Autumn Seasonal Beer Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions)

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
This is my first time racking to a secondary. I have a 6 gallon plastic carboy and it's been sitting in there for a month. I still hear it bubbling away once every 10 minutes or so, maybe a little longer between. Either way, I feel like it should be finished, but haven't had the time to check the SG in a while. Any ideas why it might still be bubbling?
 
Just bought ingredients to make this again. Hoping that it will turn out. last year it took a long amount of aging before I enjoyed it; I think that was my bad though, and not the recipe.
 
Made a 5 gallon AG batch for the neighborhood Halloween party and the keg didn't last the night. I did add my own twist by soaking 2oz. medium toasted Hungarian Oak soaked in 4oz of Capt Morgan spiced rum for 3 weeks. Added to keg after racking and aged it for 1 month. It adds additional layer of spicy goodness.
 
My brewing friends and I brewed up a 5 gallon AG batch this past weekend. No big suprises. Had a momentary stuck sparge while taking first runnings but we fixed that quickly by removing the mash, cleaning out the false bottom unit and making sure the screen stayed flat while pooring the mash back in. Worked like a charm. We used 1lb of rice hauls for piece of mind just in case. Color and aroma were exactly what I expected going into the primary. I checked it yesterday and it was bubbling away nicely. Can't wait to try this!
 
Brewed this one a couple months ago. Did a couple things different. I added another .25oz hops at the last minute for flavor, worked well, kind of helped cut some of the sweetness from the pumpkin flavor. For the pumpkin, I ended up buying a pumpkin (large) and scraped the inside clean and cut it into about 1.5x1.5 inch chunks. Put on ALL of the different spices, then cooked the pumpkin in my waterless cookware. After it was softish (its a word now) I put the pieces into tight mesh hop bag and put it in at the boil, took it out after 60 min. I kept stirring it around every 10 min or so to get the wort moving through the bag. The result was AMAZING. I had some pumpkin ale at BJ's (SoCal brewery and pizza joint) and I liked this one better. Kuddos on the recipe.
 
Made this last Saturday, scaled to a 10 gallon recipe and it was too much for my stainless braid to handle, collapsed it and caused a stuck sparge. After 7 hours of draining I finally had about 6.5g so I boiled... Imperial pumpkin anyone? :)
 
I made a this a few months ago and changed just the yeast. I thought a nice twist would be a Belgian (550) yeast. Nope. Either the yeast ate all the pumpkin flavor or my pumpkin pie spice blows. Still, the end product is tasty. It turned out to be a slightly spiced Belgian amber. I'll be using the grain bill for my next Belgian amber (very good), and us-05 for the next pumpkin beer. C'est la vie.
 
brettwasbtd said:
Just tapped the keg of this. Pretty tasty! I was worried that 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice at kegging wasn't going to be enough, but its just where it should be! You can smell it in the nose, taste it in the beer, but it is not overpowering. Thanks for the recipe Yuri!
Click to expand...

So 3 weeks later and the spice has really subsided. Can't smell it in the nose and is not very prominent... Might need to make a tincture or use more spice next year. YMMV just keeping everyone in the loop on my thoughts
 
I copied the recipe for the most part with only a few changes.
I used 0.3 oz. of Nugget hops instead of the Goldings, I added more than a tsp of spices (8 g), and I added a small amount (0.33 oz) of vanilla extract at bottling (GF requested pumpkin roll beer).

Not really sure if I did something wrong but it came out tasting more like a Belgian wheat than a pumpkin beer. I don't taste the vanilla at all (which is ok, I wanted to play it conservative), but I can also barely taste the spice and it has a really pronounced Belgian yeasty taste.

It's also much lighter in color than I expected (like 4 or 5 SRM), lighter than another one I brewed using less specialty grain and late extract addition. Is that indicative of anything?
 
ForumRunner_20121122_212431.jpg
Happy thanksgiving, london esb yeast brewed 3 months ago tastes great!
 
Kegged a few days ago and tried it today. Delicious. I used a spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves.
 
I've read two thirds of the posts and haven't seen an answer to this and I wonder if I have a problem on my hands.

Mine is being made for family. She's looking for a strong pumpkin pie taste.

We made a spice tea (1 teas pumpkin pie mix in 1 cup) and she liked 6 teas per 4 oz of a sample that did not taste green.

That's 1/8 cup per 1/2 cup. Or 20 teas in 20 cups per 5 gallons. Her Husband figured that 4 teas tasted about the same but its still a lot.

My problem is that the beer in my secondary tastes green. I added 10 teas in 7 cups. (got a little slimy when it cooled - before adding, the mix didn't say it has gelatin but i think it did.)

Could barely tasted the spices after adding because of strong green flavor. After couple of days spice flavor is twice stronger but not like the really pronounced flavor she favors.

Would appreciate some advice....
 
The greenness will age out, this takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks before the taste really shines.
And the later you add the spices, the more pronounced it will be. Try adding them to your bottling bucket. As far as this one getting thick, I have no idea!
 
snowman48360 said:
I've read two thirds of the posts and haven't seen an answer to this and I wonder if I have a problem on my hands.

Mine is being made for family. She's looking for a strong pumpkin pie taste.

We made a spice tea (1 teas pumpkin pie mix in 1 cup) and she liked 6 teas per 4 oz of a sample that did not taste green.

That's 1/8 cup per 1/2 cup. Or 20 teas in 20 cups per 5 gallons. Her Husband figured that 4 teas tasted about the same but its still a lot.

My problem is that the beer in my secondary tastes green. I added 10 teas in 7 cups. (got a little slimy when it cooled - before adding, the mix didn't say it has gelatin but i think it did.)

Could barely tasted the spices after adding because of strong green flavor. After couple of days spice flavor is twice stronger but not like the really pronounced flavor she favors.

Would appreciate some advice....
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I'm following your additions but it sounds like you are talking about way too much spice for this recipe. I used a half tsp at KO and 1 tsp at bottling. Mine tasted great at 3-4 weeks after bottling and peaked soon after. The spices faded slowly over time leaving a roasted pumpkin flavor with soft spice notes. I prefer this fresh.

How long has yours been fermenting? This tastes very different warm and flat before adding spices at bottling. As usual, I would recommend sticking to the original recipe and seeing how you/others like it and then make adjustments the next time around. It worked for me.
 
ZombieBrew83 said:
How long has yours been fermenting? This tastes very different warm and flat before adding spices at bottling. As usual, I would recommend sticking to the original recipe and seeing how you/others like it and then make adjustments the next time around. It worked for me.
Click to expand...

30 days in primary 10 in secondary. You're right about sticking with the original and adjusting. Making for a relative to celebrate her having a baby. She really likes Pumpking an out of town commercial beer. I was trying to use the suggestion of making a tea and spicing to taste. may have gotten carried away.

I guess if its too spicy I could let it age and lose some spiciness?
 
snowman48360 said:
30 days in primary 10 in secondary. You're right about sticking with the original and adjusting. Making for a relative to celebrate her having a baby. She really likes Pumpking an out of town commercial beer. I was trying to use the suggestion of making a tea and spicing to taste. may have gotten carried away.

I guess if its too spicy I could let it age and lose some spiciness?
Click to expand...

A friend of mine said my result was close to Pumking and I added an extra half tsp to the base recipe. I'm not sure how that spice will age out. Some actors in the blend may fade quickly others may never at all. Let your customer decide I suppose.
 
Got a jump on my pumpkin beer for the season, just put 12G in the fermenter! Had a slow mash, I will probably do a partial mash of sorts next time with the Pumpkin in the boil kettle...

Ben
 
I kegged mine this year.

It was lighter than I remember, could late extract additions really lighten it up that much, or am I misremembering the color?
It tasted VERY green and almost a young wine flavor, I was worried I screwed up. But after four days in the keg, it is already tasting better. How long do y'all normally give it to age in the keg?
 
Can't wait to try this recipe doing BIAB this year! I made 2 batches of this doing extract last fall and thought it was EXCELLENT! But since I started doing AG using BIAB, my beers have been turning out even better so I'm kind of excited to see how the AG version of this turns out! :)

Probably should think about brewing this in the next few weeks...

Gotta brew my house IPA for college football season first though... :mug:
 
moscoeb said:
I kegged mine this year.

It was lighter than I remember, could late extract additions really lighten it up that much, or am I misremembering the color?
It tasted VERY green and almost a young wine flavor, I was worried I screwed up. But after four days in the keg, it is already tasting better. How long do y'all normally give it to age in the keg?
Click to expand...

Not sure why you'd add stuff late in an extract batch other than some hops. When I did mine I added a spice tea at the bottling bucket but in the brew itself I had all the stuff in at the boil. I actually used cut up pumpkin in hop bags that I spiced and baked. It was extra work but resulted in not as much trub. This year I'll be kegging my pumpkin beer (last year was bottles). I can't wait to try it. In the bottle I had to let it sit for at least a couple weeks before it really started tasting good. But after 6 to 8 months, WOW.
 
Calman2k said:
Not sure why you'd add stuff late in an extract batch other than some hops. When I did mine I added a spice tea at the bottling bucket but in the brew itself I had all the stuff in at the boil. I actually used cut up pumpkin in hop bags that I spiced and baked. It was extra work but resulted in not as much trub. This year I'll be kegging my pumpkin beer (last year was bottles). I can't wait to try it. In the bottle I had to let it sit for at least a couple weeks before it really started tasting good. But after 6 to 8 months, WOW.
Click to expand...

Late extract addition gives a lighter color. I'm just not sure how much. I thought I remembered this being a dark nice pumpkin beer color, this year it was a much lighter color.
I could be mistaken on how dark it was last year though.
 
Calman2k said:
Brewed this one a couple months ago. Did a couple things different. I added another .25oz hops at the last minute for flavor, worked well, kind of helped cut some of the sweetness from the pumpkin flavor. For the pumpkin, I ended up buying a pumpkin (large) and scraped the inside clean and cut it into about 1.5x1.5 inch chunks. Put on ALL of the different spices, then cooked the pumpkin in my waterless cookware. After it was softish (its a word now) I put the pieces into tight mesh hop bag and put it in at the boil, took it out after 60 min. I kept stirring it around every 10 min or so to get the wort moving through the bag. The result was AMAZING. I had some pumpkin ale at BJ's (SoCal brewery and pizza joint) and I liked this one better. Kuddos on the recipe.
Click to expand...

I like this approach to the pumpkin... I am going to brew this again this year but was going to skip the pumpkin as I'm not sure what kind of impact it had (and it was a pain). This might be the move for me, if I can get a fresh one.
 
Hosting a small homebrew contest for the best pumpkin brew if anyone might be interested prizes for the winner. looking for 10 entries already have two. Check out our YouTube page for the video on it. Should be fun. Cheers.
 
Is the extract version on the first page, just extract or is it partial mash? I'm just curious because I've heard that simply steeping Wheat Flaked isn't the best thing(not sure why, I'm still pretty new to this). Also 6.5 pounds of DME seems a little light for 6 gallon batch(again, sorry if that sounds ignorant). Hopefully it's extract so I can try brewing this, I'm not quite at partial mash yet.
Thanks.
 
DArsenault said:
Is the extract version on the first page, just extract or is it partial mash? I'm just curious because I've heard that simply steeping Wheat Flaked isn't the best thing(not sure why, I'm still pretty new to this). Also 6.5 pounds of DME seems a little light for 6 gallon batch(again, sorry if that sounds ignorant). Hopefully it's extract so I can try brewing this, I'm not quite at partial mash yet.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

It is extract with steeping grains.
And the 6.5 lbs of DME is correct. This is an excellent beer, sweet and easy drinking.
Follow them to a T at first and you will be fine, then explore or play next time. (I didn't feel it needed it though, I thought it was excellent as is). I couldn't keep this stocked last year as everyone drank it!!
 
moscoeb said:
It is extract with steeping grains.
And the 6.5 lbs of DME is correct. This is an excellent beer, sweet and easy drinking.
Follow them to a T at first and you will be fine, then explore or play next time. (I didn't feel it needed it though, I thought it was excellent as is). I couldn't keep this stocked last year as everyone drank it!!
Click to expand...
Thanks for clearing that up. I'm going to scale it down to a 5 gallon from the 6 gallon recipe on the first page, but other than that I plan on following the exact recipe.
 
DArsenault said:
Thanks for clearing that up. I'm going to scale it down to a 5 gallon from the 6 gallon recipe on the first page, but other than that I plan on following the exact recipe.
Click to expand...

You will need about 6 gal to end up with 5.
I usually fit about 5.5 in my carbon and finish with about 4.5 after racking off the trub.
 
I just did this as an AG, 5 gallon batch. I used 1/2 lb rice hulls, and started the mash with a tad more water than the usual 1.3 qts per lb. Mashed in 3.75 gallons, batched sparged with 3.5, no stuck sparge, got 5.75 gallons, and thats all. Had a visitor, lost track of time, boiled extra 15 min, got a little less than the 5. Looking forward to this one.
 
moscoeb said:
You will need about 6 gal to end up with 5.
I usually fit about 5.5 in my carbon and finish with about 4.5 after racking off the trub.
Click to expand...

So if I scale the recipe down to 5 gallons, I would end up with about 4 gallons of beer? I'm still pretty new to brewing so for me 5 gallon batches just seem easier, I'm okay if I only end up with 4 gallons to bottle, so long as the 4 gallons taste good. I'm fermenting in a 6 gallon better bottle, so I'd be left with a half gallon of head space, do you think it would be a better idea for me to scale to 5.5 and end up with the extra half gallon at the end?
 
DArsenault said:
So if I scale the recipe down to 5 gallons, I would end up with about 4 gallons of beer? I'm still pretty new to brewing so for me 5 gallon batches just seem easier, I'm okay if I only end up with 4 gallons to bottle, so long as the 4 gallons taste good. I'm fermenting in a 6 gallon better bottle, so I'd be left with a half gallon of head space, do you think it would be a better idea for me to scale to 5.5 and end up with the extra half gallon at the end?
Click to expand...

Heck, I would brew it as is, and top my better bottle off as much as I can. Worse case scenario your beer has a higher ABV.
It will taste great if you follow the directions. I couldn't keep it stocked last year.
Either way is fine though if you want ton scale it. Whatever is easiest for you.
 
When I plug the extract recipe from the first page into Beersmith, the IBU's are coming up at around 7 as opposed to the 12-14 that the front page is listing. I know the recipe is pretty straight foreward and only calls for .75oz of hops, but I feel like it should be up higher than 7, and can't figure out where the discrepancy is coming from.

Edit: As far as the OG goes, I didn't realize you needed to input the recipe as partial mash when steeping grains.
 
Two broken thermometers and a stuck sparge later, this brew is happily bubbling away. Have to love that 04 yeast. Started up not 8 hours after pitching.

Went to get rice hulls at the LHBS - they didn't have them, or a clue what they did (how?!). Thanks DeFalco's.

Cheers Yuri! The family is already getting geared up for this brew. A cornerstone of Turkey Fest.
 
Got all my ingredients ready to brew this beer this weekend except for the cans of pumpkin which I'll be picking up this week!

Held back 2 bottles of my last batch I brewed of this last winter which I'm planning on enjoying while I RDWHAHB during the brew day! :mug:
 
I do have one question before I brew my next batch of this. As I mentioned earlier, I'm attempting to do this AG doing BIAB. My question is when to add the pumpkin? When I did the extract version, I added the pumpkin after I baked it for 30 minutes to the boil. But in the AG version it says to add the pumpkin in with the mash. I was just wondering why I couldn't just add the pumpkin after I baked it into the boil doing BIAB just like I did with the extract version?
 
I've added pumpkin during the last few minutes of the boil. I think the only advantage to adding the pumpkin to the mash is to not have so much pumpkin absorbing liquid after the boil. If you add it to the boil, just account for additional loss in volume, I don't think you have to worry about anything else.
 
I made this recipe last year, and it was a huge hit. If I wanted to make an imperial version of this, are there some basic guidelines?

Add more pale malt and C60, keeping ratio the same?
Add more hops/spices?
 
I picked up the ingredients today for my first time brewing this since I went ag. Lhbs didn't have any rice hulls because the local Iron Hill bought 14lbs of it due to a stuck sparge. Bastards.
 
LateraLex said:
I like this approach to the pumpkin... I am going to brew this again this year but was going to skip the pumpkin as I'm not sure what kind of impact it had (and it was a pain). This might be the move for me, if I can get a fresh one.
Click to expand...

Hope it works out for ya. It came out really good for me. Make sure to cook the pumpkin until its soft, this will ensure you get the max flavor out of the pumpkin since it will breakdown the cells down to the middle of the pieces. If you think about it after, let me know how it comes out. It'll be nice to now my successful result wasn't just an accident so I can do it again this year. :D
 

Similar threads

zinn
How does my creamy pumpkin ale recipe look?
Replies
4
Views
1K
Leezer
Leezer
Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
392
Zippy123
Zippy123
S
Autumn Wheat Ale
Replies
5
Views
1K
kwilson16
kwilson16
P
Steep to convert - Steeping grains
Replies
5
Views
334
hottpeper13
H
H
Citrusy Pale Ale to clean out the freezer
Replies
7
Views
752
lumpher
lumpher
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top