Smoke maple pumpkin ale? Maybe?

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Poindexter

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Too much in one bottle? I am shooting for more of a cordial than an ale, maybe finished with Champagne yeast for a final ABV around 12-15%.

So whaddya think? Maybe a quarter of each maple syrup, pumpkin and smoked malt from each of those discreet recipes, with plenty of six row pale malt to better starch convert the pumpkin... and a very light touch with the hops.

Can this be done in balance or do I really need to stick to two adjuncts?
 
Just kind of thinking out loud here. I started thinking pumkin and thought maple syrup was a natural pairing, but then I needed a counter foil other than hops, so I thought of smoked malt...

I am expecting to serve this say 3-4-5 ounces at a time with desserts. So on the table with pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, mild cookies and coffee and some vodka in the freezer and water and so on.

I was going to not put any spices in. I could see this working with the mulling spices nutmeg-cinnamon-allspice OR peppermint, but not both.
 
Well, I brewed it in Los Angeles. Here is the short version for SoCal area tasters to consider, I am expecting this to be impetuous Xmas 07 and probaby underhopped Halloween 2008.

Grain bill:
6# Weyerman smoked malt
2# Weyerman Vienna malt
2# Muntons light DME
1 quart Trader Joes grade B maple syrup

7.02# pie pumpkin(s).

I got three softball sized pie pumpkins and one volleyball sized. I cut the three small ones in half longitudianlly, scooped out the seeds and arranged in roasting pan. Preheat oven to 350°. The big one peeled seeded and diced. In mixing bowl combine diced pumpkin, 2 teaspoons kosher salt and 1 cup maple syrup. Stir. Ladle into pumpkin halves. Roast in oven to starch bursting, 68 minutes for me on brew day. You can smell it when it happens to pumpkin, you can see it when it happens to Quaker oatmeal.

Allow pumpkin to cool, then scoop out of skins. I got about four cups of cooked pumpkin meat from the original seven pounds.

I struck the crushed grains at 110°F for two hour acid rest, then 30 minutes at 124°, 70 minutes at 151° I decocted the pumkin and added boiling water as needed here, then 30 minutes at 158°, mash out at 170° for ten minutes.

After sparge I had only 3.5 gallons, can hardly wait to upgrade my lautering equipment.

Hops was 0.5oz Chinook (6.3HBU) @60 minutes, repeat at 30 minutes, then 1oz Wilamette for 2 minute steep. I think my Wilamette hops were labeled 5.5%.

DME went in with about 15 minutes left in the boil, reaminder of the maple syrup went in with the steeping hops.

I gave Nottingham light yellow dried yeast a 90 minute head start, 45 minutes in warm water and 45 minutes in sugar water, pitched at 78dF.

OG was 1.068 temp corrected, primary ferment ran hard for a solid 48 hours at 74-78°F.

Plan is to rack off trub to glass soon, pitch Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), then top with water when it settles back down and dry hop with 1 ounce of Liberty 4.0% plug. Then wait, and wait and wait, bottle when clear, prime with DME and wait some more.

I used one gallon of steam distilled H2O, balance LA city tap; 2tsp salt with the roasting pumkin and 1 teaspoon gypsum.

If you have some credentials please post up, this is not expected to travel back east with me come springtime. I think it will be underhoppped once it is mature...
 
I'm curious as to how this comes out. Why are you going to rack off the trub so soon? I'd let Nottingham do it's thing, it's a great neutral yeast, should allow your other flavors to come through. I also wouldn't worry about underhopping, too much hopping in this beer would just get in the way in my opinion.

EDIT: I just noticed the difference in time from the posts. How long has it been in primary?
 
Professor Frink said:
EDIT: I just noticed the difference in time from the posts. How long has it been in primary?

I pitched it at 1334 on 10-21-07. I had evidence of bubbling in the airlock by 1800, it was running hard the next morning. It bubbled hard for 36 hours easy, this morning, 10-24-07 I was in a bit of a rush, tonight I counted one burst of five bubbles in 120 seconds. What I need to do is bottle the (5)pale ale in secondary now so my glass secondary is empty...

I have been happy with the fusels light yellow Nottingham gets me with temps in the high 70s. I haven't tried Wyeast 1056 before, but I want the FG as low as I can get it without cutting into the fusels.

Since I call Chapel Hill, NC's Northside neighborhood home I will bring a few bottles home in January, but I am keeping my expectations low, I don't expect any of my brews to travel well. OTOH this was the best tasting wort I ever pitched.

FWIW I have a plastic primary and a glass secondary for now. I really make an effort to get my wort down to a pitchable temp in a hurry and pitch a huge amount of yeast so I can get my brew out of primary and into secondary before the oxygen shows up to spoil the party. If I can get out of work on time tommorow I will bottle and rack, otherwise it will be Friday afternoon.

I agree about the underhopping. I looked at all the maple beer recipes I could find, all the pumpkin recipes I could find and all the rauchamlt recipes I could find. I averaged out all those hop rates and came in at about 35-40% of that average cause the rauchbier was kicking the average up. I think it will need a little more hops,but I won't know until next fall.

Thanks for stopping buy, I'll drop you a PM when I am headedback east.

EDIT: this AM I am wondering if Notti light yellow really does produce some fyusels running hot or if I am tasting something else...
 
I racked this at 2145 on 10-26-07. I was planning to dry hop in secondary with one ounce of aroma (4.0% Liberty), I ended up using just one plug, half an ounce for now.

After one week in primary I have it off the trub with an SG of 1.010, 2 Balling. My starting gravity was 1.074, 18 Balling so it is sitting right around 9 %abv.

**Note: abopve in post 3 the 1.068 was for the wort out of the mash (grain and pumpkin) before the maple syrup and DME. OG in the primary fermenter was 1.074. My bad.**


I thought dry light yellow Nottingham wouldn't go that high?

Right now the pumpkin and maple are in the nose, the alcohol warmth is on the tongue and the smoke is in the finish. This brew needs some time on the shelf.
 
Dude said:
Very interesting recipe. Do you like it so far?

I just bottled it this evening and I can't make up my mind. I know it needs to age some more.

I did the 1/2 ounce of 4.0% Liberty on the 26th, and then racked again on 10-29 off the hops. I still didn't like the flavor, I dropped in three average sized sticks of cinamon.

I racked off the cinamon into the bottling bucket tonight (11-02-07) and the flavor is still moving around. I filled three half gallon growlers (for cooking purposes)without priming sugar and then bottled 3 gallons with 2.5ozs priming sugar.

I'll try one of the primed bottles around Christmas just to see where it is, but I am not feeling it. The whoel batch might end up getting poured straight out.

I think my next pumpkin beer is going to be just plain old american 6 row and plain old roasted pumpkin, no spices, no maple syrup, no rauchmalt, a good handful of bittering hops, a good handful of flavor hops, a good handful of aroma and get it in the bottle. Once that is bottle conditioned I'll see about moving toward something more complex.

If you are So-Cal I am happy to put some in your cellar. EDIT: I see you are east coast, nevermind.


EDIT II: At bottling time there is no maple left in the nose and I can't find it anywhere else either. The pumkin is there, briefly on the the tongue, but it gets slammed by the alcohol and then the smoke pushes everything aside for along strong finish. Who knows where it will end up.

FWIW my next brew is going to be EdWorts Haus pale, I am sticking with proven recipes for a while.
 
I know this thread is 4 years old, but also people will be searching these forums for Pumpkin recipes around this time of the season. If I could offer some advice to anyone looking to make this, I would not use smoked malt as my base malt, but instead some Maris Otter or 2/6 row pale malt, and then add some Crystal malts and add some smoked malt if you wish. I just think all this smoked malt would take the flavor away from anything else you put in the beer...
 
snevey said:
I know this thread is 4 years old, but also people will be searching these forums for Pumpkin recipes around this time of the season. If I could offer some advice to anyone looking to make this, I would not use smoked malt as my base malt, but instead some Maris Otter or 2/6 row pale malt, and then add some Crystal malts and add some smoked malt if you wish. I just think all this smoked malt would take the flavor away from anything else you put in the beer...

I've hickory smoked a basketball sized pumpkin, well maybe 1.5 basketball size, and I've purred the insides. I'm trying to figure out what 5gal batch grain bill and yeast would go best with it. I was thinking Maris Otter as well maybe 8#, 2# caramunich and maybe some Vienna not sure...add 2.5-5 cups of the smoked pumpkin purée at 15 mins along with spices....as far as hop schedule how about US kent gold 1 oz. and .5 centennial @ 60 and finish with some more kent gold?

What yeast should I use? I want to make this a keg batch. since I'll be cidering already..meaning I'll need something to drink sooner haha.

Any other tips and tricks would be much appreciated.

My equipment is a 5 gal kettle, a 10 gal Rubbermaid mash tun, wort chiller...
 
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