Mangrove Jack's Pink grapefruit IPA

[irish1759]

Brought some new kits to try for my 2nd brew. First one was a Coopers euro lager, with is still in the fermenter until the weekend hopefully.

Picked up one of the craft series pink grapefruit IPA as huge fan of Elvis Juice. I went with a brew Enhancer (500g Sugar + 500g Spraymalt).
Just wondering what's anyones thoughts on adding Grapefruit zest when adding the dry hops. Was thinking of adding the zest to cup of boiling water and sit for 30mins to cool, strain and add the water to the fermenter with the hops.

 

[WrexhamTom]

I made it just following the instructions and didn't find it had any real taste of grapefruit, just the initial smell and first sip. It just turned into a really strong Belgian style beer instead!

Maybe adding some extra dried zest might help?

 

[Pavalijo]

Hi Irish,
I’m intending to try this. What did you end up doing and how did it turn out?
cheers

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Hi Irish,
I’m intending to try this. What did you end up doing and how did it turn out?
cheers

I haven't made the MJ one. If there's not much grapefruit taste as WrexhamTom suggests I think I'll give it a miss.
The way I did an "Elvis Juice" type beer was to buy a Coopers Cerveza and add grapefruit.
Read this....
Have a read of that thread.
I made it as a summer drink. I've got a kit here ready to go for another one.
I'll probably leave it another month or so. I think this was best after 2-3 months.
At first I was put off that it was cloudy. After 3 months it cleared but I didn't think it tasted as good.

 

[GhostShip]

I recently made the MJ Pink Grapefruit IPA with the MJ Brew Enhancer. Didn't add anything else and followed the intructions (though, as usual, extended some of the timings).

Beautiful pint - possibly the best kit I've ever made and pretty damn close to Elvis Juice.

 

[Pavalijo]

Thanks PP, that’s really interesting - I would never have thought of anything so audacious! For now I’ll take Ghostship’s recommendation but will have a go at your suggestion as confidence builds...

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Thanks PP, that’s really interesting - I would never have thought of anything so audacious! For now I’ll take Ghostship’s recommendation but will have a go at your suggestion as confidence builds...

I'd be interested to know what you think of it.
GhostShip seems to say it's good. WrexhamTom, not so keen.
To be honest I haven't seen this one in the shops here, so if I wanted to try it, it may have to be a special order.

 

[GhostShip]

Decent little video here of a home brewer doing a direct taste comparison between Brewdog Elvis Juice and Mangrove Jack's Pink Grapefruit IPA.

https://bit.ly/2EnXmlK

 

[Pirate_Pete]

My grapefruit beer was as cloudy as.

 

[Pavalijo]

I am close to bottling this kit but am slightly confused.

I used LME and the chart of target FG says I should end at 1.012. The last sample, yesterday, was at 1.013.

Bubbling was slowing so I used a belt to increase temperature to 23c (external thermometer strip) and turned off the belt. Bubbling increased to every 40 seconds, and by this morning temperature is around 21c and bubbling nearly stopped again. So 1.012 looks about right.

The kit says that the ABV should be 5.7%. That would mean that the OG should be 1.055.

When I added the LME in boiling water, stirred to dissolve and topped up my OG initially read 1.04. I stirred more and very vigorously and it went up to 1.047. So my ABV will be around 4.6%. I had rinsed out the pack with boiling water and left almost nothing in the pack.

So - my question is - did I maybe not quite get the LME dissolved? And if so might the yeast have managed to use any gloopy stuff on the bottom? Or is there another possible reason?

It is smelling great by the way!

 

[labrewski]

Made this twice once following instructions didnt turn out great 2nd time left it a bit longer tasted nice but dont think I would have it as an elvis juice replica which I am pleased about i think they crossed the line of beer with that more like an alco fruit drink if u ask me i like a nice bit of bitterness in my pint

 

[pms67]

I am close to bottling this kit but am slightly confused.

I used LME and the chart of target FG says I should end at 1.012. The last sample, yesterday, was at 1.013.

Bubbling was slowing so I used a belt to increase temperature to 23c (external thermometer strip) and turned off the belt. Bubbling increased to every 40 seconds, and by this morning temperature is around 21c and bubbling nearly stopped again. So 1.012 looks about right.

The kit says that the ABV should be 5.7%. That would mean that the OG should be 1.055.

When I added the LME in boiling water, stirred to dissolve and topped up my OG initially read 1.04. I stirred more and very vigorously and it went up to 1.047. So my ABV will be around 4.6%. I had rinsed out the pack with boiling water and left almost nothing in the pack.

So - my question is - did I maybe not quite get the LME dissolved? And if so might the yeast have managed to use any gloopy stuff on the bottom? Or is there another possible reason?

It is smelling great by the way!

I find the kits are rarely accurate and always aim high but it’s not that big a deal in the end, it just means it’s more of a session beer, don’t get too hung up on 1 point at the end either, 1012,1013 after 4 or 5 it means nought

 

[Pavalijo]

I‘m happy enough that it’s going to have a lower ABV (5.6% is a bit high for my liking) I just didn’t understand why my OG was so much lower than was suggested by MJ.
A couple of days after my 1.013 it’s still bubbling very slowly.

 

[BridgeBrew]

Just sampling the 1st pint off this. Ermm really undecided. It's a bit young, been in the keg 8 days. It's quite bitter, not much fruit aroma, good lacing, and head retention, but really not as good as the MJ brewers series pale ale kit which i pimp with a 4 Grapefruit tincture, 2 zested, 2 peeled, and a 100g dry hop Citra addition. The pimped brewers series is a tad more expensive, but worth every penny.

 

[Didge]

Im a big fan of Elvis juice, so I tried the MJ version.
I tasted it while bottling and was very impressed by the quality of beer, but somewhat dissapointed by the lack of grapefruit.

Ive since put a second batch on but with the addition of 3 litres of Tescos fresh pink grapefruit juice & pectolase. I will be dry hopping this one tomorrow with some Citra & Amarillo instead of the supplied hops.

Anyway, I had the father-in-law around last night so we cracked open a couple bottles of the original version, and what a difference! After 5 weeks in the bottle the flavours have balanced perfectly, and indeed its very close to Elvis Juice. Even my wife & mother-in-law liked it, so 40 pints wont last long.

In my impatience, Im now wondering if Ive over-pimped my version, but sadly I wont know for another 6 weeks or so.

 

[PhilBrew]

After 5 weeks in the bottle the flavours have balanced perfectly ...

... that's really useful to know ... I've not brewed a kit for ages, although when I first started brewing AG I did say I wouldn't let it stop me brewing the odd kit every so often ... but the positive reviews of this kit had convinced me to add one to my last ingredients order, and I put that into my FV yesterday. I've made it "straight" (as per kit instructions), mixed with 1kg of Pale DME, to 23lts and pitched the MJ44 that came with it.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, for myself
Cheers, PhilB

 

[Pavalijo]

I racked off into a secondary, bottling 3 bottles before adding finings to the secondary - I want to compare with and without finings. Sadly as I used the auto siphon a large amount of air entered the siphon so I fear for oxidation spoiling the end result. I am going to fit a tap to my primary fermenter so I can rack off by gravity in future and will not use the siphon again.
I left it a couple of days to clear and bottled another 3 before putting the rest into a corny keg - a first for me!
I set the pressure at 14psi and few days later I went on holiday for 3 weeks.
I have now tried both fined and unfined, though not on the same night - both excellent. I get the grapefruit but not too much, just right for me but I can see why some might think there is not enough evident.
I also bought the Blichmann Mk2 bottling gun - so will soon have 3 to compare, which I will do in one sitting this time. I will find out shortly if the gun is fast enough - someone told me it will take a few minutes per bottle and they’re really for when you want to take a few bottles to a mate’s house.
I will certainly do this kit again, although next time won’t use a hop bag as I would like a little more evidence of the hop flavour.

 

[Toxicdonkey]

I've made MJ grapefruit, I find Youngs American IPA is similar but nicer.. grapefruit was a little false tasting in MJs however the Youngs American IPA tastes very citrus just from the hops.

 

[Didge]

I am going to fit a tap to my primary fermenter so I can rack off by gravity in future and will not use the siphon again.

I can recommend these, both for ease of bottling and for minimizing oxidation.
Little Bottler

I've made MJ grapefruit, I find Youngs American IPA is similar but nicer..

I have one of those under my desk for brewing after a MJ Raspberry Berliner weisse :-)

 

[Pavalijo]

I can recommend these, both for ease of bottling and for minimizing oxidation.
Little Bottler

Yes thanks they are good. I use one of these for bottling, but the problem arises when I go from the FV and rack off into my bottling bin to settle for a day or two before bottling from the bin. The auto siphon seems to allow air to enter the flow.
I will fit a tap and tube into my FV so I can rack off by gravity, without using the auto siphon.