Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

Since I only ended up at 1.060 for my OG, I only pitched 1 package.

Thanks Biscuit! I went with two...I ended up at 1.071...is that possible? I drank the gravity sample and it was tasty!

You reduced the malt quantity and ended up with a higher OG? Now that's gangsta!

Hahaha! Just a little gangsta I suppose. 😉

Woke up at 5:30am and knocked this out. Had no issue with the mash / sparge (Used 1Lb of rice hull). Hit all my marks. Honestly, this thread made me more nervous than necessary (OG off, stuck sparge, forgot this or that, people generally freaking out about everything, etc). Add rice hulls, mash in, and go for it!

Thanks for the recipe.

Brewing now!

Should be fun.

Good luck!

Hit 1.074.

Should be interesting!

DoomRider said:

Woke up at 5:30am and knocked this out. Had no issue with the mash / sparge (Used 1Lb of rice hull). Hit all my marks. Honestly, this thread made me more nervous than necessary (OG off, stuck sparge, forgot this or that, people generally freaking out about everything, etc). Add rice hulls, mash in, and go for it!

Thanks for the recipe.

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I wasn't worried about the stuck sparge since I BIAB and I forgot the spice addition because, for some reason, I always had the spice tea method in my head. And I blame my OG being off because this was the first time I have used my new brew kettle and I am working out my volumes...so all in all, I consider it successful, but you're right, this thread did have me a bit unnecessarily intimidated.

Wow another Reno guy. Going to brew chatter this week and get the supplies for this. I have been wanting to try a pumpkin ale

Less than 24 hours and bubbling away. I used a package of US-05 and my home strain of US-05 which may have some residual hops from past brews.

It is very dark due to the dark extract I used. I may have to call it a pumpkin porter.

So my buddy and I brewed this yesterday. We did a 10 gallon batch in his 30-gallon single-tier setup. Everything seemed to go pretty well, and we got pretty close to our numbers, etc., but we had almost no trub in the boil kettle (or much cold break for that matter). It was a pretty anemic boil, so we didn't' boil off quite as much as expected, but the chiller knocked the temp down pretty quickly. We also used a hop spider, so there wasn't any hop trub.

But I've never done a batch with so little trub. It's possible all the break was still suspended/dissolved in the wort, but I was expecting a ton of trub due to the pumpkin and cold-break from the plate chiller. Even this morning there was almost no trub at the bottom of the carboy.

Jcruse said:

So my buddy and I brewed this yesterday. We did a 10 gallon batch in his 30-gallon single-tier setup. Everything seemed to go pretty well, and we got pretty close to our numbers, etc., but we had almost no trub in the boil kettle (or much cold break for that matter). It was a pretty anemic boil, so we didn't' boil off quite as much as expected, but the chiller knocked the temp down pretty quickly. We also used a hop spider, so there wasn't any hop trub.

But I've never done a batch with so little trub. It's possible all the break was still suspended/dissolved in the wort, but I was expecting a ton of trub due to the pumpkin and cold-break from the plate chiller. Even this morning there was almost no trub at the bottom of the carboy.

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That's strange. I usually get a ton of trub. I may have misread something but was it not a hard rolling boil?

Three days into primary and the airlock is still firing like a machine gun. Smells soooo good!

I also normally get a lot of trub when I brew this one.
Brewed a 5 gal. batch of Reno's receipt this past Sunday and hit the same mark as last year 1.065 O.G. Used the Wyeast 1056 to ferment it with and I don't know if it was because the yeast was so fresh, production date of 6/22/15, or what but this is the first time I've ever had to rig up a blow off tube to my 6 gal. carboy and I'm doing a temperature controlled primary at 64° F.
So far...it smells wonderful!

So this is very carbonated, but no head at all. My glasses are all clean. What could I have done wrong?

treacheroustexan said:

So this is very carbonated, but no head at all. My glasses are all clean. What could I have done wrong?

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Long list. Did you take notes on brew day?

ruger988 said:

Long list. Did you take notes on brew day?

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There are my only notes.

(beersmith)
Grain bill
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 83.33 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
1.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
2 Large cans (29oz) Libby's pumpkin (no spices added) --- Baked at 350 for 1 hr.

Boil (60 minutes)
1.00 lb Brown Sugar (60 min)
1oz Hallertaur (2.7%) (60 min)
1 small can (15oz) Libbys Pumpkin (10 min)
1oz Hallertaur (2.7%) (10 min)
1.5 Tbsp McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice (5 min)


Yeast
2 Pkgs SafAle US-05 (rehydrated)


(Actual values, not beersmith)
Strike Water w/ Campden Tab: 4.5 gallons
Strike Water Temperature: 168 F (taking pumpkin into consideration)
Mash Temperature (after 10 minutes): 153 F
Mash Temperature (end of mash): 151 F ( had some issues with mash temperature, this possibly may not have been completely accurate because my gravity finished extremely low, and I added 1# lactose a bottling time)
Sparge Water Temperature w/ Campden Tab: 175 F
Pre-Boil Volume: 6.5 Gallons
Post-Boil Volume: 5.5 Gallons
Actual Original Gravity: 1.062
Pitch Temperature: 75 F then chilled with ice packs to 65 overnight.

treacheroustexan said:

There are my only notes.

(beersmith)
Grain bill
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 83.33 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
1.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
2 Large cans (29oz) Libby's pumpkin (no spices added) --- Baked at 350 for 1 hr.

Boil (60 minutes)
1.00 lb Brown Sugar (60 min)
1oz Hallertaur (2.7%) (60 min)
1 small can (15oz) Libbys Pumpkin (10 min)
1oz Hallertaur (2.7%) (10 min)
1.5 Tbsp McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice (5 min)


Yeast
2 Pkgs SafAle US-05 (rehydrated)


(Actual values, not beersmith)
Strike Water w/ Campden Tab: 4.5 gallons
Strike Water Temperature: 168 F (taking pumpkin into consideration)
Mash Temperature (after 10 minutes): 153 F
Mash Temperature (end of mash): 151 F
Sparge Water Temperature w/ Campden Tab: 175 F
Pre-Boil Volume: 6.5 Gallons
Post-Boil Volume: 5.5 Gallons
Actual Original Gravity: 1.062
Pitch Temperature: 75 F then chilled with ice packs to 65 overnight.

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At first glance (keeping in mind I'm 4 ~11% beers in over the last hour and a half) adding Libbeys Pumpkin to the boil might not have been such a hot idea, pretty oily.

ruger988 said:

At first glance (keeping in mind I'm 4 ~11% beers in over the last hour and a half) adding Libbeys Pumpkin to the boil might not have been such a hot idea, pretty oily.

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Hmm. I wasn't sure. I had an extra can of it laying around, and much like you... 4 11% beers since I get off of work a few hours ago, I decided to throw it in because I hated seeing it sit in the cabinet. I added two large cans in an extract pumpkin beer last year though during the boil and couldn't have asked for a better head.

FYI it tastes incredible and just drank two of them. Not smart. Have to be up for class in 5 hours.

treacheroustexan said:

Hmm. I wasn't sure. I had an extra can of it laying around, and much like you... 4 11% beers since I get off of work a few hours ago, I decided to throw it in because I hated seeing it sit in the cabinet. I added two large cans in an extract pumpkin beer last year though during the boil and couldn't have asked for a better head.

FYI it tastes incredible and just drank two of them. Not smart. Have to be up for class in 5 hours.

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Know how I know you're.....


Wait, nevermind. I'm done, bed time. Sorry I couldn't help more, the sober people will be here in a couple hours.

ruger988 said:

Know how I know you're.....


Wait, nevermind. I'm done, bed time. Sorry I couldn't help more, the sober people will be here in a couple hours.

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No I 100% agree with you and I will defend you until the end. Genesee cream ale is calling my name to finish the night.

Sober people feel free to chime in for us to wake up to. thanks.

Just took a gravity reading after a week because the airlock slowed down to over a minute per bubble. WOW, I could pick up the spices in the aroma and the taste was fantastic. I tested out a new copper manifold I built and my efficiency jumped by 10% so this is a big beer. It still has a lot of alcohol burn to it but once it mellows out its going to be awesome!

Only changes I made were upping the amount of victory, I used nugget for littering and willamette as a late addition (I had those hops on hand) and I used Wyeast 1968 so it didn't finish to dry. Went from 1.072 to 1.018. I live in Georgia so by the time it actually cools down here this beer should be good to go! :rockin:

Finally done bubbling. Brewing closet smells amazing.

drays14 said:

I used nugget for littering

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Don't litter, especially not with good hops.

You're numbers look great and yeah the alcohol bite mellows very nicely.

Reno_eNVy said:

Don't litter, especially not with good hops.

You're numbers look great and yeah the alcohol bite mellows very nicely.

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lol damnit you got me!

I used 1tbs of my spices in the boil and i think adding another half tbs would be better. How would I go about adding it to the secondary? Just add the spices or I've seen people make a tea out of it. Anyone had experience with this?

I bottled this today. Confirmed that I finished at 1.017. FG sample definitely had a nice sweetness to it. The spice had a little bite, but I'm looking forward to when it mellows out a bit. The FG sample was a far cry from the sample about ten days ago though - not the least bit harsh, very clear (thanks to crashing and gelatin), and quite smooth.

Really looking forward to popping one of these in a couple months' time!

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Just checked my gravity and it's at 1.018
Perhaps not necessary but I'm racking to a secondary for a few weeks before I bottle. Will likely use gelatin in bottling bucket.
Pumpkin flavor is there, I get some spices on the palate but it's not what I remember from last year. Also the hops shine in this much more than the previous pumpkin ale I brewed.

Just made this yesterday. Everything seemed to go well: I hit all my temperatures, volumes, times. Got really low efficiency. Like 55% low. No clue what went wrong. Got OG=1.050 rather than the 1.065 I was looking for.

Would adding 2 lbs of light DME concentrated with a quick boil/cool to the bucket be a way to bring this back in line? Or would that ruin the flavors?

Reno_eNVy said:

We've done pumpkin ales in the past but never this good.

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I am going to give this a shot this weekend, it sounds great. Without reading 200+ pages of comments, is the consensus that the recipe in the original post should be followed as-is? Or has there been some refinement that hasn't been edited in to the first post? I use the BIAB method.

Thanks!

Wondering the same.....I'm going shopping tomorrow and will just scan these pages as much as a can. If not, I'll just stick with everything from page 1

I say don't alter it. Just go with the base recipe. You won't be disappointed!

People have tried a lot of different things and many of them sound really good.

But I'm a big fan of the OP recipe. There haven't been any alterations aside from helpful tips.

Reno_eNVy said:

People have tried a lot of different things and many of them sound really good.

But I'm a big fan of the OP recipe. There haven't been any alterations aside from helpful tips.

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Thanks Reno! Will be brewing it on Friday.

How many volumes of CO2 do you try to hit with this? I'll be bottling since I don't have a kegging setup. I imagine that you'd want this on the lower end of the normal American Ale range, something like 2.2 vols?

jmpreiks said:

How many volumes of CO2 do you try to hit with this? I'll be bottling since I don't have a kegging setup. I imagine that you'd want this on the lower end of the normal American Ale range, something like 2.2 vols?

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I was about to ask the same thing.

I've brewed this beer twice now and have forced carbed it both times to 2.6 vol.'s. You'll loss a bit in the bottling process so your final product should be at about 2.5 vol.'s in the bottle, which past experience has told me is just about perfect!
Hope this helps.

I brewed this over the weekend and had a horrible stuck sparge with a lb of rice hulls.

I worked it out and finished the brew. It had a wonderful color and taste and I hit the OG numbers but was a little light on the volume into my fermeter.

I didnt use the dry yeast, used a different smack pack and silly me didnt write it down, so cant remember precisely what it was. All i know is I did a two liter starter and it was bubbling away in several hours.

Should be fun to see what happens in two months

Just brewed it yesterday. Followed the original AG recipe from page 1. Hit O.G. 1.062. No stuck sparges for me - used 0.5lb of rice hulls, mashed at 156F.
Using WLP-001 yeast instead of S-05. Should be good, let's hope it's ready for October.

Brewing the all grain recipe tomorrow with SWMBO. Can't wait to see how it turns out, I'll have to compare to my recipe from last year.