Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

The water on the towel is evaporating off... swamp cooler. The 9/15 still gives a decent "burp" every now and then. The 9/23 is still burping once every other minute. I'll take a gravity reading tonight.

Ingredients have been ordered for round 2. Doing an all grain BIAB this time. Hopefully it turns out better than it did last year.

Note to all....blowoff tube is MANDATORY for this. After day 2, lid of my 6.5 gal bucket blew off. crazy active fermentation

Just sampled this last night after 7 days in primary, 2 days diacetyl rest (Lager yeast), and so far one day cold-crashing...I wasn't too impressed. Maybe it will be better after it clears and conditions, because it was like funky, spicy, not much to like. No signs of infection, but I'm not sure if the pumpkin contributed this flavor or what I was tasting.

Anyone try this one "young" and have similar opinions? Does it condition-out well?

tre9er said:

Just sampled this last night after 7 days in primary, 2 days diacetyl rest (Lager yeast), and so far one day cold-crashing...I wasn't too impressed. Maybe it will be better after it clears and conditions, because it was like funky, spicy, not much to like. No signs of infection, but I'm not sure if the pumpkin contributed this flavor or what I was tasting.

Anyone try this one "young" and have similar opinions? Does it condition-out well?

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Heh yeah never brewed this with a lager yeast so I'm sure there isn't an exact translation. But whichever species of yeast you use, 9 days isn't nearly enough time to get a good idea of what to expect. It's strong, bready, and spiced so there are a lot of variables that need to naturally mellow and marry together. When I make this I don't even taste it until about 4 weeks in primary.

Reno_eNVy said:

Heh yeah never brewed this with a lager yeast so I'm sure there isn't an exact translation. But whichever species of yeast you use, 9 days isn't nearly enough time to get a good idea of what to expect. It's strong, bready, and spiced so there are a lot of variables that need to naturally mellow and marry together. When I make this I don't even taste it until about 4 weeks in primary.

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Yeah, I don't get in the habit of rushing beers, but I also tend to make less complex pales and IPA's, blondes, etc. My method thus-far has always been to get to FG, give it a few more days, then crash it good and keg it. Most basic ales don't get much better than this, especially if you want to maintain the hop aroma.

I'm probably going to leave them cold conditioning in primary for a few weeks if I can keep my hands off of them. That or I may secondary first then lager it for a few weeks. I'm thinking some stuff needs to drop out so the beer mellows.

I used the lager yeast to attempt to get higher FG because my overnight mashes (even at higher temps) tend to attenuate very far down. Add to that I had a leak in valve on my MLT which caused all sorts of scrambling and I did end up a bit low on mash temp...I ended up at 1.008 which is way dry for this beer. Good thing my version has tons of Vienna in it to maintain some malt.

I bottled this last night after 4 weeks in primary. Sample was good, a lot of complex flavors, but maybe not as much spice as I had anticipated. I'm curious does anyone garnish these when serving with a dash of pumpkin pie spice? I think it would give it a good look and help aroma/flavor. I'm not sure the finished product will need it, bit curious if anyone has tried it?

aberry said:

I bottled this last night after 4 weeks in primary. Sample was good, a lot of complex flavors, but maybe not as much spice as I had anticipated. I'm curious does anyone garnish these when serving with a dash of pumpkin pie spice? I think it would give it a good look and help aroma/flavor. I'm not sure the finished product will need it, bit curious if anyone has tried it?

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I plan on garnishing with bourbon whipped cream :-D

aberry said:

I bottled this last night after 4 weeks in primary. Sample was good, a lot of complex flavors, but maybe not as much spice as I had anticipated. I'm curious does anyone garnish these when serving with a dash of pumpkin pie spice? I think it would give it a good look and help aroma/flavor. I'm not sure the finished product will need it, bit curious if anyone has tried it?

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Give it time. Kegged mine two weeks ago and thought it didn't have enough spice. Pulled a couple pints yesterday and the spice is much better.

fifthcircle said:

I plan on garnishing with bourbon whipped cream :-D

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That idea is so good it can't be legal.

My batch completely dropped the spices for a week, I waited and they came back a little, not as good as it was but much more drinkable. But there's nothing bourbon (and cream) can't fix.

troyh said:

That idea is so good it can't be legal.

My batch completely dropped the spices for a week, I waited and they came back a little, not as good as it was but much more drinkable. But there's nothing bourbon (and cream) can't fix.

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Thanks guys! I will definitely be trying some bourbon and cream. That's an awesome idea! Will report back in a few weeks.

troyh said:

that idea is so good it can't be legal.

My batch completely dropped the spices for a week, i waited and they came back a little, not as good as it was but much more drinkable. But there's nothing bourbon (and cream) can't fix.

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;-)

3 week primary finished up yesterday, blowoff tube was pretty much dormant so I went ahead and kegged it (no secondary). OG was 1.085 (appears to be just good efficiency), FG was 1.015, ABV is 9.3%. Tastes like it too, a bit hot right now. Great spice in the nose, mildly tart pumpkin flavor hiding under the booziness. A few months in the keg should make this one a real winner.

Anyone get a bit of sour in this ale? I know its not an infection, is it from the pumpkin? Maybe tangy not sour.

What have people used to carb this one in bottles? I have corn sugar but don't know how much to use for a 5 gallon batch.

Brewed this 2 weeks ago and just checked on it. Gravity is at 1.037. Looks like it's gonna need another week or so. Airlock is still bubbling every 20 seconds.

troyh said:

Weird. I went away for the weekend and came back looking forward to having some of this. I poured a glass and there was absolutely no spice aroma or taste – it completely disappeared. It's like drinking a bland pale ale. What happened??

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A lot of "pumpkin" beers are brewed with no pumpkin. The flavor comes mainly from the spices. Also if you used the pumpkin in the mash the yeast can kill that flavor. After a lot of research and a couple mini beers I can safely say that roasted pumpkin in the boil gives the best balance and flavors. One good thing about the spices is you can always add a little more if you don't get the flavor. Another thing to try if you're up to it in the future is to use sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin. It gives it a way better "pumpkin" flavor than the real thing. Happy brewing!!

Just finished brewing 10gal. of this up today. Hit an OG of 1.069 and used WLP001 for yeast. It was my first time using harvested yeast so I'm excited to see how goes. Here are a few picks from the brew day.

Great photos! Thanks!

Just pulled a sample with the thief and the color is amazing , taste is nice clean light pumpkin. Looking forward to this bottled

deepcdan99 said:

Anyone get a bit of sour in this ale? I know its not an infection, is it from the pumpkin? Maybe tangy not sour.

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I've made this 2 years in a row now and both times I've done it there is a little bit of a tang after 4-6 weeks in the bottle but it conditions out after about 10-12.

I haven't tried too many different pumpkin beers, but I think I may try making a bit of this on my next brew day. It might be nice to have a little something different on tap.

brewmaster12 said:

I've made this 2 years in a row now and both times I've done it there is a little bit of a tang after 4-6 weeks in the bottle but it conditions out after about 10-12.

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I'm also tasting this while it's very young. I cold-crashed for 4 days and kegged most of this. I'm going to let it cold-condition for a few weeks before I try another bit.

Haven't tasted mine yet but the smells coming out of the ferm chamber are amazing.

I brew my version of this beer a couple weeks ago and bottled it on Saturday. Tonight I tried a half bottle from the end of bottling that I put in the fridge to see how it would taste. I must say I'm very impressed. The base beer is a lot like Punkin but I like my addition of vanilla and graham crackers to make it a little more like Pumking. All the flavors are really subtle which I like.

I brewed this yesterday.

My mash temped dropped way low, to 148 F. Then my OG was a bit high at 1.072

At least I did my water measurements right, got a perfect 5 gallons. Now it's slowly bubbling away! Woohoo!

boxofjibboo said:

I brewed this yesterday.

My mash temped dropped way low, to 148 F. Then my OG was a bit high at 1.072

At least I did my water measurements right, got a perfect 5 gallons. Now it's slowly bubbling away! Woohoo!

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More alcohol! Woo-HOO!

Brewskii said:

More alcohol! Woo-HOO!

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This.

Be prepared to get even more alcohol than expected since it will likely get a bit dry if the mash dropped to 148.

Yeah I was pretty upset it dropped so low. Maybe the pumpkin had cooled just a liiiiittle too long

boxofjibboo said:

Yeah I was pretty upset it dropped so low. Maybe the pumpkin had cooled just a liiiiittle too long

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That can definitely happen. My trick is to put the strike water in the mash tun (usually a little hotter than necessary), add the soaked rice hulls, then add the pumpkin. That way the water might still be a little hot but can be easily remedied by stirring to bring the temp down. It's a lot easier than trying to bring the temp back up with hot water.

Then I dough-in once the temp is right.

What are people using to carb this one in bottles? And how much?

Medevac_Chief said:

What are people using to carb this one in bottles? And how much?

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It depends on a lot of things:

- How many gallons will you end up bottling?
- How carbonated do you want it?
- What temperature will you be storing them at?


You can go to this link here and it will tell you the proper amount of priming sugar.

Medevac_Chief said:

What are people using to carb this one in bottles? And how much?

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If I bottled it, I would've used Dark DME, and carbed to the middle of the style range (spice/herb/vegetable being 2.0-3.0 volumes).

I started kegging though

Awesome!!! Thanks Reno, that's really gonna help this time around!!

I am curious, are the 2 packs of yeast necessary? I have never had to use two before.

Just to be clear you add the baked pumpkin right before you mash in and then let it in through fermentation right? I saw a few people who put it in a bag and removed before boil or before going into the carboy.

I baked the pumpkin about an hour before, let it cool some so it didn't mess with my temps and I threw it into strike water before I doughed in. I did it that way so I could make sure my strike temp was still right.

After 2 weeks and 5 days , I took a hydrometer reading, as it sits now the beer is at 1.010, 7.35abv. Tastes a bit hot, but I hope it will mellow out with time in the bottles. Just enough spice coming through and tastes nice and bready also. Nice orange color too! I may just skip the secondary and just do a solid 3 weeks in primary then bottle. Great recipe Reno! I'm glad I did this as my first 5 gallon all grain attempt!

Tubbster85 said:

After 2 weeks and 5 days , I took a hydrometer reading, as it sits now the beer is at 1.010, 7.35abv. Tastes a bit hot, but I hope it will mellow out with time in the bottles. Just enough spice coming through and tastes nice and bready also. Nice orange color too! I may just skip the secondary and just do a solid 3 weeks in primary then bottle. Great recipe Reno! I'm glad I did this as my first 5 gallon all grain attempt!

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Excellent! And yeah, I'd actually recommend skipping the secondary unless you put pumpkin straight in the boil.

I mashed with the pumpkin.