MJ Pink Grapefruit is on!

[Little Rock Brewing]

Started my 6th kit today, the MJ grapefruit one. Really hope I nail this one as 4 of my earlier kits were a bit of a letdown, the 5th is too early to tell yet.
I think I fell into every newbie trap out there. I'm a real fiddler and kept taking the lid off the FV to look and sniff, give it a stir and even add more yeast.
I even transferred from the FV to a bottling bucket by turning the tap on and let it gush down into it!
I used plastic tonic bottles, without squeezing out the air. Didn't treat any of the water and ours is pretty chlorine smelling too.
But thanks to this forum I've learned the errors of my ways. This time I stood the water overnight with a campden tablet for good measure. I've taped up the lid of the FV to stop me looking in too. Got glass bottles and a capper.
Couldn't resist a bit of a tweak to the kit though and used 1.5kg of LME instead of 1.2kg and also added a tin of golden syrup. Hydrometer reads 1.052.
See, told you I was a fiddler!

 

[Nottsbeer]

Good luck with your 6th brew.....I think fiddling comes with the territory at times! I've just made my fist AG brew and stuck it in my brew fridge at the end of the garden. Still couldn't block out the call to look to see if there was activity in the airlock a couple of times a day - I gave in to temptation last night and took a gravity reading (justified by the thought it was getting near the end - has gone great guns and around 1.008!).

Sounds like your enjoying yourself, let us know how it turns out

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

I too have just started my 6th batch. Muntons West Coast IPA, brewed long to drop the ABV a little. Other than that I don’t fiddle at all. Lock them away in the fermentation fridge and let them do there thing. Don’t even open the fridge door. I can hear the blow off tube bubbling through it.
Been brewing since February. I’ve been really fortunate. Did loads of reading prior to starting and have had 5 awesome beers so far. Everyone that has tried them have said they would happily pay for them in a pub.
Hope the MJ grapefruit turns out great. The juicy IPA is incredible.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Had a sneaky try of my 5th brew last night, Muntons Midas Touch. It is by far the best I've done so far, but a good few weeks from being ready. Looks like some of this forums teachings have paid off. Wish I'd studied more before starting but it's all good fun!

 

[damienair]

Well done. I did Mangrove Jacks Pink Grapefruit IPA a few months ago. It is a fantastic beer. I have 11 bottles left. So good in fact that I did it again. I put on another batch last Sunday and it is bubbling away.
This time I made it using 1Kg of Light Dry Malt Extract, 200g of brewing sugar and 1 litre of Pink Grapefruit Juice. Got a very similar OG reading to you.
I make the brew, check the temps, add the yeast, seal the FV and add the airlock and forget about it for at least 10 days. I check the gravity reading on day 10 and add the hops. then usually bottle after 14 days. So far touch wood my previous 8 brews were and are great. Brew no.9 is a Mangrove Jacks Irish Red Ale which is conditioning. The Mangrove Jacks kits are great.

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

Well done. I did Mangrove Jacks Pink Grapefruit IPA a few months ago. It is a fantastic beer. I have 11 bottles left. So good in fact that I did it again. I put on another batch last Sunday and it is bubbling away.
This time I made it using 1Kg of Light Dry Malt Extract, 200g of brewing sugar and 1 litre of Pink Grapefruit Juice. Got a very similar OG reading to you.
I make the brew, check the temps, add the yeast, seal the FV and add the airlock and forget about it for at least 10 days. I check the gravity reading on day 10 and add the hops. then usually bottle after 14 days. So far touch wood my previous 8 brews were and are great. Brew no.9 is a Mangrove Jacks Irish Red Ale which is conditioning. The Mangrove Jacks kits are great.

I have the MJ Irish red in the garage waiting to go on at some point in the rotation. I have 4 kits ready to do. Just need to work out the order.
So far I have left all mine 3 weeks before bottling, just to allow the yeast to clean up after itself. I also brew on the cooler end. 18.5C. Then as the fermentation slows raise the temp over a couple of days to 20c for the last week. Just to encourage it to finish fully.
The fridge with the temp control system has definitely been the key. I can control temp to +/-0.2c.
May redo the MJ Juicy IPA again and use verdant yeast.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Well the grapefruit IPA sure is a lively brew. Checked it this morning and it looked like a foam party coming out of the bubble trap. Hastily replaced it with a pipe and jam jar arrangement. The room is a constant 20C but the stick on thermometer reads 24C. Does the fermentation process produce heat or have I inadvertently discovered a new method of central heating?

 

[damienair]

Well the grapefruit IPA sure is a lively brew. Checked it this morning and it looked like a foam party coming out of the bubble trap. Hastily replaced it with a pipe and jam jar arrangement. The room is a constant 20C but the stick on thermometer reads 24C. Does the fermentation process produce heat or have I inadvertently discovered a new method of central heating?

Yes the fermentation produces heat. My brew too is bubbling away. It is in an airing cupboard upstairs in our house. It holds a pretty constant 20-22 degrees all year round. My Pink Grapefruit IPA brew is bubbling away at 24 degrees too. It’s a cracking beer, nicer I think than the Brewdog Elvis Juice. Enjoy. I started my last one on the 31st of January and it got down to an FG of 1.004. I had my first try on the 3rd of April and it was gorgeous. Every bottle since has been just as nice.

 

[Random Badger]

Well the grapefruit IPA sure is a lively brew. Checked it this morning and it looked like a foam party coming out of the bubble trap. Hastily replaced it with a pipe and jam jar arrangement. The room is a constant 20C but the stick on thermometer reads 24C. Does the fermentation process produce heat or have I inadvertently discovered a new method of central heating?

Yes fermentation does generate heat. I had an issue with the recent warm weather where I started an IPA and the next day the fermenter was up to 25C (a few degrees higher than the room temperature) which is a bit too high for my liking. Fortunately I was able to move it to a cooler location and get the temperature down to 20C.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Mine is at work,in a room with stable heat. So I came in this morning to a surprise! Just had to change the blow off tube to a bigger bore to cope. Thankfully I taped the lid on the FV to stop me from fiddling!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Three weeks in the primary and it's still bubbling away. Chucked in a dry hop of 1oz of Citra and 1oz of Amarillo, just for the hell of it!

 

[damienair]

My second batch of Pink Grapefruit IPA is nearing the end of the secondary fermentation. I’ll be moving it down to the garage this weekend. Looking forward to it. I’ve 4 bottles left from my first brew of this beer. I think I’ll have 2 of them on Friday evening along with my last bottle of Juicy Session IPA. And I’ll save the last 2 so as to do a taste comparison.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

I'm a few weeks away from that pleasure...........

 

[damienair]

I'm a few weeks away from that pleasure...........

It will be well worth the wait. It is a cracking brew.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Still getting an airlock bubble every minute. Hydrometer reads 1.006 which is good 6%. This will be my first go at using glass bottles, so I'll hang on a bit longer. Smells wonderful though!

 

[johnny108]

“If it ain’t broke, you can probably still fix it”. - the motto of the fiddler

 

[damienair]

I’ve just 4 left of my original brew of Mangrove Jacks Pink Grapefruit IPA. Drinking one of them now, still a fantastic beer. Thankfully I have another batch of this which will be ready in 2 weeks time for just after my holiday. This will be a brew I’ll repeat over and over again.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Just bottled mine, at last! First time using glass bottles and a crown capper, really enjoyed it. It smells fantastic and I think this will be sampled very young!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

I know it's too early but I had to crack a bottle for the F1.
Head and shoulders above anything else I've brewed, absolutely awesome!
Gotta try and keep my hands off the rest now........