Fall beer, when to brew? And what to brew?

Hi! I was wondering when everyone starts to brew their fall beers? I want to make sure I am leaving myself enough time so that I have a decent finished beer to share, assuming everything else goes correctly. I am thinking a pumpkin ale or porter. I will also be doing this as an all grain brew. And also, any suggestions as to a fall beer besides a pumpkin beer? I love pumpkin beers but there are so many good commercial ones that I like, I was thinking of what else I could brew that would be a nice Fall beer and would be different from the commercial offerings. Thanks in advance for your help!

These days you get get pretty much anything from a commercial brewery. Brew what you like. Oktoberfest would be another good one for the fall. Make it now and lager all summer long.

I'm planning on brewing my Pumpkin Ale next week. It should be great by thanksgiving. I currently bottle.

I brewed mine about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I put gelatin finings in it about 4 days ago, and it is currently lagering @ 36º. I plan to lager for a month or two, bottle it, store the bottles for another month or two, then enjoy the hell out of it.

HomebrewMTB said:

Oktoberfest would be another good one for the fall. Make it now and lager all summer long.

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This is my plan in a nutshell.

You really want several months for any Haloween/Turkey Day pumpkin and spiced beers to come into their own. So anytime between now and July is probably good. I made the mistake of trying to do it on Labor day, and it wasn't ready by Haloween on year. So early is the better. They tend to be higher grav beers and higher grav beers need more time to mellow.

You might be interested in doing to fall beers from the same grainbill like I did with my Partigyle Pumpkin ales as chronicaled here.

I was just asking myself this same question. Thinking of a Pumpkin ale, but to be honest, I have never tried one. The flavors sound awesome though

Okay, so here's a question. I wanted to make a pumpkin ale (not lager) for the fall, but I also want to use fresh pumpkin.

How are you brewing a pumpkin ale *now* with fresh pumpkin? There won't be fresh pumpkins in my neck of the woods until closer to late august.

You can brew pumpkin ale with the canned pumpkin...NOT NOT NOT the pumpkin pie filling. Then add some all spice or cinnamon or whatever to taste. I like the tea method addition to the secondary, but that's just me.

Personally I plan on making a pumpkin porter with just pumpkin spice. Last year I did a light brown with real pumpkin and a spice tea, and it was a hassle using the real pumpkin. I don't really care about it being authentic, I just want the flavor! And I tried a pumpkin porter that a guy at my homebrew club made last year and it was sooo good!

A lot, if not most, of the recipes I've read call for the real thing. I haven't read into why, but I assumed it had something to do with the canned stuff being all pureed and adding to clouding issues?

Otherwise, I have no problem using real pumpkin. I'm a nut like that. I actually use real pumpkins to make my pies as well.

I typically make my pumpkin ale in september because of what you state - no pumpkins available until it's almost fall already. As a result, it's usually not ready to drink til mid november.

onipar said:

A lot, if not most, of the recipes I've read call for the real thing. I haven't read into why, but I assumed it had something to do with the canned stuff being all pureed and adding to clouding issues?

Otherwise, I have no problem using real pumpkin. I'm a nut like that. I actually use real pumpkins to make my pies as well.

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"Cloudiness"....what are you, some kind of commercial brewery? I used the canned stuff and it worked just fine. Cold crash it and use some gelatin if you really want better clarity and it will be fine. Also, when adding the pumpkin to the boil, you can use a fine mesh bag to hold most of the gunk before you whirlpool.

Cloudiness....you make me laugh fellow homebrewer....if only cloudiness had a flavor (and yes, weizens cloudiness is from yeast...so yes, flavor)

mcaple1 said:

"Cloudiness"....what are you, some kind of commercial brewery? I used the canned stuff and it worked just fine. Cold crash it and use some gelatin if you really want better clarity and it will be fine. Also, when adding the pumpkin to the boil, you can use a fine mesh bag to hold most of the gunk before you whirlpool.

Cloudiness....you make me laugh fellow homebrewer....if only cloudiness had a flavor (and yes, weizens cloudiness is from yeast...so yes, flavor)

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He was just making an assumption. I don't think he's really THAT concerned with cloudiness. Canned or real, it's all a PITA ... IMHO

I envy you people with seasons beyond summer, not summer.

mcaple1 said:

"Cloudiness"....what are you, some kind of commercial brewery? I used the canned stuff and it worked just fine. Cold crash it and use some gelatin if you really want better clarity and it will be fine. Also, when adding the pumpkin to the boil, you can use a fine mesh bag to hold most of the gunk before you whirlpool.

Cloudiness....you make me laugh fellow homebrewer....if only cloudiness had a flavor (and yes, weizens cloudiness is from yeast...so yes, flavor)

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Haha, yeah... If you look very, very carefully, you'll see two important indicators in my sentence. One is "assume" and the other is a question mark.

I was asking why is it most recipes call for fresh pumpkin, while making the assumption it might have to do with cloudiness.

onipar said:

Haha, yeah... If you look very, very carefully, you'll see two important indicators in my sentence. One is "assume" and the other is a question mark.

I was asking why is it most recipes call for fresh pumpkin, while making the assumption it might have to do with cloudiness.

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no...I read it right...and you "assumed" right. It will contribute to cloudiness in your beer, which is why I'm telling you if that is putting you off from using it, then here are some ways to mitigate the cloudiness issue.

mcaple1 said:

no...I read it right...and you "assumed" right. It will contribute to cloudiness in your beer, which is why I'm telling you if that is putting you off from using it, then here are some ways to mitigate the cloudiness issue.

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Gotcha. Yeah, the cloudiness thing doesn't actually bother me that much. I just liked the idea of using pumpkins (for my aforementioned reason that I'm nutty). :cross:

I only brought it up because of the recipes I've read. But thanks for the tips. I'll be sure to do that if I go the canned route.