Autumn Seasonal Beer Samhain Pumpkin Ale

This turned out to be a great brew day! No stuck sparges and the backyard (where I was brewing) smelled fantastic. I'm really excited to try this beer. My OG was 1.053 and the color was spot on. I'll take some pictures of it and have tasting notes in a few weeks after it's done.

Man, thanks for this great recipe. I adjusted the recipe to do a 3-gallon BIAB and it turned out great. It's still not quite done bottle conditioning, but I drank one last week and it was on point.

The only semi-major changes I made was that I had to throw a little DME in and I didn't add the pumpkin puree until right after I finished mashing (I call it first-wort-pumpkin).

3 Gallon BIAB
2.00 lb Pumpkin Puree (Mash 1.0 hours) Flavor 3 -
3 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 4 50.5 %
8.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 9.1 %
8.6 oz Toasted Malt (This is the Maris Otter I toasted in the oven)
8.6 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 7 9.1 %
1 lbs Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 9 16.8 %
0.30 oz Magnum [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10 23.3 IBUs
2.2 oz Molasses [Boil for 10 min](80.0 SRM) Sugar 11 2.3 %
0.50 tsp Ground Cinnamon (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 12 -
0.25 tsp All Spice (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 13 -
0.25 tsp Ground Ginger (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 14 -
0.13 tsp Ground Clove (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 15 -
0.13 tsp Ground Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 16 -
1.0 pkg Denny's Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450) [124.21 ml]

mhayes said:

That is what I have done. Also, if you are doing all grain, I would put the pumpkin in the mash. I have tried putting the pumpkin in the secondary but was disappointed with the results. Pumpkin beer has so many protein solids that it took a really really long time for it to clear up even after being cold crashed.

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Does this translate to 15 pounds of canned pumpkin puree as well? Getting ready to make this again and would like to get more pumpkin flavor into the beer to help mellow out the spices.

I will have to try this

The only British (Mutons) caramalt my homebrew dude had was 13-19.6 SRM (10-15L). Recipe calls for 34 SRM. I've got some Crystal 60L lying around.

Should I go with 1lb of the lower SRM caramalt, or mix in just a bit of the 60L to even things out?

Or does it really not matter at all?

Everything just came UPS. Going to roast my malts and let rest for 2 weeks.

Very nice, very nice. I will say though that I was kind of hoping for a *richer* pumpkin ale and expected the pumpkin to add some significant quasi-creaminess to the mouthfeel. It's only been carbonating for 10 days, true, but I ended up with something more towards the crisp side, refreshing, good with food and football (as per OP). Excellent balance, but was hoping for just a bit more balls.

Not bad at all.

Considering a modified recipe. Thoughts?

Swapped out the toasted malt (did it last time, not sure it added much) for 2lb of light munich. Happen to have some belgian coffee kiln malt, which, combined with 0.5lb flaked oats, I'm hoping will add a little cappuccino-ness. English pub yeast for a touch of sweetness, esters.

Grain:
7lb golden promise
1lb british caramalt (34.0 SRM)
2lb light munich
2.5oz belgian coffee kiln malt
0.5lb flaked oats
0.25 lb Molasses

Hops: 1oz cluster 60min

Yeast: Imperial A09 Pub

Spices (as per OP):
1 t. cinnamon (5 min)
1/2 t. allspice (5 min)
1/2 t. ground ginger (5 min)
1/4 t. nutmeg (5 min)
1/4 t. clove (5 min)

The LHBS was seriously short on stock and when you're in there with a toddler, you've got to improvise. I remembered the presumption against Victory/Biscuit... but wanted to do something a bit different than the original... so this happened last night:

8lb MO
0.5lb Melanoidin
0.5lb Victory
0.5lb Biscuit
0.6 English Crystal 77L
0.5lb torrified wheat
12oz oats (toasted in oven for 20min)
4oz molasses

Spices as OP.
60oz Trader Joe's pumpkin puree
0.9oz Cluster
Yeast: Imperial A09 Pub

Certainly the strangest smelling wort I've made. Instead of the pumpkin je ne sais quoi, this trader joe's stuff made it end up smelling like a proper pumpkin broth. Malt notes all over the show. Spices cruising on top of it all. Was gonna harvest yeast from Irish Red, but just dumped it on the yeast cake (also a first).

Suspect this will be one of those freak beers that's either unpleasant tasting or kind of delicious in a weird way, depending how you happen to look at it.

Brewed this up yesterday after not brewing a pumpkin ale for about 4 years. I brewed on a Grainfather and with a full pound of rice hulls I was able to have a smooth mash and sparge while getting an OG of 1.058. Had a big krausen within 12 hours of pitching Denny's Favorite. Looking forward to trying this one again.