Just ordered all the stuff for your second version of the recipe. Anything you would do different if u were to do it again given that I'm using the light extract and not the amber that I see you are using for your next batch?TheWeeb said:6 lbs light DME (Boil 60 min)
1 lb Mars Otter, pre-toasted on a cookie sheet for 20 min @ 350 degrees (this takes the place of the 1 lb Traditional Dark DME in the original recipe in an attempt to get more of a pie crust flavor) (Mash 154 60 min)
1 lb Brown Sugar (Boil 60 min)
1 lb Maple Syrup (Boil 60 min)
¼ cup Molasses (baked with pumpkin)
2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (double the original to get more of a malt backbone) (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
1 lb Biscuit Malt (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (mash @154 degrees 60 min)
60.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned, baked (see notes, Boil 60 min)
1.5 oz Goldings (5.0% AA 60.0 min) 15 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
Pumpkin spice tea: 1 Tablespoon of quality pumpkin pie spice mixed with 12 ounces of good spiced rum (I used Kraken) prepared on brew day but added at secondary (Cut original spice in half)
Should be most excellent for the upcoming holiday harvest season!
I love the idea of a pumpkin reduction in the secondary because like you I'm kind of worried about ending up with a high ABV spice beer. Keep us posted on what you do, I'm thinking there are going to be quite a few people brewing this soon so its fully ready for fall.Hopelesst said:I love the idea of the vanilla bean in secondary and have been thinking of making a pumpkin reduction and adding it to secondary with the rum. I'd boil down some pumpkin with a bit of molasses and water till I got a thick broth, strain it, and boil it again with a bit more water, cool, and rack over it. Like you I'm worried we'll just have a spice beer when we're done. This should push the pumpkin back to the front.
I'm also gonna decant the rum off the spices so the beer isnt sitting on them for 100 days. The tea smells like the spices have done plenty of melding with the rum so far and I dont want that to be the dominant flavor.
Thanks for the info but I got one more question... What do you mean by your schedule calls for 10 weeks in the carboy with the rum? You talking how long u let spices steep in rum?Hopelesst said:By decant I just meant I'd take some basic measure to put in the rum but not the solids from the spices. I've been swiring the rum tea every day or three and it settles out quite quickly, so even just pouring the rum off the top would be a good start. The rum has taken such a strong aroma from the spices so far and my schedule calls for 10 weeks in the carboy with the rum. That's potentially too much spice based on the gravity sample.
Oh, and it's worth mentioning that my pumpkin is some that we roasted last fall and froze. It's a bit thinner than what you can buy in cans but I think either should work well in the reduction.
Good question, I am not sure it will make a significant difference since the rum, pumpkin, and spices are up front. My guess is that the amber will have a more prominent malt backbone, but either should work well for this brew.Just ordered all the stuff for your second version of the recipe. Anything you would do different if u were to do it again given that I'm using the light extract and not the amber that I see you are using for your next batch?
What do you think of the idea of a pumpkin reduction in the secondary? Was pumpkin dominant enough for this high of abv or would a little more be better?TheWeeb said:Good question, I am not sure it will make a significant difference since the rum, pumpkin, and spices are up front. My guess is that the amber will have a more prominent malt backbone, but either should work well for this brew.![]()
How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.Hopelesst said:We moved to secondary last night and wow the bottom of that fermenter was gross. Over a gallon of purred, fermented pumpkin and yeast slurry satunder the beer. We opted against the pumpkin reduction. We decided it would be better to see how the rum and ale flavors mix over the next two months, only adding the reduction if the beer needs it. The advantage of scheduling 4 months for bulk conditioning is that we can check on the progress.
Well we didnt try to collect a sample until after we realized there was much more muck in the fermenter than anticipated. The sample we drew had a lot of yeast and schmutz in it and tasted pretty foul. The carboy smells of rum and nothing else but again, I'm sure it's gonna mellow considerably.How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.
Well we didnt try to collect a sample until after we realized there was much more muck in the fermenter than anticipated. The sample we drew had a lot of yeast and schmutz in it and tasted pretty foul. The carboy smells of rum and nothing else but again, I'm sure it's gonna mellow considerably.How was the pumpkin flavor when you racked it? Please tell me you tried it.