Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

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Just brewed this tonight and plan on tapping it on Halloween. Slight change by using wlp005 as the yeast and kent Golding hops.

The pumpkin and rice hulls sucked up a lot of water I only ended up with about 4.5g into he fermenter.
 
I brewed this on 9-2 and ended up with a SG of 1.060. I read over two years of posts and used the recommended one pound of rice hulls. The mash went well but sparging slowed quite a bit towards the end. I baked the pumpkin for an hour and it did not look done enough so I baked it another hour. After two weeks in the primary I racked it to a secondary today. FG after primary is 1.008. The color looks good very pumpkin looking. I plan on leaving it in the secondary for two weeks and then kegging it. Then hoping after a week in the keg it will be ready for a party we are having on October 5.
 
Hi Reno_eNVy,

Brewed your pumpkin ale recipe this past weekend with a few minor changes, i.e.; used 9 lbs. of 2-row instead of 10 lbs. (was coming up pretty heavy on BeerSmith at 10 lb's.) and used the Wyeast 1056 with a starter instead of the dry yeast. The brew still came in pretty big (O.G. of 1.067) and had a wonderful aroma. Pitched a good size starter and had the start of fermentation in less than 12 hours!
If it tastes as good as it smelled, this is sure to be a winner! We'll find out in a couple of weeks.
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I had been looking for a good pumpkin ale recipe for a while to brew this autumn season and this may be the one. :)
BTW...for those out there that have kegged and force carbonated, what is a good CO2 by volume level to use when carbonating this beer? Just planning ahead. ;)
 
Made a version of this a handful of weeks ago. For the first week or so in the keg, it was rather aggressively spice-forward, but now it's calmed down and turned into a very tasty beer.
 
I made this recipe about 6 weeks ago and just sampled my first bottle tonight. I made one slight change in that I split the base malt into half 2-Row and half Maris Otter. I can honestly say that this is not only the tastiest beer I have ever made, but perhaps the best I have ever tasted!

This is a fantastic recipe and I wonder if I made it without the pumpkin spice if it could be just a great malty house beer year round instead of a seasonal?
 
Richard-SSV said:
I made this recipe about 6 weeks ago and just sampled my first bottle tonight. I made one slight change in that I split the base malt into half 2-Row and half Maris Otter. I can honestly say that this is not only the tastiest beer I have ever made, but perhaps the best I have ever tasted!

This is a fantastic recipe and I wonder if I made it without the pumpkin spice if it could be just a great malty house beer year round instead of a seasonal?
Click to expand...

I am glad to hear that. I did the same 50/50 split and have this carbing up on the CO2 now. I want to let this age until October, but will likely sneak a sample this coming weekend.
 
Thank you all for your input. I love this time of year since I get awesome input and get to read about other brewers experiences with brewing one of my favorite styles.

:mug:
 
Mine got an infection. Sad. Tastes ok under the pellicle, but I am going to let it sit til next year and try it as a sour punkin ale. First batch that infected on me ever. Wonder how it will turn out.
 
When doing the extract version, is it necessary to pitch 2 pks of Safale S-04, or would I be ok with one.
Also, my LHB only has DME so would I subsitute the 8.25# of Pale LME with 6.8# of Briess Golden Light DME?
 
the pitchrate of the yeast is consistent for the gravity of the wort. AG/PM/AE shouldnt effect it. Doing a half batch though you could half the yeast.
 
I made this several weeks ago. When it was done fermenting, the pumpkin/spice flavor was basically gone. I added some more at bottling, hope it comes thru a little
 
oasisbliss said:
same here add a 2tspn spice tea at bottling *perfect*
Click to expand...

This makes me feel a little better. Mine is fermenting and I added 1.5tsp at flameout but ended up with only 4g do to the mash sucking up so much water...was worried I may have over spiced as a result but this makes me think otherwise. I'll post my results in a few weeks.
 
I am the opposite of a couple of you. My spice level was low so I added a tincture at kegging time, but I think I over did it a bit. Now I am left hopping the spice will fad a bit. It is not so over-whelming that I would dump it or anything like that, but at this point there is more spice then I would have liked.:(
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Over time the spice flavor will fade so you need not worry. :mug:
Click to expand...

Glad to hear, I wanted to keep myself from drinking this until at least half way through October. So now I have a good reason not to touch it for a while.:mug:
 
Brewed this yesterday to be ready by Halloween. I've had trouble hitting my mash temp the last few times I made this. Beersmith says 171.7 to hit 156. I'm at sea level. Last two times I only got to 148 letting the pumpkin cool to low 70's. Not sure if that's what's throwing my numbers off. So I added a gallon of boiling water and that brought it up to 156. I also added a lb. of rice hulls as last time I had a stuck sparge with about 1/2 lb. Sparge didn't stick but was very slow. I also had to add extra sparge water to get to 7.5 gallon in the kettle. All and all it made for a longer brew day but this beer is well worth it imo. I also added some graham crackers to the mash as I was going for more of a ST Pumking beer which is what I taste in that beer. My OG was 1.081 which probably is due to that but I'm not complaining.
 
Your low mash temps are most certainly from letting the pumpkin cool down. I always add it to the mash hot.
 
I have made 2 10 gallon batches of this recipe this fall. I have sampled both, and they are both tasting great! One question for you Reno... I used Safale US-05 on one batch, and White Labs California Ale yeast on the other. Both took the gravity down to 1.008 in a week. You say you skip seconday all together and just primary ferment for 4 weeks. How do you keep your batches from getitng so low? also would you recommend 'back sweetening' with lactose? or should RDWHAHB since it tastes just fine to me. I'll hang up annd listen...
 
I am personally going to add some lactose to my batch to get a little more sweetness. I am at 1.012 and would like it at about 1.016 or so.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Your low mash temps are most certainly from letting the pumpkin cool down. I always add it to the mash hot.
Click to expand...

Reno,
I did pretty much the same thing. I let the pumpkin cool to about 150°F and then added it to my mash. I had no problem hitting or maintaining my temperatures at all.
Just a suggest to those that are having a low temperature problem during your mashing.
 
Nicegirl, thanks for reporting your experience.

As far as the low FG many are reporting, it's odd considering I typically finish over 1.012 (which is kind of a low-ball)

Others, I've seen, are also getting proper body (i.e. appropriate FG) but there are those with dry problems.

Here are some recommendations:
- Replace half of the brown sugar with equivalent grains in the mash (MO or 2-row)

- Mash at a higher temperature, or check to make sure you aren't losing heat from adding cooler pumpkin puree

- Back-sweeten with lactose
 
I noticed that yall recommended fermenting this between 60-64 degrees! that is about as low you can go! I was only get it down to about 66-67 fermenting, and I thought that was pretty cool. Is that too warm? Am I not going to taste the pumpkin, spice, etc?
 
Actually, My F'ing AC broke for a day in the beginning and it got up to about 72 degrees for a day near the beginning of fermentation. I know that it is the critical time. But what can you do!! Hopefully it stills tastes good. I will let you know. I bottled it last night and it smelled great, but when I tasted it, it had an alcoholic warmth that I didn't expect or like. I hoping this mellows and the pumpkin and spice flavor come forward over the next few weeks as it bottle conditions.
 
Nicegirl said:
Reno,
I did pretty much the same thing. I let the pumpkin cool to about 150°F and then added it to my mash. I had no problem hitting or maintaining my temperatures at all.
Just a suggest to those that are having a low temperature problem during your mashing.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll try this next time. My grain bed is at about 70 when I mash in so I figured I'd just let it cool down to that temp. Apparently that wasn't such a good idea.
 
Just bottled this today, FG came out to 1.001, kinda low but I also started low at 1.046.. But either way it tastes amazing!!! This is the second time in the last 3 years that it has come out of the primary tasting amazing! Again Reno thanks for this recipe! I'll post pics of the first bottle once it's opened between Halloween and thanksgiving time frame!!
 
I may have thought of a reason some people are getting very low FG for the recipe!

Are those individuals getting said results, did you get a stuck/slow mash that lasted for a decent amount of time? If so, did you keep track of the temperature? You may have lost some heat from the long sparge and thus a lower FG.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
I may have thought of a reason some people are getting very low FG for the recipe! Are those individuals getting said results, did you get a stuck/slow mash that lasted for a decent amount of time? If so, did you keep track of the temperature? You may have lost some heat from the long sparge and thus a lower FG.
Click to expand...

Yeah I had a slow sparge because of having to swap to a different cooler (because of a crack in my reg 5gal igloo) with no hole for my valve to go in.. But overall I'm happy and happy with the almost finished product
 
mmcouch said:
Brewing AG 1/2 batch this morning. How long do you let the mash sit?
Click to expand...
Just a normal 60 minute mash.

Medevac_Chief said:
Yeah I had a slow sparge because of having to swap to a different cooler (because of a crack in my reg 5gal igloo) with no hole for my valve to go in.. But overall I'm happy and happy with the almost finished product
Click to expand...
Well as long as it's tasty and beer then it doesn't really matter :mug:
 
cracked my first bottle last night at about 4.5 weeks to sample, tasted really good. not overpowering. had 2 other commercial pumpkins on hand, o'Fallons and Blue Moon, 2 buddies said this brew was better than the commercial ones. I def like it and a few more weeks in the bottle it should be perfect!
 
Reno_eNVy said:
I may have thought of a reason some people are getting very low FG for the recipe! Are those individuals getting said results, did you get a stuck/slow mash that lasted for a decent amount of time? If so, did you keep track of the temperature? You may have lost some heat from the long sparge and thus a lower FG.
Click to expand...

I had a bad stuck sparge, had to dump and unclog. Took like 2 hours I've got no idea on temp loss.

Ferm out to 1.01 from 1.065

Stands to reason.
 
Mine wasn't stuck, but probably a couple degrees lower than it should've been. Any ideas on how much lactose to add?
 
n240sxguy said:
Mine wasn't stuck, but probably a couple degrees lower than it should've been. Any ideas on how much lactose to add?
Click to expand...

I went 4oz to bring mine up a tad from 1.01, could've maybe added a touch more but it's still fairly sweet
 
Just had a little taste test of this beer up against a few other pumpkins. Pumking was there as well as a few other local pumpkins. This beer was chosen as the winner due to the great taste and drinkability. Many others tasted 'fake' and overpowered while others didn't taste much like pumpkin at all. This will definitely be a yearly brew for us! We followed the recipe as closely as possible.
One thing i did notice was that we brewed this in early august which gave it plenty of time to age. The beer was almost perfectly clear and very clean tasting. Bravo to the OP for such a great recipe!
 
atimmerman88 said:
I went 4oz to bring mine up a tad from 1.01, could've maybe added a touch more but it's still fairly sweet
Click to expand...
4oz for 5 gal? Mine was at 1.006 last I checked. I may need closer to 3/4-1 lb for 10 gal.
 
I know I am getting a late start, but I got everything together to brew this for the 1st time.
I am thinking about adding 1lb of Lactose to give it a creamy taste. Has anyone done this before and is 1lb too much?
 

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