Multiple - Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions) - Page 36

BeantownR6 · 09-01-2010, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr_finklestein

Don't worry about the pumpkin sticking or being burnt. As far as the pumpkin, all of our grocery stores are out of canned pumpkin also (due to the devastation of the crop last year) so I just bought butternut squash in the produce dept., cooked it, puree'd it, baked it, and added it to the mash. So far great flavor and amazing complexity!

thats what i want to use. i bet the butternut will give a better flavor than the pumkin, the squash is so tasty. im pretty much gonna use this recipe and use the squash. making 10 gallons, keg 5 gallons for october, and bottle 5 gallons for thanksgiving.

baafowin · 09-02-2010, 05:59 PM

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster. I decided to do this recipe a few weeks ago, got all the grain, hops, etc and then found out about this pumpkin shortage. Bummer. Tried all of the normal grocery chains in the area with no luck, and stumbled on a ton of it at Rural King of all places. I think Rural King is a midwest only chain, but if any of you are from the midwest and looking for pumpkin, that may be a good place to start.

beerrepository · 09-02-2010, 07:38 PM

I brewed this one this past Tuesday. I did the extract version and came in a little high with my OG at 1.056 but I think it should still be ok. Wort tasted fantastic when I drew my sample.

I am still curious what the breakdown is for people using pumpkin pie spice vs. cinnamon plus. I am sure either way, this is going to be a great beer. looking forward to it.

ericelmer · 09-02-2010, 07:41 PM

Just brewed this last night! I found organic pumpkin pie at Publix for about $2.50 a can. I baked the pumpkin for an hour, then let it cool for a little bit before putting it in a cheesecloth. The cloth was virtually useless as most of the pumpkin seeped out of it by the end of the boil anyways.

My biggest concern is that I had a huge O.G of 1.070. The wort tasted great but I am a little confused how/why this happened. I used 7 lbs of DME instead of 6.25, could this be why it was so high? My boil was 3 gallons, and I added about 2.5 gallons of cold water to fill my fermenter up to 5 gallons. hmm. I also didn't add any spices yet, I think I'll add a spice tea once I rack to my secondary!

marshbandit · 09-05-2010, 08:52 AM

My experience is limited to kits and I have never used flaked wheat. Does this get seeped in a separate muslin bag than the caramel/crystal malt & biscuit malt? I'm getting the extract version together.

Scut_Monkey · 09-05-2010, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericelmer

Just brewed this last night! I found organic pumpkin pie at Publix for about $2.50 a can. I baked the pumpkin for an hour, then let it cool for a little bit before putting it in a cheesecloth. The cloth was virtually useless as most of the pumpkin seeped out of it by the end of the boil anyways.

My biggest concern is that I had a huge O.G of 1.070. The wort tasted great but I am a little confused how/why this happened. I used 7 lbs of DME instead of 6.25, could this be why it was so high? My boil was 3 gallons, and I added about 2.5 gallons of cold water to fill my fermenter up to 5 gallons. hmm. I also didn't add any spices yet, I think I'll add a spice tea once I rack to my secondary!

Possibly dumb question but you weren't taking your gravity reading before you diluted it with extra water were you?

**erikrocks** · 09-06-2010, 02:28 PM

I brewed 12 gallons last night and everything went perfectly. I doughed into a lot more strike water--about 10 gallons--and used a pound of rice hulls. I also didn't pump my runnings into my BK--I decided to let gravity do the work. My sparge went quickly and ended up right on the money with a 1.052 OG.

foobert · 09-06-2010, 03:59 PM

Any thoughts on using Safeale S-05 yeast with this?

I've got a yeast cake I can dump it on top of, and hate to waste it unless it's going to make a detrimental difference...

Boston85 · 09-06-2010, 07:20 PM

Just brewed this one, using extract recipe. I was short on pumpkins, so used 2 whole pumpkins and then a can of pumpkin mix. Everything seemed to go well during the boil. Before cooling I strained all of the pumpkin out of the wort and then cooled. I had hardly any trub at the bottom of the can. Did I do something wrong? Everything I have read seems like you should have a lot of it. The wort is very cloudy, with small parts of pumpkin floating around in it. Will this settle out during fermentation? I tasted it and it is awesome, so hopefully I do not have to drink it with all that stuff in it.

foobert · 09-07-2010, 07:19 AM

Well, I ended up dumping half of my 10-gallon batch over the S-05 yeast cake, and pitched S-04 over the other half. Will report back on the differences.

For my 10G batch, I mostly followed a 2/3rds scaling of the AG version Yuri has at the beginning of this thread, with the following major differences:

I used 1+ pound of rice hulls since I didn't want to futz with a stuck sparge.
Three sugar-pie pumpkins fresh off the vines of my garden. Sugar pies are commonly used for pie baking. They are smaller than jack-o-lantern and are fairly easy to work with.
Pumpkins were halved and scooped of seeds/guts, then baked (face up) in a 350˙F convection oven for 1 hour.
Once cooled, they were de-skinned and smooshed thoroughly. I then heated them to 158˙F (mash temp), mixed in with rice hulls, and then put into the mash together with the grain bill.
Next time, I will probably go after it with the stick blender to break it up a bit more. I had ZERO problems sparging -- it fly-sparged just like normal...
15 pounds of whole pumpkins yielded about exactly what I wanted: 8+ pounds of cooked/peeled flesh

Here's some pics of what it looked like:

NIKON D200, ISO 500, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 24mm focal L.

After roasting in the oven

NIKON D200, ISO 500, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 24mm focal L.

Smooshed and ready to add into the mash with the grain.

NIKON D200, ISO 500, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 24mm focal L.

The limit of what my 10G mash/lauter tun can handle

NIKON D200, ISO 500, ƒ/2.8, 1/30sec, 24mm focal L.