Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

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Wow. Crazy thick mash! I didn't have any rice hulls so that's why it stuck about every 5 minutes. Wound up at 1.072 because of good efficiency and just under 10 gals of wort. I know every sample tastes awesome, but this is by far the best tasting sampling I've ever had. Can't wait!
 
I did an extract version similar to recipe, but would probably do a BIAB next time. Don't have the room or equipment for all grain
 
How would aging this beer be? I'd like to brew it, but I'm set up for 10 gallons, and no way am I going to drink that much pumpkin beer very soon... I figured I'd keg 5 and bottle 5. Anyone let this sit a year?


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I brewed this a week ago. I used beersmith to scale the recipe up so the OG would be 1.092. It came out to 1.083 cause pumpkin always does that to my numbers. My goal is to take the batch and split it. One half I'll serve as is in a small keg. The other half is going to get burbon oaked and bottled.

So at one week it is still fermenting away. This is probably my highest OG yet in a beer. Should be good. Might take a while to condition out though.
 
Anyone tried this all grain with WLP 007 instead of S05 / 001 ? I am going to brew this weekend and already have 007 so that is what I am going with. It attentuates pretty well -- but not quite as well as S05, so I was wondering if I should lower the mash temp a bit or keep it at 156.

Another thought I had. In order to avoid the sparging issues caused by the pumpkin couldn't I just throw the pumpkin in a grain bag and throw the grain bag in the mash cooler with the grains and water?
 
I threw the pumpkin into a grain bag the last time I brewed it, and had really good results. I had no sparge issues at all, but all the flavor is still there.

Hope it works for you!
 
thefolkmetal said:
I threw the pumpkin into a grain bag the last time I brewed it, and had really good results. I had no sparge issues at all, but all the flavor is still there.

Hope it works for you!
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Thanks. I am going to try it. I think it makes much more sense then fighting a sticky mash all day tomorrow :)
 
Still loving this after several weeks in! Its soooo good. Tempted to brew a second batch!

1411752836662.jpg
 
arborman said:
How would aging this beer be? I'd like to brew it, but I'm set up for 10 gallons, and no way am I going to drink that much pumpkin beer very soon... I figured I'd keg 5 and bottle 5. Anyone let this sit a year?


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
Click to expand...

This ages amazingly. I highly recommend doing it.
 
after aging for almost two months i confirmed that I hate S-04...never again. I have brewed with s-04 previously, but it was my first batch. Too many fruity ester flavours come out. No I didn't ferment too warm. Much better results with s-05. will brew again in the future with s-05 or wlp001
 
How is it fresh? I'm probably going to brew this once i have room in my fermentation chamber and i'm prob going to serve it at Thanksgiving.
 
j1n said:
How is it fresh? I'm probably going to brew this once i have room in my fermentation chamber and i'm prob going to serve it at Thanksgiving.
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It'll be ready by Thanksgiving if you start very soon.

Tips:

1) Nail your temperatures.
2) Make sure fermentation temperature is as steady as possible. And it'll be cleaner, faster if you ferment between around 62-65*F.
3) Give it a month in the primary and cold crash before bottling. If you're kegging, you can afford to give it another week or two.

Good luck! :mug:
 
what style of beer is this? Cream ale? American Pale Ale? Was asking because Northern Brewers Priming Sugar Calculator has a pull down menu and a APA gets 4oz of corn sugar, Cream Ale gets 4.5oz.
 
Mashed in for this at 1020 this morning, looking forward to seeing how this comes out. This will be my second all grain batch, first with a 2L starter, and I'm gonna try a partigyle and see if I can make a 2.5 gal batch of a lowoman gravity spiced porter by adding some dme, hopefully it will turn out.
 
PackerfaninSanDiego said:
what style of beer is this? Cream ale? American Pale Ale? Was asking because Northern Brewers Priming Sugar Calculator has a pull down menu and a APA gets 4oz of corn sugar, Cream Ale gets 4.5oz.
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If you're entering it into a competition, the BJCP entry would be "21A. Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer."

But I'd say the closest thing I could relate the base style to is a strong American Brown Ale.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
It'll be ready by Thanksgiving if you start very soon.

Tips:

1) Nail your temperatures.
2) Make sure fermentation temperature is as steady as possible. And it'll be cleaner, faster if you ferment between around 62-65*F.
3) Give it a month in the primary and cold crash before bottling. If you're kegging, you can afford to give it another week or two.

Good luck! :mug:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably use WLP090 on this one.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Doesn't that yeast have very high attenuation? This isn't really meant to be a dry brew.
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Not really. Its very similar to WLP001 but just works much faster.

WLP001 attenuation range is 73-80%'
WLP090 is 76 - 83%. Just 3% more.

Maybe i'll use Wyeast 1968 to keep the FG higher. Or maybe Pacman.
 
I brewed this a week ago using wpl001. Do you think it will be ready for a comp on. Nov 15th? Last day to get my entry in would be Nov 1?

I also plan to carb with Brown sugar should I use 1/2 cup or what??

Thanks.
 
I brewed this up yesterday, and while everything turned out fine there was a huge headache in the middle. Let this serve as a public service announcement for BIABers.

I do full volume BIAB, which is normally a very easy process. However, this time around the pumpkin almost completely clogged up the bag. When the mash was done I went to the lift the bag out to let it sit on a strainer, but I could hardly lift it. I look down and it's because nearly 2/3rds of the wort was inside the mesh bag, only 1/3rd remained in the kettle. The mushy pumpkin coated the sides of the bag and prevented the wort from easily draining. It's like it was turned into a garbage bag. The bag was so heavy, large, and lacked structure so I wasn't really sure what to do. I couldn't just set it on the strainer as wort would have gone everywhere.

I settled on putting the bag back in the kettle and I scooped out the grains/pumpkin with a hand strainer, let the wort drain, and dumped the grains in a separate kettle. This took forever because I could only get a bit at a time without scooping out all the wort with it as well. Once I got maybe 3/4ths of the grains out the bag was small and light enough to work with so that I could get the wort out of it. Then I scooped the grains back into the bag to let them drain, as normal, back into the kettle.

It added at least an extra hour to the process. Next time I will make sure to put the pumpkin in it's own bag so that I can work with it on a much smaller scale.
 
I BIAB too and didn't have much of an issue, but I think I added the pumpkin after the grains. Having its own separate bag sounds like the easiest and safest thing to do though.
 
wowbeeryum said:
I brewed this up yesterday, and while everything turned out fine there was a huge headache in the middle. Let this serve as a public service announcement for BIABers.

I do full volume BIAB, which is normally a very easy process. However, this time around the pumpkin almost completely clogged up the bag. When the mash was done I went to the lift the bag out to let it sit on a strainer, but I could hardly lift it. I look down and it's because nearly 2/3rds of the wort was inside the mesh bag, only 1/3rd remained in the kettle. The mushy pumpkin coated the sides of the bag and prevented the wort from easily draining. It's like it was turned into a garbage bag. The bag was so heavy, large, and lacked structure so I wasn't really sure what to do. I couldn't just set it on the strainer as wort would have gone everywhere.

I settled on putting the bag back in the kettle and I scooped out the grains/pumpkin with a hand strainer, let the wort drain, and dumped the grains in a separate kettle. This took forever because I could only get a bit at a time without scooping out all the wort with it as well. Once I got maybe 3/4ths of the grains out the bag was small and light enough to work with so that I could get the wort out of it. Then I scooped the grains back into the bag to let them drain, as normal, back into the kettle.

It added at least an extra hour to the process. Next time I will make sure to put the pumpkin in it's own bag so that I can work with it on a much smaller scale.
Click to expand...

If you have a mash paddle/long handled spoon you can lift the bag as much as you can, suspend, then use the paddle/spoon to scrape the buildup from the sides of the bag (on the inside) and get some liquid out before it clogs again. Repeat until you get it where you want it. Probably not as viable if you do not have a place to suspend it though.

I used to do this when I worried so much about hop debris in the fermenter. I would pour my wort through a paint strainer bag into the fermenter then lift it out. I would then use my old plastic mash paddle that came with my brew kit to scrape the spent hops off the mesh. Sped up the straining by quite a bit.

Additionally, rice hulls help and do not cost much at all.
 
DrunkleJon said:
If you have a mash paddle/long handled spoon you can lift the bag as much as you can, suspend, then use the paddle/spoon to scrape the buildup from the sides of the bag (on the inside) and get some liquid out before it clogs again. Repeat until you get it where you want it. Probably not as viable if you do not have a place to suspend it though.

I used to do this when I worried so much about hop debris in the fermenter. I would pour my wort through a paint strainer bag into the fermenter then lift it out. I would then use my old plastic mash paddle that came with my brew kit to scrape the spent hops off the mesh. Sped up the straining by quite a bit.

Additionally, rice hulls help and do not cost much at all.
Click to expand...

That thought ran through my mind but I didn't have anywhere to suspend it. Good tip.
 
Just checked my gravity on this after a month in primary it's at 1.020 does that seem a bit high? I know it's only a couple points but usually if I hit all my other numbers I hit the right FG. I mashed @156 like the recipe says & hit my target OG of 1.065 dead on. It tastes good it just seems like it should be done by now.... I was hoping to get this bottled this week so I could have it for in time for Halloween... I plan to check again in 2 or 3 days
 
kenoglass said:
I brewed this a week ago using wpl001. Do you think it will be ready for a comp on. Nov 15th? Last day to get my entry in would be Nov 1?

I also plan to carb with Brown sugar should I use 1/2 cup or what??

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Yeah it should be done by then. Just be sure to give yourself time to carb.

As far as brown sugar:
While measuring priming sugars by volume is common with table sugar, it's good practice to do all priming sugar by weight or mass. Volume is not conserved, especially when you compare brown and white sugar. A 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar can weigh much much more than 1/2 cup of white sugar. Just my $0.02

mkyl428 said:
Just checked my gravity on this after a month in primary it's at 1.020 does that seem a bit high? I know it's only a couple points but usually if I hit all my other numbers I hit the right FG. I mashed @156 like the recipe says & hit my target OG of 1.065 dead on. It tastes good it just seems like it should be done by now.... I was hoping to get this bottled this week so I could have it for in time for Halloween... I plan to check again in 2 or 3 days
Click to expand...
That's not an unreasonable FG. If it's consistent for the next few days, that's likely your FG. It happens and at least it's not off by much (I've had it come out 1.008 due to a miscalibrated thermometer.) It'll turn out great :mug:
 
Just bottled this fantastic brew. Gotta love 8.9%! I was quite surprised, as I used safale 04 with no swamp cooler ranging from 68 to 74 degrees over 6 weeks. I maxed out my temp strip during the first 3 days fermentation. It seemed to mellow out very well. It tasted just like dfh punkin. We'll see if any of the fruity esters come through in the bottle cold and carbed. :mug:
 
cracked open my first bottle today. A little under carbed IMO but had great pumpkin flavor. Actually more pumpkin than pie spice so I was pleasantly surprised. This is week 2 in bottles, I think in another week or 2 they'll be prime.
 
Update on my batch of Pumpkin Ale

Due to the fruit fly assault on my primary fermenter it has developed a infection and is very strongly tasting of acetyl acid. However the color is a deep orange and the beer cleared well, so with what I have learned here I plan to brew this recipe again next week with a couple slight changes but I think it will be good so I will post the changes and more details asap :) And I saw a post a couple pages back I think about poor head retnention, and I was thinking of adding a 1/2 lb of Cara Foam to give it a nice fluffy head. Any thoughts? Thanks and Cheers!
 
Mine had lots of head and good lacing. I was afraid of having too hot alcohol taste based on my tasting going into secondary but ive had 3 positive reviews so far! I am very pleased

IMG_212011048791182.jpeg
 
blawson327 said:
Mine had lots of head and good lacing. I was afraid of having too hot alcohol taste based on my tasting going into secondary but ive had 3 positive reviews so far! I am very pleased
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Did you sprinkle something around the rim of your glass? Or does it just look dirty in that pic?
 
Did anyone try to brew this with 100% Brett?

I consider fermenting this beer with Brett Trois (WLP644).

Thoughts? :mug:
 
Cpa4ny, I brewed a Saison with that strain recently. I love it, but it was very reminiscent of tropical fruit. My opinion is that it would be out of place in this beer. But, then again, that's the joy of homebrewing - you do whatever you want with your beer!
 
I cracked one open last night just to see how things are progressing. It's been in bottle for about 2.5 weeks (shooting for a month, so I know it isn't ready) and was a little disappointed. I made this last year but with extract instead of AG and I think last year's might have been a little better. I didn't get much of the pumpkin spice notes like last year's batch had. Maybe this is just due to bottle conditioning not being done. At least I hope so...
 

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