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

I was shooting for a 5 1/2 gallon batch but ended up with 5.75 so that worked out awesome. Yes cold crashing it will help clear it up a lot good call.

So i just steeped my spices for 10 minutes on low on my stove top, cooled and dumped into the wort.

Did a little taste test prior to adding the spices and WOW! I'm blown away i made this myself. EXCELLENT recipe. Can't wait!

SG: 1.069
Current Gravity (near finished): 1.026
ABV: ~5.6%

corypedia said:

I've done two batches of this in the last three weeks. i used both the s-04 and the wlp-002. for the s-04 i fermented at 70* and it's quite dry.

i used 002 in my second batch and decided to start fermentation at 62* and step it up 2* every 5 days until maxing at 68*.

While still early, i much prefer the lower starting temp and 002. Not really an apples to apples comparison given the difference in temp, but i'd definitely start lower than higher.

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Thanks for the tip. My LHBS was out of WLP-002 so I used S-04, fermenting at 64 degrees. I wish I either had a larger fermentation chamber or an additional one, but my current one can only fit one 5 gallon batch at a time. I would love to be able to do two batches at once to get some more variety in. Usually half of my batches get gifted to friends and family, so just enough left for personal consumption while the next batch is going, LOL.

TrustyOlJohnson said:

Ok, I picked up grains for this and when I got home the LHSS sold me CaraAmber and I was wanting biscuit... Is that essentially the same??

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I'm probably a bit too late on the response, but they are very different malts. I've successfully substituted Vienna for Biscuit in this recipe and others.

Generally, avoid using a "Cara-" malt in place of a toasted base malt. However, I don't think a pinch of Cara-Amber sounds bad for this recipe. It'll darken the color and perhaps add some richness.

Yuri_Rage said:

I'm probably a bit too late on the response, but they are very different malts. I've successfully substituted Vienna for Biscuit in this recipe and others.



Generally, avoid using a "Cara-" malt in place of a toasted base malt. However, I don't think a pinch of Cara-Amber sounds bad for this recipe. It'll darken the color and perhaps add some richness.

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Thanks Yuri.. I appreciate the response.. Jus so happens Im mashing in 9 am tomorrow morning.. Another 10 gallons to be made!

So before I brew it's been forever since I didn't do a all grain but is everyone still using the set up from the first post?

madcore said:

So before I brew it's been forever since I didn't do a all grain but is everyone still using the set up from the first post?

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Yes.

A 10 gallon batch into the mashtun..
Baked the 120 oz of pumpkin at 350 for 60 min

Using a pound of rice hulls with
12 lbs 2 row
4 lbs caramel 60
2 lbs Caraamber
1 lb Carapils
1 lb flaked wheat

Mash at 156

13 IBU of 60 min EKG

Nottingham ferm at 62

Cant wait!View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441218503.247719.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441218516.934115.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1441218527.455484.jpg

I made this beer 2 years ago, wanted to do it last year but didn't get around to it..Once it has conditioned a bit in the bottle, it is AMAZING!! But do yourself a favor if you brew this beer.. Get a good book to pass the time during the sparge.. With 21 lbs of grains and a lb of rice hulls, it is taking a LONG time.. Its not stuck, but it is slow. At 2 hours into the sparge, Ive collected 8 of the 12 gallons that I need

How long does this need to sit in the keg before peak flavor is reached?

I am also wondering how long to page of this out for. Also is secondary fermentation necessary for this? Or is it good to go from primary after two weeks right to the keg for aging

According to Yuri (messaged him about primary/"secondary"), you can just leave this in primary for 3 weeks and skip the transfer entirely.

I'm at 4 weeks right now but can't really do anything until the next keg arrives tomorrow. I started with 6 gallons in the fermenter, racked as much as I could into secondary (did it before Yuri could respond), and ended up losing a little over a gallon to trub.

I wonder how it would taste at 3 weeks in primary and a 24 hour force carb

I've got the day off and the kids and wife don't so I'm brewing. This is in the mash tun right now and it smells delicious. Temp is spot on as is the pH. I think it's going to be a great day.

EtchyLives said:

I've got the day off and the kids and wife don't so I'm brewing. This is in the mash tun right now and it smells delicious. Temp is spot on as is the pH. I think it's going to be a great day.

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Or not.

The hose between my false bottom and ball valve came off mid mash. Then after fixing it there was still another 90 minutes to batch sparge.

It's finally in the BK and got a good efficiency, too.

An after pic of the mash tun.

View attachment 1441390616454.jpg

So my pumpkin is done and its pretty damn good. With that said, the spices have faded some, which I kind of expected.

I have it on tap and am looking for the best way to add some more spice. Which option would be best for a spiced tea?

- boiled water
- Vodka tincture
- French press

I skipped secondary and left in primary for 3 weeks. Seems to be a consensus these days that racking to a secondary just introduces a greater chance of oxidation and infection with little benefit.

At least based on my reading

corypedia said:

So my pumpkin is done and its pretty damn good. With that said, the spices have faded some, which I kind of expected.

I have it on tap and am looking for the best way to add some more spice. Which option would be best for a spiced tea?

- boiled water
- Vodka tincture
- French press

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I always make a tea with Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus when I'm bottling. I steep 1 tsp of spice in 1 cup of water.

Doing this one here in the next 2 weeks with a 10 gallon batch. I usually make this yearly with NC mountain white sugar pumpkins and I usually drop in 2lbs of the local beekeepers NC Sourwood Honey to dry this one out a bit more even though its expensive as hell..

I also like to use Tett rather than EKG for hopping and drop in MO as opposed to 2-Row Am Pale as I get less bite and more bready-ness with MO.

Everyone loves this one though and its one of the most requested beer I make.
Great Recipe and below is my 10 gallon full recipe for this one which is not too far from the original:

OG:1.070 - FG - 1.023 ABV 6.11 - IBU 12.39 - SRM 12.46
Brewhouse Efficiency with my e-HERMS - 88%

Grain Bill/Additions:

13lb Marris Otter
3lb Crystal 40
2lb Bel Biscuit
1lb Flaked Wheat
2lb Rice hulls (for sparging ease)
2lb NC Local Sourwood Honey (flameout)
Pulp from 2 large white NC mountain sugar pumpkins

Hops:
1.5 Tett(4.5) @60 (full boil)

Notes:
- I use the pulp of of 2 large white NC mountain sugar/baking pumpkins that have been cleaned, quartered and baked on a cookie sheet in the oven for an hour at 400deg.
I place my pumpkin pulp in a paint strainer bag and drop it into the mash (which helps keep the pumpkin from clogging up the mash as bad).

I mash for 60@ 149 and fly sparge for 45 @170.

Pitch WLP002 starters in at 65deg, ferm for 2 weeks and toss in 1tsp pumpkin pie spice (1/2 tsp in each ferm) for the 3rd week of primary.
Rack to keg and force carb. and in one months time, enjoy with friends and be ready to be hounded to make another batch.

:fro:

I made this recipe too last year. I used fresh pumpkin from store, steamed it, then roasted the pulp in the oven:

Steaming


Before roasting


After roasting


It's hard to get hold of ready made pumpkin spice in these parts so I made it myself using spices from the Asian store:

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1.5 teaspoons ground allspice
1.5 teaspoons ground cloves

Didn't use all this, only 1300mg went in, the rest was used by the mrs on her latte

I brewed this a little over 3 weeks ago and plan to add the spice tea as soon as i find the time. Ive never added spices to the fermenter and have two questions about that:

1. When adding the tea little by little and tasting, do you all do that over a few days or just add, stir, taste, add, stirr, taste...?

2. After adding the tea, is there any benefit to letting it sit longer, or should I just cold crash and keg? [I dont mean the age old 'how long should i leave my beer in the fermenter' but rather, i want to know if the spices need any additional time to...i dont know, meld.]

Thanks!

murphyslaw said:

I brewed this a little over 3 weeks ago and plan to add the spice tea as soon as i find the time. Ive never added spices to the fermenter and have two questions about that:

1. When adding the tea little by little and tasting, do you all do that over a few days or just add, stir, taste, add, stirr, taste...?

2. After adding the tea, is there any benefit to letting it sit longer, or should I just cold crash and keg? [I dont mean the age old 'how long should i leave my beer in the fermenter' but rather, i want to know if the spices need any additional time to...i dont know, meld.]

Thanks!

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I just added more flavor to mine. Brewed it about 2 weeks ago and it finished fast. I don't like it to get too dry so I kegged it and have been slowly drinking it since it still tastes great. Pumpkin flavor got a little light, so today added more flavor.

Here's how I do it.

Take some of the beer, carbonated or otherwise, make sure you know how much you have. Then add 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it tastes right. Then scale up. That way if you screw up and go too far, your whole batch isn't ruined. I've found in the past the pumpkin flavor and spice flavor tend to mellow the longer it sits.

Also, it is possible to add pumpkin flavor in. Get a pie pumpkin, juice it, cook the juice with some more spices and poor off the clear liquid after boiling it. That clear liquid will be pumpkin spice flavoring you can add to the keg or beer before bottling/keggin.

As far as primary/secondary goes, I just primary mine until it reaches a level where I like the taste. Usually I stop it between 1.018 and 1.015. That way it isn't too dry. Then I go straight to keg. I let it age there if needed since there isn't any O2 in the keg.

I just had a 1st with the WL002 in the new "pure" packaging. I made a starter on the stir plate like I usually do. Let it stir for 48 hours and this stuff took off!!!! I've been making starters for over 4 years now and never had anything even come close to this.

Wow.

Now I'm making a Gold Metal Winner ESB that specifically uses the WL002 so I can do it again. http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/ESBNHC2011

Oh, and Beer & Brewing mag has a switch up on Pumpkin Ale. http://beerandbrewing.com/ just to try something different. I've brewed this Thunderstruck for 3 years now, but after the initial "WoW" it needed an additional "PoW". I've added FRESH ingredients to do just that. It will be ready end of October.

I can't wait.

Moose_MI said:

Ok...after 2 weeks in primary I racked this over and added the 1/2 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice after steeping in a cup of hot water. Gravity right now a bit higher than recipe ...I'm at 1.022. I've not racked a beer to anything other than bottling bucket for a long time but glad I did this one. It's really cleared nice already so I will be in good shape for bottling in another couple weeks.
Hydro sample had a lot of pumpkin flavor...not sure why some folks say pumpkin doesn't add much flavor. It came through really nice for me. Really looking forward to final product

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Ok...finally drinking this. It ended up being the first beer I kegged! I have a deaf palette so I'm terrible at giving reviews but I'm enjoying the beer. It's a little sweet and has nice mouth feel which i sort of expected after all my mash/sparge problems. Only been a week in keg at about 12psi so it will probably change some more but man drawing a beer you made from a keezer that you made is such a cool feeling.

Thanks Yuri!

I actually went a different route this time around adding the spice..
I put about 1/2 cup of vanilla flavored vodka mixed with a tsp of PPie Spice into a sanitized mason jar, shook it up a good bit, covered it and left it overnight (some folks call this a "tincture"). Strained it through sanitized cheesecloth (to get the ppie spice granules out of it), poured into keg and racked the beer on top of it. Smelled great and should turn out pretty solid.
Will report back in 3 weeks after it sits on the gas and conditions at 36Deg.
:fro:

I like the vodka tincture idea. Maybe use unflavored vodka and vanilla beans along with the spices for a richer flavor.

Yuri_Rage said:

I like the vodka tincture idea. Maybe use unflavored vodka and vanilla beans along with the spices for a richer flavor.

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I thought about doing this until I saw the price of whole vanilla beans..$14 for just a single bean around here..

I do think it would add more pronounced and richer vanilla profile to the tincture and thus the beer..I just need to find some cheaper vanilla beans to try this next go around with it.
The beer I think as it is, is going to turn out wonderful and I thank you Yuri for the awesome recipe!
Will post pics of the first pulls in about 2 more weeks.

bbohanon said:

I thought about doing this until I saw the price of whole vanilla beans..$14 for just a single bean around here..

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This is where I usually get mine:
http://bostonvanillabeans.com/collections/vanilla-beans/products/bourbon-vanilla-beans

How about vanilla extract? I got about 4.5 gallons going into my keg Thursday and plan on upping the already faded flavor from brew day. Plan on adding a cup of water with McCormicks brand pumpkin spice dissolved in it with a few drops of vanilla extract? Any thoughts?

Pulled a first (second and third) glass from this batch and its really good. I have tried alot of pumpkin beers, but to date, this one is my favorite by far. Its clean, crisp and the vanilla vodka/PPie spice tincture lends just a hint of the spice and vanilla but does not overpower the smoothness of the grain bill.
Very nice and I will certainly need to try the vanilla bean soak in vodka/ppie spices for the next batch (but I think doing the tincture was the a much better option for adding the spice/flavoring this time around), but this one is a clear winner and will not last long once my family and friends know its ready to drink.

Kegged and carbed this one one up two days ago. Should be good to go tonight hopefully fully carbed after being on 30psi now for that 2 days. I ended up doing 1.5 cups of water boiled and dissolved another 1.5 of McCormicks pumpkin spice in it. Cooled it down and splashed in some vanilla extract and threw that concoction into the keg and racked my 4.5 gallons on top of it. Can't wait to drink it up tonight. Perfect timing! Happy Halloween!

Anyone make their version of this yet to be ready for fall time drinking?

I haven't yet. I will probably brew this up soon though...

Just put the airlock on mine!

Going to do a biab of this one soon. I hope the pumpkin pulp won't seal my bag when draining

I found that the pumpkin did make for slow draining. I started the boil and let the bag continue to drain in another pot. Rice hulls may help. This year I made a different recipe and added the pumpkin to the boil.

I may have to try this with the tincture I just so happen to have one whole vanilla bean left

Radboud said:

Going to do a biab of this one soon. I hope the pumpkin pulp won't seal my bag when draining

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Let me know how that goes for you

What does the original post mean by clearing stage?