g_rath

Recipes 

Im going to try to make up my first beer recipe. I didn’t like what I found for pumpkin ales so I mixed and matched a few to make one. I was hoping to get a little feed back on it.

6lb light malt extract
1lb crystal malt
1-2 lb honey
1 lb maple syrup
1 ½ oz cascade hops (60 min)
3 lb sugar pumpkin (cleaned and cut up)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 oz fresh ginger.
½ oz cascade hops (3 min)

The first 5 will go in for 60 min
The pumpkin and spices for 10 min

Any good ideas for a yeast, or better hops?

DSean

Recipes 

I recently made a similar pumpkin ale - it's in primary now. I'd add the pumpking a bit earler in the boil. There aren't really any fermentables in pumpkin, but my thought is that allowing the pumpkin to cook will give you more of the flavor that you're going for. Other people bake the pumpkin and add it at the end of the boil, using the baking to get the flavor they want.

As for yeast and hops - what's the starting gravity of your recipe? [I'm at work, so I can't plug it into BeerSmith]. I used WLP 570 because I was going to be at a slightly higher temperature and have plenty of time in a secondary to round out any weird flavors. A basic WLP 001 California Ale yeast should be pretty good, especially if you can keep the fermentation temperatures below 70*. I used Northern Brewers for slight bittering and 1/2 oz of cascades for aroma. The beer currently smells great.

My only other advice is to make sure to add some Irish moss (or other clarifyer). There will be a lot of stuff floating around in your beer.

Oh. You might want to back off some of the spices a bit - maybe 1/2 tsp. each. You can always add more in the secondary if you're not getting the flavor/aroma you're looking for. Vanilla adds a nice touch too.

My last thought is to make sure you're using whole spices in a mesh bag so that they're easier to fish out.

Best of luck.

HarvInSTL

Recipes 

Is this for a 5 gallon batch? Steep your grains or PM?

I'd get rid of the maple syrup, ginger, allspice, & cascade.

Move to a mixture of 6.5lbs of Amber & Dark DME. 1.25-1.5lbs of honey added at flameout.(You could also add 1lb at flameout and the other .25-.5 to the secondary.

With 15mins left in the boil add two cinnamon sticks, .25tsp ground glove (do not use more than this in a 5gallon batch, it is some strong stuff when it is freshly ground up), .25-.5tsp fresh ground nutmeg, 1/2 to 1 whole vanilla bean cut open, and either Irish Moss, SuperMoss or Whirfloc tablet.

8ounces of Crystal 40/60
3ounces of US Chocolate Malt

Stick with Wyeast 1056 or SafAle US-05 for your yeast. Stick with a slight to mild spicy hop like Hallertauer. On a 5gallon batch stick with 1.5oz for bittering with no flavor/aroma additions. Depending on if you are using pellets or whole hops, stay around the 20-25 IBU area.

When you are transfering to your secondary take a gravity reading and taste the sample. Add more clove/nutmeg/cinnamon/vanilla at this point.

Depending on the taste you want, at most I'd add half of what you added during the boil to the secondary. (in regards to just the spices)

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