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

Did you use a yeast starter for the fermentis, or just hydrate the yeast and throw it in?

I made this yesterday as my 2nd batch ever. My OG reading was higher than the recipe at 1.063. Any ideas on why is was so high? Is it because I was lazy and just threw the hydrometer in the primary? I'm expecting it won't effect the final product.

After tasting dogfish head punkin ale i want to brew a pumpkin beer. Contemplating making this one.

edit: do you add the hops at 60 minutes or what?

thunderstruck is a lightly hopped beer so it doesn't overpower the pumpkin. there are only bittering hops in it and not much of those. yes 1 hour hop boil.
I only use starters if I'm using liquid yeast or making a big beer. most dry has a higher cell count than liquid. Just follow the instructions on the packet. Some say rehydrate and some say pitch it dry. pitching dry is less of a hassle and less chance of infection while rehydrating.

Has anyone done this as a partial mash, with the grains and pumpkin mashed prior to the extract boil? I'm thinking this will help with the pumpkin extraction and the issue of straining the wort.

-kap

Ok, I didn't get to brew this as soon as I would like, but it should be ready by Thanksgiving - a little pumpkin ale w/ pumpkin pie sounds mighty fine.

I built a mash tun out of a 48qt cooler I had in order to accommodate the pumpkin and now wonder why I never used this cooler before. I put a pound of rice hulls in here and used a false bottom out of my 5gal round cooler mlt. No stuck or slow sparges at all. I actually was able to bump up my brew house efficiency to 78% today. It is tucked away nicely in the fermenter and bubbling away.

Only bad part to my brew day was the gravity check I performed with a glass carboy full of 5gal of star san. Instant explosion on contact and a slightly cut foot (flip flops aren't exactly the safest brewing footwear). On the positive side, I now can justify buying some better bottles.

Brewing this today extract version.

-kap

Reviving this one...On page 3 there is a conversion for 5 gallons. I plugged the 15 gal recipe into BeerSmith and came out with these numbers:

Brew Type: All Grain
OG: 1.053
IBU: 14
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 7.67 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % (I get around 68%)

7.70 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1.83 lb Crystal Malt 60L
0.92 lb Biscuit Malt
0.37 lb Wheat, Flaked
1.10 lb Rice Hulls
60.00 oz Pumpkin (Canned) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.82 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min)
0.55 tsp Clove (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.55 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.10 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.10 tsp Cinnamon (Ground) (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale

Anybody else get different #'s when converting down to 5 gallons?

Just brewed up a batch yesterday. I decided to make a 6 gallon batch, so just used 2/5 of all the ingredients in the 15 gallon recipe (except I used 90oz of pumpkin - I like pumpkin). Everything went swimmingly, except I forgot the wheat flakes. Oh well - I hope it doesn't effect the taste to much. I used 1.5# of rice hulls, and the sparge took less than an hour. I got 10 gallons of wort which boiled down to 7 - hooray, extra beer! the O.G. was ~1.054.



Moral of the story: using a metric crap-ton of rice hulls, this will sparge through even an s-braid just fine.

I am brewing this right now, just did the first sparge and slow but no real problems, Igloo ice cube with manifold I made. I added 1 LB rice hulls, doing 5 gallon batch. 60 OZ. pumpkin. I may add some orange zest to the boil too just wating to see how it smells. So far so good
Mike

Missed the pre boil gravity by a ton, Beersmith said 1.052, I was more like 1.040, hmmm.... maybe add a little DME?

Note had a half pound of light DME added it to boil ended up at 1.046OG not what I was after but it will be low ABV, sample tastes great (zest from orange = awesome) . Did a thermometer check and found out one was way off ond my strike water was way too hot. Just ordered a thermopen, problem solved. Mash was over 170 for first ten minutes or so I suspect this was an issue.
Mike

Yuri, what would you say to someone who wants to use a phenolic (maybe estery too?) yeast to take the place of the spices? I want the spice flavors to be more genuine and a natural part of the beer. Sure, I could take my chances, but I'm gun shy about spice usage and it would be pretty novel to derive your spices from yeast. Could you offer your impressions on whether or not that's as good of an idea as I think it is? If so, can you recommend a yeast strain that might fit the (grain...lolz)bill for that?

I'll be putting this one together (extract recipe) this weekend and am wondering...
After I bake the pumpkin for an hour...
Do I dump all of it in a grain bag and hang it into my pot... or is important to let it intermingle with the wort?

Also... this may be helpful...
A copycat recipe of the Cinnamon Plus (from recipezaar.com)...

6 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon dried orange peel
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

I'm thinking that perhaps fresh pumpkin is the way to go for those of us who use a SSB.

If baked and cut into chucks its a lot less likely to stick the sparge then goopy canned pumpkin.

I am going to brew the Extract version of this today after work. When do I add the pumpkin spice tea to the wort? Thanks.

Just wanted to say thanks to Yuri and everyone else for the tips in this thread. Just finished brewing my pumpkin ale and it smells amazing.

I bottled this last night, still tasted a bit bland so I added another tsp of pumpkin pie spice to the bottling bucket, hopefully that and carbonating it will help.

for the extract version, it says flaked wheat. i am not doubting that, but from everything i read and what the guys at the local store told me, flaked is for grain version only.

will the flaked wheat not convert correctly if i steep it with the crystal and biscuit malts for 30 minutes? do i need to go get malted wheat instead? thanks for the help.

You can probably skip the flaked wheat in both versions without much ill effect. I like to add it for the increased head retention, but it probably won't add much to a pure extract recipe.

Brewed the '08 batch today - a 6 gallon AG recipe brewed with a bunch of the younger guys from work. It was a great success minus a little stuck sparge issue (batch sparging with pumpkin is NO fun...even less fun than fly sparging).

Here's how I solved the stuck sparge:
I scooped the entire mash into a spare kettle, removed the false bottom, and cleaned the pumpkin mess that had been hiding beneath it. Then I replaced the mash, pulled another vorlauf, and continued as normal. My efficiency suffered slightly more than usual, but it will still be a fine beer. The chilled sample was AWESOME.

Here's this year's recipe (really not much different...except in terms of volume and yeast choice):

6 gallons, AG

Calculated for 70% efficiency.
(My 5-7 gallon batch sparge efficiency has been a little low)

9 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Malt (2 Row)
2 lbs 4.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
1 lbs 2.3 oz Biscuit Malt
7.3 oz Wheat, Flaked
75.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned (Mash)
0.90 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.0 IBU
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Cinnamon Plus (Pampered Chef) (Flameout)
1 Pkg Fermentis #S-04

Mash at 158°F for 60 minutes (I highly recommend a pound of rice hulls, you might just avoid a stuck sparge). Batch sparge. Boil 60 minutes.

UPDATE: 4 hour lag...woohoo!

Just brewed this one today! The wort tasted really good, hope it turns out well!!

(just realized I put in 1/2tsp extra of both allspice and cinnamon) it'll hopefully be okay.

I brewed it this weekend. did the extract version.

Went a little different route with the pumpkin. I used a real pumpkin, cut into 1inch cubes, and baked for a hour. then steeped the pumpkin with the grains instead of boiling. i was curious, so.....we will see what happens!!!!

I sampled my first bottle of this ale last night. WOW - fantastic! It will definitely be a beer I'll brew every year. MY wife was totally in love with it.

Llama said:

(just realized I put in 1/2tsp extra of both allspice and cinnamon) it'll hopefully be okay.

Click to expand...

I added the normal amount of spices in the last 5 min. of the boil and now that i taste it 2.5 weeks after brew day, i think it might need a "spice tea". I'm sure yours will be fine.

If it finishes too dry (below 1.010), add 4 to 8 ounces of lactose. I did that this year, and the sample I just pulled is really good. The fix for next year's batch is to mash a little higher (I was a little lower than the planned 158°F) and perhaps accomplish a mash out.

I am doing the extract version of the recipe and am wondering what would be the most effective way to brew my "spice tea". Should I boil my water and then steep the spices or should I boil the spices?
I will be adding this to my secondary.
Thanks again!

This has been a huge hit with my family (craft beer drinkers) and my friends (not so much craft beer people but learing) It really needs more time in the keg but I doubt it will make it long, thanks for the recipe!
Mike

I had a bottle of this last night and it tasted really good. It's been at least 3 weeks in the bottle. I tried a bottle premature and it tasted a little funny, but that taste definitely is settling out.

Yuri_Rage said:

Steep the grains for 20-30 minutes at about 155°F.

Click to expand...

Okay, do I steep the Caramel/Crystal Malt, Biscuit Malt, and flaked Wheat for 20-30 minutes, then add the DME for the boil?

Yes - take a look around the Beginner's forum and the wiki for more detailed instructions on extract+grain recipes.

Yuri - I had nothing (cheesecloth) to steep the pumpkin spice mix in and just added to the secondary after cooling. Did this yesterday afternoon and this morning before I left town it looked ugly. I'm going to let it run it's course. Any thoughts?

Most beer looks ugly in the fermenter. RDWHAHB.

Well I cracked open my first bottle of this and it is excellent. Next time I think I'll stick to just using pumpkin spice, the pumpkin is hard to work with and I don't think it added that much flavor. Thanks a lot for the recipe.

I just did a slightly different version of this and though I'd add my notes. I did a similar beer last year that turned out great, so I kept those amounts of pumpkin and spices.

I found a local pumpkin grower that had "Blue" pumpkins this year. Since I try to brew using fresh, cool ingredients, I picked some up. I used 2lbs of cleaned, 1" cubed pumpkin pieces, cooked in a low boil for 20min with enough water to cover them. I smashed the pumpkin close to a puree, and added it and the water it cooked in, into the mash tun. I used 1lb rice hulls also, and had no problems at all with a slow drain time. It drained just like any other brew.

For spices, I used 1tbl Allspice, 1tbl Cinnamon, and 1tbl Nutmeg, all at 5min. I did the same last year and it was a good amount. I finished off with S04 Dry Whitbread yeast, and it started off quickly. I'm going to go transfer it to secondary right now. Thanks for the recipe Yuri! I'm calling it "Blue Thunderpumpkin Ale".

Have patience with this beer. I brewed the extract recipe and used the "dump some spices at flame out" method, 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice (rather than using a spice tea at bottling). When we took the beer out of primary (2 weeks) it was really spicy, with almost not bitterness or pumpkin or beer flavor for that matter.

So we put it in secondary for about 3 weeks, and just bottled last night. All I can say is WOW 3 weeks makes a huge difference. The beer now has a very amazing and distinct pumpkin flavor, when you sip it's beer then a sweet spiciness, then the after taste is like you just licked the inside of a pumpkin. Also the color is an amber orange, very nice. This was at about 70 degrees with no carbonation. I can only imagine how good it's going to be in 5-6 weeks carbonated and chilled.

By far the biggest disappointment with this brew was our futility in straining out the 60 oz's of pumpkin that went in the boil. Most of it ended up in the fermenter and still a bit in secondary. It lead to us only getting a yield of about 4 gallons of beer. It sucks brewing a great beer and realizing you are 1/5 smaller than your usual batch, but hey that's not the worst problem to have

-kap

I just bottled mine and had the exact same issue. Got only forty-two 12oz bottles instead of the usual fifty or so. I didn't have any dextrose on hand, and didn't feel like cooking up some DME, so I used this hazelnut syrup I've been saving for the priming sugar. It tasted awesome. The nuttiness really worked with the pumpkin and spices. I look forward to drinking this with Thanksgiving dinner!

I just made this today; I put 3 cans of pumpkin in the mash and one in the boil. One pound of rice hulls in the mash, and not even a hint of a stuck sparge. The wort is a beautiful orange color and tastes just like pumpkin and cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Recipe: highly recommended!

I just tried one and man is it great! It has a nice orange color and good bready/biscuity notes. I added the spices at 5 min. and can pick up faint "notes" of them, especially when the beer warms up. I think i might give this another run next year, but next time add maybe half the amount of spices to the secondary along with the 5 min. addition.

You need to brew this!

Was getting ready to bottle this tonight and I took my hydro reading and it is 1.008, so a bit lower than I had hoped. I'm sure it finished dryer because I had trouble maintaining my mash temp so I mashed at around 153.

I tasted it and its not bad, but not exactly what I was thinking. I've got some Lactose, could I add some of that to get back a little bit of the sweetness and body? If so how much (btw did a 4 gallon batch)?

Thanks

Try a half pound of lactose to start.