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Pumpkin Ales

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@bobbrews: Malt bill is not too far off from mine (I don't use victory). I bitter at 60min (13IBU) and add a small amount at 10min (2IBU). I think that enhances the spices. I've used S-05 and S-04 yeast. Think I like the S-05 better but it's a tough call. The ESB yeast should work well. I use 6 (15oz) cans of veggies and a medium sugar pumpkin for 15 gallons. You might want to step up the squash some more. I know you're a chef but Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice is to die for. :ban:
 
TopherM said:
I BIAB, so my pumpkin is already in a bag, and a good bit still gets through. If you are doing a traditional mash, you can put the pumpkin puree directly in the mash, but you are going to have to use rice hulls either way to prevent a stuck sparge. A bag just doesn't keep enough in.

I all grain do u have this recipe u speak of.... And rev do I half to do that protein rest..... I mash in a cooler
 
And rev do I half to do that protein rest..... I mash in a cooler

Not at all, you can just do a single infusion mash. I've not tried my recipe without the 132 rest so I can't really say the difference it makes. I got the idea from some other pumpkin recipes I'd seen and decided to implement it for the heck of it.

Rev.
 
@bobbrews: Malt bill is not too far off from mine (I don't use victory). I bitter at 60min (13IBU) and add a small amount at 10min (2IBU). I think that enhances the spices. I've used S-05 and S-04 yeast. Think I like the S-05 better but it's a tough call. The ESB yeast should work well. I use 6 (15oz) cans of veggies and a medium sugar pumpkin for 15 gallons. You might want to step up the squash some more. I know you're a chef but Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice is to die for. :ban:

Thanks, but I already have all those spices in my cupboard. The good thing is that they're fresh and whole, not ground. I wanted to make a spice tea with them by steeping in a bit of the hot wort and adding just as much of the filtered spice tea to the batch as needed for desired flavor. I think this will work really well with the whole spices. Obviously, I'll have to grind down the nutmeg and ginger a bit, but the rest can be kept whole. I'll crack the cinnamon sticks in half, grate the ginger, and split the vanilla bean. If you think about it, it's sort of the same concept as those holiday spiced teas that tell you to steep in hot wine or hot cider. Good idea, I'm just making my own concoction on a large scale.
 
I was toying with a new Pumpkin recipe. Tell me what you guys think. I was curious what yeast would be best. At first, I thought what about Wyeast 3942, with the apple and clove notes. Seems good for this style. Then, I switched my mind to go with either WLP011 European Ale or Wyeast London 1968. Also considered using Biscuit or Special Roast here. Is this enough squash for the batch size? I was just going to mash with it, not carry it over to the boil and primary. If I do boil it after the mash, it's not going to be with the wort, but with plain water before I add the DME. After the boil, I was going to strain it through a sieve and use the "squash stock" as my base, add the DME, add the wort collected from the grain and brew as normal. What say you? I don't want a lot of trub in my primary since I won't be racking to secondary.

4.2 gal batch
3.4 gal boil
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1.063 OG
<1.017 FG
33 IBUs
10 SRM (without the squash)
------
Mash 60 min 10 oz. Butternut Squash, Roasted
Mash 60 min 16 oz. Sugar Pumpkin, Roasted
------
29% Simpsons Golden Promise
29% Muntons Extra Light DME
14% Great Western Munich 9L
7% Torrified Wheat
7% Simpsons CaraMalt
7% Piloncillo (was considering rubbing this sugar on the squash halfway thru roasting)
7% Victory Malt
------
60 min 0.5 oz. Mt. Hood pellet 3.5
40 min 0.5 oz. Mt. Hood pellet 3.5
30 min 0.5 oz. Mt. Hood pellet 3.5
20 min 0.5 oz. Mt. Hood pellet 3.5
------
Whirlfloc
Yeast Nutrient
------
Wyeast London ESB 1968 w/starter
------
Spice tea made with the following spices steeped in water, and then added at flameout (should I add some hops?):
------
-Cloves
-Cardamom, Green
-Cinnamon Sticks
-Allspice berries
-Nutmeg
-Orange Zest
-Vanilla Bean
-Ginger
------
Primary 30 days @ 66 F w/Amylase Enzyme

When you move the wort from the boil kettle to the fermenter do you usually filter to remove the trub or leave it in?
 
I leave most of the trub behind in the kettle after an extended whirlpool. Then, I will usually rack/filter from kettle to carboy with my auto-siphon wrapped with a nylon mesh bag. In the case with the pumpkin, I prefer to leave it in during all stages aside from the secondary, if doing.
 
I just did a PM pumpkin ale with two cans of Libbys. I added my pumpkin spice with 5min left in the boil, 1/4tsp of vanilla, 1/4 tsp of maple flavor at flame out. Smells amazing.

I will say that I don't think I'll use canned pumpkin again unless I can come up with a better way to strain the pumpkin trub. I used a fine strainer but I still think I have quite a bit. I baked the pumpkin on a cookiesheet @ 350 for 1 hour. The only thing I think I did different was mixing the brown sugar into the pumpkin and baking it like that. Not sure how it will effect the flavor, but it sounded good at the time.
 
Last year I ended up making a Pumpkin/Coffee stout. I added 30oz of canned pumpkin to the boil without any spices addded. I transferred the pumpkin & trub into primary which I had a hell of a time filtering out when it was time to keg the beer. At the end of the day the beer had absolutely no pumpkin flavor.

To make up for this I ended up infusing cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice and pumpkin spice into a shot of Greygoose vodka and let it sit for a week. I then dumped the shot into the keg. The results were a pretty strong (but not overwhelming) spiced stout.

This year I am going to skip the pumpkin altogether and add the infused vodka to a light ale base.:mug:
 
made your version rev. I didn't get a stuck sparge but it was possiable the slowest sparge in my brewing history lol.. smelt great espically after the spice addtion..... can wait to try this
 

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