Autumn Seasonal Beer Imperial Pumpkin Pie Ale

[OHIOSTEVE]

whats the longest anyone has aged this? OR whats the fastest this has been consumed and been good? I want to make this and keg a batch... can I be drinking it by christmas..if not will it hold up until next winter?

 

[DoubleDuse]

I used vanilla extract as well and I went with 2 ounces because I read it somewhere on this thread. Thought it was going to be over powering at first with the first sip but after a week in 5 he keg it's mellowed out now. Mine came out to 8.9% and I used gelatin to clear things up. Awesome brew!!!

 

[jsun]

Bottled tonight. It tastes perfect to me as it is now, so I'm a little worried that the spices will have faded too much by the time it's carbed up. Oh well, I am probably going to be gifting a lot of these bottles away anyway...

 

[Brewsit]

I brewed this last year around this time. It was great then, and compared next to Pumpking, it was less hoppy but had almost the exact same spice and pumpkin flavor. I tried it side by side with a Pumpking that I cellared with it, and a new Pumpking. I honestly like mine the best... a year older, just a great pumpkin spice flavor, perfectly balanced. A great beer to put away for a year.

 

[DoubleDuse]

I definitely recommend transferring this one to a secondary fermenter. The keg went dry this week and there was a couple inches of sediment in the bottom that should have been beer. This was also the first time I've used gelatin to clean up my beer. Is that sediment from the gelatin separating everything?

 

[jwible204]

I definitely recommend transferring this one to a secondary fermenter. The keg went dry this week and there was a couple inches of sediment in the bottom that should have been beer. This was also the first time I've used gelatin to clean up my beer. Is that sediment from the gelatin separating everything?

That's the gelatin doing its job. If you use finings right in the keg that's what will happen, it's no problem though as long as you don't move/bump the keg once it's settled (usually about 36-48 hours after fining). If you plan to move the keg and serve immediately then I'd fine in the primary prior to kegging.

 

[COEBRA]

For your guys that bottle this one. How long did it take to carb up? I pulled one Sunday and tried it tonight after 2 weeks and zero carbonation. It's very strong with a bitter aftertaste. Kind of like medicine. Is this one that will take a month or more to carb and age?

 

[NakedKingBrewing]

I'm not sure, but mine has been bottled for 3 weeks and still has very little carbonation. It might be because the yeast is at the upper limit for alcohol. Mine ended up right around 12%. I obviously modified the recipe a bit, but we'll see in a few weeks.

 

[John53189]

I split the grain bill in half with Vienna instead of all pale. Followed everything else including the pie spice at the end, but added 60 oz of brown sugared baked pumpkin in the hop screen. Outstanding beer, killed a 5 gallon keg in 3weeks..I like it better than Pumking...

 

[COEBRA]

Well crap... I guess this one is going to end up a new years beer instead of a Thanksgiving after Turkey and pie brew...

 

[danomyte]

I'm not sure, but mine has been bottled for 3 weeks and still has very little carbonation. It might be because the yeast is at the upper limit for alcohol. Mine ended up right around 12%. I obviously modified the recipe a bit, but we'll see in a few weeks.

same deal for me. at 3 weeks after bottling, it's mostly flat and tasted like gasoline/medicine

 

[NakedKingBrewing]

Mine has good flavor, but no carbonation. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving it'll have something

 

[COEBRA]

same deal for me. at 3 weeks after bottling, it's mostly flat and tasted like gasoline/medicine

This! Medicine and gasoline nail it on the head! Lol.

 

[Oophaga]

Sounds like process issues not recipe.

 

[COEBRA]

Sounds like process issues not recipe.

Nobody said anything about the recipe... Just that it takes forever to bottle condition...

 

[nofunnatrin]

Mine has good flavor, but no carbonation. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving it'll have something

What did you use to prime for bottling? I think I used a little over 1/3 cup brown sugar for my 4.5 gallon batch (I used the Northern Brewer calculator) and it turned out with what I would consider normal carbonation for a beer with this high of an ABV. Tastes and smells great. Everyone who has tasted it has been impressed.

 

[McBainne]

Its getting near that time of year again and I'm wondering if anyone has tried converting this recipe to a pumpkin stout?

 

[dierythmus]

Brewed this recipe on Saturday. Missed OG slightly, but all went well otherwise.

Pitched 2 packs of S-04 and this thing is bubbling like crazy in my fermentation chamber. I'm keeping it at ~67F. I made this last year and people went nuts over it. I split the recipe in half for 5 gallons, but this year I'm dialing the vanilla back to only 1oz. I remember the vanilla being very overpowering last year.

 

[tloveland]

Brewed this over the weekend (5 gallon batch, so 1/2 ingredients). I used 2 cans of organic pumpkin in the mash and it seemed to add a decent amount of pumpkin flavor to the wort. I ended up with a high pre-boil volume so I extended the boil to 90 minutes and ended up with a SG of 1.087...close enough.

Pitched two smack packs of Wyeast 1028 and it took off. The next morning the blowoff was a constant stream of bubbles, with the occasional "burp" that you could hear throughout the house. Smells amazing! I also have a vanilla bean soaking in vodka that I plan to add in the secondary.

 

[GeorgiaMead]

My pre boil gravity is garbage... Had to much volume so I am boiling the hell out of it...

 

[Spin711]

Just brewed 5 gallons of this last night. Sample tasted great!

I cut the recipe in half but used 8.5 lb 2 row and 8.5 lb Vienna. I also added 1 pumpkin, chunked and roasted at 350 with a dusting of the spices and brown sugar. The pumpkin was added to the boil at 20 mins.

OG hit about 1.084 with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter using BIAB method.

I used about 150ml of harvested US-05 yeast slurry from a pale ale and had activity within a few hours.

Can't wait to try this one out! I will be soaking 2 vanilla beans in Vanilla Island rum for about 3 weeks and adding that with pumpkin pie spice to the keg.

 

[tloveland]

Just transferred to secondary (with vanilla/vodka extract) and WOW. I think I like the uncarbed sample more than any mainstream pumpkin ale I've tried.

Spices are perfect, 1/2 tsp of each is perfect for a 5 gallon batch. I also only added probably under 1.5 oz of vodka with 1 vanilla bean that had soaked for a week and a half. I might end up adding the rest of the vanilla at kegging/bottling.

FG is 1.021

 

[Camden2300]

Made this beer on July 31. It has gone through a lot of flavor changes..... It had medicinal flavor a for a while... I've been drinking 1 per month... It is now starting to get good ... I believe give it another 3 mo and it will be great.... I'll be drinking this next fall

 

[armenianbrewer]

Is the original post still the most current version of this recipe? Just went through several pages of this thread and I came across so many variants, pretty awesome to see... Also curious if anyone has brewed this in the 2.5-3 gallon range? Seems like I'll have to eye-ball the spice additions quite a bit!

Is WLP007 a good substitute? Recently brewed a RIS and figured I could just reuse that yeast for this batch

 

[Mexibilly]

Brewed this for my wife 3 or 4 weeks ago.
F'd up and added 10 gallon's worth of vanilla and spice when I bottled.
I bet she'll still love it.
Thanks for the recipe