Mangrove Jack’s Pink Grapefruit IPA
Is this the best beer kit ever?
I love BrewDog’s Elvis Juice. I think it might be my favourite beer. And the Mangrove Jack’s Pink Grapefruit IPA, “inspired” by the BrewDog headliner, receives praise all across the internet. In fact, some of the reviews say it is better than the beer that inspired it.
The kit is described as having:
“great citrus hop notes combined with grapefruit aroma to give an abundance of fruit on the nose. Sharp and tangy, the grapefruit complements and enhances the citrus character of the hops, making it refreshing, clean and crisp on the palate.”
I had to give it a try.
Brewing the Beer
Instead of the more common one or two cans of pre-hopped malt extract and a packet of yeast, this kit comes as a pouch with two pockets: one for the malt extract (2.5kg); and another for the dry ingredients: yeast (M44 US West Coast 10g) and a packet of hops (25g Simcoe, 25g Cascade).
The kit additionally requires either 1kg of dextrose or 1.2kg of pure malt enhancer. I used 1kg of dextrose, because it’s what I hand on hand.
I followed the instructions to the letter to make the wort. The wort went into the fermentation bucket on 23 October. The Original Gravity was 1048. The fermentation bucket was wrapped in some old blankets, placed in a “box” made out of old insulation on top of a heat pad. The heat pad was set to 20°C. I pitched the provided yeast and stirred into the wort, as described in the instructions.
The yeast got to work straight away, with a large krausen appearing at the top of the fermentation bucket – and coming out of the airlock. The smell was incredible!
After 7 days the SG was checked and was 1.004! The yeast had worked quickly. I scattered the dry hops on top of the wort and put the lid back on the bucket. I continued to check the gravity over the next few days and it remained stable at 1.004.
Bottling
On 03 November (day 11) I bottled directly from the fermentation bucket. I got 39x 500ml PET bottles, which I primed with a 2 carbonation drops, and a 2L TORPS (which I primed with table sugar). I think the torp was very underfilled, because it weighs significantly less than a manufacturer filled torp.
The filled bottles were kept at room temperature for two weeks to carbonate, and then into a colder environment (the garage, in Scottish November) for two weeks for condition.
ABV
The original gravity of the wort was 1048. The final gravity before bottling was 1.004. The priming sugar could add up to about 0.3% ABV.
So the final ABV can be calculated as:
1.048 – 1.004 = .044 * 131.25 = 5.775% + 0.3% = ~6% ABV.
Tasting
I opened the first bottle on the 02 December. This beer is delicious. The grapefruit smell punches through, with a nice lingering bitterness.
The initial bottles had a very strong hoppy taste. In fact, possibly too much. However, over time, this has settled to a nicely rounded beer.
There is quite a lot sediment in the bottom of the bottles, but it stays compacted and doesn’t float throughout the beer.
I think this is nicer than the current lower ABV BrewDog equivalent. I don’t have any of the original Elvis Juice to compare.
I’ll definitely make this kit again!
