what to brew with a tree full of grapefruit?

[pcbandit]

my grandparents have a giant grapefruit tree I help pick every year and I figured I might as well put them to good use!

 

[iijakii]

Juice it and make a radler with some pils.

 

[BrewSRQ]

I've heard citrus juice can give vomit type flavors when fermented, that's why zest is generally added. Maybe an interesting food recipe and add a bunch of zest to an ipa like grapefruit sculpin?

 

[meatcleaver]

it wont help this season but make some sparkling white wine & have mimosas (or whatever they would be with grapefruit juice) next year.
the radlers are a good idea too.
& did you search the recipe database?

 

[NatureOfTheYeast]

I've heard citrus juice can give vomit type flavors when fermented

I would really like to know more about this. I have no reason to doubt it, nor am I questioning your credibility. I have a Rangpur tree, an Indian lemon/tangerine hybrid, that I intend to use to make a witbier using the zests. This is going to be a belated one-year-of-homebrewing celebration beer and I'm very excited to be using a truly local ingredient, and the tree is finally coming into its own after over a year of TLC and babying. In addition to the zests, I was also planning to toss the juice into the boil at the last couple of minutes for giggles, and reading this makes me quite concerned.

Should I just juice them and bottle the juice for other random cooking or straight drinking instead?

Sorry to thread jack...

Anyway as for Grapefruit usage, I'd definitely try a Grapefruit Sculpin-type beer. GF blonde, GF pale ale/IPA, GF Belgian anything. Heck, make a large batch of Grapefruit zest tincture with your choice of good vodka and spike various beers already in your pipeline. Peel strips of zest and soak them in the vodka in a mason jar or covered glass container in the fridge for a couple of days to a couple of weeks and have instant Grapefruit extract. Stuff lasts a looong time, too.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Make the grapefruit equivalent of skeeter pee (use grapefruit juice instead of lemon). I made a 1 gallon test batch last year using Simply Grapefruit juice and it turned out pretty damn good. I didn't get any of the vomit smell I've read about either. Maybe that's just for oranges?

 

[pcbandit]

Make the grapefruit equivalent of skeeter pee (use grapefruit juice instead of lemon). I made a 1 gallon test batch last year using Simply Grapefruit juice and it turned out pretty damn good. I didn't get any of the vomit smell I've read about either. Maybe that's just for oranges?

what type of yeast did you use?

 

[estricklin]

If I may recommend:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=275145

Grapefruit ginger beer!

Edit:

Sorry just noticed this is the wine forum, if your not a brewer sorry.

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

Imperial Grapefruit Saison.

 

[Yooper]

Grapefruit wine is awesome!

Jack Keller has four really nice recipes on his site: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques20.asp

I'd make the first one, as a dry grapefruit wine is one of my favorites.

 

[pcbandit]

Grapefruit wine is awesome!

Jack Keller has four really nice recipes on his site: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques20.asp

I'd make the first one, as a dry grapefruit wine is one of my favorites.

thanks I actually just stumbled across his site I am going to give it a try. Do you have any yeast suggestions?

 

[Yooper]

thanks I actually just stumbled across his site I am going to give it a try. Do you have any yeast suggestions?

Hmmm- I'd probably go with a cotes de blancs (Red Star) or Lalvin's D-47.

 

[Mismost]

Good luck with the grapefruit wine!

I would suggest taking the time to zest a quart mason jar full and pouring vodka or everclear over it.....make a grapefruit extract. Let it sit while your wine makes. You may want to add some to your final product.

FYI, I added grapefruit zest to a Chardonnay and while it did not taste grapefruity to me...it did kick that wine up a notch...brightened it up.