Jake-O-Lantern Imperial Pumpkin Ale

[BarkerBrewing]

Fall is my favorite season for beer...fresh hops, pumpkin ales, oktoberfests. If there's one thing I love to drink, it's a pumpkin beer. Only problem is that I haven't found the perfect one. If I could mix Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin with Southern Tier Pumking, I think that would be close.

This is my first attempt at a "custom" recipe. I started with a Midwest Supplies kit and added a few things. It is brewing right now; I'm interested to see what everyone thinks of the recipe. I'll post a follow-up in 6 weeks when I'm drinking it.

Jake-O-Lantern Imperial Pumpkin Ale
Fruit Beer

Type: Extract
Date: 9/1/2008
Batch Size: 5.50 gal

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Gold Liquid Extract (10.0 SRM) Extract 50.8 %
3.30 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 28.0 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
2.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (60 min) Hops 34.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
60.00 oz Pumpkin (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
1.50 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 12.7 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.074 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.4 %
Bitterness: 32.9 IBU
Calories: 338 cal/pint
Est Color: 12.0 SRM

 

[polarbearbrewing]

i have been considering brewing the midwest kit and just by a quick comparision it looks like you added 3lbs LME and thats about it....did u add more hops to balance out the added malt?

 

[BarkerBrewing]

i have been considering brewing the midwest kit and just by a quick comparision it looks like you added 3lbs LME and thats about it....did u add more hops to balance out the added malt?

I added the 3.3lbs of LME, brown sugar and another ounce of Mt. Hood hops to balance it out. I also went with the McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice as opposed to the small spice pack in the Midwest kit. I'm interested to see how it turns out. I'm thinking that it may be a little bitter.

 

[polarbearbrewing]

ok definitely post how it turns out because i am planning on brewing the midwest kit within a week or two and its always a bonus when a recipe is "imperialized"

how far along is it?

 

[BarkerBrewing]

ok definitely post how it turns out because i am planning on brewing the midwest kit within a week or two and its always a bonus when a recipe is "imperialized"

how far along is it?

I brewed this on Monday 09/01, so it's' still pretty early. The airlock started to bubble yesterday around 2pm and it's still going strong this morning. I'll be racking it to the secondary this coming Monday or Tuesday.

As far as the imperial part of the name, I will have to look into the definition a little more. I had figured this being a 5 gallon 8.2% batch, but it turned out to be 5.5 gallons @ 7.4%. The 60 oz of pumpkin created a ton of trub.

 

[BarkerBrewing]

This should be ready on 10/11. I cracked one early (at 5 days in the bottle) just to taste it. It is still kinda bitter and has a noticeable alcohol bite. Also, it wasn't carbed _AT ALL_. I gave the bottles a good shaking hoping this will wake up the yeasties.

I'm hoping that letting this beer sit and bottle condition for awhile will: a)cause it to carb up nice and b) get rid of that alcohol bite.

I will say that there is definitely a nice pumpkin taste with a hint of spice. I'm hoping it turns out good...I'm not worried about it being drinkable (I haven't met an undrinkable beer, yet!)

 

[mmb]

As far as the imperial part of the name, I will have to look into the definition a little more. I had figured this being a 5 gallon 8.2% batch, but it turned out to be 5.5 gallons @ 7.4%. The 60 oz of pumpkin created a ton of trub.

Imperial in a beer name refers to the historical fact that the beer was shipped to an Empire of some kind. Russian Imperial Stout for example.

BobNQ3X has a really good blog post on the topic

Three Hounds Aleworks, Ltd. | Easton, Pennsylvania

 

[Gabe]

How are you figuring the Alc% without a final gravity?

 

[HippieCrack]

How are you figuring the Alc% without a final gravity?

I think he's using the estimated final gravity

 

[xxHelderxx]

I'm hoping to brew something similar to this and was wondering how yours turned out? Any lessons learned or bits of advice you might want to pass along?

 

[Beau815]

me too .

 

[Tlylebrew]

Bump!! Anyone ever try this? heating up the water to brew this right now.

 

[Elimination]

Ya I was wondering how this turned out, I want to make a strong pumpkin ale for thanksgiving.

 

[Tlylebrew]

It is in secondary right now, but just from the sample I had when trasnfering I would definately bump up the spice.. Other than that it tasted good, Finished at 1.010, so my abv is up around 8.5%... I'll try to remember to give an update when I am drinking some for real!!

 

[Tlylebrew]

One other thing.. I couldn't find any canned pumpkin anywhere. So I ended up using fresh pie pumpkins after baking them in an oven for an hour.

 

[VictorWI]

One other thing.. I couldn't find any canned pumpkin anywhere. So I ended up using fresh pie pumpkins after baking them in an oven for an hour.

Yea, the shortage last year has left the shelves empty since last Thanksgiving. I have been waiting for weeks to find some and was about to go the pie pumpkin route as the local farmers have them in when low and behold, I found two cans sitting on the shelf at the local supermarket yesterday. Not sure when they got some in but it certainly didn't last long! My first pumpkin ale will be brewed on Saturday!!! :rockin:

 

[Tlylebrew]

Yeah they have it on the shelves here now too. Hopefully I'll get better results with the fresh pumpkin, but I would be suprised if it makes much of a difference.

 

[remman4]

I am going to try my own take on this recipe...

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Gold Liquid Extract (10.0 SRM) Extract 50.8 %
3.30 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 28.0 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
2.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (60 min) Hops 34.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
60.00 oz Pumpkin (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
1.50 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 12.7 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


I am using 6 lb Pale LME and 3 lb Amber DME for fermentables, and I am adding 0.5 lbs of Special B malt as an additional specialty grain
I am going to use fresh pumpkin instead of canned and I will roast it first before adding it to the boil in large grain bags to reduce trub
I am going to use different pumpkin pie spice than listed in this recipe and I will modify amounts based on aroma/taste
Oh and I couldn't find Wyeast 1056 at Listermann's so I picked Safale US-05 instead

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I did a pumpkin spice with 2tsp McCormick pie spice in a hop bag for 3 minutes and got no flavor to speak of. Do you add your spice directly to the boil or in a hop bag? I strain my wart when racking to the fermenter if it matters.

 

[hatedheretic]

would love to hear some follow ups on this..

 

[remman4]

once I brew I will let you know how it goes

 

[PPrahme]

once I brew I will let you know how it goes

Did you brew yet..? I have a recipe that ive working on for quite some time that i beleive will be exquisite..Im going to brew this weekend. Was wondering how yours was turning out?

 

[raven1a]

Was there any update on this one? I'm planning of brewing it in a few weeks to let it age until the fall.

 

[BigRob90]

Went to Seattle's Caskfest this last March and I had an Imperial Pumpkin Ale made by Elysian Brewing Company. It was AMAZING! Like drinking pumpkin pie. No alcohol taste though the ABV was high, 8.1%. He's a link to it on their website, I wish there was a clone of this out there...It truly was great!

http://www.elysianbrewing.com/beer/greatpumpkin.html

As you'll see on the webpage, they added roasted pumpkin seeds to the mash as well as pumpkin to the mash, kettle and fermenter. Also they used some other spices I haven't seen mentioned on here yet, though they don't say how much :/.