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**Yuri_Rage** · 10-20-2008, 08:14 PM

Yes - take a look around the Beginner's forum and the wiki for more detailed instructions on extract+grain recipes.

**Buzz1** · 10-21-2008, 03:10 AM

Yuri - I had nothing (cheesecloth) to steep the pumpkin spice mix in and just added to the secondary after cooling. Did this yesterday afternoon and this morning before I left town it looked ugly. I'm going to let it run it's course. Any thoughts?

**Yuri_Rage** · 10-21-2008, 04:01 AM

Most beer looks ugly in the fermenter. RDWHAHB.

mkw87 · 10-26-2008, 03:43 PM

Well I cracked open my first bottle of this and it is excellent. Next time I think I'll stick to just using pumpkin spice, the pumpkin is hard to work with and I don't think it added that much flavor. Thanks a lot for the recipe.

freyguy · 10-27-2008, 04:57 PM

I just did a slightly different version of this and though I'd add my notes. I did a similar beer last year that turned out great, so I kept those amounts of pumpkin and spices.

I found a local pumpkin grower that had "Blue" pumpkins this year. Since I try to brew using fresh, cool ingredients, I picked some up. I used 2lbs of cleaned, 1" cubed pumpkin pieces, cooked in a low boil for 20min with enough water to cover them. I smashed the pumpkin close to a puree, and added it and the water it cooked in, into the mash tun. I used 1lb rice hulls also, and had no problems at all with a slow drain time. It drained just like any other brew.

For spices, I used 1tbl Allspice, 1tbl Cinnamon, and 1tbl Nutmeg, all at 5min. I did the same last year and it was a good amount. I finished off with S04 Dry Whitbread yeast, and it started off quickly. I'm going to go transfer it to secondary right now. Thanks for the recipe Yuri!

I'm calling it "Blue Thunderpumpkin Ale".

kaplanfx · 10-27-2008, 07:25 PM

Have patience with this beer. I brewed the extract recipe and used the "dump some spices at flame out" method, 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice (rather than using a spice tea at bottling). When we took the beer out of primary (2 weeks) it was really spicy, with almost not bitterness or pumpkin or beer flavor for that matter.

So we put it in secondary for about 3 weeks, and just bottled last night. All I can say is WOW 3 weeks makes a huge difference. The beer now has a very amazing and distinct pumpkin flavor, when you sip it's beer then a sweet spiciness, then the after taste is like you just licked the inside of a pumpkin. Also the color is an amber orange, very nice. This was at about 70 degrees with no carbonation. I can only imagine how good it's going to be in 5-6 weeks carbonated and chilled.

By far the biggest disappointment with this brew was our futility in straining out the 60 oz's of pumpkin that went in the boil. Most of it ended up in the fermenter and still a bit in secondary. It lead to us only getting a yield of about 4 gallons of beer. It sucks brewing a great beer and realizing you are 1/5 smaller than your usual batch, but hey that's not the worst problem to have

-kap

Torchiest · 10-28-2008, 04:45 AM

I just bottled mine and had the exact same issue. Got only forty-two 12oz bottles instead of the usual fifty or so. I didn't have any dextrose on hand, and didn't feel like cooking up some DME, so I used this hazelnut syrup I've been saving for the priming sugar. It tasted awesome. The nuttiness really worked with the pumpkin and spices. I look forward to drinking this with Thanksgiving dinner!

Gosassin · 11-09-2008, 02:11 AM

I just made this today; I put 3 cans of pumpkin in the mash and one in the boil. One pound of rice hulls in the mash, and not even a hint of a stuck sparge. The wort is a beautiful orange color and tastes just like pumpkin and cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Recipe: highly recommended!

FishinDave07 · 11-10-2008, 11:06 AM

I just tried one and man is it great! It has a nice orange color and good bready/biscuity notes. I added the spices at 5 min. and can pick up faint "notes" of them, especially when the beer warms up. I think i might give this another run next year, but next time add maybe half the amount of spices to the secondary along with the 5 min. addition.

You need to brew this!

tmoney1224 · 11-16-2008, 01:15 AM

Was getting ready to bottle this tonight and I took my hydro reading and it is 1.008, so a bit lower than I had hoped. I'm sure it finished dryer because I had trouble maintaining my mash temp so I mashed at around 153.

I tasted it and its not bad, but not exactly what I was thinking. I've got some Lactose, could I add some of that to get back a little bit of the sweetness and body? If so how much (btw did a 4 gallon batch)?

Thanks