Northern Brewer Grapefruit Sculpin clone

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brew703 said:
Can the Melanoidin be eliminated or is it really necessary? I'll have to order a pound and most of it will go to waste as I'll probably never use it again.
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jrcrilly said:
If you like the result as much as I do, you WILL use it again. ;)
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Are you guys referring to the Dingemans Cara 20?

@jrcrilly how did your efficiency/OG come out, did you make any changes to the grain bill to compensate for the 63% efficiency they used to make the recipe?
 
I bought 2 grapefruits to get the fresh zest for dry hopping. Apparently that only gave me 1oz by weight of zest. Do you think if I were to take 1oz of the dry zest that came with the kit, and let it soak in a little bit of grapefruit juice from the grapefruits, that it would be ok to add when dry hopping? I would obviously sanitize it after it soaked in the juice. I was thinking of letting the dry zest soak for an hour or 2 in the fresh juice, then draining it and then adding the zest to the vodka and fresh zest. That would give me 2oz for dry hopping. I wanna make sure the juice would be ok
 
In ref to grapefruit peel, are you guys using a vegetable peeler to peel the grapefruit, leaving the pith or using a zester?
 
So the color looks good in everyone's photos. Did you all stick to the Cara 20/Caramel 20L combo?

also with the 0 minute additions, did you start cooling right after adding them?
 
I'm brewing the NB recipe right now. I subbed Crystal 40 for the 20, though. Didn't realize that I don't have any 20 on hand. I doubt that I'll notice a taste difference.
 
arnobg said:
Are you guys referring to the Dingemans Cara 20?

@jrcrilly how did your efficiency/OG come out, did you make any changes to the grain bill to compensate for the 63% efficiency they used to make the recipe?
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I was referring to the recipe. If he likes it as much as I do, he will brew it again.

I don't usually adjust grain bills but just accept the increased beer density as a bonus.:mug:
 
arnobg said:
So the color looks good in everyone's photos. Did you all stick to the Cara 20/Caramel 20L combo?

also with the 0 minute additions, did you start cooling right after adding them?
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I brewed this yesterday and subbed the Cara 20 for 20L, since that's all I had on hand. After the 0 min addition, I scraped the hops off the side of my kettle and gave it a 30 second stir before cooling.
 
I assume the grapefruit peel that comes with the NB kit is dehydrated. So using two ounces of fresh peel wouldn't be enough. Right?
 
Soopa said:
I assume the grapefruit peel that comes with the NB kit is dehydrated. So using two ounces of fresh peel wouldn't be enough. Right?
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Not sure if this helps, but I soaked my dehydrated peel from the kit in 4 oz of vodka in a normal mason jar. After soaking up the liquid, it filled it about 1/3. Didn't take a weight measurement or anything though
 
I would think if you just used the zest or colorful part of the peel and left the white pith, it would give more flavor per ounce than the dried stuff probably gives.

But that's just my guess.
 
I just kegged my batch. I tasted a sample when I took my gravity reading. It doesn't have as much hop flavor as I expected, and I just dry hopped for a week. I don't know if this will show up later or not. The grapefruit flavor is definitely there. Maybe a little more than I wanted. I used an oz of fresh grapefruit zest and an oz of the dry zest. But it may level out in flavor after it sits for a week
 
Has anyone made the famous "blood orange hefe" that has been on the forum forever? I'm wondering if you use a similar technique of using the zest and actual fruit and make a tea to essentially pasteurize the fruit then dump the whole tea/zest/fruit mixture into primary if that would give any of the grapefruit flavor. Thoughts?
 
Brewed this today and nearly had a perfect brew day. Hit my Pre-Boil numbers right on and was slightly shy of SG. 5 gallons into the fermenter at 1.063. I had 80% efficiency so I scaled the recipe to my system:

10 lb 4 oz 2 row
8 oz Dingemans Cara 20
4 oz Caramel 20L

Hops all the same.

For those of you who have brewed this, any reason not to use the whole grapefruit peel? The instructions in the actual recipe just say to use peel.
 
I just kegged my 2.5 gallon version (6 1/2lbs 2 row, 6oz Crystal 40) today. Hit the numbers for 8% and so far (not yet carbonated) it tastes just like the 5 gallon batch I made previously. The next batch will be 10 gallons. The Pliny clone I brewed recently pleases me even more but it is much more expensive to make so probably won't do 10 gallons of that.

I used the dried, shredded peel from the LHBS. No complaints.
 
Keg conditioned for a week. The difference one week makes is crazy. Last week, the grapefruit was overpowering and the aftertaste wasn't the best. Today, it is so crisp and refreshing. The in your face grapefruit is gone. Now it accents the hops nicely, but isn't overtaking the flavor. And I absolutely love the color. It's a bit cloudy, but i don't care. I think it looks awesome.





View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1454905262.796695.jpg
 
HealeyA87 said:
Keg conditioned for a week. The difference one week makes is crazy. Last week, the grapefruit was overpowering and the aftertaste wasn't the best. Today, it is so crisp and refreshing. The in your face grapefruit is gone. Now it accents the hops nicely, but isn't overtaking the flavor. And I absolutely love the color. It's a bit cloudy, but i don't care. I think it looks awesome.





View attachment 336187
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How much grapefruit did you use, how did you use it, and for how long? Thanks for sharing.
 
arnobg said:
How much grapefruit did you use, how did you use it, and for how long? Thanks for sharing.
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Zest from 2 fresh grapefruits, gave me 1oz of zest in weight. And I used 1 oz of the dry peel, I started off with 4oz of vodka to sanitize but it didn't quite cover the zest in the container I had it in so I added enough to cover it all.

At first i thought it was too much grapefruit. But it has seemed as if it is starting to mellow out, but next time I may use a little less, not sure though. It still has time.
 
So the brew is a hit. Between a few friends and myself. The keg only has about 1/4 left in it.. And my brew turned out about 8%. So we had a good time. I will no doubt brew this again. But i think next time I will cut back a little of the grapefruit. Either only use the fresh, or only use the provided peel. But either way this brew is awesome


View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1455025850.841926.jpg
 
I brewed this about a month ago and it is bottle conditioning. Cracked one yesterday after a week and a half and I can tell this one is a winner.

I used 1.7 oz of fresh zested ruby red grapefruit. I did 1.7 oz because that just happened to be an entire sack.
 
Subbed. I tried a recipe where I added the zest at flame out. Way too bitter. Others in the thread suggest the vodka method- I wish I had.
 
Brewed this about 6 weeks ago and it's fantastic. I ended up soaking 1.5 oz of zest (3 large grapefruits) in 4 oz of vodka for 2 days before DH. This is an IPA that I'll always have on tap.
 
The keg with the second batch just kicked the other day so I'll be brewing it again soon. I alternate one tap between this and a Pliny the Elder clone.
 
I'm going to post a comparison side by side of the real thing in a week or two. Have two cans left of the real deal. Right now my brew is too young and has some sweetness left from priming sugar so that's no good for a comparison.
 
I brewed this a month ago maybe? Just bottled a sixer and kegged the rest. I opened the fermenter and it was just a grapefruit explosion on my nose. I can't wait to try it!
 
At week 4 in the bottle this beer really starts to shine. Everything starts to even out and the grapefruit is pleasant and in my opinion perfectly balanced at 1.7 oz of zest for 5 gallons. Very close to the original, but slightly sweeter and more complex in my opinion but very close. I think the added complexity is from the use of Cara 20 with Caramel 20L. The color is close but mine appears slightly darker due to being more hazy. At week 2-3 I thought the grapefruit was overpowering and the beer too sweet compared to the original but at week 4 it is perfect. Patience is key!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1458358007.501129.jpg

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1458358035.334951.jpg
 
Love this beer too and agree that time is this beer's best friend. Mine has been kegged for 4 weeks and everything has blended beautifully. The grapefruit flavor was super forward at the beginning and now is very subtle. Also, I have drank/drunk a lot of the sculpin gf and would say the grapefruit flavor of this brew is much more like fresh grapefruit and not grapefruit "flavor" if that makes any sense.

Getting ready to brew it again.
 
Only change I will make next time is with my water chemistry. When I made this I didn't know what was in my water but since then I have gotten a Ward Labs report. Should only need minor changes to better bring out hop character.
 
Brewed this a few weeks ago. Kegged it Sunday, put the dry hops and the Grapefruit zest in the kegs. It's carbonating now. When or should I at all take the hops and the zest out?
I ended up with 6.5%. OG was 1.070 and I couldn't get it to finish lower than 1.020. I was shooting for 7, so I am fine with it. I used the wrong yeast. I had to use Wyeast 1332. None of my shops had 001 if you can believe that. I don't think it will make a huge difference, but I will brew it with 001 next time.
 
Planning on entering this to a competition. Could I get away with the American IPA category or would you guys recommend Fruit beer?
 
It's been a month or so since I emptied the keg with this brew. Tonight I poured a ballast point grapefruit sculpin and took a sip, I couldn't tell a difference in the ballast point and the homebrew. Soooooo I'd say success
 

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