First Beer

I would recommend purchasing a recipe kit for a Grapefruit Double IPA.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/grapefruit-pulpin
https://www.austinhomebrew.com/AHS-Grapefruit-IPA-23--Extract_p_6693.html
https://www.homebrewsupply.com/aquarena-grapefruit-ipa-extract-recipe-kit.html

 

@jbakajust1's suggestions of a recipe kit is a great one. If you are set on building out your own recipe, we'll need a bit more information before we can help. What kind of equipment do you have? Are you wanting to do all grain or extract?

 

There are some online recipes you can try:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/35541/grapefruit-ipa

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/320785/rebel-grapefruit-ipa-clone

http://thecraftbeerchannel.com/juicy-banger-grapefruit-ipa-recipe/

 

Welcome to this great hobby! Being a new homebrewer, what is your level of knowledge at this point? Have you read HowToBrew.com or some other homebrewing book to gain a basic knowledge? Your first decisions involve figuring out what equipment you need, and in conjunction with that decision, you'll need to figure out whether you want to start out with extract brewing, or if you want to brew by using all-grain methods. Palmer's How To Brew defines those methods and the equipment needed. (I don't think How To Brew covers the "Brew in a Bag" method, which is an alternative version for the all-grain recipes. You can google that term or do a search of this forum to learn about it.)

You'll also want to decide what size batches you'll brew because the size of your equipment will need to match that to some degree.

Then you can decide if you want to order ingredients online or to support a local homebrew store for your ingredient and equipment purchases (if you have a store nearby). If you find a recipe online or create one yourself, you can take it to the homebrew store for your ingredient purchases and begin to create a relationship there. They likely can find a recipe for you if you know what you want to brew, and then get the ingredients while you're there.

You can also learn a lot about homebrewing 'between the lines' of books by reading posts in this forum. Here's a link to a search that I did looking for threads that might give you a lot of advice. https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...e&t=post&o=date&g=1&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8

(Forgive me if I'm talking too basic here, but you didn't indicate in your post what your knowledge level might be.)

 

Grab an online recipe that looks good. Not to pee on your slide, but a grapefruit DIPA is a little ambitious. There are so many variables that if something goes wrong, you may not know what to fix. Might want to start with a pale ale or a balanced IPA to get a feel for things. But hey, you do you, dude! Either way, Cheers!

 

My inclination is to recommend you skip the grapefruit, skip the double, and just go with a normal gravity IPA. High alcohol beers can be challenging. After reading some of the negative reviews of the northern brewer kit, it got me thinking that there are some challenges here that maybe a new brewer doesn't need to tackle. Some people said too much grapefruit, some said too little. It just made me think this kit may require a little more monitoring and decision-making on your part to make it suit your tastes.

 

A little to a lot more info will help on your endeavor: extract, all-grain, equipment, etc. But heed the advice for a first time go, the simpler the better (possibly)

 

I brewed this kit Dec of 2016. This was an extract kit and this is the kit that made me turn to all grain brewing lol. IMO the kit was terrible! It did not provide enough grape fruit character and it seemed excessively malty IMO (which I think took away from the grapefruit character), but everyone has different taste. This was just my experience with the kit and yours may be different.

 

I am going to echo the kit suggestion. Take the thinking and planning of a recipe out of the equation so you can just focus on understanding whats happening and how things work. That'll help you when you decide to build your own.

Have fun! It is a very rewarding and fun hobby

 

Most of the reviews were quite positive. However what struck me about the negative ones was that some, like yourself, found the grapefruit lacking, and others found it overwhelming. That either means a wide variance in personal preference or a wide variance in the amount of grapefruit flavor extracted from the ingredients, or both. In any event, it suggested to me a situation in which a newb might want to closely monitor the flavor profile as the beer matures, and I think many newbs would be uncomfortable with opening the fermenter, sampling the beer, and making decisions. Much easier for a newb to get a tried and true kit and focus on the basics - sanitation and fermentation. Northern Brewers Dead Ringer (2 Hearted Clone) is the sort of tried and true kit that I think an ipa loving newb might start with. FWIW, several suppliers do a clone of this, if a consumer hates the idea of buying from an ABInbev acquisition.

 

The kit came with the mylar pack of dried up grape fruit peels that requires to be soaked in vodka. I don't remember to much about it, but I though it lacked the flavor.

 

Yes, this is the kit for newbs. The advance kit comes with grapefruit seeds and instructions for making a still.