Autumn Seasonal Beer Samhain Pumpkin Ale

Brewed this about 1 week ago using S-05. How long does the primary usually take? (smells great!)

Another Question on the Torrified Wheat. Mine came uncrushed & crushing was not an option from morebeer. I tried crushing w/ a rolling pin & got nowhere. Finally i hit it w/ a food processor for a good while & the stuff was still not what i would consider a fine crush. Is this stuff not meant to be crushed at all?


Thanks.

firefly765 said:

Brewed this about 1 week ago using S-05. How long does the primary usually take? (smells great!)

Another Question on the Torrified Wheat. Mine came uncrushed & crushing was not an option from morebeer. I tried crushing w/ a rolling pin & got nowhere. Finally i hit it w/ a food processor for a good while & the stuff was still not what i would consider a fine crush. Is this stuff not meant to be crushed at all?


Thanks.

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It is supposed to be crushed and I always just run it through my barley crusher along with the rest of the grist. But it sounds like you at least cracked it which should have been plenty. As long as you hit your OG you know you crushed it well enough.

KingBrian,

Had to chime in; over the past month, I've made 10 gallons of this beer. My girl, who hates beer--started drinking this and she loves it. She's not a fan of bitter or hoppy beers but just loves this. She asked for a full time tap, I think we settled on Sep-Jan.

Damn fine beer...as mentioned earler my main subs are:
S04 (cuz I had some), Maris Otter for base grain, and Vanilla in the secondary.

shroomzofdoom said:

KingBrian,

Had to chime in; over the past month, I've made 10 gallons of this beer. My girl, who hates beer--started drinking this and she loves it. She's not a fan of bitter or hoppy beers but just loves this. She asked for a full time tap, I think we settled on Sep-Jan.

Damn fine beer...as mentioned earler my main subs are:
S04 (cuz I had some), Maris Otter for base grain, and Vanilla in the secondary.

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Nice, another convert!

I had never had a pumpkin ale before, and was a little nervous about making 5 gallons. Two weeks in bottles now, and I'm already planning the next batch. I followed the recipe exactly, and it worked out very well, I wouldn't change a thing. I can't wait until this is fully conditioned.

cklages said:

I had never had a pumpkin ale before, and was a little nervous about making 5 gallons. Two weeks in bottles now, and I'm already planning the next batch. I followed the recipe exactly, and it worked out very well, I wouldn't change a thing. I can't wait until this is fully conditioned.

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Beautiful picture! I'm glad you like it!

So.

Denny's 50 little bastages still haven't flocc'd out. It's been kegged at 38* for a month and I still get a glass of yeast every time.

If it doesn't settle down by next weekend, I'm dumping it.

B

bad coffee said:

So.

Denny's 50 little bastages still haven't flocc'd out. It's been kegged at 38* for a month and I still get a glass of yeast every time.

If it doesn't settle down by next weekend, I'm dumping it.

B

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Hmm, they always floc pretty well for me. Have you tried using gelatin? I wouldn't dump it just because it's cloudy. How's it taste?

It's not just cloudy, but downright YEASTY. It tastes like a starter. This morning I drained off a liter and a half trying to purge the yeast out of the bottom of the keg if that's what it is. Tonight I'll see how it pours.

Here's a pic of it, my dunkle, and my morning coffee mug.

Gelatin!! Don't dump it!

I served this at a party last weekend; 5 gallons gone in one night. I've only been brewing for about half of a year, so it was my first keg kicked in such a fashion. On one end, I'm very happy everyone enjoyed it, on the other end, I don't have any more of it for myself - It's sort of like I just sent my first kid off to college.

bad coffee said:

It's not just cloudy, but downright YEASTY. It tastes like a starter. This morning I drained off a liter and a half trying to purge the yeast out of the bottom of the keg if that's what it is. Tonight I'll see how it pours.

Here's a pic of it, my dunkle, and my morning coffee mug.

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Wow, I've never seen Denny's behave like that. If gelatin didn't work how about trying some polyclar or that new fining that removes gluten, can't remember it's name. It's worth the couple of bucks on a fining in order to salvage the $30 or so in the batch and the time spent making it.

My wife keeps bugging to make a beer she will actually drink,she loves pumpkin ale but only certian ones (ie shippyard).She didnt care for brooklynes pumpkin ale she said it had too many spices.My question to u since u compared urs to brooklyne is, are ur spices simmilar or less asstringent,what i mean is could they be cut in half or are they already subduded compared to brooklyns?

EO74 said:

My wife keeps bugging to make a beer she will actually drink,she loves pumpkin ale but only certian ones (ie shippyard).She didnt care for brooklynes pumpkin ale she said it had too many spices.My question to u since u compared urs to brooklyne is, are ur spices simmilar or less asstringent,what i mean is could they be cut in half or are they already subduded compared to brooklyns?

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Post Road definitely has more spice flavor. I didn't get any astringency in the Post Road but this recipe definitely has no astringency from spices. If you make this recipe, I think you will be happy with the spice levels as written.

It wasnt astringint to me ......but to her well...... YOU KNOW! Cool im gonna go with it thanks. Ohh i also screwed up my order and instead of 1 pound marris toasted its 1 pound golden promise toasted should be fine though thanks again ill post to let u know how it turns out!

Bottled this over the weekend and oh my, the smell! Tasted great not even carbed up. I normally don't drink the whole sample but this time I finished it off.

First time using Denny's Favorite and I think I love this yeast. Very clear beer, and very compact yeast cake at the bottom. It went nuts with a 2L starter and was bubbling the next morning.

Well im drinking this now and thought id post. AWSOME beer a must brew!!! I will deff make this my fall seasonal brew.I had a b#@ch of a time sparging this even with 1# of rice hulls but sooo worth it.Next time i might add a little more spice.GREAT recipe K.B. thanx.

EO74 said:

Well im drinking this now and thought id post. AWSOME beer a must brew!!! I will deff make this my fall seasonal brew.I had a b#@ch of a time sparging this even with 1# of rice hulls but sooo worth it.Next time i might add a little more spice.GREAT recipe K.B. thanx.

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If you had sparge problems even with the rice hulls, try conditioning the malt next time. I find it is very helpful in improving lautering.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning

I did a mexican vienna lager this weekend and i conditioned the malt,easy technique with awsome results so worth the extra effort if u can even call it that!My only concern is my barley crusher rusting up, i know its not that much moisture but im not sure the rollers are ss.

This recipe looks awesome!!! How much water did you include in the Mash? Also, what quantity of water did you use to Sparge?

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

You're welcome.

moconno1 said:

This recipe looks awesome!!! How much water did you include in the Mash? Also, what quantity of water did you use to Sparge?

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I usually mash at about 1.25 to 1.3 qts/lb. As for sparge volume, that will differ for each person. Just sparge with however much you need to hit your preboil volume. Or if you're like me and boil off at a high rate, I'll sparge with part of the difference and add the rest straight to the boil pot to hit my volume. That way I'm not over-sparging.

Thanks for the info. I should have framed my question a little differently; I was curious as to whether or not the Pumpkin you added to the mash changed your water to grain ratio's, and therefore how much total water you added. I'll plan to sparge as usual when I try a variation on this recipe. Cheers for Beers...

I made this on 5-24-11 with S05 yeast and it smells great. I did two things different and I hope I didn't ruin it.

-My LHBS didn't have any torrified wheat. I ended up using a granulated, enriched, cooked wheat by Goya that I got at the market.

-I added about a little over a pound of flaked corn I had laying around.

My OG was 1.061

thanks for posting the recipe

Making this tonight. I just realized my lhbs gave me US 2 row, not UK. I think I have a little victory or munich left over, I think I might add a little of that to get it a little more malty. Think that's a bad idea?

jwk526 said:

Making this tonight. I just realized my lhbs gave me US 2 row, not UK. I think I have a little victory or munich left over, I think I might add a little of that to get it a little more malty. Think that's a bad idea?

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If you toasted more than one pound of malt I would just use a little extra of that. If not then you can use a little munich but I would not use victory. Or just leave it as is and it should still be great.

KingBrianI said:

If you toasted more than one pound of malt I would just use a little extra of that. If not then you can use a little munich but I would not use victory. Or just leave it as is and it should still be great.

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Cool, thanks. I have extra MO, so I'll toast a little more. Thanks again.

Definitely making this soon, what temp did you ferment at tho.. Can't seem to find one.

65 is usually a good temp

SDCore said:

Definitely making this soon, what temp did you ferment at tho.. Can't seem to find one.

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jwk526 said:

65 is usually a good temp

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yep, lower- to mid-60s works well for Denny's yeast. Good luck with it!

Just backread the whole thread - looks like a great beer and I'll def. be brewing soon to serve at our annual Oktoberfest party (along with a true Oktoberfest lager)...

Only question is: How did you calculate the temperature (not volume) of the mash strike water? I usually let Beersmith calculate it for me however with all of that room temp. pumpkin it is sure to throw the number off.

DrinkNoH2O said:

Just backread the whole thread - looks like a great beer and I'll def. be brewing soon to serve at our annual Oktoberfest party (along with a true Oktoberfest lager)...

Only question is: How did you calculate the temperature (not volume) of the mash strike water? I usually let Beersmith calculate it for me however with all of that room temp. pumpkin it is sure to throw the number off.

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KingBrianI said:

I figure since the pumpkin has both liquid and solids in it, and probably in a pretty similar ratio to the mash, it can be essentially ignored. I don't have any problems when doing it this way.

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Post #55. Good luck!

I also bake the pumpkin and add it to the mash when it's still warm. If you let it get to mash temp before adding it you could hit right on but even if it is a little off it won't affect the mash temp too much.

jwk526 said:

Post #55. Good luck!

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Again, I'm asking about temperature (not volume). That post is in regards to volume.

KingBrianI said:

I also bake the pumpkin and add it to the mash when it's still warm. If you let it get to mash temp before adding it you could hit right on but even if it is a little off it won't affect the mash temp too much.

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Thanks, that's sorta what I was thinking. I'll bake the pumpkin just prior to doughing in, and let it cool to roughly the mash temperature and then add it. Really looking forward to brewing this recipe soon.

I'm tagging this as I plan to use the molasses idea as well as the ratio of spices in an extract pumpkin beer this fall.

This Saturday I will be brewing up my version of this beer. I will be doing an AG X2, 12 gallon batch for a total of 24 gallons! There will also be a BBQ as I have invited friends, family and home brew club members over to be apart of the brew day!

After a long search of pumpkin Ale recipes, I am brewing this one next weekend. I only have one problem..... I have a nice healthy WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast in my fermenter and I think I am going to lager this bad boy. Anyone attempted this?

Ok. so I just bought all the ingredients for this now I need some advice, I am doing this as a first BIAB will it even work as BIAB, I know this isn't the easiest recipe for my first All-Grain but I am way to excited about this beer not to do it. Any advice would be great. I know how to do BIAB but I'm concerned about the rice hulls being necessary and the fact I was planning not on sparging if that would be an issue.

BIAB shouldn't be a problem. Just add the rice hulls to the bag and you should be fine. If you don't sparge you'll get a lower efficiency so you might want to up the grain bill to counteract that. I don't know what typical BIAB no-sparge efficiency is though but I'm sure someone else can help.

Yeah, my thought was to cut it down to a 5 gallon batch but keep the grain bill the same, but then my question would be if the pumpkin and the hops should be cut down but I don't think its drastic enough of a change for it to matter much, esp using magnum hops.

*EDIT* Does the pumpkin count as a part of my grain bill was my other question. In other words with BIAB do I need to account for the pumpkin when figuring out my strike water?