Northern Brewer Grapefruit Sculpin clone

[HealeyA87]

How much grapefruit did you use, how did you use it, and for how long? Thanks for sharing.

Zest from 2 fresh grapefruits, gave me 1oz of zest in weight. And I used 1 oz of the dry peel, I started off with 4oz of vodka to sanitize but it didn't quite cover the zest in the container I had it in so I added enough to cover it all.

At first i thought it was too much grapefruit. But it has seemed as if it is starting to mellow out, but next time I may use a little less, not sure though. It still has time.

 

[HealeyA87]

So the brew is a hit. Between a few friends and myself. The keg only has about 1/4 left in it.. And my brew turned out about 8%. So we had a good time. I will no doubt brew this again. But i think next time I will cut back a little of the grapefruit. Either only use the fresh, or only use the provided peel. But either way this brew is awesome


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[cgm]

I'm not sure if this is a dumb question... but does it matter if it is a pink or read grapefruit?

 

[arnobg]

I brewed this about a month ago and it is bottle conditioning. Cracked one yesterday after a week and a half and I can tell this one is a winner.

I used 1.7 oz of fresh zested ruby red grapefruit. I did 1.7 oz because that just happened to be an entire sack.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Subbed. I tried a recipe where I added the zest at flame out. Way too bitter. Others in the thread suggest the vodka method- I wish I had.

 

[thadeus_d3]

Brewed this about 6 weeks ago and it's fantastic. I ended up soaking 1.5 oz of zest (3 large grapefruits) in 4 oz of vodka for 2 days before DH. This is an IPA that I'll always have on tap.

 

[jrcrilly]

The keg with the second batch just kicked the other day so I'll be brewing it again soon. I alternate one tap between this and a Pliny the Elder clone.

 

[arnobg]

I'm going to post a comparison side by side of the real thing in a week or two. Have two cans left of the real deal. Right now my brew is too young and has some sweetness left from priming sugar so that's no good for a comparison.

 

[thadeus_d3]

A few pics. So tasty

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[HealeyA87]

Well that didn't last long... Now I have an empty keg and nothing to put in it... Better get brewing

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[treacheroustexan]

I brewed this a month ago maybe? Just bottled a sixer and kegged the rest. I opened the fermenter and it was just a grapefruit explosion on my nose. I can't wait to try it!

 

[arnobg]

At week 4 in the bottle this beer really starts to shine. Everything starts to even out and the grapefruit is pleasant and in my opinion perfectly balanced at 1.7 oz of zest for 5 gallons. Very close to the original, but slightly sweeter and more complex in my opinion but very close. I think the added complexity is from the use of Cara 20 with Caramel 20L. The color is close but mine appears slightly darker due to being more hazy. At week 2-3 I thought the grapefruit was overpowering and the beer too sweet compared to the original but at week 4 it is perfect. Patience is key!

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[treacheroustexan]

I love this beer.

 

[mjc999]

Love this beer too and agree that time is this beer's best friend. Mine has been kegged for 4 weeks and everything has blended beautifully. The grapefruit flavor was super forward at the beginning and now is very subtle. Also, I have drank/drunk a lot of the sculpin gf and would say the grapefruit flavor of this brew is much more like fresh grapefruit and not grapefruit "flavor" if that makes any sense.

Getting ready to brew it again.

 

[arnobg]

Only change I will make next time is with my water chemistry. When I made this I didn't know what was in my water but since then I have gotten a Ward Labs report. Should only need minor changes to better bring out hop character.

 

[WBrewer]

Brewed this a few weeks ago. Kegged it Sunday, put the dry hops and the Grapefruit zest in the kegs. It's carbonating now. When or should I at all take the hops and the zest out?
I ended up with 6.5%. OG was 1.070 and I couldn't get it to finish lower than 1.020. I was shooting for 7, so I am fine with it. I used the wrong yeast. I had to use Wyeast 1332. None of my shops had 001 if you can believe that. I don't think it will make a huge difference, but I will brew it with 001 next time.

 

[arnobg]

I did 7 days with the zest and dry hop.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Planning on entering this to a competition. Could I get away with the American IPA category or would you guys recommend Fruit beer?

 

[HealeyA87]

It's been a month or so since I emptied the keg with this brew. Tonight I poured a ballast point grapefruit sculpin and took a sip, I couldn't tell a difference in the ballast point and the homebrew. Soooooo I'd say success

 

[Baja_Brewer]

..

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Are you folks actually peeling the entire skin/rind off of grapefruit? Or zesting it? I just zested 3 grapefruits and only came away with ~1oz of wet zest!

Edit:

Zest or peel? 2 oz of zest is going to give a greater grapefruit character than the straight peel I think.

From?

The kit comes with a 2oz bag of dry peel.

Like it had been peeled like an orange, correct?

Pic in ~4oz vodka

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[andyplank]

I made the NB Grapefruit Pulpin' kit for a Super Bowl party. I thought it was really good. Clean and crisp, and the grapefruit definitely shines through. We killed the keg before halftime.

 

[arnobg]

I zested 1.7 oz of grapefruit using a zester and that was almost an entire sack of grapefruit. I soaked mine in Tito's Vodka for about an hour, then strained the vodka into an empty vodka bottle to use for cocktails. The grapefruit infused Tito's was awesome!

 

[Sed777]

Has anyone attempted a GF IPA, using all exp grapefruit hops and grapefruit zest?!?

 

[chrilr]

I used them in a black ipa but no zest. It was awesome, tasted like cascade on steroids.

 

[drhusker18]

It comes out tasting great (to me). I'm guessing the grapefruit peel (added later) gets the bitterness where it belongs.

Hey jrcrilly or others....Any other comments on this (IBU)? I will be trying this next, last of my 3 extract kits left.

My beer smith says 56 and I looked up sculpin and it is in the 70 range and many of the sculpin clones are in the 70+

I understand this is a good brew as is. I figure my full boil (5gal) at the partial boil rate recipe would have me a little higher IBU but it didn't impact much. But also wanted to be as close as possible. The mid50s seems not that much IPA to me

 

[arnobg]

Hey jrcrilly or others....Any other comments on this (IBU)? I will be trying this next, last of my 3 extract kits left.



My beer smith says 56 and I looked up sculpin and it is in the 70 range and many of the sculpin clones are in the 70+



I understand this is a good brew as is. I figure my full boil (5gal) at the partial boil rate recipe would have me a little higher IBU but it didn't impact much. But also wanted to be as close as possible. The mid50s seems not that much IPA to me

IBU's are probably actually 70 to be honest. Beersmith doesn't calculate any utilization from 0 minute hop additions at all unless you put them in as "whirlpool" additions. The bitterness and hop flavor is right in to the real thing. Don't worry about the Beersmith calculations unless your hops AA is way off.

 

[drhusker18]

IBU's are probably actually 70 to be honest. Beersmith doesn't calculate any utilization from 0 minute hop additions at all unless you put them in as "whirlpool" additions. The bitterness and hop flavor is right in to the real thing. Don't worry about the Beersmith calculations unless your hops AA is way off.

Good advice and I really hadn't thought about the whirlpool calc. I had been seeing some recipes posted showing ibus from flameout additions and some not (zeroed out). Started wondering - is there a general acceptance on how hop additions are viewed late. The stuff I have reviewed suggested that isn't enough time for the bitterness to kick in....and contribute to the calc. For various reasons of heat/time/stirring during late addition compared to full boil timed additions. I mean....couldn't it really screw up a recipe by not expecting a lot of bitters and ending up with it?

I guess when I saw this I was concerned about making a IPA with a low or non-IPA set of ibus. Then wondered why my full boil didn't take the ibus out of range like it did with my caribou slobber before I adjusted out from the partial boil recipe included.

 

[arnobg]

Good advice and I really hadn't thought about the whirlpool calc. I had been seeing some recipes posted showing ibus from flameout additions and some not (zeroed out). Started wondering - is there a general acceptance on how hop additions are viewed late. The stuff I have reviewed suggested that isn't enough time for the bitterness to kick in....and contribute to the calc. For various reasons of heat/time/stirring during late addition compared to full boil timed additions. I mean....couldn't it really screw up a recipe by not expecting a lot of bitters and ending up with it?



I guess when I saw this I was concerned about making a IPA with a low or non-IPA set of ibus. Then wondered why my full boil didn't take the ibus out of range like it did with my caribou slobber before I adjusted out from the partial boil recipe included.

I wouldn't say there is a real rule of thumb from what I've seen and experienced. With this recipe it is built to throw the 0 minute hops in at flameout and start cooling immediately. You get more hop flavor than anything from this addition although, you will get some bitterness as it cools down to 180-16 but not much. As for how much and what temps you get utilization, people will tell you different things all day long as there is no exact proven number, but it is really not even relevant. Just follow the hop schedule and don't worry about the specific IBU's from flameout hops and I guarantee it won't be too bitter. You'll be happy and realize it was nothing worth stressing over as I did before I used the technique more.

If you would like a little more accuracy in beersmith, change the hop addition from 0 minute to whirlpool and put the amount of time you think it will take you to cool to around 180F after flameout. 5 minutes is a good starting point depending on your system and it will reflect the IBU's unlike a 0 minute addition. Don't expect full accuracy though, just a ball park.

 

[Ashebrewro]

Is this recipe the regular sculpin clone with the grapefruit addition? I prefer the original over the grapefruit version.