Headless Horseman Pumpkin Ale

[Dreadnought]

So, I'm calling this one "headless horseman" pumpkin ale, because, after my brew day, I'm feeling beginner's ignorance. So, here's what I did; and described in what I'm sure is a somewhat unstandard format.

Any comments are appreciated, as I'm transitioning from fermenting meads, cysers, and ciders; and would like to improve my next batch. Any glaring bonehead moves; please point them out.

Thanks,

Dreadnought


Headless Horseman Pumpkin Ale
140930

Main ingredients:
- 10lbs Muntons Marris Otter Malt, Warm Malty , Lovibond 3.0; (Friar Tuck's tag: LDC 1936b American $16.99)
- 1lb Muntons Crystal 60L Malt, Lovibond 60
-1oz UK East Kent Golding (Alpha: 7.2%; Beta: 2.6%)
- 1oz Willamette (Alpha: 5.3%; Beta: 3.7%)
- 12oz bottle Full Circle, Organic Maple Syrup
- 1/2 bottle of Brer Rabbit Full Flavor molasses ( had 6oz remaining of a 12oz bottle from previous Caramel Apple Cider)
- Spice Island brand Whole Allspice, and Cinnamon sticks
- 2 large butternut squashes from Schnucks
- 2 Pie Pumpkins from Schnucks
- tap water

- 1:30pm Put 11lbs malted grain into 2 muslin bags, and added to pre-heated 5.5-6gallons of water at 150degF, on stovetop in aluminum boil pot. Simultaneously roasting pumpkin and squash on grill to later add to the boil. Will let grain steep or mash for 60min.

- Inserted bags of malt into water for 60 minutes. Kept temperature at 150 deg after a brief drop after insertion. Bobbed the bags a few times over the hour to help steep.

- At 1 hour mark, pulled out grain bags and let drain over the top of kettle. Ladled some of the wort over both bags, then let drain. Then sparged both bags with a pot full of 180deg water Once. Refilled with hot tap water and repeated, then let grain bag drain until no more dripping.

- Moved kettle back to stovetop and inserted BIAG nylon bag and secured it to the top lip with binder clips. Added in 1oz bag of UK East Kent Golding hops (7.2% Alpha; 2.6% Beta). Added in 1/2 of the grilled/roasted/smoked/smashed pumpkin and butternut squash. (Saving other half to put in muslin bag to go into primary)

- Noticed no immediate increase in temperature, stayed right around 150deg for almost 1/2 hour until temperature increased and boil looked like it was hot enough. Aromas and heat seemed to start at 30min in to the boil. Decided to extend the boil; so at end of 60 minute boil, i reset timer for 30 min to make a total of 90 minutes boil (unplanned adjustment).

- Stirring occasionally, at 75 min into boil, added 1oz bag of Willamette hops (5.3% Alpha; 3.7% Beta). At this time, also added in 1/2 of Maple Syrup bottle (6oz), and 1/4 of the remaining 6oz bottle of Brer Rabbit Molasses. Also at this time, added in a tablespoon of whole allspice, and 1 cinnamon stick.

- Allowed to continue to boil, stirring occasionally. Pulled the kettle off of the stove just before the 90 minute mark, and placed it into plastic college kegerator filled with ice and water. Swirled wort with stirrer a couple times. Took about 10 mins to cool to 75degF.

- Had rehydrated the Nottingham yeast in 4oz of water at 85degF at about the 70min boil mark. Started to foam nicely by the wort chilling step.

- Sanitzed 5gal primary bucket, siphon, hydrometer, lid, and double econobubbler components.

- Placed chilled wort kettle back to stovetop to gravity siphon into primary bucket. Held siphon a bit high to aerate wort. Pitched yeast as i was siphoning wort, and added remaining 1/2 bottle of maple syrup. Noted that a layer of hop residue had formed at top of kettle, due to having made it through the mesh BIAB bag. When done siphoning contents of kettle, placed the muslin bag full of the other half of grilled/roasted butternut squash and pumpkin. Also threw in a second small muslin bag with 1 cinnamon stick, and a tablespoon of whole allspice.

- Measured SG at 1.020 or 5% potential. I thought this to be a low number, but I had been making cider lately; so possibly normal for ale/beer.
Placed lid on bucket and placed in basement on chair with econobubbler.

140930 6:00pm
- No immediate signs of bubbling.

 

[number40fan]

1.020 is way too low. Should have been in the 1.050 zone.

Not sure how adding the yeast to the fermentation bucket while filling it will work, but I don't see that being too much of an issue.

 

[Dreadnought]

Why the low SG? Should I have just placed my grain bags into a cooler, then added 150degF water there? Not sure what I did wrong here, because originally I thought I'd be closer to 1.060 based on ingredients.

 

[guitarguy6]

This might be a silly question but did you mill your grains? 1.02 is really low. I believe that 11lb grains in a 5gal batch should have an SG around 1.04 and an OG around 1.05. What did you use to take the reading and what temperature was the wort? Was 1.02 pre-boil (SG) or post boil (OG)?

 

[Dreadnought]

1.02 was my post boil reading, after cooling; so it was at 70 degrees when taken. And not a silly question; I AM new to all-grain. The grains were rolled instead of having them ground; and I think that could've been the problem. After checking the rollers, they were set too wide; they appeared ok, but after I flubbed such a low gravity reading I looked at everything again - and that must've been the problem.

 

[guitarguy6]

1.02 was my post boil reading, after cooling; so it was at 70 degrees when taken. And not a silly question; I AM new to all-grain. The grains were rolled instead of having them ground; and I think that could've been the problem. After checking the rollers, they were set too wide; they appeared ok, but after I flubbed such a low gravity reading I looked at everything again - and that must've been the problem.

What are you using to crush your grains?

 

[Dreadnought]

I bought a Millar's Barley crusher. It was on the coarsest setting, but must've needed to go finer.

 

[Rev2010]

I bought a Millar's Barley crusher. It was on the coarsest setting, but must've needed to go finer.

Just looked this thing up and saw three notch settings with 0.100 being the coarsest Is that what you had it set too? I'd imagine the grain would just fall right through the gap uncrushed. Even the second gap setting of 0.050 seems too coarse. I use typical credit card thickness for barley which is 0.030 and I tighten up for wheat to within the 20's range. Next time around adjust it a little past midway between the 0.050 and 0.025 position, closer to the .025 side, or use a credit card to adjust the gap.


Rev.

 

[Dreadnought]

Yeah, I think we've found the culprit; I have everything set up right now; so going to brew another batch after I rack this first one off to secondary. I really appreciate the input; so I made sure my crusher is set to "credit card" this time. I was pretty confident the rest of the way through the boil, cooling, etc; but anything stand out there? I was wondering about the hop residue that collected at the top of my boil kettle. The foaming and rolling helped to trap in just under the top / where my mesh bag was attached. Should I have mixed this back in to recapture some of my hops into the primary, or was I well served leaving it out?

 

[Rev2010]

Most people don't. I'll sometimes use my spray bottle to spray some back down only if a lot get pushed up soon after adding, most of the time I don't though. That's a lot of hops there though. Can't say without having been there to see your boil.


Rev.

 

[Roadie]

I used to use a silicon spatula around the boil kettle to drop the hop residue back into the kettle. Now I use a hop spider so don't get that.

 

[Dreadnought]

Well, here's an update on this lack-luster swill that I'm brewing: I racked it into secondary today (5 Gallon Glass Carboy). I did a little taste test, and .... Whew, oh my, talk about god-aweful. I suppose it still needs to rest in secondary for another couple of weeks, but as of now, it tastes watery, burnt, and not much like pumpkin at all. So I'll be patient with this one and see if any magic happens over the next couple weeks. Usually, even with cider and mead, nothing tastes this bad after primary fermentation.

Also note, that in fear of just wasting the whole batch because of not grinding/rolling in my initial mash step well enough, I did add a half pound of white sugar, and 6oz of molasses (dissolved hot, then let cool to 70degF) during the second day offermentation. While racking to my secondary, my gravity reading was 1.004 - So, at this point I'm assuming the worst for this run, but we'll see in a few weeks.

Also, thanks for the idea of using the hop spider; Im picking up stuff to make one out of carriage bolts and a PVC pipe reducer tomorrow.

Here are pics at the rack to secondary; including a pic of the lees and pumpkin crud stuffs at the bottom of my primary