Autumn Seasonal Beer Charlie's First Pumpkin

My first brew ever, I also got the inspiration to name the brew after my future first son Charles


6lbs of Gold LME

Steeping Grains:
8 oz. carapils
8 oz. caramel 10L

60 minute spices:
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbs Mccormick pumpkin pie spice (last 15 min)

Bake:
30oz of Libby's unspiced pumpkin filling (roasted at 350F 1 hour)
1 lb clover honey
2tbs Mccormick pumpkin pie spice

Hops:
1 oz. Mt. Hood (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (15 min)

Boil the grains for 30 minutes, then ditch them. At this point the baked mix of the pumpkin, honey, and spices should be ready to pull out of the oven. Pull the wort off the burner and mix in the LME, brown sugar, and pumpkin bake. I mixed as well as possible so when this was at full boil there were no pumpkin clumps. Throw in the Mt. Hood at the start of the boil.......and wait.......I threw in 1/2 a tbs of pumpkin pie mix at 30 min of boil. Then in the last 15 min toss in the Cascade and the remaining 1/2 tbs of pumpkin mix, 2 tsp of cinnamon, and 1 tsp of nutmeg.

I definitely recommend going to a secondary carboy after the initial primary to clear up this beer. Anytime there is this much pumpkin in the batch there will be plenty of stuff floating around. My only regret is that on first taste, when I was switching over to the secondary, I didn’t get ENOUGH pumpkin taste next batch I will be using 60oz of pumpkin filling and bumping up my spices.

But at this time I am still waiting for a "finished" product so after a couple weeks in the bottle I will get back with some pics and a better critique

During boil

After two weeks in the primary

Time for an update. Its been a week and 3 days since bottling. Now I could be biased since I made this brew but it is probably on my top 5 of tastiest pumpkin beers ever! The pumpkin flavors immediately hit you then a nice spice after taste not too strong. Just a delicious beer.

Pour

That looks awesome. I'm planning a pumpkin ale to have ready for the fall. I will definitely keep this recipe in mind.

Only one person out of everyone I let try this beer loved it. The reason said person didnt like it was the honey addition wish he could still smell. But a lot of people loved that. I believe the reason you could even taste the honey was because I added it to the bake and not directly into the wirt. So it worked it way into the final flavor. But it made my beer unique and delicious.

Thanks for this recipe!! Getting ready to make our first Pumpkin Ale soon so that it is ready for fall.

People will like this beer. It seems like it can please a broad audience.

This recipe sounds delicious! I'm very new to brewing, as in my first kit is in the mail. I've just basically been reading up to this point. What yeast did you use and what were your target temps?

I just used a packet of Safale Us-05, but any dry ale yeast will do. I wish I could edit this original post because I meant STEEP the grains @ 155 degrees for 30 minutes, then trash them.

PassTheBeer said:

People will like this beer. It seems like it can please a broad audience.

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Pleasing the Broads in the audience....... playing with fire.... but they do like the blueberry ales !!!

They'll love pumpkins after this ale.

Just ordered the ingredients for this. Excited to have it for this fall.

rcp197 said:

Just ordered the ingredients for this. Excited to have it for this fall.

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Keep us posted on your progress

Brewing tomorrow. Do you know what you gravities were?

Sorry for never posting that if memory serves me right OG was 1.054, I can't remember the FG.

A bunch if the spice is lost in fermentation but it is still there at the end, and there should be a tiny hint on honey still in the finished product which mellows are "spice burn" you sometimes get with cinnamon

Also where is says "boil" the grain negate that, I meant STEEP at 155

Would you do it the same way again or add spices via spice tea in secondary?

I'd do it the same way. That spice burn isn't ideal. When drinking this it was quite refreshing.

All finished up... Made a few slight changes due to taste preferences. Only 8oz honey, instead of 16. Added cinnamon, nutmeg, pie spice and 1tsp vanilla extract at flameout instead of during the boil. OG was 1.052 and pitched yeast around 76 deg.

Also, used 60 oz pumpkin instead of 30.

Now that's a blow off tube! Lol. Please keep me posted I'd like to know your results. Especially with the vanilla addition, sounds delicious.

Any update to your pumpkin???

I have an updated/ improved version I call Lil' O' Lantern. Check it out

Hey sorry, haven't checked this in a bit. The pumpkin was a huge hit over thanksgiving. I only got about 30 bottles due to a huge amount of trub loss though! I know next time to make about 6 gallons to account for the loss. Anyhow, I had about a 6 pack left after having a few people over for thanksgiving.

Yea look for my revised version of this pumpkin. It's better. Way better. Also next time you pour a glass buddy take a pic of the beer

PassTheBeer said:

Yea look for my revised version of this pumpkin. It's better. Way better. Also next time you pour a glass buddy take a pic of the beer

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I have been looking for this- Do you have the link?

Thanks!