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jwible204 · 08-20-2012, 09:20 PM

I'd keep it cooler, mine is sitting at about 63 right now. I usually don't let my Ales get above 65 for the first week or so fermentation, unless it's a Saison or a another yeast that tolerates heat well.

MacGruber · 08-20-2012, 09:47 PM

Mine is fluctuating between 63 and 68 ambient.

hopbrad · 08-20-2012, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnhs

I'm gong to try this. Instead of using store bought, I'm going to make my own. But I'm going to soak the bourbon vanilla beans (from Madagascar) in bourbon (from Makers Mark) instead of vodka. Not sure how much flavor this will add, but can't possibly be bed, can it?

hell no! sounds derishious. i did about 6 ounces of Flor De Cana spiced Rum with 6 vanilla beans quartered and split and added a little more than half of the liquid today and 2 of the beans. ill let it sit for 10 more days, which will be 30 days in the primary then bottle. i forgot i had kraken spiced rum in the basement, which already has some vanilla and clove flavor, i bet it woulda been awesome to let the vanilla beans soak in that.

jwible204 · 08-21-2012, 12:05 PM

Woke up to some serious blow-off today. I pitched at about 9:30 yesterday morning, within 3 hours I had krausen and sometime overnight it started blowing off.

swensonsn · 08-21-2012, 08:11 PM

I am going to make this for sure, but in a 5 gallon batch. I believe I may cut the 2 row back a bit and add the roasted meat of a nice sized pumpkin. At any rate, This beer sounds delicious.

MacGruber · 08-22-2012, 12:21 PM

I did it with real pumpkin and brown sugar. Check out page four of this thread for how I did it. I had to use canned pumpkin this time, but wished I had real pumpkin. The canned was a mess.

BudzAndSudz · 08-25-2012, 03:38 AM

I threw my pumpkin in for the last 20 minutes or so of the boil. I think mashing it isn't the best plan because a) with this monster grain bill, my mash tun is pretty much full at 1.5 qt/lb infusion rate, and b) you're not trying to diastatically convert the pumpkin. At the end of the boil you can extract all the flavors without boiling off all the aroma, and you don't overwhelm your MLT.

I used a whole pie pumpkin and roasted it with a bit of spices and brown sugar until browned, then threw the soft chunks into the boiling wort.

MacGruber · 08-25-2012, 02:51 PM

That's exactly what I did last year buds, for exactly the same reason. I couldn't get real pumpkin this early so I settled for canned baked with spices in the boil for the last 15 minutes.

BudzAndSudz · 08-25-2012, 03:31 PM

Right on!

And for what it's worth, I fermented mine at about 70-75 degrees or so (just room temperature with a towel around it) and I never had issues with off flavors. This beer is so big that it seems unlikely that yeasty esters and phenols are going to overwhelm all the spices and malts. My friends are DEMANDING I brew a good 20 gallons of this again this year so I think it must've been alright. In fact, they've been asking me to brew another batch since January and I've had to tell them to wait until pumpkin season. Drives them nuts!

**barnhs** · 08-26-2012, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudzAndSudz

Right on!

And for what it's worth, I fermented mine at about 70-75 degrees or so (just room temperature with a towel around it) and I never had issues with off flavors. This beer is so big that it seems unlikely that yeasty esters and phenols are going to overwhelm all the spices and malts. My friends are DEMANDING I brew a good 20 gallons of this again this year so I think it must've been alright. In fact, they've been asking me to brew another batch since January and I've had to tell them to wait until pumpkin season. Drives them nuts!

I'm encouraged by this! May have been my taking a gravity reading when it was still really actively fermenting, but it definitely smelled like pumpkin banana bread. Hoping it will pass. Btw, the reading we 1.030. After three days, that was close to the recipe. Racked after 5 days, and it's been in secondary at 65 for a week. Will check it again tonight and see how she's doing.