Autumn Seasonal Beer Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions)

scottvin said:

For the last two years, I added the pumpkin in the mash and it is a big pain to sparge this. How many people add the pumpkin to the boil?

Thanks!

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I actually take whole pumpkin, take the insides out, and then cut the rind into about 1.5" x 1.5" cubes, bake it in waterless cookware with pumpkin pie spices on them until soft, then put it into a fine mesh hop bag before putting into the boil. I've brewed twice with this method and it comes out amazing every time, and because its in the grain bag the trub ends up being minimal, no more than my other ales. You'll also get some color off the skin, so it'll be a nice orange color. Every 10 min or so, either lift the pumpkin out and put it back in or stir it around to move wort through it, so the wort in and around the pumpkin doesn't saturate and not extract any more flavor. I think you'll be happy with this method. I use as much pumpkin as it takes to fill two large grain bags per 5 gallons.

Thanks Cal, I may try that. What size are your grain bags?

Brewing my pumpkin ale right now!

I made mine on Sunday. I went a little different route. First change was making it bigger with an OG of 1.086, second change was adding dark malts and making it a porter, third change was adding graham crackers to the mash with the roasted pumpkin to see if i can get that graham cracker crust flavor. Bubbling away pretty good right now.

I ended up modifying the recipe slightly to reflect personal preferences. I used 75oz of canned pumpkin since actual pumpkin is not available yet in my area. I also added 8oz of Chocolate Malt to the partial mash to give it a darker color. I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar on the pumpkin when I cooked it in the oven, in addition to another 1/2cup of brown sugar in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I also ended up using 6.5lbs of DME. My batch was ended up being almost 6gal with an OG of 1.060.

I used Safale-04 and it's bubbling like crazy already. Looks like fermentation temps are right around 68 degrees right now.

Quick picture from my brew day yesterday.

I tried something different this year and added sweet potatoes



Roasted them...with the brown sugar...




And put graham crackers in the mash...

I am brewing this right now with a few small changes. Going with S-05 and flaked oats instead of the wheat.

I brewed it this way two years ago and SWMBO liked it better than the original recipe, so I figured it would be best to do it again.

JohnSand said:

Thanks Cal, I may try that. What size are your grain bags?

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I think they're like 8" x 12". I can fit about 3/4 of a med/large pumpkin into them. If you cut the pumpkin to small pieces you can fit more, but I didn't want to spend more time cutting pumpkin than I did actual brew time

mesa4234 said:

I am brewing this right now with a few small changes. Going with S-05 and flaked oats instead of the wheat.

I brewed it this way two years ago and SWMBO liked it better than the original recipe, so I figured it would be best to do it again.

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Why flaked oats instead of wheat?

CraigKing said:

Why flaked oats instead of wheat?

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The first time I used the oats, my lhbs was out of flaked wheat, so I just decided to use the oats.

Honestly, there isn't much difference. There is a little less "wheaty" taste with the oats, but since you are using so little, there isn't much difference in flavor at all. There is a slightly different mouthfeel, slightly smoother. The biggest difference that I have noticed though is the clarity. The oats tend to yield a clearer beer with less haze.

Overall though, it was more a change of necessity, and I liked the results, so I went back to it this year.

Question on the spiced tea....I've already applied to secondary....has anyone put some extra into the priming mixture for added flavor?

alby44 said:

Question on the spiced tea....I've already applied to secondary....has anyone put some extra into the priming mixture for added flavor?

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It wouldn't hurt anything. It would be just a matter of taste. I wouldn't overdo it though. You can always add more to your liking but you can't take it out...

I just put mine in the clearing stage. I lost A LOT of beer from the pumpkin. About 2 gallons but it looks great so far.

Subscribed for what looks like a very informative thread on what will soon be my next next brew.

Just brewed this again for 2014. Used the recipe (all grain) for last year and it was an incredible beer. Exactly what me and the wife wanted in terms of a Pumpkin beer. Its a great recipe.

For 2014 I decided to use Wyeast 1968 Used WLP002 last year), and I used 5 lbs of 2-Row, and 3.5 lbs. Marris Otter to hopefully give it a little more malt backbone. I remember it being a tad too sweet last time, even though FG was spot on. So, hope the yeast and MO help it out. Its fun to play around with recipes. Thats what this hobby is all about!!!

Cheers again for a great recipe!

What temperature do must people ferment at? I'll be using 1968 London ESB. I was thinking 68F.

Ie never used that yeast but it sounds good to me. The wyeast and white labs sites have user reviews and sometimes you will find people say to ramp the temp up or start colder. It's worth a read before using the yeast (there are also threads on here for some yeasts).


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Brewing it right now, BIAB, mashing pumpkin.

Not sure what happened with my batch. Brew day went great, with hitting all numbers right on. Brewed BIAB with pumpkin in the mash.

After about a week in the fermenter, using 2 smack packs of 1968, I am only at 1.024. Not sure why the yeast crapped out so early. I hit it with 90 seconds of pure O2 also. Maybe its from the pumpkin?? Not sure....thats even with the LB of brown sugar. The yeast should have loved that. If I cant get it lower its going to be a sweet beer. The sample tastes alright, but wish it would drop a bit more.

Well, while I just brewed today, I'm a little concerned too. My efficiency was a bit low, and the wort didn't taste sweet. The pumpkin made a thicker mash than usual, I wonder about conversion. But I'm adding some DME to correct the gravity. I also found that BIAB mashing the pumpkin made the bag hold wort. I generally dunk sparge, and some stirring and squeezing helped. I'll know in a few weeks how it worked out.

Is there somewhere between page 1 and 143 that I should be looking for a most current recipe? I've done a bit of skimming, and all I'm finding is different people tweaking the "original" a bit here any there...is page 1 still the "original" people are going off of?

That's what I used and just brewed it this last Saturday

Alright. I've searched and searched. Can anyone help me with the 10 gallon batch recipe?

GR_Beer said:

Alright. I've searched and searched. Can anyone help me with the 10 gallon batch recipe?

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Here's what I did:

All Grain (10.50 gal)
ABV: 5.07%
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.019
IBUs: 13.0
Color: 14.2 SRM

Mash: 60 min @ 158F
Fly Sparge: 168F
Boil: 60 min

9.93 lb Pumpkin, Canned
3.23 lb Carmel/Crystal Malt - 60L
1.82 lb Biscuit Malt
0.66 lb Wheat, Flaked
14.93 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)
1.04 oz Goldings, East Kent - Pellet - 60min - Alpha 7.2% - Beta 2.6%
2 Whirlfloc Tablet - 10 min

Yeast: Wyeast 1968 London ESB @ 68F

So here is my take on this beer.

All Grain (11 gal)
ABV: 4.7% (TBD)
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.019 (TBD)
IBUs: 13.0
Color: 14 SRM

Mash: 60 min @ 154F
Fly Sparge: 168F
Boil: 60 min

5 Pumpkin, Fresh
3.5 lb Carmel/Crystal Malt - 60L
2 lb Biscuit Malt
1 lb Wheat, Flaked
15.25 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)
2 oz Goldings, East Kent - Pellet - 60min - Alpha 6.6%
1 Whirlfloc Tablet - 10 min
1 Tsp Cinnamon - Flame out
1 Tsp Allspice - Flame out
1 Tsp Nutmeg - Flame out
1 Tsp Cloves - Flame out

Yeast: White Labs English Ale Yeast WLP002

My unique technique involved pressure cooking the pumpkin instead of baking. I cute the pumpkin into about 2x1" cubes, then I seasoned the pumpkin using the ingredients mentioned above, and added some to the water used in the cooker. Cooked under 15 PSI for 10 min, then cooled at once. Then I mashed the pumpkin into mush, adding some brown sugar to taste. I mashed the pumpkin in my mash tun for 60 min, very very slow sparge.

Cheers~

So for the extract version I use the amounts from the recipe on page 1, but top the fermenter off to 6 gallons with water instead of 5?

I just bottled 52 of these. The sample looked, smelled and tasted great. And only one gallon of pumpkin trub.

What has everyone carbed this at? About to bottle it in bombers

What do you think of putting this on a yeast cake of Wyeast 1338 from a Rogue Dead guy? How would this effect taste?

I think that yeast would be fantastic in this beer


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My first failure. Get a little hiss but no carbonation

Sorry to hear that. Whenever I have had low carbonation, temperature has been the culprit.

Room was definitely in the 70 area. Gonna try putting the box on a heating pad and really warming them up.

I opened one and dropped a few carb tablets in...that resulted in beer shooting all over

Okay. That's warm enough. If beer shot all over, it is carbonated. Does it have no head, or no carb on your tongue? I find that mine often takes a week in the fridge to absorb the carbonation nicely.

Zero head zero on the tongue

Ok forgive me if this is a dumb question but I am wanting to use this recipe for my first all grain attempt and really don't want to mess it up. I just want to do 5 gallons instead of the 15 on the original post (using a 15gal. pot). Is is safe to say just divide everything by 3, or are there other adjustments I will have to make?

Tbnguy said:

Ok forgive me if this is a dumb question but I am wanting to use this recipe for my first all grain attempt and really don't want to mess it up. I just want to do 5 gallons instead of the 15 on the original post (using a 15gal. pot). Is is safe to say just divide everything by 3, or are there other adjustments I will have to make?

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You got it... Divide by 3

Anyone familiar with this recipe and have a good palette want to try some from my batch and tell where i may have gone wrong? I'll UPS it to your door

Thanks
-steve

Steve3730 said:

Anyone familiar with this recipe and have a good palette want to try some from my batch and tell where i may have gone wrong? I'll UPS it to your door

Thanks
-steve

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HAHA I'm so tempted to lie and say I'm a homebrew god just to drink your (probably awesome) homebrew for free.