Autumn Seasonal Beer Lady Rumpkin Pumpkin Rum Ale

I would love to brew a batch of this for holloween this year, and as I still have some pumpkin I stored from last year, I could start now. Is four months enough time for this big of a beer?

I'm converting this to a partial mash, and I'm pulling ideas from a few of the tweaked recipes on here. This is what I've got so far:

EDIT: Brewed on Sunday, July 1st

The "cake":
4#, 6 oz Pumpkin (roasted and frozen from last fall)
4 oz Molasses
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spices
Baked @350 for an hour

The "tea":
12 oz Tortuga Spiced Rum
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spices
Mixed on brew day, added to secondary

The mash:
3# 2-row
2.25# Maris Otter
1# Biscuit
1# Crystal 60
0.5# Flaked Wheat
0.25# Special B

The boil:
4#, 2.5 oz Golden Light DME
2# 45°L Candi Sugar (The first pound was boiled with 1/2tsp yeast nutrient and added to the fermenter on day 3. Process repeated on day 5.)
2oz Mt. Hood (6.1%} @60

6qt starter of WLP001 @64

Estimated OG: 1.086 (not sure what the pumpkin will do)
Measured OG: 1.101 Woops!
Estimated FG: 1.023 (~10.5%)
IBUs: 37.5
SRM: 23

I wanted some of that warm malty character that the maris otter brings, and I think special b will mingle well with the molasses and help lessen the gap between the rum and ale flavors.

A 3 weeks primary, nine in secondary, and five weeks in bottles sound like a good time line?

thoughts?

Our effeciency was a but higher than anticipated, but doesn't quite push us above the ABV tolerance of the CalAle yeast, so we should be fine. There is a chance we'll have to finish off with some champagne yeast but I think it'll go great.

All in all the brewing experience for this ale has been wonderful. It's by far the biggest beer we've brewed, and our first go with fruit but it was all quite easy. Pics:

The pumpkin and spices


Adding our pumpkin to the boil


Pitching half of our starter slurry


All wrapped up in our jim-jams, tucked away for a good nap

Round three for this will be brewed this weekend. I think I will try a clean yeast this year to see how it goes. I hope I can find pumpkin this time of year!

Weeb, are you still brewing the original recipe of this or has it changed? If is has, can you post it!? I have been searching for a pumpkin pie in a bottle for a while. I don't know if you have ever heard of the Saint Arnold's Pumpkinator, or Divine Reserve #9. It was a Russian imperial pumpkin stout that was absolutely incredible! Been looking for a log time to have something that could get even somewhere close to the pumpkin pie/abv ratio it had.

Two weeks in and we're down to 1.018! We move to secondary for bulk aging next weekend. This is our third batch, first big beer, and first time using fruit abd everything is going off without a hitch!

The sample had some alchohol heat, but less than expected from the abv. It's a bit thinner than I was expecting but drinks silky smooth. Cant wait till holloween!

oops, double post

I am still tweaking this one.... today brewed:

6 lbs Amber LME
1.5 lbs Light LME
2 lbs 60L
1 lb Honey malt
1 lb Maris Otter toasted @ 375 for 30 min
3x29 oz cans of pumpkin (they get smaller and smaller each year) baked at 350 for an hour with 1/4 cup molasses and two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice

I used one oz of Zythos @60 min because I had it, and calculates out to 22 IBUs, as I wanted to up the bitterness a bit and had this one on hand from the homebrewer's convention in Seattle. I plan on dry-hopping with 1 oz of French Strisselspalt as I have never used that variety before and think it will go well with this recipe.

The yeast, yes, I was going to use 005 but at the homebrew shop I spotted WLP 540, so I made a 3L starter with it. I know, much talk about how this one finishes high, but those who have let it go longer seem to have great results from a flavor profile perspective with decent attenuation if it is left alone. One of the observations on my last batch was that the spice was overpowering, so I am hoping that this yeast - with its fruity character - will point to the pumpkin flavors.

Not going for a huge beer this time, calculated 1.080 OG and 1.020 FG Actual OG was 1.076.

I am using 16oz of Kraken rum with 1 tsp Maple extract and 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice along with the hops in a few weeks once on secondary. The rum is bigger this year as I want it more up front with the pumpkin.

I am really thinking of an oak spiral as well in the secondary. Maybe a vanilla bean as well.

October may find a trappist-style imperial pumpkin ale tasting like it was aged on oak rum barrels. YEA!

TheWeeb said:

6 lbs light DME (Boil 60 min)
1 lb Mars Otter, pre-toasted on a cookie sheet for 20 min @ 350 degrees (this takes the place of the 1 lb Traditional Dark DME in the original recipe in an attempt to get more of a pie crust flavor) (Mash 154 60 min)
1 lb Brown Sugar (Boil 60 min)
1 lb Maple Syrup (Boil 60 min)
¼ cup Molasses (baked with pumpkin)
2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (double the original to get more of a malt backbone) (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
1 lb Biscuit Malt (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
60.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned, baked (see notes, Boil 60 min)
1.5 oz Goldings (5.0% AA 60.0 min) 15 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)

Pumpkin spice tea: 1 Tablespoon of quality pumpkin pie spice mixed with 12 ounces of good spiced rum (I used Kraken) prepared on brew day but added at secondary (Cut original spice in half)

Should be most excellent for the upcoming holiday harvest season!

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Just ordered all the stuff for your second version of the recipe. Anything you would do different if u were to do it again given that I'm using the light extract and not the amber that I see you are using for your next batch?

I love the idea of the vanilla bean in secondary and have been thinking of making a pumpkin reduction and adding it to secondary with the rum. I'd boil down some pumpkin with a bit of molasses and water till I got a thick broth, strain it, and boil it again with a bit more water, cool, and rack over it. Like you I'm worried we'll just have a spice beer when we're done. This should push the pumpkin back to the front.

I'm also gonna decant the rum off the spices so the beer isnt sitting on them for 100 days. The tea smells like the spices have done plenty of melding with the rum so far and I dont want that to be the dominant flavor.

Hopelesst said:

I love the idea of the vanilla bean in secondary and have been thinking of making a pumpkin reduction and adding it to secondary with the rum. I'd boil down some pumpkin with a bit of molasses and water till I got a thick broth, strain it, and boil it again with a bit more water, cool, and rack over it. Like you I'm worried we'll just have a spice beer when we're done. This should push the pumpkin back to the front.

I'm also gonna decant the rum off the spices so the beer isnt sitting on them for 100 days. The tea smells like the spices have done plenty of melding with the rum so far and I dont want that to be the dominant flavor.

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I love the idea of a pumpkin reduction in the secondary because like you I'm kind of worried about ending up with a high ABV spice beer. Keep us posted on what you do, I'm thinking there are going to be quite a few people brewing this soon so its fully ready for fall.

And another thing what do you mean by decant the rum off the spices? I deducted your basically siphoning the rum off but how? And is your reasoning for this again so the spices aren't overpowering?

By decant I just meant I'd take some basic measure to put in the rum but not the solids from the spices. I've been swiring the rum tea every day or three and it settles out quite quickly, so even just pouring the rum off the top would be a good start. The rum has taken such a strong aroma from the spices so far and my schedule calls for 10 weeks in the carboy with the rum. That's potentially too much spice based on the gravity sample.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that my pumpkin is some that we roasted last fall and froze. It's a bit thinner than what you can buy in cans but I think either should work well in the reduction.

Hopelesst said:

By decant I just meant I'd take some basic measure to put in the rum but not the solids from the spices. I've been swiring the rum tea every day or three and it settles out quite quickly, so even just pouring the rum off the top would be a good start. The rum has taken such a strong aroma from the spices so far and my schedule calls for 10 weeks in the carboy with the rum. That's potentially too much spice based on the gravity sample.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that my pumpkin is some that we roasted last fall and froze. It's a bit thinner than what you can buy in cans but I think either should work well in the reduction.

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Thanks for the info but I got one more question... What do you mean by your schedule calls for 10 weeks in the carboy with the rum? You talking how long u let spices steep in rum?

My version ended up having a very high starting gravity, so I wanted to give it plenty of time for flavors to meld and any alchohol heat to fade. I feel that aging in the carboy will give me a more consistent flavor throughout than if I bottled right away and let it age there. 10 weeks was an arbitrary number based on my self imposed halloween deadline.

I brewed a bit over two weeks ago. The same day I made the tea. This weekend I'll put the tea (and theoretical pumpkin reduction) in the bottom of the carboy and rack the beer over top of it. 5 weeks before halloween we'll bottle it up so it has time to carb up. not sure if we'll need to pitch more yeast for carbonation (never let a beer sit this long).

Dmatson89 said:

Just ordered all the stuff for your second version of the recipe. Anything you would do different if u were to do it again given that I'm using the light extract and not the amber that I see you are using for your next batch?

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Good question, I am not sure it will make a significant difference since the rum, pumpkin, and spices are up front. My guess is that the amber will have a more prominent malt backbone, but either should work well for this brew.

TheWeeb said:

Good question, I am not sure it will make a significant difference since the rum, pumpkin, and spices are up front. My guess is that the amber will have a more prominent malt backbone, but either should work well for this brew.

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What do you think of the idea of a pumpkin reduction in the secondary? Was pumpkin dominant enough for this high of abv or would a little more be better?

We moved to secondary last night and wow the bottom of that fermenter was gross. Over a gallon of purred, fermented pumpkin and yeast slurry satunder the beer. We opted against the pumpkin reduction. We decided it would be better to see how the rum and ale flavors mix over the next two months, only adding the reduction if the beer needs it. The advantage of scheduling 4 months for bulk conditioning is that we can check on the progress.

Hopelesst said:

We moved to secondary last night and wow the bottom of that fermenter was gross. Over a gallon of purred, fermented pumpkin and yeast slurry satunder the beer. We opted against the pumpkin reduction. We decided it would be better to see how the rum and ale flavors mix over the next two months, only adding the reduction if the beer needs it. The advantage of scheduling 4 months for bulk conditioning is that we can check on the progress.

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How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.

Doesn't look like anyone has chimed in on the maple syrup question. I have done a couple maple browns. What I have found is if you want that maple flavor to come through, you need to find grade but syrup. There are less fermentables and more other stuff that leaves the taste you are looking for. It can be a pain to find but it will make a difference in the final product.

Will be brewing this as an all grain this weekend. For fall consumption of course.

Dmatson89 said:

How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.

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Well we didnt try to collect a sample until after we realized there was much more muck in the fermenter than anticipated. The sample we drew had a lot of yeast and schmutz in it and tasted pretty foul. The carboy smells of rum and nothing else but again, I'm sure it's gonna mellow considerably.

It should be mentioned that I put the pumpkin in at the start of the boil, which I've now read likely drove off much of the aroma and sone of the flavor. The sample we tried last time had, a distinct roasted pumpkin flavor, but not quite the punch I had imagined. If the rum is still overpowering in a month or two I'll work on the reduction to balance it out.

Dmatson89 said:

How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.

Click to expand...

Well we didnt try to collect a sample until after we realized there was much more muck in the fermenter than anticipated. The sample we drew had a lot of yeast and schmutz in it and tasted pretty foul. The carboy smells of rum and nothing else but again, I'm sure it's gonna mellow considerably.

It should be mentioned that I put the pumpkin in at the start of the boil, which I've now read likely drove off much of the aroma and sone of the flavor. The sample we tried last time had, a distinct roasted pumpkin flavor, but not quite the punch I had imagined. If the rum is still overpowering in a month or two I'll work on the reduction to balance it out.

I will probably rack to secondary this Sunday (three weeks primary). The mush is problematic; cold crashing for a couple of days before as well as racking top down minimizes the muck. My experience with the past two batches is as Hopelesst observed, that is, the rum and spice edges do recede with age allowing the pumpkin to come through. Four months is probably the minimum time; a bottle drank one year in the cellar was fantastic.

Just transferred this to secondary. Dry hop using a bag so I can pull them in a couple of weeks. Took a reading, 1.026, not very happy with that, but this is a brew that takes time. I understand this trappist ale yeast really likes to finish slow. I cold crashed both the brew bucket and the rum, both had the heavy stuff settle to the bottom, so the transfer went really clean. I got about 4.5 gallons out of it.

Has anyone taken the pumpkin slurry and made pie with it? I noticed that the trub was really stratified, with lighter yeasty stuff on top, grainy pumpkin in the middle, and at the bottom, chunks of dark stuff - probably the spices and caramelized pumpkin from the bake. Anyway, I pushed off the top, and saved the middle in a couple of plastic containers. I am going to freeze these and then attempt to make a pie this autumn.

Just transferred this to secondary. Dry hop using a bag so I can pull them in a couple of weeks. Took a reading, 1.026, not very happy with that, but this is a brew that takes time. I understand this trappist ale yeast really likes to finish slow. I cold crashed both the brew bucket and the rum, both had the heavy stuff settle to the bottom, so the transfer went really clean. I got about 4.5 gallons out of it.

Has anyone taken the pumpkin slurry and made pie with it? I noticed that the trub was really stratified, with lighter yeasty stuff on top, grainy pumpkin in the middle, and at the bottom, chunks of dark stuff - probably the spices and caramelized pumpkin from the bake. Anyway, I pushed off the top, and saved the middle in a couple of plastic containers. I am going to freeze these and then attempt to make a pie this autumn.

wow......this post just stops? Really? How did your first batch come out Theweeb? How has any of this come out since then?

My bad.......I see dates now! lmao......look before you leap! I was pulled in with your recipe, TheWeeb! I have been looking for this. New Hollands Ichabod left me wishing I hadnt tried there pumpkin ale! I was looking for the pie. A desert brew to sip on and enjoy! Im stoked over this find! This recipe!

I'll pull the secondary hops this Sunday, do a reading and a taste check, and post a response; glad you are going to give this one a try!

Took a sample to taste last night. This beer is way too young still. Syrupy, hot alcohol heat, and some astringency. Granted, this is a huge beer, so aging was expected.

This is definately a spice beer. There is a warm, roasted pumpkin flavor that sits beneath the other tastes in the beer, but it's not up in front. The spice bite with that rummy, toffee taste is what grabs your attention. Whatever bready notes came from the roast and biscuit are still hidden by the alchohol bite.

The flavors under all that heat are good, abd taste like a good evolution of the wort we sampled during the mash.

We made this beer bigger than we planned and I dont think another two months will bring it to real drinkability, but six or ten sure will!

NOTE: Sample was taken from my 12.5% Rumpkin after 1 month in primary and 1.5 in secondary

Oh yeah the color: it's a crisp, clear brown with bright ruby red highlights

Just brewed this yesterday! Smelled awesome, and the hydro sample tasted pretty darn good. Looking forward to seeing how this beer ends up conditioning.

Only real modification I made was adding 30 oz of pumpkin at 20min, and the other 30 oz in primary.

Just bottled this. Will check back in a couple of weeks when I crack the first one...

I just bought the ingredients to do this beer. It looks awesome. I also just had my first pumpkin beer and didn't care for it. It was Pumpkin Ale by Buffalo Bills Brewing. There was almost no pumpkin taste or spice.

Is this beer I'm about to brew going to be stronger with pumpkin and spice?

I went a head and brewed this today. Here is what I did.

Baked 116 oz. Libby pumpkin purree, 5 oz. Grandmas molasses and 1 tsp homemade pumpkin pie spice

Steep for 20 mins @ 155
1# wheat, flaked
1# castle belgian biscuit malt
1# crisp dark crystal malt

Boil
6# extra light dme (60 mins)
1# extra dark dme (60 mins)
16 oz. maple syrup (60 mins)
1# dark belgium candies sugar (60 mins)
2 oz. cluster hops 7.7% AA (60 mins)
"pie" mixture (60 mins)
1/4 tsp Irish Moss (10 mins)
1 tbs homemade pumpkin pie spice (5 mins)

Pitched WLP500 trappist ale yeast at 75 degrees. Installed blow off tube. The wait begins.

Should be rockin'! It is all I can do to not open a bottle and see how mine turned out... past experience shows that this one takes a while to carbonate, and I'd rather hold off than open one and be less than thrilled with it. And yes, this one should be packed full of pumpkin and spice, like pumpkin pie drizzled with rum in a glass...................

The wait is going to suck. I hope it takes off ok. I didn't use a yeast starter.

I'm considering bottling this on sunday but I'm worried about carbonation. I let the alcohol content get really up there- 12% with the rum added in. Will there be enough yeast left in there to carbonate? Should I add new yeast before I bottle?

I did a version of this in may/June. It got bottles on 6/28 and it still has yet to carbonate. I opened a bottle Friday night and there is VERY minimal carbonation. At this rate I fully expect it to take another two months if not longer (sitting at 70-72 degrees). Also my ABV was 8.6 but added rum that brought it up to 9.1.

Racked onto the rum last night...there seems to be a layer of lighter liquid at the top of the carboy...hopefully I'm seeing things, however has anyone maybe noticed if the rum separates out of the beer while in secondary?

thought I have never seen this, there certainly could be separation due to the differences in specific gravity, but I would not worry about it, as all gets mixed when bottling/kegging, I would think.

As for carbonation, interesting observation... here is a picture I posted on another thread a week ago, the Lady Rumpkin is on the left, and carbonated nicely after 2.5 weeks in the bottle. I used 4.5oz brown sugar to about 4.25/4.5 gallons, which is high for the style...

Why brown sugar to carb? Did you do it the same way you would if using priming sugar?