flavors and restoring the lost sweetness of fruit.

I am pretty sure that Ballast Point uses fresh GF juice at bottling time, which they can do because they filter the beer and don't have to worry about it refermenting. Not sure what you can do with that if you don't have a force carbing setup.
 
Thanks folks, for all the advice.

Any thoughts on the hop schedule/choices?

I think, in the spirit of experimentation, I'm going to try some of the grapefruit juice in the primary. If all goes to ****, I can just make a grapefruit Radler out of it.

@Chacotaco: what would you describe as an appropriate amount of juice for a 5 gallon batch?

Revised Recipe:

Grain bill:

1# wheat
.5 # crystal 40
3 # 2 row
.5# honey malt

infusion 60 minutes at 150F.

Other Fermentables.

8# light LME

1# Dextrose

4 grapefruit zests

??? oz unsweetened Grapefruit juice

Hop Schedule:
ounce of Magnum for a 90 minute boil.

mix together 1 oz each of Citra, Centennial, Cascade and Amarillo for the last 20 minutes.

Dry hopping with 1 oz of same mix and maybe some more Grapefruit zest depending on taste.
 
10% or less. Although with your zest addition probably less. Ill be curious how this turns out.
 
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