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.
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!
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...
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
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!
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