Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

Williams 728
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Normally I'd say this takes about 2 weeks but if you're not sure if the priming sugar got mixed in that could be a bit of a problem. If you still have your bottles in some sort of order that it was bottled, I'd pull out a bottle from the beginning of bottling, the end, and somewhere in the middle and test them after a week to see if you have any problems on your hands.

Most likely you're ok though, especially with only 3 oz of sugar.

My 2 cents
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Sounds like it might be tasty. Personally if I were to try that I'd use Midnight Wheat instead of black patent. Smoother roastiness and less bitter might work better as it won't cover up the spices.
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Couldn't agree more, I'm making a recipe now with midnight wheat
 
waltzbrewingco said:
I looked at ditching the victory in the extract version and subbing the Special Roast per the recommendation on the first page. Any experience on that extract brewers?
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I am going with special and crystal 60.

I also swapped some of the DME to dark.

Also using Liberty hops due to LHBS availability.

Plan on brewing this Saturday and will update.
 
drays14 said:
Couldn't agree more, I'm making a recipe now with midnight wheat
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Rock! Be sure to post the results. I love that grain



Cheesy_Goodness said:
Normally I'd say this takes about 2 weeks but if you're not sure if the priming sugar got mixed in that could be a bit of a problem. If you still have your bottles in some sort of order that it was bottled, I'd pull out a bottle from the beginning of bottling, the end, and somewhere in the middle and test them after a week to see if you have any problems on your hands.

Most likely you're ok though, especially with only 3 oz of sugar.

My 2 cents
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Good advice. But be forewarned, I don't know if it's the gravity or what but I've noticed this one takes its sweet time to bottle condition.
 
Any definitive thoughts on keeping pumpkin in a bag during boil?

If so, do you take it out in the ferment or or keep pumpkin in?
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Well, it's getting close to that time again! I'm sure a lot of people are planning their pumpkin beer for the coming season. If you happen to stumble upon this recipe please give it shot. I have heard from more than a couple people that it is one of the best pumpkin ales they'd ever had.

I'm going to get this beer rolling soon to be ready for October and then probably brew it again in early October to be ready for November/December... it goes fast and is good enough to keep on hand for an entire season ;)

As for an extract recipe, it's really hard to imitate the flavor you get from Victory malt (which has to be mashed.) It provides aromatic/biscuit/nutty/toasted attributes to the beer that you can't get in extract. Your closet bet would be to use Special Roast... though BeerSmith says it needs to be mashed, HBT wiki says it doesn't. But here's the partial mash and an adjusted extract version; only the grain/extract is adjusted. You can keep the hops, pumpkin, sugar and spice additions the same:

Partial Mash
6# Pale LME
2# Pale 2-row
0.63# Crystal 60L
0.63# Victory Malt


Extract
8.25# Pale LME
0.5# Crystal 60L
0.25# Special Roast


For these adjusted recipes I'd recommend using S-04, which is known to have lower attenuation so you can get that fuller body and maltiness you get from mashing at higher temperatures. If you take the S-04 route, try to keep fermentation temperatures low, closer to 60*F so you get less esters and phenols that will cover up the delicious pumpkin pie flavors. That's why I use US-05; it's nice and clean.
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Went to my LHBS today and couldn't get an Pale LME. They carry mainly Briess LME and guy said they donbt make a pale. HE suggested juts using the Golden Light LME, which they only had in 3.3 lb tubs, so Im supplementing the rest with Golden Light DME. Any thoughts on a different outcome?

Also planning making a spice tea out of cinnamon sticks, ginger root, cloves, and whole nutmeg instead of going the ground pie spice route. Anyone else try this? I just figure I like to be a little different.
 
Eiffel said:
I am going with special and crystal 60.

I also swapped some of the DME to dark.

Also using Liberty hops due to LHBS availability.

Plan on brewing this Saturday and will update.
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Yeah, I couldn't get Pale LME, I went with Golden Light LME
Same with specialty grains, 60L and Special Roast.
 
I threw this in beersmith and decided to go 3# dark and 4# golden light with .5# of each steeping grains. Comes out with similar OG.

What are your plans for the pumpkin? In a bag or added to the boil?
 
Eiffel said:
I threw this in beersmith and decided to go 3# dark and 4# golden light with .5# of each steeping grains. Comes out with similar OG.

What are your plans for the pumpkin? In a bag or added to the boil?
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Pumpkin in a bag. Last year I steeped it and specialty grains at same temp for same amount of time and came away with plenty of squashy notes on the nose before the spice additions. I also used a bit less than most people seem to be. I think I used 1 large can of the Libbys. But it turned out well without being overly pungent.
 
Brewed this today. Extract version with some Golden light DME to supplement not having enough LME. Was a little shy on the brown sugar, probably only half a pound. I also made tea out of whole spices and added it to the boil, and used just 1 tbsp of pie spice at 5 min. With 1 can of the pumpkin my OG was still 1.076! I used 2 packs of the S-04.
If this beer gets down to the 1.017 mark it's gonna be good, like pushing 7.5%, I forget the exact number. Wort smelled amazing, gravity sample tasted great!

Cheers!
 
Just poured my last bottle of this and 9 months later it's perfect. I ran with maybe 6 pounds of pumpkin and a pound of leached acorn meal in the mash. Turned out great, but took a good 4 months to hit it's peak. Going to brew it again next weekend, I'll update with the results.
 
My fermentation took off like a champ. Huge level of foam after 4 hours. About 48 hours later it fell. Is that kinda fast? Anyways, it smells great, figure I'll take a gravity sample in about 10 days. I'll probably rack to secondary to let it clear up a little.
 
waltzbrewingco said:
My fermentation took off like a champ. Huge level of foam after 4 hours. About 48 hours later it fell. Is that kinda fast? Anyways, it smells great, figure I'll take a gravity sample in about 10 days. I'll probably rack to secondary to let it clear up a little.
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Krausen, airlock bubbles, etc., are not good indicators of whether or not fermentation is complete. So just let them do their thing, don't be concerned, and trust your hydrometer.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Krausen, airlock bubbles, etc., are not good indicators of whether or not fermentation is complete. So just let them do their thing, don't be concerned, and trust your hydrometer.
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Oh I totally get that, I was just suprised at how quickly it rose and fell. Thanks for the recipe, seems to be quite popular here and I can't wait to taste it.
 
Brew_G said:
Pitched my yeast about 45 minutes ago on this one. Everything went fairly smoothly, although I've had issues with discrepancies between boil gravity and original gravity yet again. BG came in at 1.051 (estimated 1.047), but OG came in at 1.066 (estimated 1.067). I ended with just a bit under 5.75 gallons in the fermenter, which is almost exactly where I was hoping to be, so I'm not quite sure why this happened.

Oh well. Wort was a beautiful dark orange and had a nice spice to it...and it smelled divine. The gravity sample also cleared up pretty nicely as it sat in the flask. Today was also the first time I used an immersion chiller. Ground water temps are pretty high now, so I only got to 100F after about 25 minutes. I then moved it to an ice bath to drop to 65F - that took another 35 minutes or so. Nonetheless, it was much easier work than slaving over an ice bath for an hour!

I'm really looking forward to bottling this in a few weeks so I can get a little taste of it! ;)
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Took a gravity reading today, and I'm at 1.017. That's right about where I expected, so I'm pretty happy with it. The hydrometer read 1.016, but that was at 73F.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439413241.571551.jpg

Taste test wasn't spectacular, to say the least! ;). It had a pretty good bite, but I'm not concerned, as it had a ton of yeast in suspension. The spice was well hidden by that bite, but I did burp up a little spiciness. :D

I'll likely start to crash it early next week, then add gelatin on Wednesday or so, with an eye to bottle on Saturday morning.
 
1.017 is an excellent FG! That's going to be tasty.

But yeah, typically I'll take a nice big swig of a hydrometer sample when I think it's near FG. Not this one... just a sip.

Also, the gelatin isn't entirely necessary. A crash usually does the job for me. But whatever you choose it'll still be beer. Good luck!
 
Reno_eNVy said:
1.017 is an excellent FG! That's going to be tasty.

But yeah, typically I'll take a nice big swig of a hydrometer sample when I think it's near FG. Not this one... just a sip.

Also, the gelatin isn't entirely necessary. A crash usually does the job for me. But whatever you choose it'll still be beer. Good luck!
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Yeah...I'm pretty sure it's at FG, but I always like to let it sit for a while to finish up. As said, I'm really happy with 1.017, so I hope that really is it! Instead of being at 155F, my mash started at 156F, but a couple minutes of stirring got it down to target temp. I lost 3 degrees during the mash, which is standard for my setup. 75% attenuation - perfect!

I'm like you, Reno. I like drinking my gravity samples, but this one? No thanks! I crashed it for a couple hours and could see a bunch of yeast that had settled out; that helped, but it was still a less-than-ideal swig of beer! The one thing that really stuck out was that it had an incredibly velvety mouthfeel.

I've been fining with gelatin recently, and I've liked the results, so I'm going to go ahead and do it again. I realize it may not be necessary, but it's a simple process, so it's really no skin off my back.
 
I am scheduled to brew this in a week or so...going to be difficult for me to wait to drink it, but I am very excited to get it on it's way.
 
waltzbrewingco said:
Pumpkin in a bag. Last year I steeped it and specialty grains at same temp for same amount of time and came away with plenty of squashy notes on the nose before the spice additions. I also used a bit less than most people seem to be. I think I used 1 large can of the Libbys. But it turned out well without being overly pungent.
Click to expand...


Thanks! I am going to brew it this weekend.

I was going to use my US-05 home strain but am starting to get worried about it being up to the task. I may suck it up and go straight US-06/1056.
 
Eiffel said:
Thanks! I am going to brew it this weekend.

I was going to use my US-05 home strain but am starting to get worried about it being up to the task. I may suck it up and go straight US-06/1056.
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US-05 is the same strain (or very close) to 1056. I don't think US-06 exists.
 
Brew_G said:
Yeah...I'm pretty sure it's at FG, but I always like to let it sit for a while to finish up. As said, I'm really happy with 1.017, so I hope that really is it! Instead of being at 155F, my mash started at 156F, but a couple minutes of stirring got it down to target temp. I lost 3 degrees during the mash, which is standard for my setup. 75% attenuation - perfect!

I'm like you, Reno. I like drinking my gravity samples, but this one? No thanks! I crashed it for a couple hours and could see a bunch of yeast that had settled out; that helped, but it was still a less-than-ideal swig of beer! The one thing that really stuck out was that it had an incredibly velvety mouthfeel.

I've been fining with gelatin recently, and I've liked the results, so I'm going to go ahead and do it again. I realize it may not be necessary, but it's a simple process, so it's really no skin off my back.
Click to expand...

Ive never used Gelatin before but am considering it for this brew. How simple is it? and is there a thread describing the process? Would it be during a secondary transfer that you add it?

Any info welcome, Thanks.
 
Brewed this up yesterday, everything went perfect, I used a new manifold that I made for the mash tun and my efficiency came in around 78% when I've been getting around 70%. Needless to say this may be more of an imperial pumpkin. The color was a beautiful vibrant orange and it smelled amazing when I added the spices in the boil. I only added 1 full tbs in the boil so I can taste once it goes into secondary and then I may add more then depending on taste. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439557812.252121.jpg

I also decided to switch things up and pitch with wyeast 1968, I used it on a brown with great results and I wouldn't mind a nice malty spicy pumpkin ale. I'll post results in a few weeks
 
Also to help people with stuck sparges... I added the pumpkin into a paint straining bag, and put it in the initial strike water while it was heating. Then during the mash I switched the bag in there. Once I finished vorlafing and got a good seal of grains, I unbagged the pumpkin and mixed it all in. I had no rice hulls and everything went flawlessly
 
Brewing this tomorrow. Just curious if anyone has ever baked the pumpkin the night before and then add the next day? I brew early in the AM (normally 6am), and don't really want to add the extra hour in the AM.

Thoughts?
 
I did, if you add it cold to the mash just be prepared for a drop in temperature that's more than normal
 
DoomRider said:
Brewing this tomorrow. Just curious if anyone has ever baked the pumpkin the night before and then add the next day? I brew early in the AM (normally 6am), and don't really want to add the extra hour in the AM.

Thoughts?
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I did. I baked it the night before and just put it in a bowl with a lid and dumped it into my mash the next morning..

But a little update guys. A few weeks ago I posted about adding 1# of lactose in with my priming sugar, and after I got done bottling I noticed all of my lactose was at the bottom of the bottling bucket, so I wasn't sure if my priming sugar mixed. I popped open 3 different bottles from the first bottle I bottled to the last one I bottled and no signs of any carbonation. So I am doing an experiment. I popped open a bottle today and put one of my brewers best carbonation drops in it. When I put the drop in it started foaming a little bit. Good sign? I put a new sanitized cap on it and put it in a zip lock and off it went into an insulated bag in the closet. So I am either going to get a bottle bomb, or a carbonated beer (I hope).
 
treacheroustexan said:
I did. I baked it the night before and just put it in a bowl with a lid and dumped it into my mash the next morning..
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Hmm I can't remember but did you mention earlier in the thread that your gravity got surprisingly low? If so, adding the pumpkin cold may have affected your mash temps, causing the dry fermentation.

treacheroustexan said:
But a little update guys. A few weeks ago I posted about adding 1# of lactose in with my priming sugar, and after I got done bottling I noticed all of my lactose was at the bottom of the bottling bucket, so I wasn't sure if my priming sugar mixed. I popped open 3 different bottles from the first bottle I bottled to the last one I bottled and no signs of any carbonation. So I am doing an experiment. I popped open a bottle today and put one of my brewers best carbonation drops in it. When I put the drop in it started foaming a little bit. Good sign? I put a new sanitized cap on it and put it in a zip lock and off it went into an insulated bag in the closet. So I am either going to get a bottle bomb, or a carbonated beer (I hope).
Click to expand...

Huh that's odd.

When I used to bottle I had a technique for ensuring even carbonation: make simple syrup. In the future boil your priming sugar, lactose, or whatever you're adding to the bottling bucket in a cup of water (or more if you're adding a lot.) Then, put the syrup at the bottom of the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it but position your hose at an angle so it creates a slight whirlpool. And as long as you don't leave it alone to settle for hours the sugar should be perfectly distributed in solution.

Also worth noting, with this brew it isn't uncommon for it to take a few extra weeks to reach proper carbonation.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Hmm I can't remember but did you mention earlier in the thread that your gravity got surprisingly low? If so, adding the pumpkin cold may have affected your mash temps, causing the dry fermentation.



Huh that's odd.

When I used to bottle I had a technique for ensuring even carbonation: make simple syrup. In the future boil your priming sugar, lactose, or whatever you're adding to the bottling bucket in a cup of water (or more if you're adding a lot.) Then, put the syrup at the bottom of the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it but position your hose at an angle so it creates a slight whirlpool. And as long as you don't leave it alone to settle for hours the sugar should be perfectly distributed in solution.

Also worth noting, with this brew it isn't uncommon for it to take a few extra weeks to reach proper carbonation.
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Thanks for the response. I did just that! I boiled both in a cup of water and after i bottled everything, there was just white syrupy/grainy stuff at the bottom of my bucket. Maybe il try another in a week.
 
After consideration, I am just going to bake it the same day I brew. It makes more sense to add warm pumpkin.

Thanks for the input though :mug:
 
So I have lowered the base malt by a couple pounds so it fits I'm my MT....will this still necessitate two packs of US-05? Thanks Reno for the great recipe... I had to go Maris as that's all I they had on hand.

Recipe: Pumpkin Ale
Pumpkin Ale

Recipe specifics:

Style: American Brown Ale
Batch size: 5.0 gal
Boil volume: 6.0 gal
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
Bitterness (IBU): 13.1
Color (SRM): 13.6
ABV: 6.0%

Grain/Sugars:

8.00 lb Maris Otter Malt, 72.7%
1.00 lb Crystal 60L, 9.1%
1.00 lb Victory Malt, 9.1%
1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Light, 9.1%

Hops:

1.00 oz Hallertauer (AA 3.2%, Pellet) 60 min, 11.0 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer (AA 3.2%, Pellet) 5 min, 2.2 IBU

Yeast/Misc:

California Ale yeast, 2.0 unit(s), Yeast Safale US-05
Generic ingredient, 1.5 unit(s), Other 1.5 tbs spice, boil 60 min
Irish Moss, 0.5 unit(s), Fining , boil 10 min

Recipe Notes:

2- 29oz of pumpkin. Bake at 350 for 45-60 min.

1.5 tbs of pumpkin pie spice.

-----
 
DoomRider said:
After consideration, I am just going to bake it the same day I brew. It makes more sense to add warm pumpkin.



Thanks for the input though :mug:
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Just another option:

I baked mine two days prior and put it in the fridge. I took it out and broiled it for about five minutes to warm it up and possibly get a little extra caramelization on it. I did this while I was bringing strike water up to temp.
 
Just brewed this recipe and the 5.5 gallons of goodness is in my ferm, chamber getting down to pitch temp as we speak! Hydro sample looks amazing! Note that there is no hydrometer in it, unfortunately, it broke shortly after my pre-boil reading (1.050), so I will have to wait until tomorrow to get an OG.

*EDIT: I just realized that I completely forgot to add the Pumpkin Spice @ 5 mins! I think I will just do a spice tea and add it at bottling. I hope that saves it.

PunkinAleSample.jpg
 
Biscuits said:
*EDIT: I just realized that I completely forgot to add the Pumpkin Spice @ 5 mins! I think I will just do a spice tea and add it at bottling. I hope that saves it.
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Nooooo!

Nah it's cool. Somebody PMed me a couple days ago asking about using whole spice so I recommended making a tincture. I'm posting my response in case anybody isn't sure how to flavor that way:

My recommendation on that is to make a tincture. First brew the beer without the spices added and proceed normally. Let the spices you want to use sit in a bath of clear flavorless liquor (vodka, everclear, etc) for at least a week before you bottle or rack keg. Filter the tincture so you're just left with the liquid. Take a small measured sample of your beer and add the tincture to the sample drop by drop until it tastes how you want it to. Then scale the amount of tincture you'll need up to the full batch size, add the tincture, and proceed as normal.

I hope that helps
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Reno_eNVy said:
Nooooo!
My recommendation on that is to make a tincture. First brew the beer without the spices added and proceed normally. Let the spices you want to use sit in a bath of clear flavorless liquor (vodka, everclear, etc) for at least a week before you bottle or rack keg. Filter the tincture so you're just left with the liquid. Take a small measured sample of your beer and add the tincture to the sample drop by drop until it tastes how you want it to. Then scale the amount of tincture you'll need up to the full batch size, add the tincture, and proceed as normal.

I hope that helps:
Click to expand...

It helps immensely. I was literally going to make a "tea" and steep the spices in 5 or 6 cups of hot water for a few hours and then cool before adding it into the bottling bucket. Glad, I said something before I made another mistake. :drunk:

I guess my only other question is: Should the tincture be strong like a concentrate might be? Since adding it to 5 gallons of beer will at some rate dilute it?
 
About to start my boil! Any thoughts on lowering the grain bill by 2lbs while everything else remains the same from the original recipe, and still pitching two packs of yeast? Suppose I could just do both and see what happens! Thanks in advance.
 

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