The idea came to me while drinking an Elvis Juice by Brewdog, IPA infused with grapefruit in dry hoppong. It has tons of american hops (the good and fruity ones, not the harsh smelly hops you find in punk ipa) and a taste that strongly reminds grapefruit. Much much more intense than Cascade notes.
So I decided to brew an APA (with OG lower than style, to have it more drinkable and less alcoholic) adding 4 grams/litrer of grapefruit peel at the end of boiling. Easy grist, just pale malt (not exactly my decision, but I was finishing supply) and Chinook hop for bittering, 20 minutes and end boil. I spent all the boiling time peeling grapefruits, paying attention to avoid white spongy part of the peel: liquor producers (limoncello) say that art in cutrus fruits gives bad tastes... 4 grapefruits yeld 80 grams peel. I washed fruits very well, but I wasn't convinced for a dry hoppin, so, afraid of potential infections, I put peels at the end of boil.
After three weeks fermentation and several more in bottle,here is the result:
Aroma is more on piney resiny side, low fruity notes, and especially mature fruits (oxidation?). Probably the total of 100g of Chinook overwelmed grapefruit, or maybe fruity notes are not in peel, but you need to add grapefruit juice; then, probably there was a sensible oxidation of the batch. I feel tipical grapefruit notes especially in taste and aftertaste.
I prepared a very nice label (on the left), but in the end I didn't like it so much:
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| first label draft, then I decided for the one on the right. Sooner I'll brew a beer dedicated to Sofia too! |
