Southern Tier Pumking Clone??

[Grinnan5150]

I mashed four pounds of pie pumpkins. The beer turned out awesome but I forgot to include additional mash water for the pumpkin....only included the water for the grain. I wound up with only four gallons of beer.....but it was the best four gallons of pumpkin beer I have had. I may be biased though.

 

[runningweird]

Wife just tasted it and she said it was really quite good and regrets not having whipped cream vodka on hand...me too.

I put my pumpkin in the boil since I forgot to put it in the mash.

 

[baseballstar4]

I'm looking at brewing this beer with one of the above recipes. My question is bottle ageing this beer. Has anyone aged this beer? And, if so, how long and what were your results like?

 

[Grinnan5150]

I tried to age it but it tasted so good that it only lasted about a month

 

[bbbblaine]

Ok gang, I've been holding off on posting this until I transferred into secondary to see how it tasted. Thursday night, I put a sample of Pumking side by side with my beer for a taste test. My three taste testers couldn't tell the difference.

OG: 1.080
FG (when added to secondary): 1.018
Approx: 8.3 % abv

I have to credit "Cannondale" for the original recipe that I copied. Here are the ingredients:

Fermentables:
14 lbs 2-Row American Pale Malt
1 lb Victory
12 oz Crystal 80L
2 lbs pumpkin (small Cinderella pumpkin, skinned, cubed and baked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, mashed (little water added) and coated with honey, then cooked another 45 minutes at 350 - then cooled to 154 degrees to be added to mash)

3/4 lb Demerara Sugar (added to boil after hot break)
1/4 lb Light Brown Sugar (added to boil after hot break)

Hops:
3/4 oz Magnum Hops @ 60 min
1/4 oz Sterling @ 15 min

Additives:
8 oz Lactose @ 15 min
1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min
1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 10 min
2 tbsp fine chopped candied ginger @ 5 min
3 Ceylon cinnamon sticks (real cinnamon sticks ordered online)
1/2 tsp whole cloves @ 5 min
1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 5 min
1/2 tsp Allspice @ 5 min

Added to Secondary:
2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (2 fresh beans split down middle, scraped and soaked in 4 oz vodka for 2 weeks - Vodka added to secondary)
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp. Capella water soluble Graham Cracker Extract (purchased online and added to secondary)

Yeast:
2 packs Safeale US-05

Mashed at 154 degrees for 90 minutes (no sparge using 10 gallon Home Depot water cooler)

Boiled for 60 minutes.

Fermented at 66 degrees for 2 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in secondary.

Granted, the beer is still in secondary, and may taste a little different when it comes out, is conditioned and bottled, but if everything stays remotely the same . . . I'd call it an exact clone.

I've read the posts about replicating the "graham cracker" taste of Pumking. In my opinion, the secret is the Capella Graham Cracker Extract. Before it was added, the beer was very good, but missing something. After the addition, it was SPOT ON!!!

In fact, to make sure I have an adequate supply, I am planning on brewing a second batch to last through the holidays.

Thanks to Cannondale and all the other members of Homebrewtalk.com. This was my first attempt at home brewing and it turned out exceptional!! Couldn’t have done it without the advice of everyone on this forum.

Cheers!!!!!!

Just need some clarification - is this a recipe for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[stblindtiger]

I'm looking at brewing this beer with one of the above recipes. My question is bottle ageing this beer. Has anyone aged this beer? And, if so, how long and what were your results like?

I filled about 7 southern tier Pumking bottles of this back before Thanksgiving, but I only have three left. The kegged version is long gone, but I am going to hold onto the last three for as long as I can. I'll update when I open them. I'd imagine some of the spice flavor will drop out over time. I loved every pull from the keg and every bottle I've had of this though. It will be hard to hold on for long. I was planning on having at least one last bottle to compare it to next year's version though.

 

[aknox]

Hello all. This is my first post here and this was also my first brew. I decided to dive right in. I had a friend at a LHBS convert this recipe to an extract recipe. I brewed on December 30th (5 gallons), and kept it in the primary for an extra week (3 weeks primary, 3 weeks secondary). Saturday was bottling day and I took a sample. It was not quite the "Pumpking" I was hoping for, but this will not be the last time I try this. Has anyone else attempted to convert this to an extract?

9 lbs DME was used in place of the 14 lbs of 2-row American Pale. Everything else was the same from Cannondale's recipe.

 

[Tomcat0304]

Hey guys! Great work on deciphering this recipe, it looks like gwdlaw's recipe will be excellent! I'm pretty new to homebrewing (only have 3 extract brews under my belt), would gwdlaw's recipe be possible as a PM?

Cheers and many thanks!

 

[runningweird]

making 10 more gallons of this tomorrow morning with a friend. a shame I only get to keep 5 gallons of it.

 

[one8tvw]

making 10 more gallons of this tomorrow morning with a friend. a shame I only get to keep 5 gallons of it.

where are you still scoring some pumpkin?

 

[runningweird]

i've always used canned - except for the first time i made it - and I never notice a difference.

 

[one8tvw]

Libby's 32oz cans?

 

[runningweird]

yeah - I think they were libbys - but I think they are somewhere under 2 pounds

 

[TejonMiel]

I'm wondering how they get that signature sweet taste they have in almost all their brews? Could this be from a specific yeast strain or type of malt?

How have your recipes tasted in comparison with ST brews? Would it be possible to use a specific malt, use a heavy grain bill then either stunt the yeast or use a strain that can't finish the job?

I'm a baker by trade, and we use a lot of vanilla bean. Scraping the seeds from the inside is where the most concentrated vanilla flavor is, but you can also take the shell and let them sit in sugar, making a vanilla sugar. This could theoretically be done to the brown sugar in advance, or with table/corn/cane sugar and then converted into a belgian candy sugar (though maybe not the brown sugar, I don't know how molasses would hold up under the heat and time.)

Edit: Now that I think about it, Vanilla and brown sugar are what I feel like I am tasting in pumking and most other tier beers. What do you guys think?

 

[tippetsnapper]

I think ST uses maltodextrine in a lot of their sweet beers, aka pumking, creme brulee stout, etc. I guess it can be a pretty tough balancing act when using it, but they seem to have it down.

 

[Chug]

Ok, so some people here are saying that the canned pumpkin will absorb water, and some people say otherwise. This will only be my 3rd homebrew, and second all grain attempt. I have all the ingredients, and am very excited to start. Would somebody please point me in the right direction as to how much water I need to start with to end up with 5.5 gallons after the boil?

And do I use one or two cans of the libby's? One can is just under 2 pounds, which is what the recipe calls for.

How much rice hulls to add?

Also, would doing a fly sparge effect the outcome drastically over the no sparge method proposed?

 

[RainyDay]

Ok, so some people here are saying that the canned pumpkin will absorb water, and some people say otherwise. This will only be my 3rd homebrew, and second all grain attempt. I have all the ingredients, and am very excited to start. Would somebody please point me in the right direction as to how much water I need to start with to end up with 5.5 gallons after the boil?

And do I use one or two cans of the libby's? One can is just under 2 pounds, which is what the recipe calls for.

How much rice hulls to add?

Also, would doing a fly sparge effect the outcome drastically over the no sparge method proposed?

For mashing, I typically do a 1.75 to 2 qt/lb ratio. So if there's 10 lbs of grain (for ease of numbers), i'll use 20 quarts of water for my mash (or 5 gallons). On MY system, I lose 1 pint per pound of grain due to absorbtion/dead areas in my tun. I then do the math for the sparge (I batch sparge). So if I end up losing 10 pints of water (1.25 gallons), i'll do the math to bring my total pre-boil volume to 7 gallons which would be a 2.25-2.5 gallon sparge (again, my system/evaporation/etc).

Having never brewed with pumpkin (I plan to do a similar recipe this year), I'm counting the pumpkin towards grain weight. Should I end up with more wort than expected on the initial runoff (which isn't too likely), i'll use less sparge water. I'm no scientist with this stuff, but I do get consitent results doing it this way.

For the rice hulls, i'd plan on using a pound.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Well, I took first place in one of the AHA NHC First Round Regionals with this beer - scored a 41. Unfortunately, it didn't place in the final round..don't have scoresheets for that yet. I think it's a love it or hate it beer.

I followed gwdlaw's recipe pretty close, but subbed some hops and used Libby's pumpkin instead of a real one.

 

[MrNic]

I'm planning on brewing gwdlaw's recipe in about a month. Hopefully that gives me enough time to have it ready by Halloween.

 

[MrNic]

What would be the best substitute for the candied ginger? Fresh or powdered? I'm leaning toward fresh.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

I got all the ingredients and planned to brew this up today, but had a last minute change of mind. Didn't really want to get invested in a long brew day today, so am doing a pale ale instead. i will brew this either tomorrow or Friday.

 

[Chug]

Just for a little follow up, I did in fact brew this 8 days ago. I ended up using 2 large cans of the libby's, and accounted half of the weight towards the grain bill which resulted in perfect results (6 gallons pre boil). Also added 1.5 pounds of rice hulls, which seemed to be more than enough. Did a fly sparge and nailed the 1.080 OG!! And holy violent fermentation!! A blow off tube was definitely needed.

Edit: Also, I should mention that I went with the recipe that gwdlaw posted on page 20.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Got mine mashing now. Used 1.5 cans of Libbys pumpkin (~2.75 lbs).

 

[aknox]

I just got back from Wegman's. I will be brewing 15 gallons of this on Saturday and will update.

 

[aknox]

Me and my buddy just brewed up two batches of Cannondale's recipe. One batch was ten gallons and the other five. We followed everything and got a gravity reading of 1.095 for the ten gallon, and 1.091 for the five gallon.

 

[hopbrad]

im wondering if anyone has found or used other graham cracker extracts, ive seen a few for sale online, but the capella one is pretty pricey with shipping.

Ok gang, I've been holding off on posting this until I transferred into secondary to see how it tasted. Thursday night, I put a sample of Pumking side by side with my beer for a taste test. My three taste testers couldn't tell the difference.

OG: 1.080
FG (when added to secondary): 1.018
Approx: 8.3 % abv

I have to credit "Cannondale" for the original recipe that I copied. Here are the ingredients:

Fermentables:
14 lbs 2-Row American Pale Malt
1 lb Victory
12 oz Crystal 80L
2 lbs pumpkin (small Cinderella pumpkin, skinned, cubed and baked for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, mashed (little water added) and coated with honey, then cooked another 45 minutes at 350 - then cooled to 154 degrees to be added to mash)

3/4 lb Demerara Sugar (added to boil after hot break)
1/4 lb Light Brown Sugar (added to boil after hot break)

Hops:
3/4 oz Magnum Hops @ 60 min
1/4 oz Sterling @ 15 min

Additives:
8 oz Lactose @ 15 min
1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min
1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 10 min
2 tbsp fine chopped candied ginger @ 5 min
3 Ceylon cinnamon sticks (real cinnamon sticks ordered online)
1/2 tsp whole cloves @ 5 min
1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 5 min
1/2 tsp Allspice @ 5 min

Added to Secondary:
2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (2 fresh beans split down middle, scraped and soaked in 4 oz vodka for 2 weeks - Vodka added to secondary)
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp. Capella water soluble Graham Cracker Extract (purchased online and added to secondary)

Yeast:
2 packs Safeale US-05

Mashed at 154 degrees for 90 minutes (no sparge using 10 gallon Home Depot water cooler)

Boiled for 60 minutes.

Fermented at 66 degrees for 2 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in secondary.

Granted, the beer is still in secondary, and may taste a little different when it comes out, is conditioned and bottled, but if everything stays remotely the same . . . I'd call it an exact clone.

I've read the posts about replicating the "graham cracker" taste of Pumking. In my opinion, the secret is the Capella Graham Cracker Extract. Before it was added, the beer was very good, but missing something. After the addition, it was SPOT ON!!!

In fact, to make sure I have an adequate supply, I am planning on brewing a second batch to last through the holidays.

Thanks to Cannondale and all the other members of Homebrewtalk.com. This was my first attempt at home brewing and it turned out exceptional!! Couldn’t have done it without the advice of everyone on this forum.

Cheers!!!!!!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

They have a special going, 5 for $20. Ends up under $5 a bottle. I got 2 graham crackers, Double Chocolate, Espresso (gonna take a stab at Choklat/Java/Mokah) and peanut butter.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Very cool clone. I am a huge fan Southern Tier( Any other good southern tier clones out there?). I will be brewing this a little closer to Halloween I think.

 

[sivdrinks]

Doing this today. For alterations I'm using all light brown sugar, a mix of 8oz C60 and 4oz C120, 4oz acid malt and probably going with 1/2oz of Nugget at 60 as my only hop addition. I'm a BIAB guy so we'll see how much Pumkin I'm able to retain when I yank out the bag.

 

[capella]

We just launched a new offer today, its $2.00 Priority Shipping in the USA.
This will help offset the $6.95 shipping cost.

Enjoy!
-tom