Grapefruit pulpin' grapefruit peel question

I’m brewing the NB grapefruit pulpin’ all-grain recipe. I will transfer to secondary tomorrow. I am steeping the grapefruit peel in vodka as directed in the recipe. my question is would you put the grapefruit peel into a hops sock, or just toss it in secondary? I am leery of siphoning out some of the peel into the keg when I transfer from secondary.

thanks

ken

I put mine in a muslin bag in the keg. Had no issues.

:beers:
Rad

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When I did the extract version, I used 2 hop bags, one for the hops, one for the peels. (After putting the grapefruit in the first bag, it looked like it might burst at the seams, hence the second bag.)

Pitched US-05,
2 weeks primary,
2 1/2 weeks dry hopping in secondary.
1.012 FG.
Force carbed in keg.
Strict temperature control the whole time.

The wife and I got a sixer of the original, and we tasted them side-by-side. I’m not great at taking tasting notes, but in the pro brew, we could really taste the grapefruit, and then the hops really complimented the flavor; in the homebrew, it’s more like they are competing for attention. The Sculpin is also more aromatic than the homebrew. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly proud of the homebrew, and I think it compares very well against the original; it may be the best extract kit I’ve made. I generally roll 3-gallon all-grain batches. I only got the extract kit because I couldn’t pass on the summer sale that gave me 3 IPA kits for $20 each. That sale pretty much cured my all-grain snobbery.

To your question; Would it be better without using the hop bags? Maybe; but it’s still great even with. Personally, I was thinking it would be better to replace some or all of the dried peel with fresh zest.

Why, aren’t they employing the juice too? Sneezles61

An old topic I know, but my son wants to brew this beer ( all grain). I read a review that suggested mashing an entire grapefruit for the secondary rather than just the peels. Not sure if they meant that I just add it to the secondary like you would a purée …?

Curious if anyone has brewed this recently and has suggestions to make it better? I ordered the all grain kit just now so will prob brew it in a couple of weeks. We just finished off the Kama citra keg and it was awesome beer. So he wants to brew this grapefruit pulpit one as I guess he has had the commercial version and really liked it. Looks like a bigger beer and higher ABV.

The weather is cooling off up here so it will be nice to brew in cooler than 90 deg temps for a change.

The only thing I would do different if I brewed this one again is put the grapefruit peel in a hop bag. The chunks of peel clogged up my siphon like no one’s business.

I have you put the vodka in also. It will extract alot of flavor that you wouldn’t want to leave behind. Of course if you want to drink the vodka I would add more zest to make up the difference

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Thanks for the input. Maybe we will grind up a whole grapefruit and add to the secondary for a week or two, then dry hop in the keg with the provided peels soaked in vodka.

I haven’t made that particular recipe, but have used grapefruit quite a bit. I’d go with just the zest, and avoid the white pith underneath. It’s not the most pleasant kind of bitterness, but a lot of the flavor is in the zest itself. Then juice the rest and add the juice and pulp. Not a big fan of the pith, though. That part is best for the compost pile.

Thanks porkchop. That sounds like good advice. So if I toss the zest into a bag and put it in the keg for dry hopping it sounds like it will give me what I am after. I am not sure what they include in the kit for dry hopping sounds like the peel… which could include the bitter white stuff.

I have the extract version in the fermenting bucket right now. Brewed three days ago and did the double pitch as suggested. The air lock is bubbling like crazy and in fact seems to have lost or used some of the water in it. My question is along the lines of the grapefruit peel being added. I will soak in vodka as instructed but I am not sure about just putting it into the secondary. I don’t have any hop bags or muslin bags at this point but I don’t want the siphoning problems I have seen mentioned. My wife has some muslin that she sews with. Is it the same material and could I just make a bag to use? Also she wants this to have a pronounced grapefruit tastes so would I lose some of that by using the bag. Thanks for any help.

You should be able to get some hop bags off Amazon before you’re ready to transfer. How far is the nearest homebrew shop?

Nearest is bout 2 Hours. Do you know if the the material is the same thing and does the bag really take away from the flavor?

That should be fine to make your own bag. If you want to bump up the grapefruit flavor, I’d use fresh grapefruit and zest just the outer layer. Maybe in addition to the dried stuff you have. Two grapefruit should have a noticeable impact. Just don’t zest too far, the white pithy layer can be nasty. The zest should sink with a good cold crash.

Thanks. I read your other replies and have taken note. My wife has plenty of muslin I can use. Any issues with contamination? Need to be sterilized with star San? Thanks again.

You could use a stocking also.

Stocking as in women’s hose?

Not a bad idea, although the fermented beer will kill most things on the fruit. Quick dunk in star-san is cheap insurance.

Yep. Not ideal due to how thin they are but work in a pinch.

Just get them back in the drawer before your wife catches you

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