Autumn Seasonal Beer Lady Rumpkin Pumpkin Rum Ale

[ptra1004]

^..personally already have this in the hopper. The extract version of this one appealed to me because of the time factor (aforementioned one year old). I'm thinking next year, I'll roast pumpkins instead of using canned. Maybe later this season?

 

[voicelex]

I've had this delicious recipe in a bottle for 4 weeks now. I popped one of the 12oz "sample" bottles and it was basically flat. Should I be worried about the rest? How long should this take to carb at about 68F?

I'm scared... it tastes so good! I hope it carbs up :'(

 

[Charliehart1]

I've had this delicious recipe in a bottle for 4 weeks now. I popped one of the 12oz "sample" bottles and it was basically flat. Should I be worried about the rest? How long should this take to carb at about 68F?

I'm scared... it tastes so good! I hope it carbs up :'(

How much dextrose did you use?

 

[voicelex]

I think it was 5oz for 5 gallons? I remember them starting to bubble as I was bottling too. I know the sugar made it in..

 

[Charliehart1]

The thing I was worried about. Im about to bottle will the high alcohol and rum addition be too high for the yeast to eat the sugar for carbonation?

 

[TheWeeb]

The thing I was worried about. Im about to bottle will the high alcohol and rum addition be too high for the yeast to eat the sugar for carbonation?

I think it will be slow for sure, but if you have patience.... I shared a couple of bottles this past weekend, 12 days in the bottle, and barely carbonated, but it was working for sure. I think that given time it will come around. If you do the math, the rum adds less than one percent of total ABV in a five gallon batch; not significant if the yeast was healthy and prolific (starter!) at pitching.

 

[ptra1004]

I opened a bottle last Friday after about 2 weeks in the bottle and the CO2 is getting there but it has been slow going. It is definitely going to take a while, but it will get there...

 

[Charliehart1]

ok im all bottled i tweaked the recipe ..... and i "dry hopped" the beer with 4 cinnamon sticks and about an oz or so of cloves... for the last week of fermentation... when bottling it smelled like someone spilled alcohol on a pumpkin pie... but the taste almost had no alcohol taste... so far so good... i hope bottling goes well im gonna wait about 3 weeks to crack one

 

[Charliehart1]

Ok Ive bottled. And a week and a half in. The bottles have formed a bunch of gunk at the bottom. We filtered out all the pumpkin. What could this be?!?

 

[Waterboy42]

Yeast

 

[Charliehart1]

It's a lot in each bottle. Like a half inch at the bottom of each one.

 

[ptra1004]

That does seem to be a lot of sediment to just be yeast. How long was the beer in primary/secondary? What did the bottom of each fermentation look like?

 

[BaddogBrewing]

Subscribed!!!!

 

[TheWeeb]

I am not sure about filtering, if it gets out the pumpkin slurry. Maybe a combination of techniques is needed. On mine, the bottles have very little sediment on the bottom. I used Irish Moss in the boil, when transferring from primary to secondary I used a paint strainer which took out much of it. Secondary to bottling bucket, cold crashed, then racked from the top down leaving as much of the trub behind. I just poured one if these, and after nearly five weeks in the bottle I have excellent carbonation (I was worried)

The head is creamy, milk-stout like, and the taste, fantastic!

Quick pic (sorry about the quality)

 

[Philip_T]

subscibed

 

[smokeyjav]

I just finished brewing this recipe. I tweaked it a little bit by using half pumpkin half sweet potato. I also used blackberry honey instead of molasses. I also used dark candi sugar instead of brown sugar. Smells great! I plan on using Sailor Jerry spice rum for the pumpkin spice tea. I was noticing that you changed the yeast from Trappist Ale to California Ale. How much of a taste difference does the yeast make?

Thanks

 

[TheWeeb]

The Trappist gave off more fruity and clove flavors. Sailor Jerry is a good rum! Yours should turn out fantastic. Anyone else want to share the tasting experience? I have gone thru nearly the whole batch, as much as I want to save it for a year and see how it ages

 

[moonpig]

Bottled this 1 week ago, I am assuming it will take a few weeks to carbonate.
Come on carbonation!!!!

 

[nduetime]

tasting updates please! i'd love to brew this soon!

 

[Mhill2079]

I'm getting ready to start this one next week and I've noticed that no one is oaking it. As I am a huge oak fan, and a huge fan of the Rumpkin I was gonna do 2 oz of French oak in the secondary (soak the chips in the rum and what not before the addition). Has anyone tried this?

 

[Hopelesst]

I would love to brew a batch of this for holloween this year, and as I still have some pumpkin I stored from last year, I could start now. Is four months enough time for this big of a beer?

 

[Hopelesst]

I'm converting this to a partial mash, and I'm pulling ideas from a few of the tweaked recipes on here. This is what I've got so far:

EDIT: Brewed on Sunday, July 1st

The "cake":
4#, 6 oz Pumpkin (roasted and frozen from last fall)
4 oz Molasses
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spices
Baked @350 for an hour

The "tea":
12 oz Tortuga Spiced Rum
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spices
Mixed on brew day, added to secondary

The mash:
3# 2-row
2.25# Maris Otter
1# Biscuit
1# Crystal 60
0.5# Flaked Wheat
0.25# Special B

The boil:
4#, 2.5 oz Golden Light DME
2# 45°L Candi Sugar (The first pound was boiled with 1/2tsp yeast nutrient and added to the fermenter on day 3. Process repeated on day 5.)
2oz Mt. Hood (6.1%} @60

6qt starter of WLP001 @64

Estimated OG: 1.086 (not sure what the pumpkin will do)
Measured OG: 1.101 Woops!
Estimated FG: 1.023 (~10.5%)
IBUs: 37.5
SRM: 23

I wanted some of that warm malty character that the maris otter brings, and I think special b will mingle well with the molasses and help lessen the gap between the rum and ale flavors.

A 3 weeks primary, nine in secondary, and five weeks in bottles sound like a good time line?

thoughts?

 

[Hopelesst]

Our effeciency was a but higher than anticipated, but doesn't quite push us above the ABV tolerance of the CalAle yeast, so we should be fine. There is a chance we'll have to finish off with some champagne yeast but I think it'll go great.

All in all the brewing experience for this ale has been wonderful. It's by far the biggest beer we've brewed, and our first go with fruit but it was all quite easy. Pics:

The pumpkin and spices


Adding our pumpkin to the boil


Pitching half of our starter slurry


All wrapped up in our jim-jams, tucked away for a good nap

 

[TheWeeb]

Round three for this will be brewed this weekend. I think I will try a clean yeast this year to see how it goes. I hope I can find pumpkin this time of year!

 

[Bigapinnc]

Weeb, are you still brewing the original recipe of this or has it changed? If is has, can you post it!? I have been searching for a pumpkin pie in a bottle for a while. I don't know if you have ever heard of the Saint Arnold's Pumpkinator, or Divine Reserve #9. It was a Russian imperial pumpkin stout that was absolutely incredible! Been looking for a log time to have something that could get even somewhere close to the pumpkin pie/abv ratio it had.

 

[Hopelesst]

Two weeks in and we're down to 1.018! We move to secondary for bulk aging next weekend. This is our third batch, first big beer, and first time using fruit abd everything is going off without a hitch!

The sample had some alchohol heat, but less than expected from the abv. It's a bit thinner than I was expecting but drinks silky smooth. Cant wait till holloween!

 

[Hopelesst]

oops, double post

 

[TheWeeb]

I am still tweaking this one.... today brewed:

6 lbs Amber LME
1.5 lbs Light LME
2 lbs 60L
1 lb Honey malt
1 lb Maris Otter toasted @ 375 for 30 min
3x29 oz cans of pumpkin (they get smaller and smaller each year) baked at 350 for an hour with 1/4 cup molasses and two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice

I used one oz of Zythos @60 min because I had it, and calculates out to 22 IBUs, as I wanted to up the bitterness a bit and had this one on hand from the homebrewer's convention in Seattle. I plan on dry-hopping with 1 oz of French Strisselspalt as I have never used that variety before and think it will go well with this recipe.

The yeast, yes, I was going to use 005 but at the homebrew shop I spotted WLP 540, so I made a 3L starter with it. I know, much talk about how this one finishes high, but those who have let it go longer seem to have great results from a flavor profile perspective with decent attenuation if it is left alone. One of the observations on my last batch was that the spice was overpowering, so I am hoping that this yeast - with its fruity character - will point to the pumpkin flavors.

Not going for a huge beer this time, calculated 1.080 OG and 1.020 FG Actual OG was 1.076.

I am using 16oz of Kraken rum with 1 tsp Maple extract and 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice along with the hops in a few weeks once on secondary. The rum is bigger this year as I want it more up front with the pumpkin.

I am really thinking of an oak spiral as well in the secondary. Maybe a vanilla bean as well.

October may find a trappist-style imperial pumpkin ale tasting like it was aged on oak rum barrels. YEA!

 

[Dmatson89]

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!

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?

 

[Hopelesst]

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.