Autumn Seasonal Beer Samhain Pumpkin Ale

[KingBrianI]

This recipe looks awesome!!! How much water did you include in the Mash? Also, what quantity of water did you use to Sparge?

I usually mash at about 1.25 to 1.3 qts/lb. As for sparge volume, that will differ for each person. Just sparge with however much you need to hit your preboil volume. Or if you're like me and boil off at a high rate, I'll sparge with part of the difference and add the rest straight to the boil pot to hit my volume. That way I'm not over-sparging.

 

[moconno1]

Thanks for the info. I should have framed my question a little differently; I was curious as to whether or not the Pumpkin you added to the mash changed your water to grain ratio's, and therefore how much total water you added. I'll plan to sparge as usual when I try a variation on this recipe. Cheers for Beers...

 

[purplehaze]

I made this on 5-24-11 with S05 yeast and it smells great. I did two things different and I hope I didn't ruin it.

-My LHBS didn't have any torrified wheat. I ended up using a granulated, enriched, cooked wheat by Goya that I got at the market.

-I added about a little over a pound of flaked corn I had laying around.

My OG was 1.061

thanks for posting the recipe

 

[jwk526]

Making this tonight. I just realized my lhbs gave me US 2 row, not UK. I think I have a little victory or munich left over, I think I might add a little of that to get it a little more malty. Think that's a bad idea?

 

[KingBrianI]

Making this tonight. I just realized my lhbs gave me US 2 row, not UK. I think I have a little victory or munich left over, I think I might add a little of that to get it a little more malty. Think that's a bad idea?

If you toasted more than one pound of malt I would just use a little extra of that. If not then you can use a little munich but I would not use victory. Or just leave it as is and it should still be great.

 

[jwk526]

If you toasted more than one pound of malt I would just use a little extra of that. If not then you can use a little munich but I would not use victory. Or just leave it as is and it should still be great.

Cool, thanks. I have extra MO, so I'll toast a little more. Thanks again.

 

[SDCore]

Definitely making this soon, what temp did you ferment at tho.. Can't seem to find one.

 

[jwk526]

65 is usually a good temp

 

[KingBrianI]

Definitely making this soon, what temp did you ferment at tho.. Can't seem to find one.

65 is usually a good temp

yep, lower- to mid-60s works well for Denny's yeast. Good luck with it!

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Just backread the whole thread - looks like a great beer and I'll def. be brewing soon to serve at our annual Oktoberfest party (along with a true Oktoberfest lager)...

Only question is: How did you calculate the temperature (not volume) of the mash strike water? I usually let Beersmith calculate it for me however with all of that room temp. pumpkin it is sure to throw the number off.

 

[jwk526]

Just backread the whole thread - looks like a great beer and I'll def. be brewing soon to serve at our annual Oktoberfest party (along with a true Oktoberfest lager)...

Only question is: How did you calculate the temperature (not volume) of the mash strike water? I usually let Beersmith calculate it for me however with all of that room temp. pumpkin it is sure to throw the number off.

I figure since the pumpkin has both liquid and solids in it, and probably in a pretty similar ratio to the mash, it can be essentially ignored. I don't have any problems when doing it this way.

Post #55. Good luck!

 

[KingBrianI]

I also bake the pumpkin and add it to the mash when it's still warm. If you let it get to mash temp before adding it you could hit right on but even if it is a little off it won't affect the mash temp too much.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Post #55. Good luck!

Again, I'm asking about temperature (not volume). That post is in regards to volume.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

I also bake the pumpkin and add it to the mash when it's still warm. If you let it get to mash temp before adding it you could hit right on but even if it is a little off it won't affect the mash temp too much.

Thanks, that's sorta what I was thinking. I'll bake the pumpkin just prior to doughing in, and let it cool to roughly the mash temperature and then add it. Really looking forward to brewing this recipe soon.

 

[AR-Josh]

I'm tagging this as I plan to use the molasses idea as well as the ratio of spices in an extract pumpkin beer this fall.

 

[Zamial]

This Saturday I will be brewing up my version of this beer. I will be doing an AG X2, 12 gallon batch for a total of 24 gallons! There will also be a BBQ as I have invited friends, family and home brew club members over to be apart of the brew day!

 

[Artemisag]

After a long search of pumpkin Ale recipes, I am brewing this one next weekend. I only have one problem..... I have a nice healthy WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast in my fermenter and I think I am going to lager this bad boy. Anyone attempted this?

 

[SDCore]

Ok. so I just bought all the ingredients for this now I need some advice, I am doing this as a first BIAB will it even work as BIAB, I know this isn't the easiest recipe for my first All-Grain but I am way to excited about this beer not to do it. Any advice would be great. I know how to do BIAB but I'm concerned about the rice hulls being necessary and the fact I was planning not on sparging if that would be an issue.

 

[KingBrianI]

BIAB shouldn't be a problem. Just add the rice hulls to the bag and you should be fine. If you don't sparge you'll get a lower efficiency so you might want to up the grain bill to counteract that. I don't know what typical BIAB no-sparge efficiency is though but I'm sure someone else can help.

 

[SDCore]

Yeah, my thought was to cut it down to a 5 gallon batch but keep the grain bill the same, but then my question would be if the pumpkin and the hops should be cut down but I don't think its drastic enough of a change for it to matter much, esp using magnum hops.

*EDIT* Does the pumpkin count as a part of my grain bill was my other question. In other words with BIAB do I need to account for the pumpkin when figuring out my strike water?

 

[KingBrianI]

Yeah, my thought was to cut it down to a 5 gallon batch but keep the grain bill the same, but then my question would be if the pumpkin and the hops should be cut down but I don't think its drastic enough of a change for it to matter much, esp using magnum hops.

*EDIT* Does the pumpkin count as a part of my grain bill was my other question. In other words with BIAB do I need to account for the pumpkin when figuring out my strike water?

I've said it a few times in the thread now so I should probably just put it on the first post if it will still let me edit it. Since the pumpkin has a solid/liquid ratio similar to a mash don't worry about it volume-wise. As for temp, since you are baking the pumpkin before mashing, just let it cool to somewhere around mash temp then mash in. Basically, just make it easy on yourself.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

After a long search of pumpkin Ale recipes, I am brewing this one next weekend. I only have one problem..... I have a nice healthy WLP833 German Bock Lager Yeast in my fermenter and I think I am going to lager this bad boy. Anyone attempted this?

IMO this style is more appropriate for ale yeast. The fruity esters from a nice ale yeast are very fitting. Also I think the extended cold storage during the lagering phase would allow most of the spice and pumpkin particles to completely settle out leaving a beer with a lot less flavor that it's ale counterpart.

 

[Rolly]

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

 

[onipar]

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

Believe it or not, if you have a health food store around that sells bulk, whole spices, it's actually cheaper to go that route rather than the pumpkin pie spice.

 

[300RUM]

Would it be possible to just use the pre-made McCormick pumpkin pie spice? It seems like it would be easier & probably less expensive. Do you know the quantity you would use?

I used 2 tsp Pumkin pie spice last year, this year I used the actual recipe.

 

[firefly765]

I've brewed this before & it came out great....I need to do a couple subs & wonder if I can get some input.....mostly on hops. Willamette is the closest i can tell that i have on hand, but I'd like some advice...I'd like to use what i have instead of buying new stuff.

I have:
Cascade
EKG
Hallertaur
Liberty
Palisade
Saaz
Sterling
Vangard
Willamette


Scaled to 10 gal batch
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 2 4.7 %
15 lbs 2 row Malt (Rahr) (1.9 SRM) Grain 4 69.8
2 lbs Wheat, Torrified (1.5 SRM) Grain 6 9.3 %
0.50 tsp Cloves, Ground (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 14 -
0.50 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 15 -
1.00 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 13 -
1.00 tsp Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 mins) Herb 11 -
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
2.00 tsp Cinnamin extract (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 12 -
116.00 oz Pumpkin puree (Mash 60.0 mins) Flavor 3
8.0 oz Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 8 2.3
1.0 pkg Safale S-05 [50.00 ml] Yeast 16 -
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 9.
1 lbs Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 7 4.7 %
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 19.9 IBUs

Thanks for any advice.

 

[NCBeernut]

I've brewed this before & it came out great....I need to do a couple subs & wonder if I can get some input.....mostly on hops. Willamette is the closest i can tell that i have on hand, but I'd like some advice...I'd like to use what i have instead of buying new stuff.

I have:
Cascade
EKG
Hallertaur
Liberty
Palisade
Saaz
Sterling
Vangard
Willamette

Magnum is a very clean bittering hop that can be used in small amounts due to its high AA, so that is what you are going for here. Your spices are going to dominate, so it probably isn't going to make a noticeable difference. Eliminate the low AA noble hops and go with something like Vangard - the AA is on the higher end of what you have on hand and it is a pretty mild hop. Being as cheap as it is, I wouldn't hesitate to use Willamette if you have some you want to get rid of.

 

[deggenbe]

I really love the color of this beer. I think the pumpkin added a deep orange color that gives the beer a really deep, rich copper hue. I tried to get it to come through in the picture but condensation on the glass and light angles were working against me. The pumpkin flavor is really coming out now too.

My God, that's an awesome pic, so much so, that i'm gonna brew this and go buy some of those glasses!! lol

 

[firefly765]

Magnum is a very clean bittering hop that can be used in small amounts due to its high AA, so that is what you are going for here. Your spices are going to dominate, so it probably isn't going to make a noticeable difference. Eliminate the low AA noble hops and go with something like Vangard - the AA is on the higher end of what you have on hand and it is a pretty mild hop. Being as cheap as it is, I wouldn't hesitate to use Willamette if you have some you want to get rid of.

OK, thanks. Is the crystal 40 a good sub for the British Caramalt?

 

[milldoggy]

I was going to use crystal 40 instead of caramalt, but decieded last minute to use carared instead. Brewing it tomorrow am, we'll see what happens.