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

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I might have read past this at some point, but what would be the benefit of the spice tea at clearing over just adding the spices in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the boil in the extract version. I'm planning on trying to brew this next week and was just wondering if I could just add the spices to the boil. I plan on a boil volume of 3 gallons and then topping off to 5 gallons. Thanks
 
brewjunky said:
I'm thinking that perhaps fresh pumpkin is the way to go for those of us who use a SSB.

If baked and cut into chucks its a lot less likely to stick the sparge then goopy canned pumpkin.
Click to expand...

I agree. What im going to try is getting a whole pumpkin and using a potato peeler and peel the whole pumpkin and add to mash. Or possibly chopping it into small chunks. I think big chunks would waste alot of the pumpkin flavor. Ill brew this in a couple months but doing my research now so im well prepared.
 
Gosassin said:
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!
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. I will put most in the mash and some in the boil as well. If I use canned Ill probably go with 3 and 1 like you did. Thanks!
 
mkw87 said:
I just brewed this today, it tasted awesome, but man it was a LOT of work.

I used a fresh pumpkin, cut it open, cleaned it, and then boiled it for 20 minutes. After boiling I cut the skin off the pieces and then baked them for about 45 minutes at 350 ºF. I then steeped the following grains for about 25-30 minutes at 155 ºF:

1 lb Caramunich
1 lb Crystal 20L
1 lb Crystal 40L
1 lb Flaked Wheat

After steeping I sparged, then brought to a boil and added:

5 lbs Extra Light DME
0.75 oz Goldings Hops
The baked "meat" from a soccer ball sized pumpkin.

I boiled for 45 minutes, then added about 1 oz Ginger root that SWMBO sliced up for me. After 55 minutes I added 3/4 tsp Nutmeg, 1.5 tsp of Cinnamon, 1 tsp Vanilla, and 3/4 tsp Irish Moss. Everything had gone great so far, but I knew i was in for trouble because I had tried to put the pumpkin in my grain bag, and it clogged it up, so I dumped the pumpkin straight into the wort.

Even after tediously straining out about 8 quarts of pumpkin, I had some more trouble. When I added the wort to the carboy, I tried taking an OG reading and it came out very wrong (1.030). I knew my efficiency couldn't be that far off and that's when I looked at the carboy and saw some strange layering going on:



So apparently, even after my tedious straining, a LOT of pumpkin made it into the wort. I know that my OG was not accurate b/c I could easily tell the top layer that I had pulled from with a turkey baster was significantly lighter than others. I'll probably have to use the OG that beersmith gave me and see what my FG is. I'm excited for this to finish, should be very tasty.
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I was going to make this and put the pumpkin in a grain sock also. Is that not recommended then?
 
I've had a batch in the primary for about 5 weeks. I still haven't added the spice tea. Should I rack it to a secondary and add the spice tea. Or, should I just add the spice tea to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar and bottle it? I am going to let it age until October anyway.
 
Just when I think I'm starting to learn all the terms I find a new one. Whats the clearing stage? I'm making this delicous sounding brew today and I'm a little confused. As always any help is appreciated.
 
HellenicHomeBrewer said:
I'm guessing for bitterness you are adding this at 60 mins?
Click to expand...

Yes. Edited the offending post.

maui808 said:
Does the pumpkin in the boil effect the head at all?
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Not really. If anything, I'm inclined to believe that it actually helps head retention.

BeerBudha said:
Just when I think I'm starting to learn all the terms I find a new one. Whats the clearing stage? I'm making this delicous sounding brew today and I'm a little confused. As always any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Secondary.
 
I just got this into the primary and it taste delicious so far. Both my roommate and I got huge grins on our faces when we tried it.
 
Hey Yuri - -
On page 11 (I think) you posted a recipe for a 6 gallon batch with only 1 tsp Cinnamon Plus and no other spices... is that right or should I still go off the spice concoction you have on page 1? Thanks man, can't wait to try this one out!

EDIT - - It's on page 10. My bad.
 
So I didn't see the pg 11. change until after mine was in primary. So rather than use a spice tea (which didn't work anyways...i'll get to why in a second) I just threw the cinnamon plus into the secondary.

But, the problem I have with the cinnamon plus is that it doesn't mix well, at all. It just coagulates... is this normal?
 
I'm ready to make this (extract version), but don't you have to mash the biscuit malt? I thought steeping did nothing for biscuit malt. Mini-mash perhaps?
 
1. Will a 6.5g pail be large enough for primary without using a blowoff tube?

2. Does the roasted pumpkin go into a grain bag before being added to the boil or do you just toss the **** right in?
 
Technically, you should mash biscuit malt. Steeping it around 150° F will actually allow some of it to convert. IMHO, just use it.

I put the pumpkin in a grain bag when I made the extract version. I still had a ton of trub. It's messy stuff!
 
Hey Yuri

Just wanted to say thank you from a new homebrewer. Just read through this entire post (which I guess gets revived at around this time every year), and your constant improvements and patience with all these questions is very admirable.

I am looking forward to brewing this at the end of the month.

Thanks!
 
Definitely going to give this a try. I plan to add pumpkin to the mash after baking, spice additions at 5 mins. Here is what a 5.5G batch is looking like:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.5 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 71.2 %
2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 16.9 %
1 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 %
0.5 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3.4 %
1 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 13.4 IBU
0.75 tsp Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.75 tsp Cloves (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.25 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.25 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.75 tsp Cinnamon Ground (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
66.00 oz Pumpkin (Mash 90.0 min)
 
aeonderdonk said:
Definitely going to give this a try. I plan to add pumpkin to the mash after baking, spice additions at 5 mins. Here is what a 5.5G batch is looking like:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.5 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 71.2 %
2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 16.9 %
1 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 %
0.5 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3.4 %
1 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 13.4 IBU
0.75 tsp Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.75 tsp Cloves (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.25 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.25 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.75 tsp Cinnamon Ground (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
66.00 oz Pumpkin (Mash 90.0 min)
Click to expand...

Seems like alot of spice, no? I'm just hoping mine turns out... 1.5 weeks in secondary so far
 
Two questions:

Can I use hallertau mittelfruh in place of EKG?

Would this be a canidate to FWH? and have no kettle additions? just use the amount of HalMit that beersmith tells me via FWH?
 
aeonderdonk said:
Should I include the pumpkin's weight when calculating mash/sparge volumes?
Click to expand...

Since pumpkin isn't likely to absorb much liquid, you probably don't need to account for it when calculating the amount of liquor for the mash/sparge.

amishland said:
Two questions:

Can I use hallertau mittelfruh in place of EKG?

Would this be a canidate to FWH? and have no kettle additions? just use the amount of HalMit that beersmith tells me via FWH?
Click to expand...

You can substitute any hop you like. Hallertau sounds like a fine idea. I don't recommend FWH for this one. You don't want hop flavor, just a little bitterness to balance the brew.
 
Yuri, in your 2008 6 gallon recipe you used a tsp of Cinnamon Plus instead of all those assorted spices. Would this be the recommended route to take?

Did you still bake your pumpkin on a cookie sheet? If so at what temp for how long.
 
does this extract recipe call for 1# caramel or crystal malts or both?

little confused by how recipe is written there. thanks.
 
corvax13 said:
Hey Yuri

Just wanted to say thank you from a new homebrewer. Just read through this entire post (which I guess gets revived at around this time every year), and your constant improvements and patience with all these questions is very admirable.

I am looking forward to brewing this at the end of the month.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

+1 to this. Thanks, Yuri and the rest of the contributors. Going to do my first pumpkin beer in a couple of weeks and it will owe almost everything to this thread (reserving a modicum of credit for the brewer).

Oh, and I'm thinking about going Saison with it.
 
I am going to make this tonight. I have only made 1 batch ever so hopefully I can make this work. I do have a few small questions:

1. For the spice tea, I've read in the forum that you can add it the last 5 mins of the boil or at secondary. Can you do both? Which way is better? Maybe add it to the boil and add more at clearing if needed?
2. For the spice tea, do I just dump it in boiled water, let it cool, then pour it in? I don't actually steep like like tea, right? The spices actually go in the boil or the beer, right?

Thanks for your help - great recipe and forum!
 
I made this on Saturday, the sparge took 3 hours for my 11G batch. It smells FANTASTIC! I had a huge amount of blow off so be prepared.

Thanks for a great recipe!
John
 
This thread has inspired me to do the following:

1. Buy a very mellow english-style pale ale extract kit with steeping grains (willamette bittering hops, fuggles aroma hops)
2. For a 5 gallon batch: Mash one 30-ounce cans of pumpkin with around 2 pounds of 6 row and the kit's steeping grains. Strain everything through a paint strainer and sparge with a bit of hot water.
3. Brew the pale ale kit as a full volume boil using the kit hops.
4. Ferment with dry nottingham.
5. Add the spice tea to secondary as suggested.

Using TLAR philosopy, I think I'm good to go. Any thoughts?
 
Yuri_Rage said:
If it finishes too dry (below 1.010), add 4 to 8 ounces of lactose. I did that this year, and the sample I just pulled is really good. The fix for next year's batch is to mash a little higher (I was a little lower than the planned 158°F) and perhaps accomplish a mash out.
Click to expand...

My pumpkin went down to 1.006 from 1.050 with California Ale yeast for some reason. As soon as I took the reading I threw the carboys in the fridge to stop fermentation. My plan is to keep them cold and add some lactose to get the body and sweetness back where I want it. I'm thinking 8 ounces in each carboy.

I'm not certain how to do this, though. My first notion was to dissolve the lactose in the minimum amount of water needed and boil for 15 minutes. I would then add this solution to my carboys. I'm concerned about the boiling breaking down the lactose into fermentables. I know boiling breaks down some sugars, I'm not sure about lactose.

Any ideas or suggestions?
 
uh oh... i made this last night and had an OG of 1.07?????

i steeped grains for a little over an hour and little too hot b/c i had to run out of house to pick up wife and accidently left stove on. also, used 6# of dme and 1# brown sugar.

could the brown sugar have thrown off my gravity that much?
 
I searched through the thread but didn't see anyone asking/answering this question:

I am going to be building a mash tun out of a cooler in a few days and plan on making this recipe and using the baked, canned pumpkin. I was wondering if putting the pumpkin in a nylon grain bag and then putting that in my mash tun would help out at all on the slow sparging that has been mentioned repeatedly?
 

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