Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

Going to brew this for my first 5 gallon all grain and I'm pretty excited! I have a 10 gallon round cooler and a bazooka screen and I'm not too sure what my volumes should be for dough in and my sparges. Can anyone give me a rough estimate?

Tubbster85 said:

Going to brew this for my first 5 gallon all grain and I'm pretty excited! I have a 10 gallon round cooler and a bazooka screen and I'm not too sure what my volumes should be for dough in and my sparges. Can anyone give me a rough estimate?

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1.5 qt/lb thickness means 4.5 gallons for mash, strike at 165°F to mash at 154°F, and 4.1 gallons for sparge. Adjust accordingly for your preferred thickness.

I recommend rice hulls, it'd be demoralizing to get a stuck sparge your first time out.

troyh said:

1.5 qt/lb thickness means 4.5 gallons for mash, strike at 165°F to mash at 154°F, and 4.1 gallons for sparge. Adjust accordingly for your preferred thickness.

I recommend rice hulls, it'd be demoralizing to get a stuck sparge your first time out.

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This!

And if using rice hulls (highly recommended) you should soak them in warm water first because they can absorb a lot of mash water and throw off your volumes.

Good luck! Don't be afraid to post questions you may have.

Thanks guys!

Love the thread! Can't wait to try the recipe!
I was going to scale it down to 3 gal, but for some reason I ended up with:

6.5 lb 2 row
.75 lb crystal 60l
.75 lb victory
(all crushed together)

Rice hulls

I have several pounds of fresh (not canned), cooked, pumpkin purée. I was going going to use about 2.5 lbs in the mash.

.75lb light brown sugar 60min

And 1 oz hallertau 4.8%. .5oz 60min. .5oz 15min

.5 tbsp pie spice 10min


When I put this all in hopville I get a crazy high gravity, I must have screwed up my scaling. But if I change it to a 4 gallon batch it seems spot on. Can I get any commentary/advice on this? I can do a 4 gallon batch, but would I be better off scaling the ingredients differently? Keep in mind all the grains are crushed together in 1 bag.

Thanks, an sorry for the long post
(B)

Can anyone comment on my thought of using the WLP810 SF Steam Lager yeast on this? It would be very clear, clean, and would finish higher than if I use chico.

I'm just brewing it...and I've screwed it a little. I'm doing partial mash and I've just mashed grains without pumpkin... Stupid, stupid, stupid. I though that you add pumpkin to the boil...now I'm mashing pumpkin alone for another hour, I hope it will still be good....

banjanti said:

I'm just brewing it...and I've screwed it a little. I'm doing partial mash and I've just mashed grains without pumpkin... Stupid, stupid, stupid. I though that you add pumpkin to the boil...now I'm mashing pumpkin alone for another hour, I hope it will still be good....

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Since you can make "pumpkin ale " without pumpkin, I wouldn't worry about it. (The smell of pumpkin pie comes from the spices.)

Also, "pumpkin spice" is just a mixture of other spices, easy to mix your own or customize to taste.

Gonna brew this Monday and I'm jazzed about knocking it out before the holidays. I purchased bulk hops and was planning on substituting UK Fuggles (cuz I have 16 freakin oz!). Any reason to believe the outcome will be substantially changed?

copyright1997 said:

Since you can make "pumpkin ale " without pumpkin, I wouldn't worry about it. (The smell of pumpkin pie comes from the spices.)

Also, "pumpkin spice" is just a mixture of other spices, easy to mix your own or customize to taste.

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Hey copyright1997 ;-) I'm brewing this tomorrow morning. I'll let the wife bake the pumpkin though! Give me a shout

Well, I've mashed the pumpkin separately and wrot has definitely pumpkin taste, I can't compare what would happen if I mash it together but it doesn't look it was the end of the world after all ;-)
Now I'm going back to cooking ;-)

AGadvocate said:

Hey copyright1997 ;-) I'm brewing this tomorrow morning. I'll let the wife bake the pumpkin though! Give me a shout

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Hey there dude -
I made a variation on this/other pumpkin recipe's last Friday on a double brew day...a smoked pumpkin ale and also a "Hope it's ready by Columbus Day" IPA (using mostly Columbus Hops).

For all:
The recipe I use for Pumpkin Spice is: 50% cinnamon, 25% ginger, 12.5% allspice, 12.5% Nutmeg. I also put a bit of clove in for good measure.

I'm done...gravity is slightly higher than original - 1.07, I've used my own combination of spices in following proportions:
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
4 cloves (whole)
4 cardamon (whole)

Made with Wyest American Ale II

Now is time to wait! Arrggg! I hate waiting!

OK. I hope this isn't a false alarm, but I'm hoping to brew this some time this weekend or Monday. This will be my first ever all-grain brew, my first BIAB, and my first no-chill. I have the Libby's Pumpkin and hope to round up the ingredients today.

I plug the ingredients and numbers from the original recipe into a calculator on the Biabrewer website (designed for folks doing full-volume BIAB in which you start with the entire volume of water, and accounts for the amount of water loss based on diameter of kettle and length of boil) I get the following (I don't have beersmith or any of the other calculators):

Batch size: 5 gal
Original Gravity: 1.065
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From the BIABrewer calculator
Grain bill: 12.773 lbs (I realize there will be a bit of rounding off)
10.644 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 83.33 %
1.064 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
1.065 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8.34 %

Water required: 8.25 gal
Start of boil volume: 7.29 gal (after pulling the bag/grain)
End of boil volume: 6.27 gal (at 100*C)
Volume into fermenter: 5.40 gal

1. I'm using a keg with the top completely cut off (14.75-15" diameter).
2. I will be steeping the baked pumpkin by itself in a paint strainer bag while heating the water, as Brewmaster12 did, and will remove this prior to placing my BIAB bag and mashing.
3. I will do a 60 min boil as recommended in this recipe and not the 90 min boil as recommended by most BIABers.
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Got a couple questions: (I confess that I tend to way over-think things, sorry).

1. If someone who has one of the usual calculators could plug my numbers in based on the information given, I'd greatly appreciate it.

2. Main question is the hop additions: Original recipe shows 1oz of Hallertaur (4.8%) additions at 60min and 5min giving a total IBU of 19.3.

My calculator doesn't calculate backwards from desired IBU, but simply converts from an "original" recipe to a "scaled" recipe. Also, I think it relies on the end of boil volume of 6gal after cooling for its calculations. My calculator shows:

1oz Hallertaur (4.8%) @ 60min = 14 IBU
1oz Hallertaur (4.8%) @ 5min = 2.79 IBU
for total of 16.79 IBU.

Is this going to be OK? Should I increase the amounts in order to maintain the original hop profile?

Interestingly, Brewmaster12 moved the 5 minute addition to 30 min which resulted in a total of 34 IBUs. (my calculator gives me 24.74 if I move do this).

Anyway, I want to stick as closely as possible to the flavor of the original recipe for this first brew (my 1st all-grain BTW).

I'm not sure that the palates of the folks with whom I plan to share this would detect a 3 IBU difference, but I'd like this beer to taste like it's supposed to taste.

3. I plan to no-chill. I've heard from a few folks who say that they do no change the hop schedule for no-chill and their beers turn out just fine.

Thanks,
Keith

Any opinions on using warrior hops and wlp 007 like dfh?

The numbers look close enough to me. It all depends on how much you lose in evaporation when you boil. I lose 17%/hr with a wide kettle, you may lose less. And the pumpkin will absorb some water too.

Don't worry about the IBUs. IBU calculations are not accurate because they include too many variables. And humans can't detect a 3 IBU difference, it'd take more like 5 or even 10 to be perceptible.

Good luck!

I ordered a partial mash kit and it recommends adding the pumpkin to the last 5 - 10 minutes of the boil. Not sure how I feel about this given the potential for excess trub robbing me of extra beer. Even with a partial mash kit, I'm thinking about adding to the grain bag during mash. Should I add at the beginning and leave in the entire mash or add half way? Thanks. Also using a pack of us-05 instead of the smack pack that came with the kit. Oh, and the kit came without the brown sugar it was supposed to have! It calls for 6oz of the stuff. I don't have a scale. Any thoughts on converting dry weight to some other form of measurement, e.g., tablespoons or liquid ounces? Going to get under way here soon before the evening football games kick off.

mmcouch, people are reporting good things with steeping the pumpkin while heating your water.

As far as the brown sugar, it can be packed down so it's really hard to convert it from volume to dry weight. But you can buy a 1# bag from the grocery store and eyeball 6oz by using a little under half the bag. There's also the option of going to a store that sells loose sugar... there will definitely be a scale there!

Hope that helps and good luck

I baked my pumpkin to caramelize it with the spices. I did BIAB with my grains only, then added 1/3 of my pumpkin at 60, 30 & 15. I had alot of trub in my fermenter but I was willing to lose some beer for the flavor I ended up with. I also went with a light porter base not too smokey and ended closer to a pumpkin brown. It ended up amazing but it was a dirty brew and ferment.

I made up a recipe for a Pumpkin ale that I'm brewing today that is eerily similar to yours.

10 lbs 2 row
1 lb victory
1 lb Crystal 60

but I only used one 29oz can of pumpkin in the mash, using Fuggles and 002

So it's brewsday! Pumpkin is roasting away and I have everything set up. I am pre soaking my rice hulls as suggested and had a question about that. After soaking them for a bit, should I strain out the water??

WOO! Finally bought the ingredients to make this! We've been sitting on the canned pumpkin for a month or so in case there was a shortage again this year. Can't wait for tomorrow to brew this!

Tubbster85 said:

So it's brewsday! Pumpkin is roasting away and I have everything set up. I am pre soaking my rice hulls as suggested and had a question about that. After soaking them for a bit, should I strain out the water??

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Yeah, strain out the water. You just want the hulls to be water logged so they don't suck up your mash water.

Just finished cleaning up from brewing this today. This was my first 5 gallon all grain brew day and I gotta say, it was pretty awesome. But a brew day is not without some mistakes! I bought my ingredients yesterday after work and I realized on my way home I forgot to buy rice hulls. No biggie, I went and got them this morning. Pre soaked the hulls, baked the pumpkin and got everything prepared. Friends finally got here and I started about noon. Doughed in and hit a mash temp of 155 and my 10 gallon cooler held it the entire hour. At about 10 mins in the mash, I again realized I forgot to add the hulls! But I got lucky and my sparging went pretty smooth. Boiled off a little more than normal, ended up with right about 5 gallons. My OG was 1.066, which I'm pretty happy with. My sample tastes amazing! Thanks for an awesome recipe Reno!

You'll enjoy it. Mine is still carbing but it tastes great without it.

Where do you get rice hulls? I can't find them anywhere but online.

I picked them up at my local homebrew shop.

Tubbster85 said:

I picked them up at my local homebrew shop.

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Wow, there's a homebrew shop in Port Orchard that has obscure ingredients like rice hulls and I can't easily get WLP002 in Seattle. Go figure.

Actually it's right across the water in Bremerton!

They also have them at Beer Essentials in Tacoma

Going to be brewing this soon probably later this week on a day off. Here I got my grains yesterday and wake up this morning and was like damn it I forgot the rice hulls lol. Gives me a excuse to go to my LHBS now.

Dan

Brewed a version of this on Friday. Used 1.25oz of Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 60 and 5. Also used 1tsp allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon @ 5 minutes instead of the pumpkin pie seasoning. Fly sparged to 6 gallons...1.060 post boil, 1.068 after adding 1lb brown sugar, 1.074 post boil at 5 gallons. Everything went perfect! Pitched WLP001 @ 67F. Here it is this morning:

http://youtu.be/-8cmMV40wTs

So stoked!

I have read through a lot of this so far but haven't found a question I wanted to ask.
Compaired to Dogfish Head's Punkin beer, is this more or less pumpkiny flavor or spiced more or less? I like the punkin ale by DFH but think I would like it to be just slightly more pumpkiny. Any feedback on this?
Looking forward to brewing this soon!! Yum Yum!

Also, the only pumpkin pie spice I can find is this blend from "The spice hunter". It has cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, star anise, fennel, black pepper.

Anyone use this before? Trying to decide if I would use about the same amount or less/more.

Thanks!

Matteo, not sure on the spice question. Sounds like a good mix to me, though.

Just finished cleaning up after brewday. OG of 1.068 and the hydrometer sample tasted better than it ever has. I can't wait for this one to be done.

Pics

Brewed my partial mash kit yesterday. I baked 60 oz of pure pumpkin (canned) for 45 mins at 350. Let that cool and added to the grain bag during mash. The bag actually held a lot more pumpkin in than I thought it would. There was minimal trub and I strained when I poured into the primary. I don't think I hit the OG suggested on the kit (1.048), but I was close (1.046) assuming I took the sample correctly and read it right (still new at this). The house smelled like pumpkin pie and hops this morning. Gotta love it!

I have the primary down in the basement in a swamp cooler and it seems to be holding steady at about 70-72 (It was pretty warm today in AL). Checked on everything this afternoon and the air lock was already bubbling at about 15 hours post pitching. Planning on keeping in primary one week then two more in a secondary. Does any longer than a week in the primary matter?

Thanks Reno, looking good!

Matteo57 said:

I have read through a lot of this so far but haven't found a question I wanted to ask.
Compaired to Dogfish Head's Punkin beer, is this more or less pumpkiny flavor or spiced more or less? I like the punkin ale by DFH but think I would like it to be just slightly more pumpkiny. Any feedback on this?
Looking forward to brewing this soon!! Yum Yum!

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At 6 weeks now,I think mine is more pumpkin-y than DFH's Punkin, which, I agree, is a bit subtle (but good!).

Well, I really did do it. Five months after bottling my 4th kit, I finally did this recipe as my first all-grain brew, first BIAB, and first no-chill. I chronicled it on the following thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/my-first-all-grain-biab-no-chill-356409/#post4439395

I followed the recipe as published. I ended up using 10.5 lbs of the 2-row with 1 lb each of the Victory and Crystal 60L.

I used the keggle I had made in the following thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keiths-cut-keggle-353760/

Following the suggestion of Brewmaster12, I placed the baked pumpkin into a small grain bag and steeped it in the water as I was heating it up to strike temp. Calculations suggested 162 as strike temp to get to a mash temp of 156. The temp settled at 154 after doughing in.

I deviated from the recipe in that:
1. I mashed for 90 minutes as recommended by a lot of BIABrewers
2. I did a mashout to 170 for 10 minutes. I saw that this was briefly discussed on this thread, and Reno eNVy does the equivalent of a mashout with his hot sparge water.

As I mentioned, I ran into a snag in that I seemed to get the wort to boiling temp, but my flame could not get it quite to a rolling boil. I realized that I was simmering away my volume as opposed to boiling it away. Figuring that my propane was low, I stopped the flame, ran and got another propane tank. I added water to bring my volume up to what the calculator stated would be my estimated pre-boil volume at 100*C, and restarted the burner - which went like gangbusters, now.

I added the brown sugar (I got dark brown sugar) once the boil got established. I delayed the 60 min hop for 20 minutes due to no-chilling. As others said, one probably doesn't need to adjust, but I decided to give it a try. I added the spice and the 5 min addition as scheduled.

After flameout, I took a sample, and transferred into my no-chill container.

After the sample had cooled, I measured the gravity and got 1.066. I guess that's pretty good for a first all-grain. BTW, the sample tasted great.

I can't wait to see what this will be like when it's finished. I did purchase 2 packets of Safale US-05.

I hope I can join the ranks of those of y'all who made this and found it to be great.

Thanks,
Keith

drank my first 1 or 5 that i brewed back in august. turned out great...primed with 4.5 oz of brown sugar and threw a bit more spice into the solution.

How come you lower the specialty grain amount when doing a mini mash? Do you always want to do that when you do a mini mash compaired to a full mash? I haven't brewed a long time so just asking for my own knowledge.
Also, if doing a extract version of this... would you steep the pumpkin in it the water for 30 min or so or just boil the pumpkin? Would you get more haze in the beer by boiling the pumpkin? Sorry if I missed this in directions somewhere