Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

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Dang phone...

Anyway as I was saying the spice is subtle but I think this is a good beer probably ready to go into the keg and it's only been two weeks. I may add a little more spice at legging but I'll decide that in a week or so
 
Reno, thanks for the recipe! I took your base recipe, and modified it to make it an ESB (changed to British malts, hops, and went with the S-04 as recommended for a partial mash), and scaled it down to a 3 gal batch. The recipe is below.

I'm not sure about the IBU calculation, as I did the preboil OG manually, because I don't know how to adjust the iBrewMaster app to account for the late extract addition (it calculates it as a full 60 min boil, even though I have it set to 10 min, or I have to leave it out completely, but then it screws up the regular OG and abv, etc, obviously)... But not sure what pts/lb/gal number to use for the pumpkin, either... So I left it out. So it shouldn't be as bitter as it says (45 IBU), though that is still within the BJCP for an ESB. And if it is, it might offset the extra sugars/sweetness from the pumpkin, maybe? Idk... But the hydrometer sample smelled and tasted great, so I have high hopes! Did the initial fermentation at 60*F, as per your recommendation for the S-04 to repress too many esters.

ESP (Extra Special Pumpkin) Ale

Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter OG: 1.056
Type: Partial Mash FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.48 % Calories: 182.43
IBU's: 45.14 Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Size: 3.50 Gals Color: 12.0 SRM
Batch Size: 3.00 Gals Preboil OG: 1.027
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
1.00 lbs 13.56 % Pale Malt, Maris Otter 60 mins 1.038
8.00 ozs 6.78 % Victory Malt 60 mins 1.034
8.00 ozs 6.78 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 60 mins 1.034
8.00 ozs 6.78 % Brown Sugar, Light 10 mins 1.046
3.00 lbs 40.68 % NB Maris Otter Malt Syrup 10 mins 1.036
1.88 lbs 25.42 % Pumpkin purée 60 mins 1.000

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.75 ozs 39.84 Challenger 60 mins 7.50
0.75 ozs 5.30 Goldings, East Kent 5 mins 5.00

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1 dry pkgs Safale S-04 Fermentis S-04

Additions Amount Name Time Stage
0.50 each Whirlfloc Tablet 15 mins Boil
1.50 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice 5 mins Boil
0.25 tsp Gelatin 3 days Secondary

Mash Profile
Profile Name: Partial Mash - pumpkin
Grain Temp: 78.00 °F Mash Tun Vol Loss: 0.00 Gals Grain Absorption: 0.43 Gals/lb Tun Temp Loss: 4.00 °F Cooling Shrinkage: 4.00 % Kettle Trub Loss: 0.25 Gals Hourly Boiloff: 0.50 Gals/hr

Mash Steps:
Partial mash 60 [email protected]°F
Add 4.00 qts water @ 165.6°F
Dunk sparge in new pot 10 [email protected]°F
Add 6.00 qts water @ 170.0°F
Add 7.44 qts water @ 151.32 °F

Fermentation Steps Name
Days / Temp
Primary 14 days @ 60.0°F
Primary 4 days @ 64.0°F
Secondary 3 days @ 64.0°F (With gelatin)

Carbonation
Bottle Carbonation Desired Vol of CO2: 2.00 Vols Beer Temperature: 77.00 °F Residual CO2 in Beer: 0.76 Corn Sugar Required: 1.66 ozs

Notes Add 1 large can Libby's pumpkin (no spice added) - 29 oz - spread on baking sheet to 1 in thick and bake at 350 for 1 hr. Let cool to room temp before adding to mash.
www.iBrewMaster.com Version: 1.0.9
 
Just finished my first brew session of the season. I don't have fermentation control yet (soon) so I wait until the temp in my basement drops to the low to mid 60s to brew.

The yellow jackets and paper wasps were out in full force today. No stings fortunately, but wasn't as efficient as I had hoped. I followed the recipe, but ended up with an OG of 1.060. Not too bad considering I haven't brewed since March.

Thanks again for the recipe, Reno. I look forward to the end results.
 
After two weeks I racked this beer to secondary last weekend and I am a little disappointed in the lack of pumpkin taste as well as color. If it were not for the spices I'm not sure people would be able to tell its a pumpkin beer. I baked the pumpkin for 45 mins. I may try this again but will try to boil the pumpkin for taste and color and cut back on the spices. I also may dry hop with a can of pumpkin to try to enhance the desired flavor
 
Hopper77 said:
After two weeks I racked this beer to secondary last weekend and I am a little disappointed in the lack of pumpkin taste as well as color. If it were not for the spices I'm not sure people would be able to tell its a pumpkin beer. I baked the pumpkin for 45 mins. I may try this again but will try to boil the pumpkin for taste and color and cut back on the spices. I also may dry hop with a can of pumpkin to try to enhance the desired flavor
Click to expand...

Pumpkin does not really have a flavor, it is the spices that we all associate with pumpkin. Mine is a nice Orange color, between a blonde and an amber. I have never made a beer that came out this color and it is definitely from the pumpkin.

Have you had Pumking? That stuff looks like yellow water! Most other pumpkins I drink are amber colored and you wouldn't know except for the smell or when they put the annoying brown sugar spice mixture on the rim.
 
FatsSchindee said:
But not sure what pts/lb/gal number to use for the pumpkin, either... So I left it out.
Click to expand...

Just added the gelatin and transferred to secondary to clear, and am looking through my numbers. OG = 1.058, FG = 1.014, for apparent attenuation of ~76% (S-04 says should be 75%, so pretty true to form). Looking at my preboil OG of 1.029 (this was from PM of 1 lb MO, 0.5 lb Victory, 0.5 lb C-60, and one large can (29oz) baked pumpkin (Libby's))... Just wondering if anyone has come up with a theoretical OG for the pumpkin, to use for calculating mash efficiency? Leaving the pumpkin out, my 2 lb (grain only) partial mash produced 30.3 pts/lb (29 pts X 2.09 gal / 2 lbs grain)... With the theoretical max being 36 avg for the 2 lbs, or a mash efficiency of 84%.

Seems high, so just wondering what the addition of the pumpkin sugars do to the numbers, and wondering if anyone has had any success calculating this?! (I'm new to these types of calculations, so please correct me if the above numbers/math seem wrong... Thanks!)
 
D_Nyholm said:
Pumpkin does not really have a flavor, it is the spices that we all associate with pumpkin. Mine is a nice Orange color, between a blonde and an amber. I have never made a beer that came out this color and it is definitely from the pumpkin. Have you had Pumking? That stuff looks like yellow water! Most other pumpkins I drink are amber colored and you wouldn't know except for the smell or when they put the annoying brown sugar spice mixture on the rim.
Click to expand...

I almost bought a 6 pack of pumpking tonight after work. Is that the one blended with cranberry juice? This is the 2nd pumpkin beer I've made. The first one I boiled the pumpkin and used no spices and it was amazing. Perfect orange color and great pumpkin taste. Can't find the recipe though. I think I got it from my LHBS.
 
Hopper77 said:
I almost bought a 6 pack of pumpking tonight after work. Is that the one blended with cranberry juice? This is the 2nd pumpkin beer I've made. The first one I boiled the pumpkin and used no spices and it was amazing. Perfect orange color and great pumpkin taste. Can't find the recipe though. I think I got it from my LHBS.
Click to expand...

Southern tier Pumking. Pretty highly rated beer. I bought 2 bombers. Tried one and wasn't super impressed so I am going to save the other one til next year hoping the flavors will blend better. Way too artificial tasting for me. Or just overpowered.
 
D_Nyholm said:
Southern tier Pumking. Pretty highly rated beer. I bought 2 bombers. Tried one and wasn't super impressed so I am going to save the other one til next year hoping the flavors will blend better. Way too artificial tasting for me. Or just overpowered.
Click to expand...

I didn't care for it either. Good thing we can make our own!
 
Wreck99 said:
I didn't care for it either. Good thing we can make our own!
Click to expand...
I am with you guys. A friend told me how great pumking was since last season. I finally got one last week and while imthought it was a decent beer it was not as oh wow as some of the reviews I have seen/heard.
 
Agreed. Bought 2 pumpking, took about 4 sips and dumped it WAY too much spice. Plan on giving away the other to someone.
 
Brewing this today! Had to make some substitutions because of the LHBS being out of things:
Pilsen instead of 2-row
Added an extra 1/2lb of Crystal
German Tradition hops instead of Hallertauawer...Hellitaur...that one
East Coast Ale yeast

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape
 
half_whit said:
Brewing this today! Had to make some substitutions because of the LHBS being out of things:
Pilsen instead of 2-row
Added an extra 1/2lb of Crystal
German Tradition hops instead of Hallertauawer...Hellitaur...that one
East Coast Ale yeast

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape
Click to expand...
Way to be resourceful. The Pilsen instead of 2-row or MO will produce a lack of bready character but it should let the spices shine.

And Hallertauer is a traditional German hop, in the noble hop variety. ;)

motleybrews said:
brewing this today. should be a nice thanksgiving beer.
Click to expand...
Thanks for giving this one a shot. If you're bottling, be sure to give them an extra week or two to fully carbonate. Higher OG, longer carb time.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Way to be resourceful. The Pilsen instead of 2-row or MO will produce a lack of bready character but it should let the spices shine.

And Hallertauer is a traditional German hop, in the noble hop variety. ;)


Thanks for giving this one a shot. If you're bottling, be sure to give them an extra week or two to fully carbonate. Higher OG, longer carb time.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I thought maybe adding a little more crystal would bring back some of the lost flavor, though I guess "sweeter" rather than bready. We shall see

You know, going into this I fully expected to laugh at all of you...with your fancy tuns and stuck sparges...as I blissfully brewed away in my nylon bag.

Ha ha, mr pumpkin. Well played.

now where did I put those rice hulls...
 
None shall escape the pumpkin!!! Your nylon bags are no use against its mushy wrath! MUAH HA HA HA HA
 
Reno_eNVy said:
Thanks for giving this one a shot. If you're bottling, be sure to give them an extra week or two to fully carbonate. Higher OG, longer carb time.
Click to expand...

thanks for sharing the recipe. it was nice getting out and homebrewing again. i haven't homebrewed since june 2 and before that it had been many months. Brewing on a 7 barrel system is fun, but it was nice to get back in the homebrewing saddle.

i wonder what this recipe would be like with a saison yeast. the cooled hydrometer sample was super tasty. SWMBO will be very happy with this one.

I plan to keg it, but natural carb with brown sugar. Then bottle it to go to various thanksgiving/christmas parties.
 
i used a pound of rice hulls, and still had a slightly stuck lauter after collecting close to 3 gallons. total first runnings collected were 4 gallons (mashed with 6 gallons at 156). Batch sparged with 2.5 gallons. started boil with 6.5 gallons. 5 gallons in the fermenter.

I only roasted the pumpkin on 350 for 45 minutes, so that could have contributed to the stuck lauter. The hydro sample had a nice pumpkin taste. not too heavy on the spices. should be nice.
 
The rest of brewday was great though! Loved the way the pumpkin and hops colors danced around the boil. Looked like changing leaves. Came in under on my og.... 1.060. I blame my grist since it was my first time with the new grain mill.

image-3193265273.jpg
 
After messing up and forgetting the spice in the boil I did a spice tincture. My first few samples were tasting. too spicy. But they settled nicely and the beer was a hit with family today for Canadian Thanksgiving day diner. I may need to do another batch to make sure there will be some around for the Christmas holidays.
 
Going to give this recipe a try. Is the original recipe a 5 or 5.5 gal batch size. Just wondering so I can plug it into my water calculator. Thanks!
 
Just bottled my batch. Finished at 1.010 for some reason, but smelled great. Tasted a small sample and it was a little hot with a great aftertaste. Should be excellent after a few weeks in the bottle, if dryer than the recipe called for.
 
I recently made this recipe and I was super excited about it!

I am running a 10-gallon Home Depot Cylindrical Cooler Mash Tun with a CPVC manifold and a Keggle BK. I am a relatively new brewer (4 or so AG batches) so I am still dialing in my efficiencies and what not.

Either way, I followed this recipe 100% other than the yeast which I used Wyeast 1056 with a 1.8L starter.

I start off the brew day, mash in, I don't hit my target mash temp I believe it was about 6-deg lower than my target of 163. It holds relatively well over the hour. I begin to sparge and shortly thereafter, got a stuck sparge (forgot to order hulls), the water is to hot to reach my hand in and try to fix it so I have to pour out the mash into another cooler while I fix my manifold. Pour the mash back into the MT and get going again, get another stuck sparge... Repeat the previous process, finally get going and begin fly sparging at 170. I sparge until I get 5.5 gal. Start up the boil and do everything to spec from there on out. I got a 1.054 post boil gravity, which obviously is way low. It smelled fantastic going into the fermentor.

Dropped the decanted starter in, and the ferm took off, had to put a blow off on it about 2 days later.

I fermented at 65 for 4 weeks in a my deep freezer that is hooked up to an STC-1000 controllers with a small space heater inside.

I bottled it this past Sunday at 1.004, and it had this sour smell to it kinda grassy.

Because it smelled bad I wanted to try it out today, decent carbonation but is really sour, I wouldn't drink it again.

First question, does anyone have any idea why I'm getting these sour flavors? I understand that they should dissipate with time in the bottle, but this taste is so strong I can't see it going anywhere soon.

Second Question, can anyone attribute to why I'm getting such awful efficiencies? The only thing I can think of is that during the mash, a lot of grain is settling in between my manifold and when I stir I can't really get to it well and it just sits there and forms dough balls at the bottom of the MT.
 
half_whit said:
Thanks! I thought maybe adding a little more crystal would bring back some of the lost flavor, though I guess "sweeter" rather than bready. We shall see

You know, going into this I fully expected to laugh at all of you...with your fancy tuns and stuck sparges...as I blissfully brewed away in my nylon bag.

Ha ha, mr pumpkin. Well played.

now where did I put those rice hulls...
Click to expand...

True that BIAB punkin style still equals pain in the... can't wait mine has been in for 2 weeks about to cold crash thanks Reno
 
Irishwhiskey said:
True that BIAB punkin style still equals pain in the... can't wait mine has been in for 2 weeks about to cold crash thanks Reno
Click to expand...

Hmm, I had no problem with the bag. What happened to you?
Other than ending up with much less wort due to absorbtion. Next time I will add an additional gallon of water for my 10 gallon batches.
 
D_Nyholm said:
Hmm, I had no problem with the bag. What happened to you?
Other than ending up with much less wort due to absorbtion. Next time I will add an additional gallon of water for my 10 gallon batches.
Click to expand...

No just what u said took me what seemed like for ever to get my boil volume from the bag when I pulled it out of the pot it looked like I had 4times the grains in the bag
 
I am brewing this later tonight. No clue how long this batch will take tonight since I still need to bake my pumpkin, I figure I will be up late with this one.

How does the brown sugar affect this recipe? I have heard molasses does not always lend it self well to brewing, but this seems like one of the few recipes that would help it. I have an old vanilla bean I may throw into this batch later just to give a little bump in flavor. Hopefully I won't be up until 4am, but will see how it plays out. Plan on 3 weeks primary I think, but still debating.
 
Just brewed this yesterday as a BIAB, my first attempt outside of extract brewing.
Hoping it turns out ok, the brew day was rough as I messed up on a few steps, including rehydrating my yeast in 100+F water. I quickly cooled the glass down in a water bath and there was activity from the yeast before I pitched. Today I have airlock bubbling so seems like things worked out. Next time I will do my normal prep and make a starter.

My OG was 1.075, any ideas why it turned out so high?

Info:
  • Strike: 163 F
  • Mash: 156 F, 60 mins
  • I put the gran bag over a collander and twisted it to remove wort
  • Boil (it was a weak boil): 60 mins
 
I just tasted a sample three weeks in primary when I put it in secondary…I am not sure what I did, but very little (none) pumpkin spice taste at all. Followed recipe to a T and numbers matched.

Its a good ale but I dont get pumpkin nor spice. Will the flavor come out or should I add a little bit of spice when I keg?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
 
I just kegged mine. I get very little spice but it's there. I think I like it because it's not over the top and it is very balanced. I think I may add a little more spice next time but not a lot.

I like it and will report back once it's carbed and cold
 
Try pouring it slightly roughly into your sample glass. I had decided that I did not like the DFH Punkin this year until I did what I was supposed to and poured it into a glass rather than drink from the bottle. I actually smelled and tasted the pumpkin spice that way. I think that, like hops, the spice needs the carbonation to really bloom.
 
Just brewed this yesterday. Hit 1.073 (!) and got active fermentation in less than 5 hours @ 67 degrees. Don't get much pumpkin either, but a great bready aroma from the Victory. I didn't add the pumpkin spice to the boil as I was concerned that the aromatics would just boil off. Instead, like my other pumpkin recipe, I'm going to add a tablespoon to the keg.
 
I ended up getting 1.056 on my gravity based on putting my hydrometer in the wort after chilling. I mashed for about 90 minutes with about 7 gallons of water. It started off around 149 and i added boiling water to get to 153 which it was around for about 60 minutes. During the boil I got 1.065 using my refractometer. Not sure which was right.

I ended up using 4 -15oz Trader Joe's pumpkin cans. I ended up cooking a lot of the moisture out of the pumpkin, but I think cooking it to where it started browning on the edges ended up giving me a good pumpkin flavor.

When I tried my sample, it tasted like pumpkin pie which is the goal. I used S-05 and it took about 30 hours to fire up, and started around 63 and is now holding around 68. Hoping for readiness at Thanksgiving.
 
served mine up at a party this past weekend, about 7.5 weeks in the bottle...TASTED AMAZING! Big hit at the party, a few ppl requested to take some home. This WILL be brewed again. Great all around taste, not over powering on the spices, great fall beer!
 

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