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

[stratslinger]

I'm probably about half-way through my keg o'Thunderstruck... Awesome stuff!

I did take my recipe down from right before Yuri updated it, so my spices were slightly different and added at the end of the boil. That said, this beer is still quite awesome.

I did have one odd thing I noted: I primaried for about 3.5 weeks and secondaried for another week (trying to give any remaining pumpkin solids a fair chance to drop out). Once carbed, for about the first 5 or 6 days I was pouring, I would get this funky vegetal finish - not sure if there was still some solids left behind that took several pints to pour off or what... But when I brought some to a brew club meeting to ask what I had done wrong, the vegetal nastiness was gone, and the beer's been great ever since!

 

[BWN]

I just poured my first pint of this. I brewed it on 10/12/11. I mashed a little too low because I looked at the Celsius side of my thermometer and tried to make adjustments and ended up mashing at 145 F. It still turned out great and might be the best beer I have made yet.

 

[Justibone]

Low mashing should have made it sweeter... that's not a bug; that's a feature!

 

[terrenum]

I just poured my first pint of this. I brewed it on 10/12/11. I mashed a little too low because I looked at the Celsius side of my thermometer and tried to make adjustments and ended up mashing at 145 F. It still turned out great and might be the best beer I have made yet.

Did you ended up with a much lower gravity since your mash was at lower temp? You should have extracted more fermentable sugars in that range?
Mine ended up at 1.020 so might aim at a mash of 152 next time. Would like to have a final gravity of approx. 1.015

 

[BWN]

OG was 1.047 and FG was 1.006

 

[mrwilson]

I recently made the extract version. Turned out great. Lots of compliments on it. Reminds me off Schafly's pumpkin ale.

I did a spice addition at flame out and the spice tea at bottling. Three weeks in primary. Primed with DME.

 

[terrenum]

If it is dirty, it cannot be sanitized properly.



I agree with the poster above. "Swimmer" bacteria were probably killed off. The cloth itself, though, would not have been considered "sanitized" if you used it to touch your wort or anything that touched your wort.

Remember: yeast are pretty strong, and when you pitch a few billion cells, they can outcompete bacteria fairly well. That being said, even a small infection can affect flavor.

I would say you have nothing to worry about, but who knows, really? You just have to relax, don't worry, and enjoy a homebrew that isn't infected.

Finally opened my first yesterday after 11 days in bottle...and it was very good. No infection; just plain good beer....I wish I would have got a FG of 1.016-0.17 instead of my .020 but it is ok. I<ll drink them for dessert! It started carbonating and should get even better in a couple weeks. I was very impressed by the creaminess of this beer and the creamy head. I did a spice tea at bottling so they are pretty straightforward at this point but I assume they will tone down with time and it should be fairly balanced in 2 months...............a very good recipe.

 

[terrenum]

OG was 1.047 and FG was 1.006

That is pretty dry. How is the beer this dry? Still good?

 

[scratchex]

I must say this was the fastest we ever went through 5 gal's of beer! We even had enough for a 12 pack of it to hand out to friends & that was gone in record time. Going to brew this up again this weekend if we can still find some fresh pumpkin. If not then we'll used the canned pumpkin.

 

[BWN]

That is pretty dry. How is the beer this dry? Still good?

It doesn't taste that dry, it might be because the spices and pumpkin cover it up. Either way it tastes great.

 

[BostonRogue]

I've made a number of pumpkin beers before, but always with the fresh stuff.

Since I missed the pumpkin season, I flagged down this beer but only after I started brewing last night (past the point of return), I realized that I had a 30oz pumpkin pie filling can and two 15oz pumpkin (all Libby's). There is no dairy in the filling, so I went ahead. I'll post back on what the spice profile was like of my franken-canned-pumpkin batch.

I am not worried about it, but thought it may be good to have it somewhere, in this rather prolific, and quality recipe thread

 

[ckarpys]

Finally opened this last night. It might need a little bit more time to mellow out as it has a bit of a strong hoppy taste still but the spices and definitely the pumpkin can be tasted as it goes down.

Really delicious. Thanks everyone for the recipes, tips and help!

 

[letmeholleratya]

Bottled this last week, and the sample i tried tasted really good- the pumpkin definitely showed through. Hoping it's drinkable by xmas...

 

[terrenum]

Here is a picture of my Lady Bug Pumpkin Ale....pretty tasty. It's been in bottle for about 1 month now and things are falling into place and it is delicious. Will try to hit a 1.016 FG next time (this one is 1.020) and may be a touch less spices. I'll see how they fade over time.
Thanks Yuri and I definitely recommend this brew.
Cheers everyone on this post

 

[stratslinger]

So sad... I kicked my keg of this today. Still have a bottle conditioned sixer in the fridge though.

 

[scratchex]

We were able to get some fresh pumpkin a couple of weeks ago from Whole Foods. It was their last batch so we snatched up several small pumpkins for the brew. We brewed this up last weekend and I ended up using over 80 oz's of fresh pumpkin since I'm brewing up a 6.5 gal batch. Made a yeast starter and it took off fast. Had a couple of blow offs but had a sanitized blow off tube handy. 2 days of strong fermentation and then it slowed down significantly. Going to keg & bottle our batch in a couple of weeks. Should be serving towards the end of January. Hopefully this will last a little longer but I doubt it!

 

[red4sierra]

Do you roast the pumkin first or just cut it up and add it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Roast it. 180º C for an hour.

 

[BonnieJ]

I just made the extract version of this - I tasted on at 10 days and it's awesome! Thanks so much for the recipe. It shocked me how much it tastes like pumpkin pie. Next year I'll make some earlier for I'm drinking it for the month of November instead of January

 

[mrwilson]

I too made this in time for Thanksgiving. It turned out awesome. Everyone loved it. It was my first non-kit recipe. Thanks!

 

[terrenum]

Hey me again!
Still enjoying this brew... I still have about 10 22oz bottles left..
I would like to increase the biscuit/malty flavor profile next time I brew this.
Do you think I can achieve this by increasing the Biscuit malt?
Has anyone tried this before?
Is it something I won't be able to achieve because of the yeast and most of the flavor profile comes from the yeast???
Would love to have you 2 cents!
thanks

 

[karmak]

Long time lurker, finally managed to create an account to ask a beginner question before I order my supplies. The crystal malt should be ground correct? Should the wheat flakes be ground as well? I wasn't sure since they appear like they've been rolled already.

 

[BigB]

Long time lurker, finally managed to create an account to ask a beginner question before I order my supplies. The crystal malt should be ground correct? Should the wheat flakes be ground as well? I wasn't sure since they appear like they've been rolled already.

Yes, the crystal should be crushed. There is no need to crush flaked wheat. Good Luck!

 

[karmak]

Brewed this today! Everything went well and am very excited after tasting the hydrometer sample. Already looking forward to making a batch later this year for October

 

[Tomcat0304]

Any chance I could get a partial mash recipe?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Brew the all grain version with the following changes (assuming a 6 gallon batch):

Mash 4 lbs 2-row along with the specialty grains and pumpkin in their full amounts. Add about a pound of rice hulls to help with the sparge. Add 3 lbs light DME during the boil. That should get you close.

 

[Itsott]

Any particular place you like to get the ingredients for the extract version?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Any place that sells 'em.

 

[flyingfinbar]

I haven't had the chance to read through this entire thread, but does anyone have experience doing this brew AG BIAB? Does the pumpkin sludge clog the bag too much?

I like a good pumpkin beer, and my GF loves them...this one could be a homerun!

 

[eulipion2]

I haven't had the chance to read through this entire thread, but does anyone have experience doing this brew AG BIAB? Does the pumpkin sludge clog the bag too much?

I like a good pumpkin beer, and my GF loves them...this one could be a homerun!

I'll even raise you one: I did it all-grain, brew-in-a-bag, and no-chill. The pumpkin puree dissolves in the water and really isn't a problem. If you're worried, throw it into your grain bag; what doesn't get dissolved will come out with the grain. Also, I nailed my starting gravity.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Extract... Hmmmm.... "Mash" the pumpkin by itself with Amylase enzyme. Bring to boil. Add extract. After fermentation rack off of the compact cake of pumpkin. What does y'all thunk?

 

[Slyko]

Being the lazy sloth I am.................... can somebody please upload a beersmith recipe file ................. somewhere?

I searched this thread................ I searched the BeerSmith recipe forum.............. Nothing. Ugh!

Thank you!

 

[BigB]

Being the lazy sloth I am.................... can somebody please upload a beersmith recipe file ................. somewhere?

I searched this thread................ I searched the BeerSmith recipe forum.............. Nothing. Ugh!

Thank you!

Here you go... I'm pretty sure I didn't change anything other than the name:

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/8008/the-great-pumpkin-ale

 

[Slyko]

Yuri Rage has got to be proud. There are YouTube videos, blogs, you're recipe is on multiple beer forums, etc! :cross:

Thanks BigB. I didn't search for the ingredients, only the name. Wow! Now I gotta go shopping! I love HBT!

Google produced over 4300 hits. Yuri, you're everywhere!

I just brewed this yesterday. The yeast starter really makes this ferment like gangbusters! Make sure to use a blow off tube the 1st night or you're going to have a mess.

 

[Itsott]

How much water do you start with in the extract recipe?

 

[Slyko]

Conclusion:

This stuff is awesome! Tastes like pumpkin pie! Holy Smokes! It blows away the pumpkin beer you can buy in the store without question. Very Pumpkiny!

 

[tuckferrorists]

just ordered my ingredients to brew this next weekend! so excited!

 

[tuckferrorists]

Conclusion:

This stuff is awesome! Tastes like pumpkin pie! Holy Smokes! It blows away the pumpkin beer you can buy in the store without question. Very Pumpkiny!

How long did you condition it for? Keg? bottle? did you do AG or extract? followed the recipe exactly?

 

[demuzik]

I brew a modified version of this recipe every July (for the past 4 years) - I brew in July so it gets a full two months of conditioning time before I tap the keg in mid september... just in time for fall. I'm lucky if it lasts long enough to enjoy on Halloween I think two months is a perfect amount of time (especially if you do the spiced-tea, like i do) to let flavors meld and let the beer clear up nicely - even with all the pumpkin it can still clear up to near lager quality.... nothing prettier than a crystal clear, ORANGE fall beer

 

[jdraker62]

how does this compare to the midwest pumpkin kit. I did that last year and it was great. Trying to decide to try this one or do the midwest kit again. Anyone done both??