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beesy · 08-18-2009, 04:18 AM

My brew buddy (any hbt'er) pickles made a pumpkin lager last year that was at least as good as lakefront's. Very nice. I'll try to get him to put

++1 to the sticky. fall is my fav time of year, and in my opinion, the best seasonals are brewed this time of year too. Pumpkins, Octoberfests, Harvest beers (hops and grains). doesn't really get much better than that!!

beesy · 08-18-2009, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EuBrew

bump.......

anyone have any difinitive suggestions on quantity of spices to use for a 5 gal batch??

a lot of recipes i see call for clove. i just don't like the way it fits in and would recommend cutting it in half, it not eliminating it all. no more clove for me in my pumpkin beers.

Although a little late in the game, I guess I better get in gear and brew some up this week/weekend.

aeonderdonk · 08-18-2009, 04:59 AM

I should have brewed this yesterday instead of a kolsch

. I will probably end up brewing it on the 30th of August and hope it mellows out enough to sip while handing out candy. I am pretty sure I will use a few lbs of baked canned pumpkin in the mash and add spices with about 5 minutes left.

jimconnors · 08-18-2009, 04:11 PM

This weekend I brewed for the first time in months (still recovering from reconstructive surgery on my ankle) and it was only the second AG batch I have ever done.
I figured a pumpkin ale would be nice to age out for a few months, and a nice simple Ale with Pumpkin added would be hard to screw up so I was a bit more comfortable with my less-than-perfect AG system. The wort literally tasted like liquid pumpkin pie (I kinda drank the hydrometer test wort post-grav reading

) and had an incredible color to it.

Below is the recipe I used, pulled from the Nov/Dec 08 Zymurgy issue. Only modifications I made were 1) Safale 04 yeast x 2 and 2) an extra 1.5 pounds of canned pumpkin.
I also added a bit if cinnamon, brown sugar, crushed cloves and nutmeg to the pumpkin and roasted it for about 4 hours. The whole house still smells like pumpkin pie!

The original brewer (Mark Pasquinelli of PA) recommended slightly less carbonation, and suggested about 3.5 cups of priming sugar.

Pumpkin Ale.btp

bonesmalone · 08-18-2009, 06:06 PM

Today i racked to secondary. I only got about 2.5 gallons due to trub loss and all the spices from the boil sank to the bottom, thus leaving my pumpkin spice ale SPICELESS.

Should I make a tea and add it to tertiary? Should i throw in raw spices? Maybe a cinnamon stick? I know the beer is gonna taste like weird lukewarm hop-ahol at this point but i should be getting at least a hint of the spices right?

**masonsjax** · 08-18-2009, 07:02 PM

How long did it sit in primary? I get the impression that it should be left there for a couple of months to meld with the spices. I don't secondary any of my beers though.

Marshal6 · 08-18-2009, 09:59 PM

I'm considering doing another pumpkin beer this year. Has anyone tried making a "spice tea" and dosing into the finished beer like you would a fruit extract. I found it tough to judge how much spice to use in the boil. Also I know it already been stated but use restraint on the hops.

bonesmalone · 08-19-2009, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masonsjax

How long did it sit in primary? I get the impression that it should be left there for a couple of months to meld with the spices. I don't secondary any of my beers though.

I had it in primary for 8 days. The fermentation slowed significantly and my FG was at 1.009. I just really want the beer to clear out as much as possible so Im doing a 2 week secondary and a 2 week tertiary then bottle for at least 3 weeks. If the spices are at the bottom of the trub, i dont picture it helping the taste at all.

**masonsjax** · 08-19-2009, 01:45 PM

Not to get too off topic here, but it's my understanding that it is much better to leave beer in primary for at least 2 weeks (I leave my beers 28 days minimum), allowing the yeast to clean up after themselves. That would also leave more time for spices to infuse. Trub settles out whether you rack to another vessel or not. It's just easier to leave it. Less racking (less chance for infection), and only 1 container to clean. I guess there might be an oxygen problem if you use a bucket for primary, but I don't know about that.

cactusgarrett · 08-19-2009, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beesy

My brew buddy (any hbt'er) pickles made a pumpkin lager last year that was at least as good as lakefront's. Very nice. I'll try to get him to put

Care to comment on the yeast used? I'm kicking around the idea of a pilsner yeast for my pumpbrew this weekend.