Saturday, April 23, 2011

Preparing the Palate: Grapefruit


Grapefruit is a tasting note you will see in some beers but, mostly in IPA’s and in some pale ales.  So, when I was at the grocery store and saw some grapefruits I thought it was time to do a little tasting myself.  The only grapefruit missing was the pink grapefruit.  I bought two different red grapefruits and one white grapefruit.  The reds are from Texas.  The smaller red grapefruit was called ‘Lone Star’ and the lager one ‘Rio Star.’  The white grapefruit was from Florida.

White grapefruits are usually highly acidic, ranging from bitter to somewhat bitter or tart.  The white one that I had was classic grapefruit bitter with solid acidity.  And, I have had some IPA’s with this tasting note.


The red ones were sweet with no tartness to the taste.  I can think of some Belgian ales were they had a good tropical fruit profile and I’ll bet this could have been in the specific tasting notes.   I can also think of some white wines that probably had this flavor note as well. 

Pinks usually have a mingling of the sweet and the tart tasting notes.  When they make it to the market later this year I’ll make sure I do a tasting. 

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