Autumn Seasonal Beer Punkin' Ale

[Matteo57]

I have read through a lot of this so far but haven't found a question I wanted to ask.
Compaired to Dogfish Head's Punkin beer, is this more or less pumpkiny flavor or spiced more or less? I like the punkin ale by DFH but think I would like it to be just slightly more pumpkiny. Any feedback on this?
Looking forward to brewing this soon!! Yum Yum!

 

[Matteo57]

Also, the only pumpkin pie spice I can find is this blend from "The spice hunter". It has cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, star anise, fennel, black pepper.

Anyone use this before? Trying to decide if I would use about the same amount or less/more.

Thanks!

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Matteo, not sure on the spice question. Sounds like a good mix to me, though.

Just finished cleaning up after brewday. OG of 1.068 and the hydrometer sample tasted better than it ever has. I can't wait for this one to be done.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Pics

 

[mmcouch]

Brewed my partial mash kit yesterday. I baked 60 oz of pure pumpkin (canned) for 45 mins at 350. Let that cool and added to the grain bag during mash. The bag actually held a lot more pumpkin in than I thought it would. There was minimal trub and I strained when I poured into the primary. I don't think I hit the OG suggested on the kit (1.048), but I was close (1.046) assuming I took the sample correctly and read it right (still new at this). The house smelled like pumpkin pie and hops this morning. Gotta love it!

I have the primary down in the basement in a swamp cooler and it seems to be holding steady at about 70-72 (It was pretty warm today in AL). Checked on everything this afternoon and the air lock was already bubbling at about 15 hours post pitching. Planning on keeping in primary one week then two more in a secondary. Does any longer than a week in the primary matter?

 

[Matteo57]

Thanks Reno, looking good!

 

[troyh]

I have read through a lot of this so far but haven't found a question I wanted to ask.
Compaired to Dogfish Head's Punkin beer, is this more or less pumpkiny flavor or spiced more or less? I like the punkin ale by DFH but think I would like it to be just slightly more pumpkiny. Any feedback on this?
Looking forward to brewing this soon!! Yum Yum!

At 6 weeks now,I think mine is more pumpkin-y than DFH's Punkin, which, I agree, is a bit subtle (but good!).

 

[kzimmer0817]

Well, I really did do it. Five months after bottling my 4th kit, I finally did this recipe as my first all-grain brew, first BIAB, and first no-chill. I chronicled it on the following thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/my-first-all-grain-biab-no-chill-356409/#post4439395

I followed the recipe as published. I ended up using 10.5 lbs of the 2-row with 1 lb each of the Victory and Crystal 60L.

I used the keggle I had made in the following thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/keiths-cut-keggle-353760/

Following the suggestion of Brewmaster12, I placed the baked pumpkin into a small grain bag and steeped it in the water as I was heating it up to strike temp. Calculations suggested 162 as strike temp to get to a mash temp of 156. The temp settled at 154 after doughing in.

I deviated from the recipe in that:
1. I mashed for 90 minutes as recommended by a lot of BIABrewers
2. I did a mashout to 170 for 10 minutes. I saw that this was briefly discussed on this thread, and Reno eNVy does the equivalent of a mashout with his hot sparge water.

As I mentioned, I ran into a snag in that I seemed to get the wort to boiling temp, but my flame could not get it quite to a rolling boil. I realized that I was simmering away my volume as opposed to boiling it away. Figuring that my propane was low, I stopped the flame, ran and got another propane tank. I added water to bring my volume up to what the calculator stated would be my estimated pre-boil volume at 100*C, and restarted the burner - which went like gangbusters, now.

I added the brown sugar (I got dark brown sugar) once the boil got established. I delayed the 60 min hop for 20 minutes due to no-chilling. As others said, one probably doesn't need to adjust, but I decided to give it a try. I added the spice and the 5 min addition as scheduled.

After flameout, I took a sample, and transferred into my no-chill container.

After the sample had cooled, I measured the gravity and got 1.066. I guess that's pretty good for a first all-grain. BTW, the sample tasted great.

I can't wait to see what this will be like when it's finished. I did purchase 2 packets of Safale US-05.

I hope I can join the ranks of those of y'all who made this and found it to be great.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[atom]

drank my first 1 or 5 that i brewed back in august. turned out great...primed with 4.5 oz of brown sugar and threw a bit more spice into the solution.

 

[Matteo57]

How come you lower the specialty grain amount when doing a mini mash? Do you always want to do that when you do a mini mash compaired to a full mash? I haven't brewed a long time so just asking for my own knowledge.
Also, if doing a extract version of this... would you steep the pumpkin in it the water for 30 min or so or just boil the pumpkin? Would you get more haze in the beer by boiling the pumpkin? Sorry if I missed this in directions somewhere

 

[Double_D]

I brewed this yesterday and followed the recipe exactly. I was thinking about using some munich because I had it laying around but decided to follow everyone's advice and not deviate. I ended up using 4# of rice hulls in my ten gallon batch which may have been over kill but at least it didn't run slow. I'm super excited! The sample tasted amazing and ferm fridge smelled awesome this morning.

 

[tre9er]

Brewed this this weekend except I changed up the GB to what I had. Used 8lbs. each of Pale Ale and Vienna (for that roasty, biscuity taste) and then C40 to color (3lbs.). Total of 19lbs. for a 9g batch. Used 7 smaller cans of pumpkin, roasted on two cookie sheets at 350 for 45 minutes, then cooled. Missed my mash temp low due to equipment issue (leaking valve on MLT, had to drain strike out, reheat, while fixing that, then didn't quite heat it enough to compensate for cooled pumpkin going in).

Anyway, I used Perle to bitter and Willamette at 5mins. Used the WLP810 SF Lager yeast and ferming at around 59-60 right now in chamber. Hoping for a clear beer that has all the flavors we're shooting for here and doesn't finish too low (hence the SF Steam yeast, which WLP says attenuates a full 10% less than WLP001 and/or more ale yeasts). Plus, I had the SF yeast on hand harvested last week from an Oktoberfest.

I also used two TBSP of pumpkin pie spice for my 9g batch instead of nearly 3. It seems so strong, I didn't want to overdo it. If it's lacking in spice I can always make a tea and add it to the keg.

 

[Brewskier]

Thinking about doing this one. Thanks for taking the time to give a partial mash recipe!

Anyway, I had a question about the pumpkin. You said we can keep the same amount of pumpkin. Do we have to add extra water to account for the weight of the pumpkin? I would guess you'd have to, considering there will only be a little over 1.5 gallons being mashed at 2.0qt/lb of grain. When I did all grain I didn't add any more water for the pumpkin, I just threw it in. Now I'll have to add more. How thick should the mash be for partial mashing?

 

[Option]

Getting ready to transfer this to secondary so I went to LHBS today to get some gelatin because this thing is CRAZZZY cloudy but all they had was Kieselsol? I picked some up but not sure if it will help? Anyone have any insight? Never used a fining agent before...

 

[Reno_eNVy]

How come you lower the specialty grain amount when doing a mini mash? Do you always want to do that when you do a mini mash compaired to a full mash? I haven't brewed a long time so just asking for my own knowledge.
Also, if doing a extract version of this... would you steep the pumpkin in it the water for 30 min or so or just boil the pumpkin? Would you get more haze in the beer by boiling the pumpkin? Sorry if I missed this in directions somewhere

The partial mash recipe is what I was able to get through BeerSmith. That's just the amount it says to use to get the same color and gravity. If somebody has experience brewing the partial mash exactly then your insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thinking about doing this one. Thanks for taking the time to give a partial mash recipe!

Anyway, I had a question about the pumpkin. You said we can keep the same amount of pumpkin. Do we have to add extra water to account for the weight of the pumpkin? I would guess you'd have to, considering there will only be a little over 1.5 gallons being mashed at 2.0qt/lb of grain. When I did all grain I didn't add any more water for the pumpkin, I just threw it in. Now I'll have to add more. How thick should the mash be for partial mashing?

It would probably be a good thing to add more water. My typical volume for other 5 gallon batches is roughly 4-4.5 gallons. Therefore for this one I made it 6 gallons of strike water to account for pumpkin absorption and yesterday 6 gallons strike and 3.5 gallons batch sparge got me a perfect 5 gallons (~5.5 if you include the junk I left behind after whirlpooling.)

As far as mash thickness, there were some experiments done by Kai, an oldie on here. You can actually go up to 2.5 qt/lb without diminishing effects. Whenever I make session beers I often end up getting close to 2.5 qt/lb in order to limit headspace in my MLT.

Getting ready to transfer this to secondary so I went to LHBS today to get some gelatin because this thing is CRAZZZY cloudy but all they had was Kieselsol? I picked some up but not sure if it will help? Anyone have any insight? Never used a fining agent before...

Hmm never used kieselsol for brewing... I know it's used in wine making, though. Why don't you just go to the grocery store and pick up Knox gelatin for crazy cheap?

 

[kzimmer0817]

I posted a link above to my brew-thread for this Punkin Ale. This evening I transferred from the no-chill container into the sanitized Better Bottle, pitched 2pks of Safale US-05, and put it in my fermentation freezer.

You can see all the material in the carboy. I wanted 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. The last 1/2 gal was a runny puree that smelled great. I decided to transfer much of it with the thought that it would enhance the flavor. I was afraid that if I was too careful to leave as much trub behing as possible, I would lose much of the flavor I was seeking. It'll be gotten rid of when I transfer to secondary.

Looking forward to it.
Keith

 

[bobbrewedit]

Beautiful...cooked the pumpkin puree to start my day.



Loving my mill.



Mash went fine...added 3/4 pound of rice hulls.



Missed the OG number though...came in at 1.060, which was a little lower than I wanted. Thanks a ton for the recipe Reno!

 

[Matteo57]

Did this last night. I milled the grains with my new mill, got about 80% eff. which is a bit higher than i wanted. Oh well. Also, I did what I saw a couple others do which was to throw the pumpkin in with the water as I boiled my strike and sparge water. We'll see how it comes out.
It smells great! Looking forward to trying this soon!! Thanks again for the recipe Reno!

 

[hunterlab]

Brewing this today have the puree cooking right now and getting ready to mill the grains. Looking forward to this brew.

 

[kzimmer0817]

I'm assuming that having a mess in the blow-off tube and jug is OK. As I said a few postings above, I brewed this Sunday afternoon (today is Thursday). Monday evening I transferred 5.5 gal into the 6 gal Better Bottle and pitched 2 pks of Safale US-05. I set the Ranco controller to 60. I don't have a heater, but the freezer takes it down to 58 after shutting off, but it's spending most of the time at 61.

In anticipation of heavy krausen, I used a blow-off tube instead of the 3-pc airlock.

Had some bubbling Tuesday morning and considerable bubbling last night. This morning, there's a decent amount of creamy stuff in the blow-off tube and the water bottle water has a bunch of nice-smelling sludge in it. There was a couple tablespoons of sludge on the floor of the freezer.

The blow-off "system" is intact - nothing disconnected. I replaced the little water bottle with a 1/2 gal milk jug of water.

So I'm thinking that everything is OK. I guess I need to make sure that the krausen that collects in the tube doesn't harden and block the tube. I will check later today since I'm off work today. I might need to spray starsan around the stopper and neck of the Better Bottle, remove the stopper/tube as I cover the bottle with sanitized aluminum foil, clean out the tubing, resanitize, and replace.

Any suggestions?
Keith

 

[tre9er]

I'm assuming that having a mess in the blow-off tube and jug is OK. As I said a few postings above, I brewed this Sunday afternoon (today is Thursday). Monday evening I transferred 5.5 gal into the 6 gal Better Bottle and pitched 2 pks of Safale US-05. I set the Ranco controller to 60. I don't have a heater, but the freezer takes it down to 58 after shutting off, but it's spending most of the time at 61.

In anticipation of heavy krausen, I used a blow-off tube instead of the 3-pc airlock.

Had some bubbling Tuesday morning and considerable bubbling last night. This morning, there's a decent amount of creamy stuff in the blow-off tube and the water bottle water has a bunch of nice-smelling sludge in it. There was a couple tablespoons of sludge on the floor of the freezer.

The blow-off "system" is intact - nothing disconnected. I replaced the little water bottle with a 1/2 gal milk jug of water.

So I'm thinking that everything is OK. I guess I need to make sure that the krausen that collects in the tube doesn't harden and block the tube. I will check later today since I'm off work today. I might need to spray starsan around the stopper and neck of the Better Bottle, remove the stopper/tube as I cover the bottle with sanitized aluminum foil, clean out the tubing, resanitize, and replace.

Any suggestions?
Keith

I think you have a great plan there. Key is making sure there are no restrictions and that the beer isn't exposed to the air while you replace/clean any tubes/stoppers.

 

[kzimmer0817]

I think you have a great plan there. Key is making sure there are no restrictions and that the beer isn't exposed to the air while you replace/clean any tubes/stoppers.

Thanks. I had a cupped square of aluminum foil that I had used to cover the opening while I was getting the blow-off assembly ready the other day. I soaked it in Starsan, the sprayed starsan all around the stopper, neck of bottle, and top surface of opening. I carefully removed the stopper and placed the foil cup over the opening. I blew the tubing out, ran starsan thru it as well as all over the stopper, then carefully replaced the stopper.

The glass thermometer in the freezer says 62, the adhesive thermometer strip on the side of the Better Bottle says 64. The freezer overshoots to around 58 when it cools down, but the Ranco shows 60 most of the time. So I'm probably at the correct temp for the US-05.

We had a small ceramic heater (with fan) in the other freezer, but the fan no longer works. When I do the next beer, I will find a small fan to come on when the freezer kicks in with the hopes that it will lessen the amount of overshoot - although, the overshoot doesn't appear to be adversely affecting the temp of the fermenting beer.

Perhaps it was Reno eNVy who said that he starts low, then gradually raises the temp to 68 as fermentation slows down.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[fifthcircle]

This was my brew day almost two weeks ago. :-D

 

[tre9er]

The glass thermometer in the freezer says 62, the adhesive thermometer strip on the side of the Better Bottle says 64. The freezer overshoots to around 58 when it cools down, but the Ranco shows 60 most of the time. So I'm probably at the correct temp for the US-05.

We had a small ceramic heater (with fan) in the other freezer, but the fan no longer works. When I do the next beer, I will find a small fan to come on when the freezer kicks in with the hopes that it will lessen the amount of overshoot - although, the overshoot doesn't appear to be adversely affecting the temp of the fermenting beer.

Perhaps it was Reno eNVy who said that he starts low, then gradually raises the temp to 68 as fermentation slows down.

Thanks,
Keith

What I do now is secure my probe to the side of my fermenter with insulating material (styrofoam in my case) over it. This reads more of the beer temp than ambient air temp, since the beer temp will rise during fermentation. It's still *somewhat* exposed to the air though so there is enough lag that it doesn't take the temp wayyy down to try and counter the beer temp. It has worked great for me.

 

[troyh]

I might be biased since I know the brewer, but I've been sampling this every day for a few days and I think it's the best pumpkin beer I've ever had, except for possibly Pumking, and I am a fan of pumpkin beers.

It's got a definite pumpkin flavor, just short of sweet like a pumpkin pie, and the spices are clearly there but not overpowering. It has a crisp bite yet is smooth. I keep wanting another but I'm restraining myself... I don't know how this is going to last until Halloween.

 

[tre9er]

I might be biased since I know the brewer, but I've been sampling this every day for a few days and I think it's the best pumpkin beer I've ever had, except for possibly Pumking, and I am a fan of pumpkin beers.

It's got a definite pumpkin flavor, just short of sweet like a pumpkin pie, and the spices are clearly there but not overpowering. It has a crisp bite yet is smooth. I keep wanting another but I'm restraining myself... I don't know how this is going to last until Halloween.

Brew it later next year

 

[tom_gamer]

My buddy and I just made our own version of the smoked pumpkin seed Saison from BYO. I smoked the pumpkin for 4 hours, roasted the seeds with nutmeg and cinnamon and mashed it all together with the grains. We also added two pounds of dark brown sugar, half in the beginning and the rest at flame out. The Wort tasted amazing! Can't wait to taste this when it is finished. Over the weekend I will see what the beer finished at and see if I need to add any more spices. OG was 1.074

 

[brewguyver]

I'm now the proud owner of a Punkin' sour. Plate chiller was a nightmare on this one, so I'm not surprised by the contamination ... but I was surprised the pellicule didn't show up till secondary. Wonderful thin spiderweb ... Pretty sure it's Brett.

We're in the process of waiting it out - will let you know how it goes.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Cheers! Fantastic beer

 

[troyh]

I'm now the proud owner of a Punkin' sour. Plate chiller was a nightmare on this one, so I'm not surprised by the contamination ... but I was surprised the pellicule didn't show up till secondary. Wonderful thin spiderweb ... Pretty sure it's Brett.

We're in the process of waiting it out - will let you know how it goes.

Can you post a photo just for us learners?