Fall’s Here; Pumpkin Beer

[Kickass]

Pumpkin Spiced Amber Ale

I know, it’s a little late but fall comes late in Southern California. Work asked me to brew a fall beer for a little get together so this is more of an attempt to appease the masses than have 5+ gallons of a PSL beer on hand. Here it is:


OG- 1.052
FG- 1.016
ABV- 4.8%
IBU- 21
SRM- 12

8 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs C20
8 oz Flaked Rye
8 oz Rye Malt
8 oz Brown sugar
4 oz Chocolate Rye
2 oz Rice Hulls

Mashed at 152 for 60min

60 min CTZ for 20 IBU’s

¼ oz Bitter orange peel 5min remaining
1 Tbsp Cinnamon 0min
¼ tsp Ground ginger 0min
¼ tsp Ground nutmeg 0min
1 oz Vanilla extract prior to kegging

Safale S-04

If I can remember I’ll post the results.

 

[divrack]

Pumpkin Spiced Amber Ale

I know, it’s a little late but fall comes late in Southern California. Work asked me to brew a fall beer for a little get together so this is more of an attempt to appease the masses than have 5+ gallons of a PSL beer on hand. Here it is:


OG- 1.052
FG- 1.016
ABV- 4.8%
IBU- 21
SRM- 12

8 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs C20
8 oz Flaked Rye
8 oz Rye Malt
8 oz Brown sugar
4 oz Chocolate Rye
2 oz Rice Hulls

Mashed at 152 for 60min

60 min CTZ for 20 IBU’s

¼ oz Bitter orange peel 5min remaining
1 Tbsp Cinnamon 0min
¼ tsp Ground ginger 0min
¼ tsp Ground nutmeg 0min
1 oz Vanilla extract prior to kegging

Safale S-04

If I can remember I’ll post the results.

Here in the old world we used turnips for our "jack-o'-lanterns" but we never decided to make beer flavoured by them with spice added to cover up the awfulness...
Hehe. Sorry, it actually looks like a great beer without the nonsense.
Gets me wondering what seasonal beer i could enjoy... Thinking rye with some molasses.

 

[Kickass]

I brewed this brown/red rye earlier this year and it was fantastic. That was, more or less, the base for the pumpkin spiced beer today.

 

[GoeHaarden]

I applaud you for not falling into the trap of using actual pumpkin in this. Adds nothing but issues...

It's all about the spices here!

 

[divrack]

I brewed this brown/red rye earlier this year and it was fantastic. That was, more or less, the base for the pumpkin spiced beer today.

Looks nice. I guess you mashed low to get that level of attenuation?

 

[eadavis80]

I applaud you for not falling into the trap of using actual pumpkin in this. Adds nothing but issues...

It's all about the spices here!

I've made pumpkin ales quite a few times and used canned pumpkin (I know it really didn't do much, but I just did it for the sake of having legit pumpkin in there), but I didn't have any "issues." What issues did adding pumpkin create for you?

 

[GoeHaarden]

What issues did adding pumpkin create for you?

I've used real pumpkin (from roasted pie pumpkins) in two different batches. Used once in the mash, and even with a ton of rice hulls my mash would not stop getting stuck. Then once in the boil it just seemed to make everything messy and gunked my kettle up. Not worth it in my opinion, as I could never tell it added anything. Maybe others have had better results, but it never worked out well for me...

 

[eadavis80]

I get it - you live n' you learn what works for you. As long as you have fun and learn that's what matters

 

[GooseCow]

Sorry, what kind of hops does the CTZ refer to?

 

[Kickass]

No worries GooseCow. CTZ is short for Columbus, Tomahawk, Zeus. Columbus is, i believe, genetically different than the Tomahawk and Zeus. They're very similar to T & Z, however. You could easily replace them with another bittering hop though. I used them only because I had them on hand. Spices will add a little perceived bitterness too.

Tasting note. Spices are perfectly balanced on the nose but a little light on the tongue. I may add a very small amount with the vanilla when i keg.

 

[Genuine]

I've been brewing the NB's Smashing Pumpkin Ale for 5 years so far and it's been a hit. Twice I used real pumpkin in the mash however that was before I got into electric brewing and recirculating my mash. I was contemplating on using it this year but it seems like it's going to be more trouble than it's worth. The NB version comes out a perfect orange amber in color and I just use a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spices at flame out, then 2 tablespoons "dry spiced" after fermentation. I believe it uses Cluster to bitter for 60 min and that's it.

 

[bkboiler]

updates? lookin to brew a pumpkin beer soon...

 

[Genuine]

I've finally decided that I'm not going to use real pumpkin at all. I'm worried that it'll make for one hell of a brew day while trying to recirculate the mash.

 

[bkboiler]

ok, cool, still curious to hear how it turns out altho i’m not so sure u can call it “Genuine Pumpkin Ale”