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Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

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Reno Envy-

Where in Reno did you find your cans of pumpkin ?

Found the last two cans at Scolari's about a month ago. I have no idea of the selection right now but next time I go to a store I'll be sure to check.

However, I did notice that there are pumpkins outside of the Raley's in Golden Valley.

Good to see another Renoite(?) on here!
 
Went to three stores in Minneapolis today. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Plenty of spiced Libbey's but no plain! Thankfully I got a rain check on a shipment coming in tomorrow AM ;)
 
Waterboy42 said:
Went to three stores in Minneapolis today. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Plenty of spiced Libbey's but no plain! Thankfully I got a rain check on a shipment coming in tomorrow AM ;)

Whole Foods has Organic plain canned pumpkin-- not sure about Mn , but they had ton in Columbus, oh
 
If you have a restaurant supply store nearby borrow a membership card from a friend... They stock 6 lb cans of unspiced pumpkin year round!

On a side note... Air lock activity has completely slowed. Probably going to transfer to secondary after 2 weeks just to help it clear up a little. Looks and smells fantastic!
 
If you have a restaurant supply store nearby borrow a membership card from a friend... They stock 6 lb cans of unspiced pumpkin year round!

This is good to know, thank you brewmaster! :rockin:

To ZACKARU and anybody else in the Reno/Sparks area: Resco on Plumb Lane doesn't require a membership, just say you work at [insert local restaurant] and they'll let you right in.
 
So I read the original recipe and appreciate the extract recipe notes. Bit I'm still confused ... so I can add all the pumpkin stuff in my boil? I apologize if I missed a similar post or this seems stupid ... but just trying to figure out how to make this work. Any and all advice/instructions welcome!
 
You can certainly put the pumpkin the boil. You're just going to get a ton of trub in your primary fermentation vessel so shoot for 5.5 gallons for your batch volume.
 
jbfrank said:
So I read the original recipe and appreciate the extract recipe notes. Bit I'm still confused ... so I can add all the pumpkin stuff in my boil? I apologize if I missed a similar post or this seems stupid ... but just trying to figure out how to make this work. Any and all advice/instructions welcome!

You could try doing what I did and basically treat the pumpkin as a specialty grain an steep it in your water as you heat it up. Just make sure you put it in a paint strainer or grain bag so you can get it all out when you go to boil.
 
brewmaster12 said:
You could try doing what I did and basically treat the pumpkin as a specialty grain an steep it in your water as you heat it up. Just make sure you put it in a paint strainer or grain bag so you can get it all out when you go to boil.

Yeah that sounds like a better and less messy/stressful plan
 
Well that sounds frustrating, BrewNinja! Did you use rice hulls?

Yep...used a pound. I think next time Ill put it in the water trick. Or put it in a bag before I put it in the mash tun. In the end I only was about 6 points low, so not too bad. This stuff smelled amazing though when I was done. Going to be hard to wait a few weeks to try it.
 
Thanks for the help Reno! Most awesome brewday ever! Used 1# of rice hulls in the mash with the 4 cans (15oz ea.) of baked organic pumpkin and never looked back.'It ran off like a strip-ed assed ape! One of my clearest worts to date.
SWMBO made some slight top secret adjustments to the spice blend...we'll see what happens...basically a homed
Version of pumpkin pie spice. It's bubbling away this AM with fermenting freezer set to 63 F. Can't wait! Thanks again

image-153981675.png


image-1822500633.png
 
AWESOME! Good to hear it went so well.

And super-secret recipe change? [in British accent] Cheeky :D

How did you post those photos? I can seem to click on them to make them bigger.
 
Thanks for the recipe Reno! Got myself some pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice the other day... hope to be brewing this up this weekend, assuming I can convince SWMBO to put bathroom renovations on hold for a day or two ;) Priorities right? Haha.
 
Well after kegging and giving it a week to carb up I had this on Saturday and it was excellent. The malt balanced the pumpkin perfectly and I even feel that the American Ale II yeast added a little to it as well. I was really suprised how well pumpkin went with beer.

The only issue I had, was when first kegged it didn't really have that good aroma that it had in the fermenter. So I decided to add some additional pie spice and that really brought back the scent.

I have already ordered the grain bill to make this oonce again since we are already about half through the first batch.

Thanks again for posting your recipie.
 
Well after kegging and giving it a week to carb up I had this on Saturday and it was excellent. The malt balanced the pumpkin perfectly and I even feel that the American Ale II yeast added a little to it as well. I was really suprised how well pumpkin went with beer.

The only issue I had, was when first kegged it didn't really have that good aroma that it had in the fermenter. So I decided to add some additional pie spice and that really brought back the scent.

I have already ordered the grain bill to make this oonce again since we are already about half through the first batch.

Thanks again for posting your recipie.

Awesome, love seeing results... especially favorable ones!
 
Brewed something similar to this yesterday. Made substitutions for what i could find

Recipe looked like this -

10# 2row
1# Biscuit Malt
.5# Crystal 60L
1# Light Brown Sugar

1.5oz Liberty 3%AA 60min
1.5 tbsp Pump Pie Spice 10 min
1.5oz Liberty 3%AA 5min

Baked fresh cut/cubed pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice sprinkled over top @ 350 for 1 hr.

Mashed at 158 for an hour, i didn't mash my pumpkin for a few reasons.

I added the pumpkin to the brew pot after lautering/while sparging.

Wishing i would have had a paint strainer bag for the pumpkin during the boil. That stuff became a hell of a mess!!! I know next time i'll either try mashing the pumpkin or using a bag to contain the pumpkin during the boil.

Hydro sample came out at 1.064 and tasting quite delicious!
 
Reno_eNVy said:
That first shot is really pretty. Is that a banjo burner you have there?

Yes...a Blichmann floor burner with the 24" extension legs to be specific. That thing boils like mad. It's because of it that I was a little low on my OG (1.056).
Beer smith told me I was looking for 6.0 gal at end of boil and even though my kettle full gravity was low I got nervous when I saw I had 15 to go and I was already at 6. I added a little water at 10 min and wound up with 1.056. I gotta figure that out and beer smith had me looking for like a 1.075. I think my pumpkin data may be jacked up cause I put everything else in BS and it was looking for crazy high OG.
 
Getting ready to rack to the secondary. Then I'm going cold crash it and hopefully have it kegged and carbed by Sunday. Can't wait!
 
FG 1.010 @ 66* came out to 7.3% ABV. It tastes strong and has a very close punkin ale taste. Can't wait to get it carbed.
 
Just racked to secondary. Looks and smells and tastes amazing! Very normal trub amount so doing the pumpkin in the paint strainer was definitely the right call. I'll let it sit for 2 weeks now before bottling
 
Just racked to secondary. Looks and smells and tastes amazing! Very normal trub amount so doing the pumpkin in the paint strainer was definitely the right call. I'll let it sit for 2 weeks now before bottling

my math says thats 10days in Primary and 14 days in secondary...my exact regemen far all of my ales that stop showing activity by the end of the 10 day primary (which is all but 1 saison I did this year).
I have this in my fermenting freezer at 63 since Saturday night and its still perking away. I am loving the slow and steady fermentation on this but its the first time I have fermented US-05 this low on its temp range. I have been trying to keep my ales on the low side but I seem to be timid about getting any lower than 65 because I had some liquid yeast viability issues and I have it in my head that I shouldnt keep em too cold or they'll crap out. :drunk:
 
Meh, US-05 does fine below 65. Since converting a chest freezer for temp control, I'm typically started my ales at ~60 and let them raise slowly.

Also, many on here will debate that a secondary isn't necessary unless you're dry hopping, adding other spices, aging or lagering. I like to give my beers at least 21 days on the yeast cake so the yeasties have ample time to clean up after themselves... it always results in clean-tasting beer.
 
Took a gravity reading today and I was sitting at a 1.010 down from a 1.072. Wondering if this has gone south or if I will still be ok and just with a higher ABV???
 
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