another 'brewed my pumkin ale today' thread :)

[hoppedup]

been planning this out for a few weeks now, and today was the day! i did alot of reading and asking questions about some specific things cause im obcessive compulsive I used the basic outline from the recipe and info on the infamous audioholics link, because the guys been making it for almost 10 years when the article was published, so I figured id bypass working out all the important kinks myself and soak in the advice of expirience. I tweaked some minor ingredients like spices, based on how I make pumpkin pie, and different hops, but not the intervals of the boil.

I used 6lbs of canned pumkin. (3 cans) and spread thin on cookie sheets to carmelize it.
this was after 1HR at 350F. since i didnt have real large cookie sheets, the pumpkin was almost an inch thick, so i stirred it up a bit and bakes another 15min

 

[hoppedup]

this pic is at the beginning of the boil, and the color looks pretty good

 

[hoppedup]

after doing this, there are a couple of things to think about. when i looked at my normal brewpot, and the 3 big cans of the pumkin next to it, i realized i was gonna need a bigger pot! thank god i didnt start the boil and find out the hard way. the 6lbs of pumkin adds about a 1/2 gallon of volume to the boil. luckily my neighbor had a 16quart pot i could borrow! also, if you are an extract brewer and normally start with 1 gallon of water in the boil, youll probbaly want to start with 2, or use more water to sparge your grains to account for the water that will boil off since its a 90min boil. I started with 1.5 gallons, and about 1/2 gallon water from the steeped grains and sparge. and i ended up adding more water about halfway thru the boil, because the wort consistancy was starting to get a little thick with all that pumpkin and the water loss thru boiling for 90min. (i brought the water to a boil in a seperate pot before adding of course)

my recipie was:


6.6lb LME
1lb honey malt
.5lb crystal malt 40l
2oz chocolate malt (for color, since my pumkin pies are darker than normal cause i use brownsugar)
grains steeped @ 165 for 30min


start of 90min boil:
-----------------------
6lbs canned pumpkin (carmelized)
1oz crystal hops
2 cinnamon sticks crushed up a bit
1/2 peice of whole nutmeg chopped up a bit


20min left in boil
---------------------
1oz fuggles hops
2 cinnamon sticks crushed up a bit
1/2 peice of whole nutmeg chopped up a bit
1tbsp of whole cloves

15min left in boil
---------------------
1tbsp irish moss


2mins left in boil:
------------------------
2 cinnamon sticks crushed up a bit
1 peice of whole nutmeg chopped up a bit
about 1/2 tbsp of whole cloves

dry american ale yeast (1056) (sprinkled on top wort in fermenter)


another thing i did was added enough water to the fermenter to bring the level up to 5.5gal to make up for the .5 gal volume the pumkin added to the boil, so im not shorting myself too much based on the amount of trub that i will have. im fermenting in the bucket style fermenter, and will use the carboy for the second and third racking.

i took about a 4oz sample for a gravity reading, but im letting it settle a bit first but damn it tastes better than my pumpkin pie!

wow... been in fermenter for 3 hours and I already have airlock activity of about 1 bubble per minute.

 

[RichBrewer]

It will be fun to compare all these pumpkin recipes. We all have done slightly different variations.

Good job.

 

[hoppedup]

id be up for trading a bottle or 2 with whoever.

 

[hoppedup]

took a reading and taste from the sample i took yesterday after i let it settle out, and she is 1.055. it settled out nice and clear too. altho obviously things can change after fermentation. this morning the ferment was going pretty strong already based on airlock activity after only 12hrs!

tasted nice, but the finish was a little too spicy. i think too much cinnamon. i might have over done it a bit since i was using real cinnamon sticks, which are more intense and harder to equate into tbsp's which the recipe called for. altho it would be perfect if the beer was a little sweeter to offset the bitterness of the cinnamon.

i know its still early to start worrying too much tho. hopefully after fermentation and a few rackings the cinnamon wont be as intense. and hopefully the clarity will remain after ferment also so i dont have to use any fining

 

[RichBrewer]

took a reading and taste from the sample i took yesterday after i let it settle out, and she is 1.055. it settled out nice and clear too. altho obviously things can change after fermentation. this morning the ferment was going pretty strong already based on airlock activity after only 12hrs!

tasted nice, but the finish was a little too spicy. i think too much cinnamon. i might have over done it a bit since i was using real cinnamon sticks, which are more intense and harder to equate into tbsp's which the recipe called for. altho it would be perfect if the beer was a little sweeter to offset the bitterness of the cinnamon.

i know its still early to start worrying too much tho. hopefully after fermentation and a few rackings the cinnamon wont be as intense. and hopefully the clarity will remain after ferment also so i dont have to use any fining

Don't judge the spiciness or bitterness until your beer is finished. I would say that "too spicy" is a good sign. The flavors will mellow as the beer ages so you might be right on track.

EDIT:

id be up for trading a bottle or 2 with whoever.

I would too if I have enough that is.

 

[Desert_Sky]

id be up for trading a bottle or 2 with whoever.

ill take you up on that in a month or so when they mellow a bit.

 

[Dude]

Cool idea about carmelizing it first. That should add some nice depth.

*scribbles notes furiously for pumpkin ale recipe plans*

 

[edost]

Here's the Audioholics recipe that hoppedup referred to:

http://www.audioholics.com/showcase/DIY/PumpkinAleRecipe.html

Scroll down for the 5 gallon homebrew (partial mash) recipe

 

[hoppedup]

Just an update since I have a positive one As most people told me that the spiceyness i was worried about would probbaly mellow, it indeed did. I left it in the secondary for 2 weeks, which also added great clarity, wow! i shoulda took pics. Anyway, its been in bottles now about a week. But its like 70F in the basement, so the carbonation after a week is almost non-existant. I think i will move em upstairs. But man is it delicious. Altho actually, if you can believe it, I think it coulda used even more pumpkin. I used 6lbs, which was the lowest recomended amount. (i think i read 6 - 8lbs) Im drooling thinking about how it will be once fully carbed tho!

 

[rod]

brewed mine on labour day - i baked 2 cans of pumpkin for an hour and then added some water and a teaspoon of pectin enzyme as someone suggested it might help. since i had some beano tablets(amalyse enzyme) i added a couple as well to try to convert more starches. added 1/2 the pumpkin to the mash and the rest to the boil. i started with about 40 litres to allow for loss to trub and ended up with about 34 litres split beteen two ,25 litres plastic primaries i didn't even try to stain just pitched on a cake of wyeast 1156.bubbles in the airlock inside of 45 minutes. even with only 17 litres in a 25 litre bucket i still had krausen block the airlocks. og 1.056 smells great. hopefully not too watered down at 34 litres from a 19 litres recipe.

 

[hoppedup]

shared a few with other beer fanatics, and they said it was every bit as good as the Post Road Pumkin ale they had. But the nutmeg in mine gave a better perception of pumkin pie which what i was going for.

if richbrewer and chimone still want to trade a couple, let me know