Butternut Pumpkin Ale

Hey All,

Wanted to try to brew a pumpkin ale but there was no pumpkin around. So I improvised.

I also wanted to end up with a higher FG so that it was on the maltier/sweeter (less dry side) so when I 'mashed' I did so without anything that would help to convert the sugars in the other ingredients.

I roasted 8lbs of butternut squash at 350 for 70 minutes then added it all along with the specialty grains listed below and steep at 154F for 60 minutes.

Specialty Grains

0.50 lb Special B
0.25 lb Aromatic
0.25 lb Crystal 40L
0.25 lb crystal 60L

Then I added 3.5lb of ligt DME and 3.5 lb of wheat DME and the following hop schedule

1oz EKG (60)
.5oz Summit (60)
.5oz fuggle (15)
.25 fuggle (1)
.25 ekg (1)

I added 1/2lb malto dextrine at 1 minute and 1lb of lactose as well at 1 min

I made my own pumpkin spice mix and added a total of 4 tsp after primary fermentation stopped (about 2 weeks) as well as 1.5TBSP of vanilla and .5 TBSP of almond extract.

It has been a month and its about time to bottle --- And the taste is PERFECT.

Just the right amount of spice... hint of bitterness from the hops behind a residual sweetness that remained from the butternut squash and lactose.

The malto contributed to a great mouthfeel

Cant wait to carb this and drink it!

How's it coming along? Sounds interesting to me.

Turned out very good. A good malty backbone with a smooth finish. The spice is just right as is the sweetness. Turned out to be my favorite pumpkin ale of the season.

This is very intriguing. Anything you would change?

Good question.
I would probably swap out the late hops for a spicier one - maybe a saaz.
Also, a slight increase in the malto, lactose and almond extract. Perhaps 10% more of each.

Nice. I think i might try this in a couple weeks when i have a carboy available. How long did it sit in bottles before you popped em open?

Hey
After 3 weeks it was just right!

Nice.
I read "about a month, time to bottle", did you secondary or just let it ride in primary?

Whenever I am under 6 weeks I just go with a primary only and have had no probs.
Let it ride a month in the primary and youll be fine.

another note. Once the fermentation has stop, tastes in and make your own call on whether to add more of any of the spices or extracts.

Cool. Thanks i appreciate the advice.

I brewed this 3 weeks ago. Right now it's in secondary (glass). It's been sitting on the spices for almost two weeks. Took a gravity test today and down to 1.030, so a few more weeks to go. Tastes FANTASTIC so far.

I had an og of 1.088, I contributed that to the squash though. Really looking forward to cracking these in the fall. I changed the hop variety slightly and replaced the almond extract with all vanilla.

Did the wheat DME make the beer cloudy?

It was pretty dark so I wasnt concerned with cloudiness. And now I dont really remember.
As far as the comment from smallierwider... Mine finished pretty high too and you are not too far from where I was. The squash was mashed so that there were not much in the way of fermentable sugars and thus it finished high. It was pretty much an accident. Apparently i was supposed to add other grains that would help make the squash fementable, but I didnt and thus it finished high which turned out to be great as far as I am concerned.