GF Pumpkin Spice Ale

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thanantos

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Last night I brewed up my version of Lcasanova's recipe found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/gluten-free-pumpkin-spice-ale-147707/index2.html

Here's the ingredient list:
OG: 1.055 and SRM: 4 or 5
6lb BRS @ 60
29oz each of caramelized Pumpkin Pie Filling and Puree @ 30
1 tsp McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice @ 15
2lb caramelized honey @ flameout

I used a mix of different hops I had laying around for bittering: 1oz Golding, 1oz Willamette and .5oz fuggle. I fear it may be too much for this brew, but we will see. It calculated out to 45 IBU.

I also used a full pound of maltodextrin. Kind of extreme I know, but I've been wanting to experiment with this for a while.

Then the typical irish moss, yeast nutrient and Safale S-04 yeast.

It took quite a while to caramelized the pie filling and puree which I tried initially doing in a deep frying pan. That was a mistake, it splattered EVERYWHERE. Moved it to a stock pot and that was the ticket. As you can see in the picture I got it quite dark.

I went quite a bit farther with caramelizing the honey than I did with the honey noble I made, but I still think I could have gone farther. I have been worried about burning it though.

IMG_20120829_193132.jpg


After the pumpkin was added the wort changed from the hop green to a really nice pumpkin orange, and the aroma was awesome! This is one I can't wait to try!

Here's the details page:http://brewology101.com/AleAbacus/6007/GF-Pumpkin-Spice-Ale
 
I think I need to look up that recipe. I have heard of brochet, but I don't know much about it.

This might be a good way to get color and caramel/honey flavor in our beers.
 
No problem man! I'd love to hear about your brochet!

It's not like we are arguing predestination or anything, lol?!
 
Racking to secondary now with the gravity at 1.014.

Here's a pic of it. Came out with a nice, pumpkin color and tastes great!

ForumRunner_20120907_145756.jpg
 
Sorry that it's off topic but what yeast do you guys use for mead that's gluten free?

And mead ipa, how bloody good does that sound.
 
That DOES sound good. I don't know what yeast to use, but check out the gluten free ingredients sticky which will tell you at least which yeasts are gluten free.

AND now you owe me one double deuce of mead IPA for hijacking my thread :D
 
That looks great. A storm blew through last night and the temperature has dropped 15-20 degrees....it is starting to feel like fall. I think I'm going to have to scratch using the pumpkins I'm growing because they are taking FOREVER! I'm hoping to buy canned pumpkin this week and make my pumpkin bourbon dubbel. I'll roast it using the method you did.

:off:I use lavlin (unk what #) for the majority of my meads. The package says "gluten free" I have also used s-04 and s-05. Which is why I often wonder about yeast nutrients...I've NEVER had a yeast poop out on me, even using ale yeast in a fall cyser. And on more note and then if someone wants to start a separate thread investigating it that would be awesome, there was some talk about ipa meads on the mead forum, some commercial brewery apparently makes them and the brew/finish time is more similar to beer. But I can't find ANY info. I would definitely make one.

Okay. Back to this wonderful looking pumpkin spice ale. :D
 
Sorry to keep the thread-drift going, but I may just have to try my hand at this IPA mead thing! I'd reckon you boil the hops in the water as if making a beer, and then add all the honey at flame-out and ferment like a mead...and then probably dry-hop after racking it a few times to clear. Yep...I think a gallon of experimentation might be in the offing....
 
Good idea igliashon. I have a bunch of 1 gallon and growlers sitting around. I think an experiment is needed here!
 
How long did your pumpkin beer to carbonate? Mine took 10 weeks to get good. I have found that the longer I age my GF beers the better they are
 
I just racked it to secondary about 8 days ago. I will bottle it this weekend I think.
 
I brewed this again today with the following:

5 gallon boil and 6 gallon final:
6lbs BRS @ 60
2.5lbs Sorghum @ 5
2lbs honey boiled for 20 minutes and added at flameout. Here is a pic of how the honey came out. It had a nice nutty flavor in the end:

2012-09-21165548_zps638ddc1a.jpg


1 oz of Columbus @ 60 for bittering
32 oz. each of pumpkin puree and pie filling carmelized @ 30
1lb Maltodextrin @ 15
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice @ 10

These pics show the difference in color the carmelized pumpkin pie filling and puree made. Here's just the BRS and hops:

2012-09-21165557_zpsd1a4756c.jpg


Here's post pie filling:

2012-09-21171125_zpseeaac223.jpg


OG 1.060 @ 78 degrees and pitched a packet of S-04.
 
UPDATES TIME!

I bottled the first batch a few days ago. It's good, but light. Sadly, I think so light that the hops seem a bit much, and that's from a hop freak! We'll see if the bitterness mellows with time. Although, it is definitely drinkable, that's just a critique. There is some decent pumpkin flavor and color there, but this one is a BIT more yellow and less pumpkin orange than I would like. Again, a critique, it's still pretty good beer.

I racked batch #2 (Bigger, Bolder, better?) to secondary tonight, and the flavor was great with a nice sweetness that comes from the FG of 1.020 no doubt. I hope and assume this was done fermenting and the high FG is due to the heavily caramelized honey. I will however admit that I did not take multiple hydrometer readings. I counted on time and airlock activity to tell me it was done. I'll report back if I get a lower gravity at bottling time.

More importantly, it tastes great. The hops to malt is nicely balanced, and IMHO a sweet harvest/fall/halloween ale is not all bad.
 
Well, the good and bad is you just perfectly described the autumn ale I made. It is light--as light as water. And the hops overshadow the spices by far. It is very disappointing. I'm hoping maybe it'll come into its own in a year. We'll see. But the sample I had in the secondary....the only thing that could improve is the hops mellowing. It isn't going to get more body sitting in a bucket. I'm hoping this mead will satisfy my fall flavors desire...but it was the first mead I ever made so if it is bad I wouldn't be surprised either. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/fall-harvest-mind-crusher-317341/
 
thanantos said:
UPDATES TIME!

I bottled the first batch a few days ago. It's good, but light. Sadly, I think so light that the hops seem a bit much, and that's from a hop freak! We'll see if the bitterness mellows with time. Although, it is definitely drinkable, that's just a critique. There is some decent pumpkin flavor and color there, but this one is a BIT more yellow and less pumpkin orange than I would like. Again, a critique, it's still pretty good beer.

I racked batch #2 (Bigger, Bolder, better?) to secondary tonight, and the flavor was great with a nice sweetness that comes from the FG of 1.020 no doubt. I hope and assume this was done fermenting and the high FG is due to the heavily caramelized honey. I will however admit that I did not take multiple hydrometer readings. I counted on time and airlock activity to tell me it was done. I'll report back if I get a lower gravity at bottling time.

More importantly, it tastes great. The hops to malt is nicely balanced, and IMHO a sweet harvest/fall/halloween ale is not all bad.

I've been following this thread closely, this looks great and I'm going to brew a cope of your second batch tonight!

Just a question, the sorghum you used in the second batch, why did you throw it in the boil and not steep it before the boil like you normally would with a grain? The only thing I can think if is that in the recipe you meant sorghum syrup instead.
 
I've been following this thread closely, this looks great and I'm going to brew a cope of your second batch tonight!

Just a question, the sorghum you used in the second batch, why did you throw it in the boil and not steep it before the boil like you normally would with a grain? The only thing I can think if is that in the recipe you meant sorghum syrup instead.

It was sorghum syrup. Sorry about that. Good luck with the batch!
 
Well, the good and bad is you just perfectly described the autumn ale I made. It is light--as light as water. And the hops overshadow the spices by far. It is very disappointing. I'm hoping maybe it'll come into its own in a year. We'll see. But the sample I had in the secondary....the only thing that could improve is the hops mellowing. It isn't going to get more body sitting in a bucket. I'm hoping this mead will satisfy my fall flavors desire...but it was the first mead I ever made so if it is bad I wouldn't be surprised either. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/fall-harvest-mind-crusher-317341/

Sorry about your Autumn ale, but mead is becoming more and more interesting to me. That one sounds great. Maybe I will adjust the spices and brew that soon as a Christmas mead.
 
Just looked at you sig and noticed the apple/berry cider. I will be transferring my apple graff today into a keg for the first time and I plan to backsweeten with apple/blueberry concentrate. It is on 2.5lbs of blueberries in secondary right now.
 
Excellent!

I'm afraid I wasn't as authentic as you, I fermented organic apple cider (super cloudy) all the way to 1.000 and then back sweetened with frozen apple juice concentrate and some frozen mixed berry concentrate. My next cider will be with fresh fruit though.

Let me know how much berry flavour you got from that secondary, I'm interested to see how much the yeast leaves behind.
 
Just racked it into the keg. Save your money. I got a lot of nice color, but about 0 flavor. I plan to backsweeten with some Old Orchard blueberry pomegranate concentrate. The ingredients say there is apple concentrate in it too.

I'll save myself the trouble and just make cider out of that concentrate next time.
 
Hey quick question!

Guy at LHBS seems to think that putting the pumpkin into the boil will result in bad things (something about congealing and other stuff, didn't really understand) Have you experienced this?

Personally, if no one responds before I brew (In the next hour) I'm following Thanantos' instructions, because a) not all LHBS owners know everything and b) thanantos has actually brewed and enjoyed this beer, so I trust his results.

I couldn't find BRS anywhere here (Athens, GA) so unfortunately I'm going with 7lbs of sorghum syrup, and I'm throwing in some BRS crystals (which I will rehydrate separately first). I'm also going to steep some gluten free oats before the boil to give some body to the beer since I couldn't get maltodextrin either.

About to start caramelising the honey and the pumpkin / roasting the oats, so will check back for replies in a little bit!
 
I didn't have any problems at all, AND I based my recipe on Lcasanova's. He did the same thing and also had good results. In fact, I was shocked at how clear the beer got in secondary. There is a TON of suspended material in the boil, but it all falls out between primary and secondary.

Actually your use of sorghum syrup and specialty grains may be closer to his original recipe than mine.

P.S. A word of caution! Use the biggest stock pot you have (maybe your brew pot?) to carmelize the pumpkin. It splatters something terrible!
 
Thanks, I read your earlier post and used my brew pot for the caramelising!

Might have bought crap honey, I couldn't get a nut flavour out of it at all. I let it simmer for probably 6 minutes and it didn't even darken appreciably. It might be my nose, so I'm going ahead with it, I think under caramleised honey is better than burnt.

Oats are steeping now, everything smells great! Honey + roasted oats + cooking pumpkin = yum.

Thanantos, if you dont mind me asking, what are your caramelising procedures for the pumpkin and the honey?
 
Don't mind at all.

I usually add a can of water (32oz) to the puree and pie filling then take about 30 minutes to reduce that all down to a thick oatmeal consistency. Pay attention for the smell to change to a thicker sugary smell. It's subtle, but observable.

The honey I've been playing with. I went really slow the first couple batches I used it in. 2 and 3 minutes each IRC. I never got much carmelization. The last batch I did I let it boil for 20 minutes and that was when I got the real nutty flavors.

Even if you don't get that nutty, caramelized flavor the beer will still be better off for the honey.
 
I thought I had included the link but can't find it now. Anyway, adding a couple tablespoons of water and a few drops of lemon juice to the honey before it boils is supposed to help prevent crystallization and scorching. Plus stirring the whole time it is simmering then stop stirring once a full boil starts.
 
Thanks, thats pretty much what I did but didn't let the honey boil, next time!

So the brew went pretty well. Man, it smelled amazing going into the primary. I didnt have time to cool it all the way, so I dropped the temp to about 110 and then threw it into my bucket. I sanitized the **** out of it, threw the lid on, purged with co2 (why not?) and put on an airlock filled to the brim with starsan solution.

As it has cooled down its been sucking in the starsan, but thats much better than just sucking in plain old air I figured. I'll be pitching the yeast when I get home tonight.

This is what my 2lbs honey looked like going in, see how dark it is? Kroger value brand is a funky colour!

IMG_0580.jpg

Caramelising pumpkin, smelled great when it was done and the colour got deeper. I used two 29oz cans of puree pumpkin from kroger. Couldn't find fresh sweet pumpkin or pumpkin pie filling.

IMG_0581.jpg

Toasting the 1lb oats. Crushed with a beer bottle and then roasted to a little past golden brown. Smells kind of like popcorn.

IMG_0582.jpg

This is my kettle with 3.5lbs Sorghum syurup + disolved 1lb rice syrup solids + hops.

IMG_0593.jpg

Now with the added pumpkin. Colour just gets delicious.

IMG_0594.jpg

Instead of pumpkin pie spice, I just mixed up some ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon ( I think the pie spice has that + clove in it) and threw that in @10
 
Looks good man!

I don't know much about honey, but I assume the darker colors are unfermentable "stuff" that will, hopefully, stay with and effect the color and flavor of your beer.

If I brew this again (I am sure I will) I'll try adding the oats. That's a good idea.
 
Thanks! I'm leaving it in primary for three weeks and then kegging, so I'll post back with a pre-carb taste test and a post-carb tast.
 
How has the body turned out on these brews? I did a similar version based on lcasanovas original recipe and the color is nice and the spices come through but the body is still a but thin even with the maltdextrin added.

mine was best at 8 weeks and beyond
 
The first one is very light even with a lb of maltodextrin. The second is much better.
 
Recipe 1

Last night I brewed up my version of Lcasanova's recipe found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/gluten-free-pumpkin-spice-ale-147707/index2.html

Here's the ingredient list:
OG: 1.055 and SRM: 4 or 5
6lb BRS @ 60
29oz each of caramelized Pumpkin Pie Filling and Puree @ 30
1 tsp McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice @ 15
2lb caramelized honey @ flameout

I used a mix of different hops I had laying around for bittering: 1oz Golding, 1oz Willamette and .5oz fuggle. I fear it may be too much for this brew, but we will see. It calculated out to 45 IBU.

I also used a full pound of maltodextrin. Kind of extreme I know, but I've been wanting to experiment with this for a while.

Then the typical irish moss, yeast nutrient and Safale S-04 yeast.

Recipe 2

I brewed this again today with the following:

5 gallon boil and 6 gallon final:
6lbs BRS @ 60
2.5lbs Sorghum @ 5
2lbs honey boiled for 20 minutes and added at flameout.

1 oz of Columbus @ 60 for bittering
32 oz. each of pumpkin puree and pie filling carmelized @ 30
1lb Maltodextrin @ 15
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice @ 10

OG 1.060 @ 78 degrees and pitched a packet of S-04.



Next time just read through the thread. Its easy enough to find.
 
So being the impatient SOB that I am, I popped open the primary and took a sample. gravity is at 1.026 and the yeast is still bubbling, though not very vigorously, probably a bubble every 15 seconds or so.

Was wondering how far down yours got, and whether you think pitching a little more yeast would be a good idea.

Also, it is seriously slushy, very pumpkin milkshake-esq. Did yours settle out on its own, or did you filter it somehow?
 
The first batch was 1.010 after secondary (at bottling) and the second was 1.020 when racking to secondary.

However, I did not take multiple hydrometer readings on either batch. I waited about 10 days to rack the second batch to secondary so it may ferment out lower.
 
Well, the second batch is now carbed up in the keg, and it TASTES GREAT! I didn't take but a few sips (it's 10:30 in the morning here), but the extra sweetness (not a lot, but it's there) does a much better job of balancing and complimenting the hops and spices then the first batch did.

If I were to do it again, I would probably add some darker candi syrup for more color (it's still pretty yellow), but it is damn good beer.

Also the 6 gallon primary worked out perfectly to 5 gallons in the keg after secondary.

Regarding gravity....I'm going to pour some into my hydrometer tube right now and let it warm up so I can provide a final, final gravity on the second batch. I'll report back later.
 
Excellent!

Mine has been in Primary for just over two weeks now, I think I'm going to leave it for one more and then throw it in a keg to carb up.

Glad to hear yours tastes great! And I agree about changing the colour with some candi syrup, when I looked at mine last it wasn't a very appetizing colour
 
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