I got my flame suit on and fire extinguisher at hand. I’m only doing this because I love my wife. She loves Schaufenbrau (sp?) grapefruit ale and asked me to do one similar. I’m thinking I will do a basic wheat beer and add the grapefruit in for flavoring. Ideas how best to do this, besides not doing it? Thanks!
ok true confessions-- I am a long time IPA drinker and brewer going back to the mid-90s-- yet my summer go to for the last few years was Harpoon Big Squeeze- grapefruit wheat beer. I often travelled past the brewery and grabbed a keg or two. It is now discontinued-- and I am about to try to brew an equivalent tomorrow. From what I can gather, their process for kegged beer was unpasteurized with grapefruit puree added after fermentation. The beer was really like drinking a shandy of wheat beer and pink grapefruit juice.
I have their grain bill percentages and know it was 155 gallons of puree to a 120 barrel batch. I have my grapefruit puree and I am going to do some samples in the 5 oz per gallon range. This is going to be cold crashed, add the desired puree level and right to the keezer. The grapefruit was was definitely not fermented. This is definitely not one to bottle without a strategy to pasteurize.
Somewhere on the web I saw a grapefruit shandy that was trying to clone a Pennsylvania brewery grapefruit shandy. I can’t locate it now, but I think they added juice after fermentation and then kegged.
I don’t know the brew your spouse likes-- but I did enjoy this wheat beer w a bright grapefruit flavor. The grapefruit ipas, I’ve had are more about flavors of peel or fermented fruit sugars.
Good luck–
James Spencer did a pale ale where he added 1 quart of frozen grapefruit juice at flameout. Seems as though that turned out good for them. Here’s a link to the video:
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/e/8/3e87bef53a4680e9/bbv04-07-17grapefruitale.m4v?c_id=14808572&expiration=1493378836&hwt=cc288aa97c22dc0fe77b18b335baa209
Might be worth a try.
I’d add juice in secondary.
I would use a large portion of grapefruit peel at flameout and then add the least amount of juice possible in secondary to get to the right flavor and acidity. You might want to thin the beer out a little with the juice and get some acidity from it but too much fermented citrus juice can result in an unpleasantly sharp acidity. The grapefruit peel will add the flavor but no color or acidity.
If I use peel, how do I use it? I mean, just big chunks of peel, or strips, zest it or how? And how much is a "large portion? Also, when I add the juice do I need to kill the yeast off first so that the sweetness from the grapefruit remains?
I would use a knife or peeler to remove strips of zest. There’s really no reliable way to kill yeast, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
Potassium sorbate won’t do it?
In my experience, citrus peel adds bitterness more than citrus flavor. Zesting it, as Denny suggests, might be a good way to go but I still think you’ll get some bitter flavor out of it.
Your choice of yeast and hops can also help accentuate fruity flavors. I’m not sure what hops give grapefruit, but I’ve definitely gotten grapefruit flavors when drinking saisons.
Cascade=grapefruit
This recipe worked out really well for me.
i tried this once and I bottle condition. However, the bottles end up being gushers when opening them. Is there any way to do fruit beer and bottle condition without the priming sugar causing bottle gushers?
A long secondary is my only guess.
I have had good luck using all cascade and adding whole grapefgruits cut up and run through a macerating juicer added to secondary. This was an IPA and I added grapefruit zest and cascade to the keg as well. Amazing aroma without the perfumy thing I get from grapefruit sculpin.
Pete
Absolutely…just let it ferment out.
Yep. Luckily those gushers weren’t bottle bombs. When I add juice or puree in secondary, I give it two weeks, then verify I’m at FG before packaging.