Brett3rThanU

Recipes 

How did yours turn out? I brewed his recipe to the T, but am rather disappointed in the results. When fermentation first started it smelled great, like pumpkin pie, but now after carbonating in the bottle for 3 weeks there's hardly any pumpkin aroma or flavor. If I gave it to someone they definitely wouldn't guess it's a pumpkin ale. How did everyone else's turn out?

Scut_Monkey

Recipes 

Mine is fermenting now (3 days in). It smelled great in the kettle. However, a lot of aroma from a beer is driven off during the primary. This is ONE of the reasons why dry hopping is done in the secondary. With the spice flavors I'm sure it's the same. Did you add a spice tea? Many people in the Thunderstruck ale thread stated that they do a spice tea after the primary is complete. I'm planning to do the same and the spice additions will be based on the flavor of the sample I pull.

Is the beer good even though not what you were expecting?

Brett3rThanU

Recipes 

Nah, I didn't do any spices in the secondary, I guess I should have.

I'm not really a fan, it's just lacking something. Probably the spice which leaves just a very low hopped beer.

jcryan2

Recipes 

I was very happy with my batch. First time I'd brewed it. I kegged mine and let it sit for six weeks before drinking it. I'd planned on having it around for Halloween this week but the keg blew a week ago so next year I'm going to brew a double batch.

I did a spice tea in secondary and the flavors from that were an important part of the brew. I suspect without the spice the brew is missing a lot.

Scut_Monkey

Recipes 

jcryan2: How much spice did you add to the secondary. Would you be able to provide me the measurements you added to both the boil kettle and secondary. It would be nice to have something to go off of when I add my spice tea. Thanks!

sea2summit3

Recipes 

I've found the spice is what makes the beer pumpkin. If you've ever made pumpkin pie and tried the filling before adding the spice, it tastes nothing like pumpkin pie! I had great success with Thunderstruck last year and designed my own pumpkin beer this year- a Maple Pumpkin Ale. Last year- quality pumpkin pie spice. This year- cheap pumpkin pie spice. Last year- Awesome flavor. This year- WEAK! Yours could be a spice quality issue as well!

Not sure how much I added... just followed the original Thunderstruck recipe.

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Primary:-
Secondary:IPA, just "IPA"
Bottled: Applewood Smoked Porter, Windy Bridge Stout, Maple Chocolate Pumpkin Ale, Maple Pumpkin Ale, California Steam, Black Cat Porter, Irish Coffee Stout
Kegged: Blackberry Stout, Nut Brown, Sweet Cider, Apfelwein #2, IPA, SNCA Clone

Brett3rThanU

Recipes 

Well my fiance tried it last night and she tasted the pumpkin and actually liked it. I guess all the IPA's I've been drinking lately have killed my taste buds.

dracus

Recipes 

I just racked mine into bottles. I used 1.5 tsp of the pampered chef clone in a spice tea at secondary. It was rather spicy and delicious. I used no spice in boil and brewed extract version. The only change I made was using LME. Ill let you know how it is post bubbles. It does need a bit to mellow.

jcryan2

Recipes 

For the spice tea I used the spices listed in the Thunderstruck AG recipe and made a tea. I used about 8 ounces of very hot water to seep it in. After an overnight soak I poured off the tea and added it to the secondary carboy.

I added nothing to the brew kettle.

Scut_Monkey

Recipes 

I see. That helps. Thank you much!