Trippel Pumpkin Ale - read and weep pumpkin tears

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crawkraut

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OG 1.083 on a 10 gal batch.

27.25 lbs pilsner
9.6 oz aromatic
9.6 oz biscuit
9.6 oz munich 20
2 lbs sugar
2 pie pumpkins, roasted in oven and the meat mashed with the grains.
90 min mash at 149.

Hops were tettnang, willamette and saaz. I called 47 IBUs but I know I'll lose some in the process so I'm hoping for 35 when all is said and done.

Spices: I tsp of a pumpkin pie powdered spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, allspice). Wanted it subtle. Added to the brew kettle. On bottling day there will be a spice tea made so that the liquid to be bottled can be further spiced (to taste) if need be.

Yeast: WLP530. My first time using this yeast. Made a big starter and holding the primary steady at 65 degrees. Looks like a voracious yeast!

Can't wait to finish this one - brewing it filled the neighborhood with the smell of pumpkin pie. Fall is in the air.

Corsendonk was the inspiration for this one, their pale ale or the tripel, whatever they call it these days. Used no orange or coriander in this one as I don't see coriander going well with the pumpkin spices. The orange may be a good addition and perhaps there will be some added to this mix.
 
Sounds awesome. Keep us updated, seems like something I'd be interested in trying someday down the road. I've heard of others having success with pumpkin saisons also, and I love anything Belgian.
 
That's correct we will make a spice tea using the same powdered spice mixture on bottling day so we can season everything to taste. Using actual "tea" is now a great idea inspired by the question here as I'm sure to be able to find a pumpkin spiced tea! Pumpkin saison sounds delicious as well! (And would be much easier to ferment given the temperature control aspect) updates to come. In the mean time I am looking to find the ideal carb level (3 to 4) as I will bottle all 10 gal. And we plan to follow a lengthy conditioning period, primary and bottling, to include a month minimum in the bottle somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees - fall is here! Will keep you guys updated. Also i am open to trades once this is bottled.
 
i was thinking about doing tea bags as well. my concern was tannins from the tea. i know black tea is loaded with tannins. i'm not sure if the amount of tea used makes it no concern or if i should adjust my hop bitterness to compensate.
 
I found an herbal tea tonight (no "tea" in it and no caffeine), by Celestial Seasonings and it has all the right spices in it. Tastes pretty good too, worthy of a pumpkin brew and a tripel but with more thought put towards this tripel I will defer any more spice/flavor additions until later on in the process (closer to bottling time). Less is more, except for aging, seems to be the road to success here.
 
Sub'd.
I was trying to come up with something unique, pumpkin related, for next fall. I just did a quick google search not expecting to find anything for a pumpkin tripel, and this is where I landed. Please keep this post updated. I hope this turns out for you, if it does its on the list for next year.
 
Will do. This one is still in the fermenters, might bottle it up this week. It tastes great per my test two weeks ago. The yeast did a great job and smelled delicious thru fermentation. I also have an herbal tea concoction that will be used at bottling time along with the priming sugar. I'd trade you a bottle of this if you are up for it.
 
Trades are always good. I'm up for one, I can send you a list of what I currently have, that work?
 
Sounds good, I'm always on the lookout for new pumpkin beer recipes. I'm curious as to your hop amounts and schedule?
 
Two updates here - get ready!

1. Hops
A. 90 min addition
i. 1 oz Tettnang
ii. 1 oz Willamette
B. 60 min addition
i. 2 oz Willamette
ii. 1 oz Tettnang
C. 10 min addition
i. 2 oz Saaz
ii. 1 oz Willamette
D. 5 min addition
i. 1 oz Willamette

Hop Notes:
- This puts 44.4% of the total hope volume in the pot during the last 10 minutes of the boil.
- Yes, Willamette is not typical in your "to style" tripel, but I'm really good at rationalizing most things and do really enjoy the willamette hop and do believe that it is a cousin to the noble hops varieties so I tossed in so it could accent the rest of the flavors in this brew.
- With a description like this, "The king of aroma hops in the U.S. with its modest bittering value and the joyous harmony of flowers, fruit, earth and spice," you just can't say no to this hop in this brew.
- the key though I think for this willamette addition is that it does have a low alpha % that is in the same neighborhood as the Saaz and Tettnang.
- Beersmith calc'd 47.1 IBU for this hop schedule, BUT, this value, for me is a theoretical number and will vary from actual results. Not to mention this brew will be primaried, secondaried and bottle conditioned for a very long time - Needless to say there will be a loss of IBU along the way and I've planned, by no scientific means for a modest loss of IBU during this process.

2. The tea
- Celestial Seasonings Orange Mandarin Spice
- 2 pints worth added to 6 gallons of wort
- used three tea bags of this. Broke one bag open to let it loose and steeped with the other two tea bags for 15 min.
- ingredients include: Orange peel, hibiscus, roasted chicory, rosehips, blackberry leaves, chamomile, hawthorn, cinnamon, natural mandarin orange flavor with other natural flavors (contains soy lecithin), cloves and coriander.
- to me these ingredients and the taste of this tea complement both the pumpkin side of this brew and the corsendonk tripel which inspired this concoction.
- I'm looking for the brew to take on the essence of this tea, not looking for anything overpowering to result - So I visualized the effect of pouring 2 pints of tea into 6 gallons of water and can only imagine that the result will not be overpowering. [and if it is I have 4 other gallons of this same wort to dilute with]
- There's no caffeine in this herbal tea.
- I also tried their tangerine orange zinger and a mixture of this zinger with the above mandarin. [I preferred the above for this brew; though I mixed up a pint of the zinger plus the mandarin orange spice and added it into 6ish gallons of my favorite IPA that I transferred to secondary].
- How do I know all this was a good idea? Had no homebrews or beers otherwise, in me, while all this was going down. Typically I make my strongest decisions when brews are not involved.
- I'll definitely be doing more experiments with this herbal tea thing as there seem to be a variety of these that will lend themselves well to homebrewing.

Hope this helps and I hope it turns out good.

So there you have it, this brew is now in secondary as of this past saturday. how long it will sit there, not sure, though I picture myself trying one of these brews on New Year's Eve so bottle date may well be during the weekend of Thanksgiving.

Will keep you posted.
 
This turned out deliciously. Patience was the key, no bottle was opened until mid January. Now only to hold on to the 8 that remain!


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Two 375mL bottles left - what a delicious brew - along the way each tasting got better, can't wait to see what October has in store for these last brews - and DEFINETLY want to brew this one again


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Paired very well with prosciutto and smoked prosciutto and triple cream Brie.


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Also note with respect to the sub-thread on tea above that in my tea experiments (three varying teas all surrounding the mandarin orange) I added a pint or two of a zinger style tea to the secondary of an ipa and it didnt turn out so well. Maybe added too much b/c too much came through... In the tripel pumpkin however I felt that everything was right on given the above


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Hi! I'm looking to use this recipe for this upcoming holidays. I did have a few questions though.

Did you puree the pumpkin meat before adding it to the mash? Or added them the way they were (in chunks)?

The spices that you added to the brew kettle, anytime works or do you add them in the last 5 to 10 minutes?

What's your time table for fermentation and conditioning? I'm thinking about 7 days in the primary, 14 days in the secondary, then cold crash for 7 days before bottling. Then a long sleep in a cool closet.

Looking forward to it!
 
Hi! I'm looking to use this recipe for this upcoming holidays. I did have a few questions though.

Did you puree the pumpkin meat before adding it to the mash? Or added them the way they were (in chunks)?

The spices that you added to the brew kettle, anytime works or do you add them in the last 5 to 10 minutes?

What's your time table for fermentation and conditioning? I'm thinking about 7 days in the primary, 14 days in the secondary, then cold crash for 7 days before bottling. Then a long sleep in a cool closet.

Looking forward to it!

I'm not the OP, but in my experience....
add the spices with 5min left in boil. Too early and it'll just boil off the flavors.
I have used the canned "Libby's Pumpkin" a few times. Spread it out on a cookie sheet and bake it for an hour (350deg?). Cool and add that to the mash. USE RICE HULLS to prevent a stuck mash!!!!!

I know some have put the pumpkin in the boil, but that seems like a mess to me?

Fermentation is subject to the yeast and wort gravity and all that.... With the flavorful pumpkin beers, you should be fine just going by feel. These age really well. Get it in bottles or kegs, and let it sit for a month. The spices will mellow and blend in with the rest of the flavors. You might think it's over spiced when you bottle/keg, but give it time! ;)

Cheers,
Kurt
 
I brewed this in September. Primaried for a month. And secondaried until early December. The spices were added to the last 15 min of the boil. Less is more.
The pumpkin I roasted in the oven until it collapsed and had a nice sweetness - I chunked it up and peeled it and mashed it in. I would not add pumpkin to the boil kettle on this because I prefer it to be as clear as possible. Adding to boil will cloud things up I believe. Also this yeast is voracious. Even with blow off tube so be ready and plan to priMary a little longer than usual as this is a high abv brew


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The more posts I read on this brew the more I want to try it. Im thinking of trying it out for the next brew. Maybe I missed it, but how well balanced is this beer between all the spices, the malt, the pumpkin, and the hops? I like some of the pumpkin ales out there but some are way too sweet, and some have way too strong of a pumpkin flavor for my taste. Any insight would be appreciated so that I could adjust my ingredients accordingly.
 
I'm going to make a 10 gallon batch of this and age 1 corny keg until next year to compare against next years batch. Just waiting on the pumpkins to become available in my area.
 

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