Autumn Seasonal Beer Imperial Pumpkin Pie Ale

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tons of sugar in this, it blew my airlock off. hope the few hours it spent fermenting in the open will be ok!!
 
tons of sugar in this, it blew my airlock off. hope the few hours it spent fermenting in the open will be ok!!

Mine did the same but the airlock was only off for about an hour. After a few weeks fermenting, I didn't see our taste any signs of contamination. Don't worry too much :)
 
Mine did the same but the airlock was only off for about an hour. After a few weeks fermenting, I didn't see our taste any signs of contamination. Don't worry too much :)

When it's that active, the amount of Co2 gas the yeast is making quickly expels any contaminates. Especially ones that need air to live. As long as you put the airlock back on after it settled down your golden. With high gravity beers like this one, I don't snap my ale pail lid on but rather kind of just set if on top for about 48 hours until it calms down.
 
Just curious, what was your water to grain ratio in the mash? Like usual 3ish gallons at 152 and then another two/3 at sparge?
 
Just curious, what was your water to grain ratio in the mash? Like usual 3ish gallons at 152 and then another two/3 at sparge?

I used 19 lbs of grain in a 10 gallon cooler with a ratio of 1.35 qts per lb. That's 6.4 gallons. Remember all that grain will absorb a lot of water. Sparged at 168 until I reached me needed boil volume. My pre boil gravity was 1.076 which ended up prefect. I boiled 7 gallons for 15 minutes and then started the additions and 60 minutes timer. Added 60oz of baked pumpkin pie mix to the boil with 20 minutes left and it came out amazing! Nailed the gravity to the fermenter at 1.093! I do a SLOW batch sparge to convert the maximum sugar. About 45 minutes to gather 6.5-7 gallons. Hope this helps.
 
For those of you that have used vanilla beans with this recipe: how much and when?

My water and pumpkin loss calculations were way off on my first BIAB and I think I'm only going to end up with about 3-3.5 gallons of packaged beer. I brewed on 10/11 and (2) Sachs of US-04 have already brought it down to 1.016 as of this morning (my first gravity reading).

I'm not looking for a vanilla bomb but more of a layered/accompanying vanilla aspect. I have a few cut and scraped whole beans that have been sitting in 4oz of Captain Morgan's rum for a week and am thinking that 1 whole bean in my carboy a few days before bottling (maybe while I cold crash) would get me there.

Having never used vanilla beans in any kind of brew before, any input or advice is very welcomed.
 
For those of you that have used vanilla beans with this recipe: how much and when?

My water and pumpkin loss calculations were way off on my first BIAB and I think I'm only going to end up with about 3-3.5 gallons of packaged beer. I brewed on 10/11 and (2) Sachs of US-04 have already brought it down to 1.016 as of this morning (my first gravity reading).

I'm not looking for a vanilla bomb but more of a layered/accompanying vanilla aspect. I have a few cut and scraped whole beans that have been sitting in 4oz of Captain Morgan's rum for a week and am thinking that 1 whole bean in my carboy a few days before bottling (maybe while I cold crash) would get me there.

Having never used vanilla beans in any kind of brew before, any input or advice is very welcomed.

I haven't had good luck soaking beans. I'm going with vanilla extract this time and using the recommended amount of 4-5 oz at bottling. We'll see if the flavor is there. It should make it taste like whipped cream on the pumpkin pie! Lol
 
Just measured final gravity and calculated 10.5% after secondary fermentation. Bottling later this week. It tastes and smells delicious. Excite.
 
whats the longest anyone has aged this? OR whats the fastest this has been consumed and been good? I want to make this and keg a batch... can I be drinking it by christmas..if not will it hold up until next winter?
 
I used vanilla extract as well and I went with 2 ounces because I read it somewhere on this thread. Thought it was going to be over powering at first with the first sip but after a week in 5 he keg it's mellowed out now. Mine came out to 8.9% and I used gelatin to clear things up. Awesome brew!!!
 
Bottled tonight. It tastes perfect to me as it is now, so I'm a little worried that the spices will have faded too much by the time it's carbed up. Oh well, I am probably going to be gifting a lot of these bottles away anyway...
 
I brewed this last year around this time. It was great then, and compared next to Pumpking, it was less hoppy but had almost the exact same spice and pumpkin flavor. I tried it side by side with a Pumpking that I cellared with it, and a new Pumpking. I honestly like mine the best... a year older, just a great pumpkin spice flavor, perfectly balanced. A great beer to put away for a year.
 
I definitely recommend transferring this one to a secondary fermenter. The keg went dry this week and there was a couple inches of sediment in the bottom that should have been beer. This was also the first time I've used gelatin to clean up my beer. Is that sediment from the gelatin separating everything?
 
I definitely recommend transferring this one to a secondary fermenter. The keg went dry this week and there was a couple inches of sediment in the bottom that should have been beer. This was also the first time I've used gelatin to clean up my beer. Is that sediment from the gelatin separating everything?

That's the gelatin doing its job. If you use finings right in the keg that's what will happen, it's no problem though as long as you don't move/bump the keg once it's settled (usually about 36-48 hours after fining). If you plan to move the keg and serve immediately then I'd fine in the primary prior to kegging.
 
For your guys that bottle this one. How long did it take to carb up? I pulled one Sunday and tried it tonight after 2 weeks and zero carbonation. It's very strong with a bitter aftertaste. Kind of like medicine. Is this one that will take a month or more to carb and age?
 
I'm not sure, but mine has been bottled for 3 weeks and still has very little carbonation. It might be because the yeast is at the upper limit for alcohol. Mine ended up right around 12%. I obviously modified the recipe a bit, but we'll see in a few weeks.
 
I split the grain bill in half with Vienna instead of all pale. Followed everything else including the pie spice at the end, but added 60 oz of brown sugared baked pumpkin in the hop screen. Outstanding beer, killed a 5 gallon keg in 3weeks..I like it better than Pumking...
 
Well crap... I guess this one is going to end up a new years beer instead of a Thanksgiving after Turkey and pie brew...
 
I'm not sure, but mine has been bottled for 3 weeks and still has very little carbonation. It might be because the yeast is at the upper limit for alcohol. Mine ended up right around 12%. I obviously modified the recipe a bit, but we'll see in a few weeks.

same deal for me. at 3 weeks after bottling, it's mostly flat and tasted like gasoline/medicine
 
Mine has good flavor, but no carbonation. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving it'll have something

What did you use to prime for bottling? I think I used a little over 1/3 cup brown sugar for my 4.5 gallon batch (I used the Northern Brewer calculator) and it turned out with what I would consider normal carbonation for a beer with this high of an ABV. Tastes and smells great. Everyone who has tasted it has been impressed.
 
Brewed this recipe on Saturday. Missed OG slightly, but all went well otherwise.

Pitched 2 packs of S-04 and this thing is bubbling like crazy in my fermentation chamber. I'm keeping it at ~67F. I made this last year and people went nuts over it. I split the recipe in half for 5 gallons, but this year I'm dialing the vanilla back to only 1oz. I remember the vanilla being very overpowering last year.
 
Brewed this over the weekend (5 gallon batch, so 1/2 ingredients). I used 2 cans of organic pumpkin in the mash and it seemed to add a decent amount of pumpkin flavor to the wort. I ended up with a high pre-boil volume so I extended the boil to 90 minutes and ended up with a SG of 1.087...close enough.

Pitched two smack packs of Wyeast 1028 and it took off. The next morning the blowoff was a constant stream of bubbles, with the occasional "burp" that you could hear throughout the house. Smells amazing! I also have a vanilla bean soaking in vodka that I plan to add in the secondary.
 
My pre boil gravity is garbage... Had to much volume so I am boiling the hell out of it...
 
Just brewed 5 gallons of this last night. Sample tasted great!

I cut the recipe in half but used 8.5 lb 2 row and 8.5 lb Vienna. I also added 1 pumpkin, chunked and roasted at 350 with a dusting of the spices and brown sugar. The pumpkin was added to the boil at 20 mins.

OG hit about 1.084 with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter using BIAB method.

I used about 150ml of harvested US-05 yeast slurry from a pale ale and had activity within a few hours.

Can't wait to try this one out! I will be soaking 2 vanilla beans in Vanilla Island rum for about 3 weeks and adding that with pumpkin pie spice to the keg.
 
Just transferred to secondary (with vanilla/vodka extract) and WOW. I think I like the uncarbed sample more than any mainstream pumpkin ale I've tried.

Spices are perfect, 1/2 tsp of each is perfect for a 5 gallon batch. I also only added probably under 1.5 oz of vodka with 1 vanilla bean that had soaked for a week and a half. I might end up adding the rest of the vanilla at kegging/bottling.

FG is 1.021
 
Made this beer on July 31. It has gone through a lot of flavor changes..... It had medicinal flavor a for a while... I've been drinking 1 per month... It is now starting to get good ... I believe give it another 3 mo and it will be great.... I'll be drinking this next fall
 
Is the original post still the most current version of this recipe? Just went through several pages of this thread and I came across so many variants, pretty awesome to see... Also curious if anyone has brewed this in the 2.5-3 gallon range? Seems like I'll have to eye-ball the spice additions quite a bit!

Is WLP007 a good substitute? Recently brewed a RIS and figured I could just reuse that yeast for this batch
 
Brewed this for my wife 3 or 4 weeks ago.
F'd up and added 10 gallon's worth of vanilla and spice when I bottled.
I bet she'll still love it.
Thanks for the recipe
 
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