BeerMeDuffMan
Well-Known Member
Excellent point.
Autumn Seasonal Beer Imperial Pumpkin Pie Ale
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Well fermentation seems to have slowed down to the point to where I'm thinking its done. I took a gravity reading and came in at 1.012 which is putting me just below 7% abv which is perfectly fine with me. My issue is that I wasn't getting much spice flavor from my initial taste. While I realize I'm only about a week and a half in and flavors will mellow a bit over the next couple weeks in secondary. Should I plan to add a spice tea if flavors don't intensify? If so, when should I add it? When I add priming sugar to bottle?
BeerMeDuffMan
Well-Known Member
I think somebody mentioned an addition of more spices right at bottling time. When you're prepping the boiled water and sugar, as you are cooling it I would add the spices, not during the boil.
The flavors on this really start coming together after a little bit of conditioning. When it's carbed up, it should taste great!
Mine is done fermenting. Came in at 1.010. 9.42% Doesnt taste all that great right now. I added 3 cups of pumpkin to the boil. Not sure if that had something to do with it. Def pumpkin in there but there is an apple taste as well which I know is a sign of a higher fermentation temp, but it fermented in the mid 60's the whole time and I used sf-05. usually ferments pretty clean at that temp. Im just hoping that its just because its young yet, only about three weeks from brew day.
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
That really dried out, what was your mash temp and time? That's also an 87% apparent attenuation which is way high for 05. Apple taste, if a bit tart, can be a few things. Most commonly it's Acetaldehyde and is present when the beer is still young, or the yeast aren't finished cleaning up after themselves. That said, in 3 weeks it should be done fermenting so I'm not sure how that would be.
Acetaldehyde will also completely dominate anything else in the beer. The only batch I've ever dumped was a Spiced Winter Warmer that was badly ruined by Acetaldehyde, I pulled it out of Primary before it was finished as I wanted to stall fermentation because it was dropping too low. The green-apple flavor just dominated the beer.
That's exactly where i came in too. Going to bottle tomorrow.
BrewtalFermentalist
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I'm sold on this. I'm going to have to attempt it next brew day.
Opened a bottle only a week out from bottling because, why not? Beer still needs to mellow but it is turning out great. No booze burn or alcohol nose, but distinct pumpkin pie and spice. I could knock back a few of these pretty easily. 
Can't wait to try this again in a couple weeks.
Can't wait to try this again in a couple weeks.
Opened a bottle only a week out from bottling because, why not? Beer still needs to mellow but it is turning out great. No booze burn or alcohol nose, but distinct pumpkin pie and spice. I could knock back a few of these pretty easily.
Can't wait to try this again in a couple weeks.
Awesome to hear! I bottled a week ago also and a grabbed a bottle a threw it in the fridge to give it a taste. Hope its good...
BeerMeDuffMan
Well-Known Member
Bottling this weekend...I upped mine a bit and now am sitting at a 10% ABV. I added my rum solution with vanilla over the weekend and come bottling time adding the last bit of spices. I'm thinking it should be carbed and ready to be utterly destroyed on about the 25th...just in time for Halloween. If I had to guess, and was a betting man, I would say all five gallons of this will be gone by November 3rd.
Just kegged mine. Added the vanilla and spice. I added 1lb of brown sugar at flameout and came out real nice at 9.42%. I think the spice is a bit too much right now though, personal preference. But the wife loved it!
BeerMeDuffMan
Well-Known Member
The half life on the spice taste on my last years brew was real short. Give it till Halloween and it may be right where you want it.
NewWestBrewer
Well-Known Member
Cracked a bottle after only 2 weeks and already this is delicious. Well done!
Cracked a bottle at the 2 week mark today as well. Carbonation is perfect. Still a bit spice-forward, but a great Fall brew. Everyone who tried it was very impressed.
Formed a great, tight, foamy head, dissipated pretty quickly but left a great pumpkin pie aroma. I'm going to leave the rest of the bottle out through this weekend then chilling them.
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
Alright! Glad to hear the great feedback on this beer.
jrodder
Well-Known Member
Is everyone really fermenting this @ 70 degrees? I've never used 1028 before but I would imagine fermenting a beer like this much lower, like 62 or 63 maybe. Can anyone report in with temps that they have used? Brewing this up tomorrow morning.
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
Great point, I should have amended this. I wrote this before I understood that fermentation creates heat, etc. I set my ferm chamber for about 62-64 here, depending on the yeast. I have been toying with the idea of doing this beer with a Belgian strain and fermenting really warm, but didn't get around to it this year.
I fermented in my apartment's guest (clean) bathroom. It was around 66-68 ambient air temp at all times. Turned out great.
jrodder
Well-Known Member
Ah good. Glad to know I wasn't far off then. 62 ambient gives us more of 70 as a max internal temp possible. Can't wait to try it out, I did sub in about 1.5lbs of biscuit for shot at some more crusty flavor.
kegged up another batch of this last night...has become my yearly pumpkin beer
Anyone ever partygyle this bad boy and use the second runnings for another beer maybe a 5 gallon or 10 gallon batch? I think im going to brew this, but with such a HUGE grain bill i'd like to get my money's worth out of it.
-=Jason=-
-=Jason=-
jrodder
Well-Known Member
Heh, try doing it BIAB. My bill was almost 24lbs.
jrodder
Well-Known Member
In fact, here's a pic of 24lbs of this recipe hanging out to dry.
jrodder
Well-Known Member
I was born with it and my wife doesn't m..... oh wait. Yeah, *that* sack. I was squeezing it.
so Here's what im planning on brewing up:
But I'd like to add Pumpkin, should I go with real pumpkin or canned pumpkin if so how much of each and then would I mash with it or boil it? I use Keggles and a RIMS tube during my mash.
-=Jason=-
But I'd like to add Pumpkin, should I go with real pumpkin or canned pumpkin if so how much of each and then would I mash with it or boil it? I use Keggles and a RIMS tube during my mash.
-=Jason=-
so I brewed up this recipe Yesterday. I started my Brew day at 9am.
I started with Baking two cans of 32oz Libby's pumpkin in oven and sprinkle with brown sugar for 1 hour while I had that going I was heating my strike water. I had told some people I'd mash in at 11am so I waited it out. Come 11am I had my 13 gallons of strike water hot and ready to transfer. (im thinking wow 13 gallons of water plus 40#'s of grains seems like a lot not sure if it will all fit) so I start to dough in with one 16# bucket of milled grains and the water level rises within a few inches of the top of the keggle. HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.... no way is this all fitting in my Mash Tun. so after debating on what I shall do I figured I'd use my HLT as a holding vessel to fit the extra water / wort. I drained off about 3 gallons into the HLT added the rest of the grain and starting to recirculate: MLT > Pump1 > HLT > Pump2 > RIMS > MLT. Mind you this took a good 40 minutes to get setup and figured out so by then my temps had dropped to 130's in my MLT
I mis-read my sparge water amounts and tough it said to use .97 gallons which seemed like hardly enough so I heated up 3 gallons instead. turns it it wanted to me use 7 gallons to mash out, and .97 gallons to complete the mash. Turns out I didn't end up with 13.5 gallons preboil like I should have. I had 9.5 I thought about adding top off water but didn't want my SG to suffer as it was it was already 1.068 instead of the 1.08X it should have been. at 15 minutes I dumped in about 2#'s Brown sugar and ended up with 7 gallons of 1.110 OG Wort... I pitched at 2L starter of WLP005 that was on a stir plate. only time will tell.
questing to all who brewed this in 10 gallons, what vessel did you use to mash in.
oh and to make things worse one of my Chugger pumps was nearly out of commission. It would barely and I mean barely pump wort back up into the brew keggle.
I started with Baking two cans of 32oz Libby's pumpkin in oven and sprinkle with brown sugar for 1 hour while I had that going I was heating my strike water. I had told some people I'd mash in at 11am so I waited it out. Come 11am I had my 13 gallons of strike water hot and ready to transfer. (im thinking wow 13 gallons of water plus 40#'s of grains seems like a lot not sure if it will all fit) so I start to dough in with one 16# bucket of milled grains and the water level rises within a few inches of the top of the keggle. HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.... no way is this all fitting in my Mash Tun. so after debating on what I shall do I figured I'd use my HLT as a holding vessel to fit the extra water / wort. I drained off about 3 gallons into the HLT added the rest of the grain and starting to recirculate: MLT > Pump1 > HLT > Pump2 > RIMS > MLT. Mind you this took a good 40 minutes to get setup and figured out so by then my temps had dropped to 130's in my MLT
I mis-read my sparge water amounts and tough it said to use .97 gallons which seemed like hardly enough so I heated up 3 gallons instead. turns it it wanted to me use 7 gallons to mash out, and .97 gallons to complete the mash. Turns out I didn't end up with 13.5 gallons preboil like I should have. I had 9.5 I thought about adding top off water but didn't want my SG to suffer as it was it was already 1.068 instead of the 1.08X it should have been. at 15 minutes I dumped in about 2#'s Brown sugar and ended up with 7 gallons of 1.110 OG Wort... I pitched at 2L starter of WLP005 that was on a stir plate. only time will tell.
questing to all who brewed this in 10 gallons, what vessel did you use to mash in.
oh and to make things worse one of my Chugger pumps was nearly out of commission. It would barely and I mean barely pump wort back up into the brew keggle.
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
I mash in a 70 quart Coleman extreme and this beer pretty much fills it up
NicoleBrewer
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I was inspired by your recipe so I brewed up my own. My recipe is different but I made mine 9.3% abv and used the same spice mixture. Came out amazing! Just thought I'd share
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
I just did my 2nd batch of Pumpkin Ale this year, for a friend's wedding, and that final dosing at kegging/bottling is the key. This time, in order to clear the beer, I added the spice mixture to the gelatin liquid when heating to 155 to sterilize. I then swirled and pitched right in the Primary, crashed it out for 4 days then kegged/carbed. The beer is pretty much 'bright' after that. Usually this beer retains some haziness because of the spices, but the gelatin seemed to work great and didn't mess with the spice aroma/flavors at all. here's a pic right before going into the keg.
I just did my 2nd batch of Pumpkin Ale this year, for a friend's wedding, and that final dosing at kegging/bottling is the key. This time, in order to clear the beer, I added the spice mixture to the gelatin liquid when heating to 155 to sterilize. I then swirled and pitched right in the Primary, crashed it out for 4 days then kegged/carbed. The beer is pretty much 'bright' after that. Usually this beer retains some haziness because of the spices, but the gelatin seemed to work great and didn't mess with the spice aroma/flavors at all. here's a pic right before going into the keg.
ericmcclimans
Member
looks beautiful. no pumpkin in the recipe? also, ive never spiced my brew - im in a rush to get something on tap by Thanksgiving, so whatever i brew this weekend will be force carbonated and drank in about 32 days start-to-finish... anyone have an opinion on what lack of conditioning might do?!?
BeerMeDuffMan
Well-Known Member
Doesn't sound like too much of a rush...should be ready to bottle in about 10 days if you don't mind a slight haze to it.
The spices would probably be a bit more in your face...other than that, should turn out ok.
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jwible204
Well-Known Member
32 isn't a big deal. Just make sure you pitch the proper amount of yeast, whether that means making starters or pitching more vials/packs/sachets.
Brewsit
Well-Known Member
I brewed this three weeks ago, and just took a gravity reading... sitting right at 1.025, it's pretty clear, and tastes amazing even before the additional spices. I did use one 5lb baking pumpkin in the boil for about 30 min, baked it with some brown sugar and threw it in a bag. I don't think this one is going to last through Thanksgiving...
Pole
Well-Known Member
What size batch? How did you roast the pumpkin, 350 for 60 mins? Planning to give this a go (5 gal) on Monday via biab.
Brewsit
Well-Known Member
I did a 10 gal batch, roasted the pumpkin the day before the boil in big chunks in a large pan at 375 for 1 hour, then dropped to 350 for 30 minutes. I sprinkled brown sugar all over it as well. I was just trying to get some caramelization and it seemed to work well. I also added about a cup of water to the pan at the 1 hour mark, basically to just keep it from burning or drying out to a crisp.
I threw that pumpkin in a paint strainer bag in the last 20 minutes of the boil as suggested previously. I don't know how much of a difference my technique made, but I like the result. Plus, it's already very clear.
