Autumn Seasonal Beer Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions)

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Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
14,260
Reaction score
786
Location
Southwest
Recipe Type
Extract
Yeast
WLP002 English Ale
Yeast Starter
Yes - at least 1L
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.053
Final Gravity
1.015
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
32.1
Color
14.3
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 - rack off of trub to clear
6 Gallon Extract + Steeping Grains Recipe

Recipe still current as of Sep 2015
This recipe has been changed to reflect improvements over the years.
The final volume should be 6 gallons, not 5 as the data above indicates.
The IBUs should be 12-14, not 32.1 as the data above indicates.

6.25 lbs light DME
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt
4.0 oz Wheat, Flaked
60.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned (Boil 60.0 min)

.75 oz Goldings (5.0% AA 60.0 min) 13 IBU

0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) or one Whirlfloc tablet

Yeast - English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) or Fermentis S-04

Spread the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees F before adding to the brew.

Steep the grains for 20-30 minutes at about 155°F.

During clearing stage, add a spice tea of 1 tsp "Pumpkin Pie Spice" or Pampered Chef "Cinnamon Plus." Steep spices in 1 cup hot water for 10-15 minutes, cool then add. Consider adding the spice tea a little at a time to achieve the desired flavor profile.

There will be several inches of trub almost regardless of how you try to contain the pumpkin. Your yield may be slightly less than 5 gallons.
 
15 Gallon All Grain Recipe

Recipe still current as of Sep 2015
This recipe has been changed to reflect improvements over the years.

21.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
5.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
2.50 lb Biscuit Malt
1.00 lb Wheat, Flaked
180.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned (a dozen 15oz cans - baked on a sheet as described in the extract recipe, cooled, and added to the mash)

2.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min)

3 Tablets Whirlfloc (Boil 10.0 min)

Yeast - English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) or Fermentis S-04

Single infusion mash at 158° F for 45-60 mins
Mash out at 168°F
Sparge with 178°F water to collect 17.5g of wort
Boil 60 mins

Est OG: 1.057
Est FG: 1.018
Est ABV: 4.99 %
Bitterness: 13.0 IBU
Est Color: 14.2 SRM

During clearing stage, add a spice tea of 1/2 tbsp "Pumpkin Pie Spice" or Pampered Chef "Cinnamon Plus." Steep spices in 1 cup hot water for 10-15 minutes, cool then add. Consider adding the spice tea a little at a time to achieve the desired flavor profile.

There will be several inches of trub almost regardless of how you try to contain the pumpkin. Your yield may be slightly less than 15 gallons.
 
Sounds like a solid brew, Yuri. I'm going to have to go pick up a pumpkin brew soon and see if I like it. If I do I'll scale back your recipe to 5 gal and go to town.
 
Did you have any luck scaling this to a 5 gallon batch? I halved the numbers and put them in BeerSmith, but that didn't do it. O.G still way high.
 
so you put the pumpkin in the boil? i did one last year using fresh pumpkin that was in the oven a little with some pie spice on it and additonal spices in the boil.

i swear i remember putting that pumpkin in the mash, but it took lowsy (aka no) notes on that. I will do better this year. I have positive reviews on taste in the past...
 
Hey Yuri how long do you let this age? Also, are we talking about the can's of pumpkin pie filling?

thanks!
 
I age it just like most other ales - it's good at about 6 weeks.

NOT pumpkin pie filling, canned pumpkin. Similar, but not the same.

Here's a scanned label of the stuff I use:

4688-pumpkin.jpg
 
Dude said:
If I didn't know better, I'd swear you had white socks on with red stripes at the top! DORK!

What "style" is this beer based on? Almost looks ESBish.
Hey, ya gotta brew in style...

When I first created the recipe, I used American Amber Ale as the base style. As you can see, I hopped it a little aggressively last year, thinking that the spicy notes from the hops might meld with the flavors from the spices and pumpkin. Since that was hardly the case, I cut the hops back to a single bittering addition, and it's a style of its own at this point.
 
I have been eyeing this recipe up and before I made a batch I figured I would try a commercial pumpkin ale first to see what the taste is all about. I tried Saranac's Pumpkin Ale and was not overly impressed. It was ok but maybe I was expecting too much. I didn't taste much pumpkin in it at all. I was kinda looking foward to pumpkin pie in a bottle and didn't get that at all.

I guess what I am asking is.........with this recipe should I expect pumpkin pie in a bottle or beer with some nutmeg/cinamon/clove tastes?
 
Yup, this is pretty much pumpkin pie in a bottle. The pumpkin flavor is subtle, the hops are very mild, the yeast should leave some residual sweetness, and the spices are about the same as those you would use in pumpkin pie.
 
Can someone scale this back to 5-gallons, I don't have brewsmith and I would really like to do this.

Yuri, are you partial to WLP002 or would another strain like Wyeast 1098 British Ale or 1056 American Ale work?
 
I'm partial to a clean fermenting strain that will leave a bit of residual maltiness - WLP002 is a great strain for that, but 1056/US-56 or 1098 will do just fine if you can't get WLP002.

I used four packages of Nottingham (yes, I overpitched...on purpose!) this year. I went out to check on the fermenter a few minutes ago, and I had a blow-off! 15 gallons of beer in a 21 gallon fermenter with easily 6 inches of head space managed to climb all the way up the ferementer walls and into/out of the blow off tube! It's down from 1.058 to 1.010 in TWO DAYS! Sweet...I like overpitching a little...
 
with your "re-vamped" recipe do you still do the spice tea? If so do you just place the pie spice in something like a hop bag to steep?

also the spices that you use in the recipe -- do you grind / crush / etc yourself or go with a nice pre-ground variety? is that fresh ginger?

whew, sorry for all the questions. as I indicated in an earlier post I have a recipe that I have used and friends have liked in the past. I moved this year and the fresh "neck pumpkin" that I used before seems to be in shorter supply and a little more expensive here so I was thinking of making some changes.

sorry again for all the questions and thanks in advance for the help!
 
No spice tea required with the new recipe. I used pre-ground spices and intended to use fresh ginger but wound up using a little ground ginger instead.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
No spice tea required with the new recipe. I used pre-ground spices and intended to use fresh ginger but wound up using a little ground ginger instead.

very nice, thanks for the continued feedback on this!
 
Castawayales said:
Does the Pumpkin add any sugar when mashed, or is it just for flavor?

Barry

The pumpkin is mostly starch, some of which will be converted to sugar in the mash and some will remain starch and add mouth-feel and flavor. I am a little worried about driving most of the flavor off in the boil, and am thinking about adding some more canned pumpkin to the boil towards the end.


For those who are interested, I scaled this back to 5 gallons with brewsmith and it is almost exactly 1/3 recipe...

7# 2-row
1.66# Crystal 60
0.83# Biscuit Malt
0.33# Flaked Wheat

60oz Pumpkin

1 and 1/8oz EK Goldings 60m

all spiced just use 1/3 of what yuri posted
 
Yuri, random question as I am getting ready to brew this tomorrow maybe...how do you account for the pumpkin in the mash as far as mash water ratio? I usually mash at about 1.3 qt/lb, should I adjust this at all for the added pumpkin (I am doing a 10-gallon batch after all) or just not worry about it?
Thanks
 
Word to the wise on this one.

If you use a ss braid in your MLT, DO NOT add the pumpkin to the mash, I am sitting here with a hopelessly stuck sparge, I am about to just dump it out and give up on brewing for today. Just add the pumkin to the boil and reduce the amount you use.
 
Perhaps I forgot to drive this point home well enough...the sparge will be SLOW! It took me 4 hours to fly sparge 15 gallons (twice the normal time). In this case, batch sparging really won't be much faster...the wort just drains really slowly. There's a microbrewery in VA where they make a similar recipe and sparge for EIGHT hours for a 15 gallon batch. Be patient!
 
I gave up and dumped it, I don't think that this would have even drained in 8 hours, it was just dribbling out...oh well...$40 down the drain.
 
ColoradoXJ13 said:
I gave up and dumped it, I don't think that this would have even drained in 8 hours, it was just dribbling out...oh well...$40 down the drain.
Too bad! As long as it was dribbling, it wasn't stuck...I think you could've saved it. Mine was barely moving as well - from time to time I had to check to make sure anything was happening at all.

To those who brew this one in the future - be forewarned...if you mash this much pumpkin, your sparge will be SLOW! PLEASE DON'T DUMP IT if you're still getting runnings!

EDIT:
Forgot to mention - if you're really scared about a stuck sparge, throw in a few pounds of rice hulls (maybe 3 lbs for a 15 gallon batch).
 
Yuri, do you still roast the pumpkin in the oven first, now that you're mashing it? I realize some of the reason for the cooking was to activate the enzymes and hopefully convert some of the starches, but there was also a considerable amount of caramelization that took place when I did mine last year.
 
I roast mine first. The idea is that the pumpkin flavor will be a sweeter and a little more intense without any raw flavors. Some caramelization is a good thing, IMHO. I have no idea what enzymes are in pumpkin, nor do I know how starchy it is. I just know that there is probably enough starch that it's worth attempting to convert it, and that the pumpkin trub mess is avoided if you throw it into the mash.

So, I guess the answer is "I don't know" to most of your question. However, the recipe works, so I have no plans to change it (at least with regard to the way I treat the pumpkin and mash).
 
Wow is what I gotta say to this pumpkin beer! I've been drinking this since Thanksgiving and it is wonderful. Great balance of spices to pleasant undertone of pumpkin malty goodness that finishes cleanly. The spice mix really hit a home run. Makes me say, can I have another? Hell, ya! This will be a regular for the holiday season.

I did use 1# of rice hulls to speed up mash. It worked, the mash went slower than normal but was done in under 30-45 min, IIIRC.
 
Only issue is when kegging with c02 there is ALOT of foaming compared to the remaining 3 taps with different beers. I've tried reducing the overall serving pressure to 4 psi, normally it's at 8-10 psi., but to no avail. Wondering if this is because of extra starches leftover from mashed pumpkin????

Maybe a longer dispensing hose(5 ft.) from keg outlet to tap would reduce foaming?
 
...how do you account for the pumpkin in the mash as far as mash water ratio? I usually mash at about 1.3 qt/lb, should I adjust this at all for the added pumpkin... or just not worry about it?
Thanks

Just to re-hash this thread, as fall is coming. Curious, myself, as to what the thickness should be, taking into account the canned pumpkin...

Anyone do something similar to this recipe that can comment?
 
I dough in with about 10 gallons and sparge with an additional 9-10 gallons (for a 15 gallon batch) The pumpkin doesn't thicken the mash significantly, it just makes it sticky.
 
i've been wanting to make this for a while, and it's about that time. does anyone have any experience with mashing the pumpkin using an SS braid? is it a bad call, even with rice hulls?
 
I wound up using a spice mix for my last batch. It worked out to about 1 Tbsp of Pampered Chef's Cinnamon Plus for a 15 gallon batch (IIRC, ground ginger is one of the ingredients in Cinnamon Plus).
 
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