Pumpkin Brewday Pics

Here are some pics form my pumpkin brew day. I followed the advice of some members and roasted the canned pumpkin before mashing. I wish I had seen the posts about using rice hulls cause man that was one slow sparge - like an hours and a half. There are some good pics of the pumpkin sludge coating the top of the grain bed in the mash tun. Finally, i pitched onto a yeast cake for the first time - wow!

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Finally....

PIMPIN thanks for sharring!

I haven't made any beer yet, just cider, and that looks like an amazing amount of krausen!

Yes, it is. I pitched onto the yeast cake from a cream ale I racked to secondary. My wife and I went out to dinner right after I pitched it. I came home 2.5 hours later to find that krausen. The posts on here about pitching onto a yeast cake said it would be fast, but I had no idea it would be that fast. I checked it again this morning and it is already starting to fall.

Geez, nice! What was the step right at the top with the pumpkin and the baking tray?

At the suggestion of a few posters on here I spread my canned pumpkin about 1-2 inches think on a baking tray and roasted it in the oven at 375 F for 30 min. It, apparently, starts carmelizzing the pumpkin making it a stronger flavor in the finished beer.

Awesome. I've been thinking Pumpkin the last couple days Thinking of doing a partigyle with a RIS then a Pumpkin Mild Wouldn't be able to mash the pumpkin doing it like this though.

I too brewed a pumpkin ale over the weekend. I also had the pile of pumpkin goo at the top of tun. I used rice hulls and conditioned the malt and the sparge was slow!

Was it me or did it seem like it took way longer to bring to a boil too? Like 30-45 minutes more than usual.

smakudwn said:

I too brewed a pumpkin ale over the weekend. I also had the pile of pumpkin goo at the top of tun. I used rice hulls and conditioned the malt and the sparge was slow!

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I just brewed my first pumpkin beer last night, using 2 cans of pumpkin (roasted at 350 for 30 min). Even with the addition of rice hulls I got a layer of pumpkin sludge at the bottom of my mash tun. Things were ok during the first couple vorlaufs, then it stuck completely. I ended up straining out scoops of mash into the kettle and ended up about 80% low on my OG (adjusted with dme). I found my screen completely submerged in goop.

I didn't see a single trace of pumpkin at the top of the grain bed. What happened?? Next time I do this I think I may dice a pumpkin, roast it, and add it to the mash. That was my first stuck sparge, and I didn't enjoy it at all... I'm guessing it'll taste ok, but the process was less than smooth.

6lb 2 row
2lb Munich
1lb Crystal 60

1 oz. Northern Brewer (8%, 60 min - wort was a tad bitter, fingers crossed)

1 t. cinnamon (5 min)
1/2 t. allspice (5 min)
1/2 t. ground ginger (5 min)
1/4 t. nutmeg (5 min)
1/4 t. clove (5 min)
2 lb pumpkin goop (roasted 350°, 30 min)

WLP002 English Ale yeast

-Jason