I'm brewing my first beer this weekend from a basic starter set (no carboy) and an imperial IPA kit from Homebrew Emporium in Cambridge, MA. I wanted to use grapefruit peel like Stochasticity's Grapefruit Slam since I love citrusy IPAs and I'm worried that I will otherwise end up with 5gal of a mediocre brew -- if I'm lucky. Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm not sure, but my gut tells me to throw it in the fermenter. Using it in the boil seems like it would create some weird flavors. Full disclosure, I have no idea what I'm doing and will probably be hauling ass the morning-of to hash out the details, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. At the very least I can come back to this thread when I'm brewing and have a better idea of where I'm at.
I havent dont grapefuit before but I have done oranges for a wheat beer, We put them in at flame out, and some dried orange peel in primary. Turned out fine.
Thanks for the info! So you used the pulp at the end of the boil and added the peel for fermentation?
Generally speaking, adding peel to the boil kettle towards the end of the boil will give you flavor (and a bit of aroma) while adding peel to the fermenter gives you a much more pronounced aroma (and maybe a bit of flavor at best).
I would say leave it alone and brew the beer as is. Odds are, that as pretty much every first time brewer mistakes will be made, off flavors will be created somehow in the normal brewing process and you will be curious as to how to remedy them. Keeping the beer more simple to start off with will make that process of figuring out any issues easier. I dont recommend adding anything different or changing things up too much until you have an understanding of the process and your ingredients.
I was going to say the same thing as OddNotion. Concentrate on procedure and try to have as few variables as possible. Things like pitching healthy amounts of yeast at the right temperature are going to determine whether you end up with good beer or not. Also depending on the hops used you can get great citrus flavors from them alone. Take a look at the top 100 ipas and see how many have fruit additions. Either way have fun with it and good luck on your first brew day.
Thanks everyone! You guys are probably right about sticking to the recipe. I should let this be an educational brew. But I definitely learned something for my next IPA, so thanks again.
I zest a grapefruit for my belgian white . Add it at 10 min mark. Always has a great grapefruit flavor
