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

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Yuri, I would very much like to brew this (and soon, seeing as it's already a bit late for a pumpkin) but I have 2 questions:

Could you potentially just leave it in the primary for the entire 7 weeks, and just add the spice tea after the first week when activity has died down? I know the debate about whether to rack to a secondary/bright tank rages on, but in your opinion would it affect the beer to leave it in the first vessel?

Secondly: When I transfer from my brewpot to my carboy, I generally try to strain a lot of the gunk out so there's less trub. Is the mashed pumpkin's flavor imparted during the boil, or does having it in the fermenter add something to the character? Basically I'm asking if I can strain most of the pumpkin out before it ends up in the carboy.
 
Brewing 6 gallon version this weekend after searching 8 stores in 6 different towns on the South Shore of MA last weekend trying to find freaking canned pumpkin! Of course found it store #8 which just happened to be 2nd closet to my house! LOL! Wound up with 2 cans of Libby's and two cans of One-Pie.
 
I don't think you'll do much harm by leaving this one on the trub for 3-4 weeks. I prefer it very fresh and have put it on tap as early as about 15 days after brewing. The flavors become melded, and IMHO, muted after several months, so I prefer not to cellar this beer.

Strain to your heart's content. You'll still have a big pile of trub. The pumpkin solids become very fluid in the hot mash/boil water, and there's no way you'll strain them all out. They settle eventually.
 
lextasy23 said:
Whatever you do, don't get Pumpkin Pie filling. Pure pumpkin puree.
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Why not? Did you try it and it turned out bad?

I looked at the ingredients for libbys easy pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin, sugar and spices were all I saw.
 
i'm going to brew it this week again. brewed it last year, and took it to a halloween party. went over very well. this year, it's mine :D
 
nvrlateinz28 said:
Why not? Did you try it and it turned out bad?

I looked at the ingredients for libbys easy pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin, sugar and spices were all I saw.
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If that's the case, and there are absolutely no binders or filler ingredients, then it should be ok. I still recommend brewing the recipe as published, as I (and others) have had great success with it. However, it's your beer, and if you like the canned pie filling flavor, and the ingredients are as simple as you claim, then there's no reason not to use it.
 
Took a gravity reading today and a little taste... gravity is at about 1.018 I'll wait another two weeks until it reaches final of 1.015. it tasted great it was a little bitter though I'm wondering if it will mellow out after two weeks and if the spice will continue to come through like it is right now? any idea why it may be so bitter? I used the correct amount of hops.
 
Perceived bitterness varies quite a bit with water chemistry. If you have hard water, that may be the chief cause. Otherwise, it's just the nature of young beer. Let it rest for a bit and carbonate it.
 
strangebrew55 said:
Took a gravity reading today and a little taste... gravity is at about 1.018 I'll wait another two weeks until it reaches final of 1.015. it tasted great it was a little bitter though I'm wondering if it will mellow out after two weeks and if the spice will continue to come through like it is right now? any idea why it may be so bitter? I used the correct amount of hops.
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never try to judge how a beer will taste from the fermenter. it'll age out. the various off-flavors will drop out (including the sulfur and the other bitter flavors), and once it starts carbonating, the flavor will radically change anyway. the spice will blend in over the next few weeks, and it'll round out and be a great beer
 
I am using canned pumpkin and plan on cooking it for an hour as suggested. Question I have is can you cook it the night before? Was planning on brewing this Sunday, but where it looks more and more like MA is going to be under water from Hurricane Irene and I brew outdoors, I have to brew Saturday instead, but have limited time that day and knowing that that it could take several hours to drain the mash, was looking for some time savers.
 
Hey all,

Will be doing this one this weekend hopefully. My ingredients are on the FedEx truck enroute.

So my only question now is that since the recipe was updated it is now no longer recommended to add ANY spices to the boil at all? Only during the clearing (secondary) phase as a "tea"?

I may have missed this "tea" term somewhere in this monstrosity of a thread. Are the spices added to a hop bag and simply dropped into the secondary vessel? Or are the spices placed into a hop bag and steeped into hot water like tea and the liquid is thereby poured into the secondary vessel?

If either is the case, are there any worries about sanitizing either the spice ingredients or the liquid "tea" that's essentially thrown right in?

Thanks!
 
I'm sorry I didn't see anything on the previous page about adding the spices to the keg.

So I guess "clearing time" would be time spent in the keg. Thanks
 
Yuri
I pitched wlp002 with a yeast starter and I have absolutely no activity in the air lock after 3 days. My question is could it be done? And if it is a stuck fermentation should I wait to check gravity until at least a week/2? Sorry if these are rookie questions and thanks for your help.
 
smakudwn said:
I'm sorry I didn't see anything on the previous page about adding the spices to the keg.

So I guess "clearing time" would be time spent in the keg. Thanks
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To better answer your question, it depends. If you use a single fermenter and rack directly to a keg, then you may consider adding the spices to the fermenter during the last few days before racking. If you rack to another fermenter or bright tank, add the spices then. I prefer to leave the solids from the ground spices in the bottom of a fermenter, but if a few cloudy pours don't bother you, you can add them when kegging.

Jwash1705 said:
Yuri
I pitched wlp002 with a yeast starter and I have absolutely no activity in the air lock after 3 days. My question is could it be done? And if it is a stuck fermentation should I wait to check gravity until at least a week/2? Sorry if these are rookie questions and thanks for your help.
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Yes, it could be done. Many ales have the bulk of fermentation done after 3 days. Check the gravity as much as you want. Your beer won't be ready to move until at least week two.

See this post (among many others like it):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/no-fermentation-234665/#post2767938
 
I apologize ahead of time if this has been discussed, I looked at alot of the earlier pages and then the last few pages but couldn't seem to find an answer. For the extract recipe, it seems like a full boil, is this correct? We only can do a 3 gallon boil with our equipment and then usually add water to the fermenter, would this work with this recipe? Thanks in advance.
 
Yea it works, I brew all my beers in 3-3.5 gal batches then add cold water to the rest of the wort to get the desired amount. It's a better method because you can add cold water to the wart to help it cool faster before pitching your yeast.
 
strangebrew55 said:
Yea it works, I brew all my beers in 3-3.5 gal batches then add cold water to the rest of the wort to get the desired amount. It's a better method because you can add cold water to the wart to help it cool faster before pitching your yeast.
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I do the same thing and I also just brewed a pumpkin ale 2 weeks ago. 3 gallon boil and topped it up with cold water to 5 gallons. Took the first taste/gravity reading after fermentation and it is AWESOME!!!!

DO IT!!!!!!!! :rockin:
 
AR-Josh said:
I do the same thing and I also just brewed a pumpkin ale 2 weeks ago. 3 gallon boil and topped it up with cold water to 5 gallons. Took the first taste/gravity reading after fermentation and it is AWESOME!!!!

DO IT!!!!!!!! :rockin:
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Great! Thanks for the above replies. Did you brew this particular pumpkin recipe? It looks delicious, excited to try!
 
I plan on buying the ingredients for this brew next week and want to do the extract version. So I usually make 5g batches could someone break down the steeping grain changes for me. THANK YOU! !
 
The volume issue comes up a lot. The reason I made a 6 gallon recipe is to overcome the inevitable massive pumpkin trub. If you want 5 gallons of beer into bottles or a keg, you pretty much need to brew 6 using this recipe.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
The volume issue comes up a lot. The reason I made a 6 gallon recipe is to overcome the inevitable massive pumpkin trub. If you want 5 gallons of beer into bottles or a keg, you pretty much need to brew 6 using this recipe.
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You got it, time to finish the keg kettle conversion I put aside I guess cheers.
 
Why is the amount of spice added to clearing a lot less in the AG version than the extract version. It seems like 1.5tsp for 15 gal isn't very much. Are you really getting that much pumpkin flavor out of the mash?
 
Would it be ok to add half of the pumpkin to the mash then the other half into the boil? Minimize the amount of pumpkin in the mash.
 
This will be my next batch.. I am going to have to scale down the extract recipe to 5 gallons, unless someone else has done that and can post it.
 
Brewed the 6 gallon extract batch today and man o man did that gravity sample taste good!! For the smells of fall alone at the end of summer this beer is worth brewing. I added the baked canned pumpkin right into the 60 min boil with no bag and dumped all of it into the primary. Pitched safale s-04 dry (first time sprinkling) onto 63 degree wort. This is my first time with this yeast, figure I'll let it rise to 68 on it's own and then hold there for 4 days or so, then let it rise to room temp to clean up.

So far Yuri, one hell of a recipe.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
6 Gallon Extract + Steeping Grains Recipe

Recipe current as of 14 Aug 2011
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.
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This is for a full boil, correct? I want to make sure I poout the right amount of hops.
 
just brewed the extract version a few days ago. i have a five gallon carboy and one gallon carboy so i racked into both (pitching roughly a fifth of the yeast into the one gallon carboy). both seem to be going well, with the five gallon having slightly more airlock activity. two questions:

i wasn't planning to rack into a secondary -- was just going to leave each carboy alone for about three weeks. is that a bad idea? (i think this was addressed earlier in the thread and the consensus was that it's fine.)

and when it comes time to bottle, should i rack the two carboys into the same bottling bucket? or should i keep them separate?
 
qwist04 said:
just brewed the extract version a few days ago. i have a five gallon carboy and one gallon carboy so i racked into both (pitching roughly a fifth of the yeast into the one gallon carboy). both seem to be going well, with the five gallon having slightly more airlock activity. two questions:

i wasn't planning to rack into a secondary -- was just going to leave each carboy alone for about three weeks. is that a bad idea? (i think this was addressed earlier in the thread and the consensus was that it's fine.)

and when it comes time to bottle, should i rack the two carboys into the same bottling bucket? or should i keep them separate?
Click to expand...

I would taste them first to make sure neither is infected or otherwise off, but I would personally blend the two.
 
Yuri, I'm brewing your AG version of this today. I'll let you know how it turns out!
 
I'm on vacation for the next 10 day, I have been trying to decide which pumpkin brew goes on the list, decision made.
 

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