Autumn Seasonal Beer Samhain Pumpkin Ale

SDCore said:

Yeah, my thought was to cut it down to a 5 gallon batch but keep the grain bill the same, but then my question would be if the pumpkin and the hops should be cut down but I don't think its drastic enough of a change for it to matter much, esp using magnum hops.

*EDIT* Does the pumpkin count as a part of my grain bill was my other question. In other words with BIAB do I need to account for the pumpkin when figuring out my strike water?

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I've said it a few times in the thread now so I should probably just put it on the first post if it will still let me edit it. Since the pumpkin has a solid/liquid ratio similar to a mash don't worry about it volume-wise. As for temp, since you are baking the pumpkin before mashing, just let it cool to somewhere around mash temp then mash in. Basically, just make it easy on yourself.

Artemisag said:

After a long search of pumpkin Ale recipes, I am brewing this one next weekend. I only have one problem..... I have a nice healthy WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast in my fermenter and I think I am going to lager this bad boy. Anyone attempted this?

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IMO this style is more appropriate for ale yeast. The fruity esters from a nice ale yeast are very fitting. Also I think the extended cold storage during the lagering phase would allow most of the spice and pumpkin particles to completely settle out leaving a beer with a lot less flavor that it's ale counterpart.

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

Rolly said:

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

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Believe it or not, if you have a health food store around that sells bulk, whole spices, it's actually cheaper to go that route rather than the pumpkin pie spice.

Rolly said:

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

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I used 2 tsp Pumkin pie spice last year, this year I used the actual recipe.

I've brewed this before & it came out great....I need to do a couple subs & wonder if I can get some input.....mostly on hops. Willamette is the closest i can tell that i have on hand, but I'd like some advice...I'd like to use what i have instead of buying new stuff.

I have:
Cascade
EKG
Hallertaur
Liberty
Palisade
Saaz
Sterling
Vangard
Willamette


Scaled to 10 gal batch
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 2 4.7 %
15 lbs 2 row Malt (Rahr) (1.9 SRM) Grain 4 69.8
2 lbs Wheat, Torrified (1.5 SRM) Grain 6 9.3 %
0.50 tsp Cloves, Ground (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 14 -
0.50 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 15 -
1.00 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 13 -
1.00 tsp Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 mins) Herb 11 -
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
2.00 tsp Cinnamin extract (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 12 -
116.00 oz Pumpkin puree (Mash 60.0 mins) Flavor 3
8.0 oz Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 8 2.3
1.0 pkg Safale S-05 [50.00 ml] Yeast 16 -
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 9.
1 lbs Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 7 4.7 %
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 19.9 IBUs

Thanks for any advice.

firefly765 said:

I've brewed this before & it came out great....I need to do a couple subs & wonder if I can get some input.....mostly on hops. Willamette is the closest i can tell that i have on hand, but I'd like some advice...I'd like to use what i have instead of buying new stuff.

I have:
Cascade
EKG
Hallertaur
Liberty
Palisade
Saaz
Sterling
Vangard
Willamette

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Magnum is a very clean bittering hop that can be used in small amounts due to its high AA, so that is what you are going for here. Your spices are going to dominate, so it probably isn't going to make a noticeable difference. Eliminate the low AA noble hops and go with something like Vangard - the AA is on the higher end of what you have on hand and it is a pretty mild hop. Being as cheap as it is, I wouldn't hesitate to use Willamette if you have some you want to get rid of.

KingBrianI said:

I really love the color of this beer. I think the pumpkin added a deep orange color that gives the beer a really deep, rich copper hue. I tried to get it to come through in the picture but condensation on the glass and light angles were working against me. The pumpkin flavor is really coming out now too.

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My God, that's an awesome pic, so much so, that i'm gonna brew this and go buy some of those glasses!! lol

NCBeernut said:

Magnum is a very clean bittering hop that can be used in small amounts due to its high AA, so that is what you are going for here. Your spices are going to dominate, so it probably isn't going to make a noticeable difference. Eliminate the low AA noble hops and go with something like Vangard - the AA is on the higher end of what you have on hand and it is a pretty mild hop. Being as cheap as it is, I wouldn't hesitate to use Willamette if you have some you want to get rid of.

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OK, thanks. Is the crystal 40 a good sub for the British Caramalt?

I was going to use crystal 40 instead of caramalt, but decieded last minute to use carared instead. Brewing it tomorrow am, we'll see what happens.

I did this today, changed nothing in the recipe (besides the Rice Hulls), but I did it BIAB method. I have to say this has been the easiest brew yet. The pumpkin floated around in the mash, then once I pulled the strainer basket and went to drain all the wort out, the pumpkin settled on top of the grain at the bottom and created its own slow sparge by slowly draining everything off the top. This prevented squeazing the bag and getting mushy pumpkin draining everywhere. Doing the boil now but it already smells great.

I did a similar beer to this today. I used two 29oz cans of Libby's pumpkin, pre-carmelized on cookie sheet for 45min at 350F.

I used 1lb of rice hulls, and had absolutely no problems running off or sparging whatsoever...it was like a normal brew. I added 1/2lb hulls first, then the strike water, then the grain, then another 0.5lbs of rice hulls, then finally the pumpkin. Tried to keep the pumpkin at the top of the mash. I broke up the large clumps and then just left it alone for an hour.

I batch sparge and use a round 10gal cooler with a SS braid.

I got no extra gravity points from the pumpkin, but a deep orange color and I could pick up pumpkin aroma in the wort. We'll have to see how it turns out.

Just Finished this sucker changed the molasses for sugar in the raw 1c and doubled the hops. Hopefully not too sweet with the change to sugar but will let everyone know how it does.

I plan on brewing this recipe this year. I used a different recipe last year based on a lot of research, but it used two cans of 100% pumpkin purée; this as opposed to colored squash which is apparently something that folks buy unwittingly.

I do plan on adding quite a bit of rolled oats to add sort of an oatmeal character to the brew. I have added this to chocolate stouts and to last year's pumpkin ale.

With my pumpkin ale last year I swear that there was a very minor hint of an underlying metallic aftertaste, although nobody else said that they could detect it.

Oh, and I was going to add vanilla bean this time...

Just wondering if you added Irish Moss to the boil in the last 5 minutes to assist with clarity. Looking forward to brewing this and appreciate you posting the recipe!

Daryl said:

Just wondering if you added Irish Moss to the boil in the last 5 minutes to assist with clarity. Looking forward to brewing this and appreciate you posting the recipe!

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I use a half a whirlfloc tablet/5.5 gallon batch at 10 minutes left in the boil in every one of my beers.

Tasted the first bottle, it's great! Thanks for the recipe!

What is the fermentation time on this? 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, 2-4weeks bottle?

Thanks

That's a good question The molasses takes a little bit longer to ferment, so it may take 3 weeks in the secondary.

Just gettin done with the boil on this. OMG smells amazing thanks Brian you have made my SWMBO very happy

So my LHBS carries White Labs yeast so I ventured over to another one that carries Wyest products but they didn't have Denny's Favorite. I did pick up some Pacman yeast, think that would be a decent sub or should I order Denny's Favorite online?

Mr_Pear said:

So my LHBS carries White Labs yeast so I ventured over to another one that carries Wyest products but they didn't have Denny's Favorite. I did pick up some Pacman yeast, think that would be a decent sub or should I order Denny's Favorite online?

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Pacman should make a decent sub.

Decent but not as amazing as it should be!! Damn I think I'm just going to have to order some. After perusing the pages it seems like its just too darn good to not use!!

I just ordered some Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50 from Northern Brewer when I ordered grains for this, so I know they have it in stock.

This post has been removed by bottlebomber. Reason: things always make more sense the second time reading

bottlebomber said:

I am thirsting for this ever since coming across this recipe. Im curious though, I love the idea of toasting the malt, but can't help but wonder if this might have an effect of the enzymes

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It will definitely decrease the diastatic power of the malt you toast, but the other 8 lbs will still have plenty left to convert the recipe.

KingBrianI said:

It will definitely decrease the diastatic power of the malt you toast, but the other 8 lbs will still have plenty left to convert the recipe.

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I edited my post because I didn't notice initially that it was just the pound that was being roasted

How would the addition of 1.5 of barley malt and 1.5 lbs of cooked rolled oats affect the resulting beer.

WarrantedFED said:

How would the addition of 1.5 of barley malt and 1.5 lbs of cooked rolled oats affect the resulting beer.

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1.5 lbs more malt would mostly just increase the gravity a few points. The oats would increase the gravity too but also thicken the body a bit and give the beer a bit of a slicker mouthfeel. Might add a little oat flavor too though it may be hard to detect with all the other flavors going on.

Also, I didn't read through this whole thread but I didn't notice an OG/FG or ABV

bottlebomber said:

Also, I didn't read through this whole thread but I didn't notice an OG/FG or ABV

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For OG and FG, check the first post again. Maybe third time is a charm. ABV wasn't posted but (OG - FG) x 131 = %ABV. Cheers!

KingBrianI said:

1.5 lbs more malt would mostly just increase the gravity a few points. The oats would increase the gravity too but also thicken the body a bit and give the beer a bit of a slicker mouthfeel. Might add a little oat flavor too though it may be hard to detect with all the other flavors going on.

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Thank you Brian. Apparently the barley malt's enzymes facilitate the conversion of the rolled oats' starches to fermentable sugars. That's why I could be adding the barley malt.

WarrantedFED said:

Thank you Brian. Apparently the barley malt's enzymes facilitate the conversion of the rolled oats' starches to fermentable sugars. That's why I could be adding the barley malt.

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Maybe it's a dumb question, but you do understand that the golden promise called for in the recipe is barley malt, right?

KingBrianI said:

Maybe it's a dumb question, but you do understand that the golden promise called for in the recipe is barley malt, right?

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No Brian, I'm the dumb one! I'm very good at following a recipe, but a little fuzzy on the details. I've only been doing this for a year now. I probably would have figured it out eventually (I hope). ha!

The golden promise base malt should have enough diastatic power to convert the oats if you would like to add them. Any extra base malt you add will just help ensure you get a quicker conversion.

I swear to god I can't see the OG... why can't I see it...

Look at the bold part at the top of the first post.

bottlebomber said:

I swear to god I can't see the OG... why can't I see it...

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It may be noteworthy to be aware that on the iPhone app you must go to the actual website to see this info. Not sure why.

KingBrianI said:

The golden promise base malt should have enough diastatic power to convert the oats if you would like to add them. Any extra base malt you add will just help ensure you get a quicker conversion.

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Thanks Brian. I'm going to have to research this reaction further so that I better understand the interaction.

I need to consult my table of grains I think!