Fruit in IPAs

It's your beer, you can do whatever you want to do to it to increase your enjoyment.

 

Throw a hunk of citrus in there and you tell us if you like it.

I would bet most fruit additions are incorporated in the mash. Just seems like that would allow the flavors to permeate better, and also boil off any loose bacteria. With citrus, I'd want alot of those awesome oils from the peel to really get all up in the brew, so I'd wager it's a little different than just dropping your slice of grapefruit into your glass.

 

imo probably not, i have never made beer but i have put a lemon in my corona before and it's doesn't taste much different than the beers that taste like they have citrus in them, it's just convenient to put all in the mix at once i guess.

 

I've brewed a fruit beer and a beer with jalapeños and with both I added the fruit or peppers with about 5 minutes left in the boil. The jalapeños in filled out, but the peaches I transferred to the carboy for the full two week of fermentation. Both turned out to be tasty.

 

Why not just buy Grapefruit or Habanero Sculpin?

 

It's your beer do what you like, and why not?

 

I garnish my IPAs w/ my own Cascade hops. Fruit of the bine.

 

Try it and report back!

Do a side-by-side comparison. Compare regular sculpin with fresh grapefruit added to that of the store-bought grapefruit sculpin.

 

Probably won't be similar. Grapefruit Sculpin's label says, "IPA with Natural Grapefruit Flavors" on the label, so likely no actual fruit used in it. Basically you get the flavor of the grapefruit without the sourness of the fruit.

 

if you mashed in with fruit the odds of you tasting anything are slim as you just wash the sugar away and leave majority of the fruit with the spent grains.

Most fruit additions are made post fermentation so the CO2 that is produced doesn't blow off the smell of whatever you added to the finished beer.

So muddle it in your glass and pour your IPA in and enjoy. The only thing the oils in the peel might cause a little head retention issues.

 

Do what you want. Blending, adding, whatever... Its THE fun. Fuck the purist wet blankets. Experiment. See what you love and embrace.

 

No problem, it's your beer to do as you please.

 

Why not post something useful?

 

This got me thinking about treating a beer like they do a sangria. I wonder if the fruit/berries would absorb the beer? Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

Why not? You could always Randall the IPA with a variety of fruits to pick out what you like the best.

 

This is brilliant....I can't believe I've never thought of this!

I have Cascade, Centennial, and Galena out back....

 

When I brew my peach IPA, the peaches really absorbed a lot of beer. When the peaches went in they were hard and underripe, but after two weeks they were really soft and almost mush when I emptied the carboy

 

Grapefruit flavor is in most ipas to me, but Ya for a while I was cutting a slice of grapefruit and squeezing I dunno, 15-20 drops into my beer. Tried it with Stone go to ipa and Lagunitas daytime. Both were good additions. Too much maintenance though. Picking out the glass and taking a snapshot for what beer are u drinking now is enough for me already.

 

The oil beats down the head, & hope you enjoy munching those bitter bits as much as I do.

I need to make bitters w/ the rest of my scant harvest.