All this pumpkin talk has me motivated

first thing first, i have only brewed twice now. one is still in the primary and the other is in the secondary. bottling that one this upcoming weekend...

i used a coopers kit and john bull kit, so my brewing knowledge is extremely limited outside of adding a can's ingredients to the wort and boiling for 10 mins.

what i am wanting to do next is a pumpkin ale, but all these homemade recipes are beyond my knowledge at the current time.

i found this link, from one of the many pumpkin threads here...

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3614

my questions are:
1. do these kits come with good instructions?
2. does anyone know of any other online sites with a pumpkin ale kit?

thanks

All dealings I'ved had with www.midwestsupplies.com have been nothing short of fantastic. I'm lucky to live within that circle of shipping where it's on my doorstep the next morning. I've never ordered one of their kits though, preferring to whore off other's recipes here or make my own up.

Whats cool about midwest supplies is that they send you a DVD (if you click to have it sent.) It has steps on extract and gets into wine and all-grain. Should help you out greatly...even for your first bottling session.

If you buy this kit, I'd suggest forgoing the liquid yeast due to the shipping distance to Texas?

Exo said:

All dealings I'ved had with www.midwestsupplies.com have been nothing short of fantastic. I'm lucky to live within that circle of shipping where it's on my doorstep the next morning. I've never ordered one of their kits though, preferring to whore off other's recipes here or make my own up.

Whats cool about midwest supplies is that they send you a DVD (if you click to have it sent.) It has steps on extract and gets into wine and all-grain. Should help you out greatly...even for your first bottling session.

If you buy this kit, I'd suggest forgoing the liquid yeast due to the shipping distance to Texas?

Click to expand...

that is some great information for me Exo...

thanks a bunch, i believe i will order the pumpkin ale kit, with dry yeast and get the DVD to add to my brewing education.

sounds cool, thanks a bunch :rockin:

just ordered the kit and got the FREE DVD....

thanks again Exo...

I SO want to brew a couple holiday beers. I have to much going though. If I could, I'd do up a pumpkin ale and a holiday spice ale. Family will have to settle for the Boom-Boom Hefe and Cheesefood's Caramel Creme.

Exo said:

I SO want to brew a couple holiday beers. I have to much going though. If I could, I'd do up a pumpkin ale and a holiday spice ale. Family will have to settle for the Boom-Boom Hefe and Cheesefood's Caramel Creme.

Click to expand...

Sounds like the Family will be settling for some FINE BREWS !!!

A Holiday Spice Ale sounds kinda nice too...

I just bottled the pumpkin ale kit from Midwest. The directions that come with all of their ingredient kits are quite detailed, so you should not have any problems. If you have only done canned kits before, I would just suggest watching the DVD first so you understand the technique. I used the dry yeast and it was fine. Rehydrated it and it was fermenting in a couple hours. Only took 18 total.

veggiess said:

I just bottled the pumpkin ale kit from Midwest. The directions that come with all of their ingredient kits are quite detailed, so you should not have any problems. If you have only done canned kits before, I would just suggest watching the DVD first so you understand the technique. I used the dry yeast and it was fine. Rehydrated it and it was fermenting in a couple hours. Only took 18 total.

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very cool, thanks veggiess

well i got my pumpkin ale kit. looks very interesting. this will be my first attempt at something other than a can w/hops already in it.

the kit contains some LME, brown sugar, mt hood pellet hops, cascade pellet hops, crushed grains, grain bag, some spices and the priming sugar. just need to pick up a can of pumpkin.

probably will not start this brew for another several weeks, so that it's ready just before halloween...

i was a little disappointed that my FREE DVD did not make the shipment, but i called them up and they were very responsive and are getting the DVD and a catalog right out to me...

looks like this pumpkin ale kit will be a fun one

Gah, that looks like a good recipe. I need more primaries, more secondaries and a LOT more bottles...

well after telling a friend about my brewing and in particular this new kit, he was pumped.

i asked him to come over yesterday to help me bottle my first batch. all went well with bottling and my first brew is conditioning now.

and anyway, he wanted to brew. needless to say, he talked me into brewing my new pumpkin ale kit. i was gonna wait for several weeks, but what the hell.

this kit was a great learning experience. steeped the grains @ 155 degrees for 30 mins, then 10 mins off the heat. (8 oz of Carapils and 8 oz of Carmel 10L, pre-crushed by Midwest)

next we added the 6 lbs of Gold LME and 1 cup of brown sugar. Once the boil got rolling, we added the 1 ozs of Mt Hood Hops. The dreaded Boil Over was a concern for the first 20 mins of the boil. But a little attention and spray bottle kept everything in the kettle. the aroma of the brew was very pleasent at this point, had a semi pumpkin smell to it already.

30 mins into the boil, I added a big 29 oz can of pumpkin. the foam which had subsided was back for most of the rest of the boil, but we stayed on top of things preventing a boil over. the aroma just become better and stronger at this point.

with 2 mins left we added the 1 ozs of Cascade hops, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. then it was off to sink to cool down the wort. removing the lid to check temps at this point was very pleasing as the aroma was outstanding. strong pumpkin, cinnamin and nutmeg. just great!!!

pitched the yeast @ 75 degrees and sealed the bucket and called it a BREW

anyway, the taste was not quite what I was expecting, but still nice. a mild pumpkin taste, with a little added bitterness (from the Cascade Hops, I believe, as these were the hops with a little more alpha acid). really looking forward to more tastes on this one, as i rack to the secondary and then bottle. i am interested in seeing how all this ingredients blend together.

and finally, the OG came in @ 1.048 :rockin:

PUMPKIN ALE for the Holidays. Hope we can keep it around til then.

just looked at the primary for the first time. 4 to 5 bubbles a second.

MUCHO FERMENTATION taking place... :rockin:

a few pictures






after working most of the day in the kitchen and drinking the whole time, i forgot to take a picture of the OG and beer color. Dammit!!!

i really enjoyed a more complex kit this time, as it has given me more knowledge about recipes and separate ingredients.

well, this kit and reading the intermediate section of "The Joy of Home Brewing".

but either way, i look forward in the future to buying my own malts extracts, hops, yeast and other spices/flavorings in the future and creating my own brews. still gotta read the advanced section of the book, and get some more brews under my belt..., literally...

this i believe, is the true nature of the homebrewer, creating, sharing and experimenting.

i appreciate all the help you guys have offered and look forward to brewing some your recipes and creating some of my own.

btw, fermentation on this pumpkin ale kit has slowed drastically. down to a bubble almost every minute now. boy, it was crazy at first and i can't wait to taste this pumpkin ale...

i'm curious about this concept in general.

when you add the pumpkin, does anything in the pumpkin ferment? or does it only add flavors?

along that line, couldn't you add almost any fruit/vegetable during brew time to impart that flavor?

the reason I ask, is when you brew, for instance, a blueberry wheat ale, you add the blueberry extract at bottling time. what would happen if you just threw in a bunch of blueberries (or blueberry juice?) at boil time, or ferment time? i'm wondering what the differences are here.

what's the system on all this?

rcd said:

i'm curious about this concept in general.

when you add the pumpkin, does anything in the pumpkin ferment? or does it only add flavors?

along that line, couldn't you add almost any fruit/vegetable during brew time to impart that flavor?

the reason I ask, is when you brew, for instance, a blueberry wheat ale, you add the blueberry extract at bottling time. what would happen if you just threw in a bunch of blueberries (or blueberry juice?) at boil time, or ferment time? i'm wondering what the differences are here.

what's the system on all this?

Click to expand...

i am kinda new at this, but yes, you can add fruits or vegetables to your brew for flavorings... some people do this at boil time, others at secondary time. maybe some other people will chime in here...

someone else will have to answer the fermenting question too..., but i would imagine the natural sugars would ferment, or the starch converted to sugars would ferment...

The Joy of Homebrewing mentions many different fruits and veggies...