Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

[brew2enjoy]

Brewing this tonight! The pumpkin is in the oven and I am getting ready to prep my water. I'll report back with some results later.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Brew went well. Missed my mash temp by 1* (155). Lauter & sparge were a little slow with 3/4lb of rice hulls but no problem. The color looks fantastic! My garage smelled wonderful too! Can't wait to try this one.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Nice! I can't wait until I get back into town from business to get paid so we can brew this again!

 

[krenshaw]

thanks for the inspiration! brewing this on friday as part of a triple brew day! .. love taking a day off work so the daughter can be at daycare and the wife is at work so nobody is bothering me

 

[brew2enjoy]

Well, I went out to the brew room to add some frozen water bottles to the swamp cooler this morning and this is what I see. I'd say the yeast are pretty happy in there! If I didn't check it this morning I would have pumpkin beer all over my ceiling by the time I got off work today:cross:

 

[AR-Josh]

I'm going to be giving this a go Friday this week. I'll be using the pumpkin pie spice recipe a couple pages back with fresh spices. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Vertra]

Mine has been in primary for 8 days and it is sitting at 1.013, its a little too dry but tastes good. For those worried about this finishing too low I would certainly try 1.5 packs instead of 2. I mashed at 153-154 and pitched 2 packs per fermenter of 1.072 well aerated wort which was enough to knock this thing out of the park quickly. It is still very early but this beer tastes great right out of the fermenter. I wish the pumpkin and the spices were more present in the taste though so I may up those amounts next time I do this brew. A very worthy recipe overall.

Cheers.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

It doesn't matter whether you use 1.5 packs or two. The yeast will reproduce to the proper concentration either way and will consume the fermentable sugars until they are gone. The fg is much more dependent on mash temp.

 

[eobie]

What do you guys think of this. Changed a few things....



Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.70 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.075 SG
Estimated Color: 13.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 6.3 %
22 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 2 68.8 %
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.3 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
2 lbs Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SR Grain 5 6.3 %
116.00 oz Canned Pumpkin (Mash 60.0 mins) Other 6 -
2 lbs Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 7 6.3 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 21.3 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
3.00 tbsp McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice (Boil 10.0 m Spice 10 -
2.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 2.8 IBUs
4.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 12 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 32 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 38.50 qt of water at 170.3 F 156.0 F 60 min

 

[mrgstiffler]

Wow, long thread that has gone on for quite a few years. Is the original recipe still considered the best?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Wow, long thread that has gone on for quite a few years. Is the original recipe still considered the best?

I don't know but after brewing the same recipe every year and with our brewing techniques improving I still wouldn't change the original recipe. But that's just my own humble opinion. I could be biased, though!

 

[tipping]

I will be brewing the extract version up tonight. But I have some questions. I really don't care for liquid extract and would rather use a dry extract. It's my understanding that light dme is the same as pale lme. Is that true? If not could someone with more experience brewing recommend a dme for the extract version?

Here is what I've come up with after some adjustments. If it appears I'm off base with my ingredients Id appreciate some critiquing, thanks.

6lb 12oz light dme
.5lb pale malt 2 row
.5lb special roast
.5lb weyermann caramunich

5 gallon
1.065 og
1.017 fg
srm 11
75% efficiency
6.4% abv
24.3 ibu

1oz mt.hood or hallertau 60 min
.5oz mt.hood or hallertau 15 min
1.5 tbls mcCormicks pumpkin pie spice @ 5 min boil
5lb pumpkin 60 min boil
1lb brown sugar at beginning of boil.

 

[MZRIS]

since your final color is going to be orange-ish - hopefully, i don't think light or pale dme would make a difference. compare the color difference of rolling rock(pale) or bud light (light) as you see it through a pint glass for example. So the final product would be near the same, the question is how dark do you want your orange color? both dme's will brew the same beer, just the color would be diff. (and only slightly at that)

Also, when brewing with DME or LME you can add them later in the boil to get better hop utilization and lighter colors. The longer you cook extracts the darker they seem to get.

 

[tipping]

since your final color is going to be orange-ish - hopefully, i don't think light or pale dme would make a difference. compare the color difference of rolling rock(pale) or bud light (light) as you see it through a pint glass for example. So the final product would be near the same, the question is how dark do you want your orange color? both dme's will brew the same beer, just the color would be diff. (and only slightly at that)

Also, when brewing with DME or LME you can add them later in the boil to get better hop utilization and lighter colors. The longer you cook extracts the darker they seem to get.

I would like to avoid brown or light brown. When I think of a pumpkin ale I think slightly cloudy almost like a bluemoon. And copper orange similar to the skin of a pumpkin. That would be aesthetically pleasing to me. The beer calculator is saying it will turn out copper to red/light brown. I guess I can live with that .

 

[mrgstiffler]

I don't know but after brewing the same recipe every year and with our brewing techniques improving I still wouldn't change the original recipe. But that's just my own humble opinion. I could be biased, though!

Good to know Gonna brew it up this weekend.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I would like to avoid brown or light brown. When I think of a pumpkin ale I think slightly cloudy almost like a bluemoon. And copper orange similar to the skin of a pumpkin. That would be aesthetically pleasing to me. The beer calculator is saying it will turn out copper to red/light brown. I guess I can live with that .

The beer recipe programs aren't always accurate with color. Plus use of pumpkin adds a TON of orange color.

And it'll be cloudy but eventually clear up with long enough time in the cold (keg or bottle)

 

[tipping]

Well Ive got the pumpking cooling my equipment sanitizing. However all my beer guy had was briess pilsner light malt. i went ahead and bought it. When I recalculated everything with the briess Im now getting 8 srm instead of 12. I went back to the store but he already closed up. My question is should I hold off until tomorrow and see if he has anything else or should I go ahead as planned? Beercalculus says it will turn out gold to copper. It doesnt account for the pumpkin. Any predictions what the color might be with the pumpkin included?

 

[mrgstiffler]

Well Ive got the pumpking cooling my equipment sanitizing. However all my beer guy had was briess pilsner light malt. When I recalculated everything Im now getting 8 srm instead of 12. I went back to the store but he already closed up. My question is should I hold off until tomorrow and see if he has anything else or should I go ahead as planned? Beercalculus says it will turn out gold to copper. It doesnt account for the pumpkin. Any predictions what the color might be with the pumpkin included?

What all did you get?

 

[tipping]

What all did you get?

this is what I ended with. I changed the recipe because I dont care for lme and wanted a dme.

6.12lb briess pils light dme
.5lb special roast
.5lb caramunich
.5lb 2 row

60oz of libbies canned pumpkin
pumpkin spice
safrale us-o5 x2
1lb brown sugar

 

[mrgstiffler]

Taste-wise you'll prolly be fine.

 

[tipping]

The color might not be where I want it but like Reno said the pumpkin should give it some color.

 

[tipping]

Well it's in the carboy and it was fun to brew. At 5 gallons my OG was 1.080 so I had to add another gallon and that put me at 1.062. This being my 5th brew and first pumpkin ale it should turn out interesting. It was incredibly thick and orangish brown.

 

[MaloneyBros]

I am having a rather big Oktoberfest bash at my house on Sept 22nd. I have several other brews for the party but I would love the add this to the menu. I am thinking of brewing the original recipe and using the SanDiego super strain to get a quick turn around. Will this turn out ok?

 

[mrgstiffler]

Got the ingredients today and am going to brew it up on Saturday. I made a couple changes to the recipe to bring it a little more in line with my other beers...

Substituted Special B for the C60 and backed off on it just a tad to make up for the color difference. I LOVE Special B and I think the heavy caramel flavor is going to work great for this.

Substituted Cascade for Hallertau. I've been doing this on all my recipes that call for Noble hops and have been extremely impressed with the results. Cascade doesn't change the overall flavor much but it gives it that little extra something that makes all the difference. I actually don't really like Cascade much in Pale Ales or IPAs, but as a replacement for Nobles like Hallertau it's perfect.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

Reno - your my final hope with this site recipe's. I just cant seem to get a good recipe off this site that I like maybe i'm just a snob of only creating my recipe's. Anyways like a tard i am i didn't write down the yeast when I was shopping at my LHBS so I'm using White Labs British Ale. Will this yeast affect the OP recipe?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

White Labs British Ale will work just fine. Just be sure to make a starter. 1.5L to 2L should do you just fine.

I hope this recipe can restore your faith in the recipe database.

 

[watersr]

That's what I used.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

White Labs British Ale will work just fine. Just be sure to make a starter. 1.5L to 2L should do you just fine.

I hope this recipe can restore your faith in the recipe database.

Awesome thanks for the tip I will be brewing this up on Wednesday.

 

[Tarheel4985]

Thanks for the recipe Reno. We've been brewing a Pumpkin Ale every year and this year I thought I'd give your recipe a try after all the rave reviews. So I brewed 20 gallons yesterday.

I substituted our own toasted 2-row for the Victory malt and added a bit of Munich. I didn't use any rice hulls and not surprisingly, I ended up with a stuck sparge (we use a 120 qt Coleman Xtreme with a stainless steel braid). Only did 1 batch sparge but after some difficulty, we finally got 22 gallons pre-boil at 1.060. After adding the brown sugar and our 2 gallon boil-off, we ended up with 20 gallons at 1.074 so we overshot by a little bit.

Smelled and tasted delicious going into the fermenters and airlock activity started 2 hours after pitching. The color was darker than I expected, but I'm pretty excited about this one. Thanks again for a great recipe.

 

[AR-Josh]

I brewed this Friday. I got an OG of 1.064 which is 1.010 less than what beer smith said I should get. I wonder if I have an efficiency issue. I've never bothered learning how to calculate my efficiency as this is my 3rd all grain batch. I wonder if I am doing something wrong? This recipe called for 1.064 as the OG so I don't really care. If I had gotten 1.050 something I'd be worried.

Thanks for the recipe. I used the spice recipe given several pages back with fresh spices. Should be good. I'll post a pic when it comes out.