Autumn Seasonal Beer Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions)

[Yuri_Rage]

Carbonation is all personal preference. If you desire more bubbles, go for it!

 

[Spyd3r]

My bubble preference is not a concern, rather the best way to achieve 1.8 with my newly aquired draft system.

This will be my first kegged brew, and I'm trying to figure out the line balancing equations.

 

[Pangea]

I've read this entire thread (thank Yuri for posting a good recipe) and cannot find anyone who's tried to boil the pumpkin separately, strain separately, and add the extracted pumpkin juice to the wort during the boil. In Extreme Brewing, there's a pumpkin porter recipe and that's how the explain to apply pumpkin - boil separate and add the recovered juice to the wort.

Anyone think this is a bad idea? I was thinking about boiling the pumpkin in a pot on the stove, with the pumkin in a grain bag - that way I can just squeeze and remove the entire bag of pumpkin yielding the juice that can be added to the wort in the kettle. I dont think I could be the only person who's considering this route. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I'm actually omitting the pumpkin all together... the real flavor is going to come from the spices... The pumpkin juice is really not going to provide all that much flavor and or color...

If I want to add more body I'll adjust my grain bill accordingly...

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Yuri, sorry to keep pestering... you said that you used ground ginger and cloves how much of the ginger if using ground instead of the root?

 

[Pangea]

I'm actually omitting the pumpkin all together... the real flavor is going to come from the spices... The pumpkin juice is really not going to provide all that much flavor and or color...

I would respectfully disagree with you. Have you ever had a dogfishead punkin ale? The taste of pumpkin is distict and apparent, in addition to the spices. The amount of flavor imparted by the pumpkin is purely a function of how its added and in what quantity relative to the rest of the brew.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Yuri himself said that he has tried a non-pumpkin version of his beer and he said color and taste were virtually the same... He did add that the pumpkin, he felt added some complexity and body...

I've never had DFH punkin ale... I will pick some up today.

 

[dracus]

Well, I made this recipe. Thanks Yuri. This was my first beer I've made that wasn't in a kit from the homebrew store. I made the extract version.

Everything went well, except I was virtually unable to strain the pumpkin so my OG was way to high. I assume this was from the pumpkin still being in the wort.

I had a small lag in the fermentation mostly due to my ignorance on making a starter. It did take off eventually with no effort on my part.

The hydro sample was YUMMY so I can only imagine how good it will be after fermentation and spices.

 

[Reelale]

I hope it transitions well. I had a teeny taste from the boil-it tasted like Thanksgiving! I pitched a 1 liter slurry from a previous brew and it took off like a rocket. It's almost done with primary after 5 days!

 

[k1200rsvt]

I just tapped my keg last night and this is an incredible beer and to add to the excitement it was the first beer I have ever kegged. I think another batch is going to get started this or next weekend.

I used 7.25# of fresh pumpkin and you can definitely taste the pumpkin in the beer. Much more so then any commercially made Pumpkin I have had.

 

[g13092]

Did any of you who tried the AG version make any temperature adjustments for the pumpkin in the mash? I'm afraid I will miss my temp due to the large, unaccounted for mass of pumpkin...

Starter is bubbling away right now, I plan to brew this later today and this little tidbit hit me while lying in bed this morning

Thanks,
Mark

 

[jajabee]

I poured the hotter-than-necessary water into the cooler, as usual, added ice until it was down around 170, then added the pumpkin, which was hot from the oven. It instantly liquified, so I had an orange soupy mixture in there. I waited a minute to make sure the temp was still around 170, then added the grain and rice hulls and stirred like mad till it was down to the mid-150's, just a few minutes.

 

[dracus]

I am happy to report. 7 days in the fermentor I tested the gravity and it was spot on at 1.015. Pre-spice tea it was awesome...Spice tea thrown in...Doesn't seem like the spice tea is all that much but I guess time will tell.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I made this guy on saturday morning: here are the results so far:
The two on the left are Thunderstruck and the conical and the smaller carboy are a Roxy Rolles Clone.
Oh look there's my dog being inquisitive...

You can see that Thunderstruck has a bit more activity going on in it than the Rolles clone:
Hey I know that grain bag shouldnt be on the floor but it was only there during the pics... So no worries there guys...

I originally tried for a 10 gallon batch but as I was checking my gravities I was coming up short so I made sure that I boiled a bit longer to hit my target so I ended up with about 8 gallons of Thunderstruck and about 8 gallons of the Roxy Rolles... I will say though that both tasted and smelled wonderful upon final samples...

 

[McBrewski]

How did you guys steep the spices to make the spice tea?

 

[dracus]

I wasn't sure how to do this either, so I just put the 1 1/2 tsp in the hot water mixed it up and then later threw the whole thing in carboy. I figured there was no easy way to "strain" the spices even a tea ball would have leaked the cinnamon out.

Not sure this is right, but since one recipe had you boiling the spice in the mix I figure there was no harm in having it in the fermenter. Now I do have bits of orange peel floating on top. I have no idea if it will eventually sink or what. Not used to "Seeing" inside the fermenter. I opted do make an investment in a glass carboy since I had to buy a new bucket anyway. Didn't want to secondary in the bottle bucket.

I did notice the spices did darken up the ale a bit. It was YUMMY pre-spiced so I can only imagine it later going to let it do its thing.

 

[dmbnpj]

The "tea" refers to boiling the spices in some water to sanitize. The boiling water extracts the spices flavors and you have a sanitized, spice flavored, solution you can safely add.

I asked that earlier in the thread and this was the answer I got...

 

[g13092]

To follow up, my attempt at Thunderstruck seemed to go well.

Regarding the temps, I added the pumpkin as it was still warm and it didn't bring down the water temp more than a few degrees. Note, that 'few' is not a precise number. I should have checked to see if it was still hot enough before adding grains, but it didn't click. DOH! It ended up 7 degrees low after adding grain. I had to add another 3 qts of water to bring things up to temp. I think the grain and tun were colder than I told Beersmith. I had left them out in the garage since Friday and it's been in the low 30s overnight, 50 during the day.

I did end up with a stuck sparge, but was able to break it up with the paddle. I think the pumpkin to grain ratio was too high, even with a pound of rice hulls. I used three 29 oz cans for a six gallon batch (72oz was the intended amount). Next time, just 2 cans for me, please.

Spices I just tossed into the boil 5 min before flame out, no magic. Smelled great!

 

[FuelshopMcgee]

I bought a spice grain bag and threw that in the boil the flavors all came out fine and I left all the mush in the bag.

 

[ThinBlueLine]

I bottled this today and even flat and warm it tasted AWESOME.... I can't wait to try this in a few weeks. Is 3 weeks to soon to be drinking this?

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

I bottled this today and even flat and warm it tasted AWESOME.... I can't wait to try this in a few weeks. Is 3 weeks to soon to be drinking this?

I racked my to two 3 gal kegs and forced one just to taste it and man it was good, lots of spice and definitely pumpkin flavor. But now I have the same problem keep drinking it now or try to hold off for another few weeks! I came to the conclusion that one pint a day cant hurt!

 

[JamesM]

I am bottling my pumpkin ale on Sunday, I took a little taste test tonight and it seems that I've made a Pumpkin IPA instead of the warm spicy ale I was looking for. Don't get me wrong, it's tasty... but what I wanted to ask was about the tea some of you have used to add a little more spice flavor before bottling. I guess I'm looking for 2.5 to 3 stars on the spice meter. I've mixed 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice with 2oz of rum for a 2.5 gallon batch. Does that sound like enough... too much... please weigh in!!

 

[dracus]

Not enough hops for an IPA. I tasted it pre-spiced and it was light and delicious. I only put 1 1/2 tsp and that much made a noticeable difference in the color. We'll see how it tastes. I'm going to have a hard time letting this sit undisturbed for 2 weeks.

 

[Spyd3r]

My two weeks is finally up...

This thing has been fermenting for a month...12 days in primary, 13 days in secondary. Should I cold crash prior to kegging? Is there any need too?

 

[JayInJersey]

I kegged mine the other day...and I may have an issue

While kegging I noticed it stunk something bad...but I tasted a sample and it tasted fine albeit warm and flat, but good.

Thoughts?

It's been in the fridge carbing for the week...going to give ti another try this weekend.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I think aroma perception can be a bit off when you are transfering to a keg... I wouldnt worry too much about if it tastes good.

I am wondering how long I should keep my beer on the primary yeast cake... I think that my fermentation completed about 2 nights ago... But I warmed it up today to make sure it cleans itself up...

I'm wondering if I should just secondary the beer for a while or keg it right now and just let it hang out...

 

[JamesM]

I kegged mine the other day...and I may have an issue

While kegging I noticed it stunk something bad...but I tasted a sample and it tasted fine albeit warm and flat, but good.

Thoughts?

It's been in the fridge carbing for the week...going to give ti another try this weekend.

Could be light struck. Did you ferment across from a window?

 

[JayInJersey]

Could be light struck. Did you ferment across from a window?

Nope never had direct sunlight.


But I poured a small glass (two fingers maybe) from the keg tonight and the smell was there...but the taste is definitely worth bearing through it.
I'd say it smells like bad pumpkin but it doesn't taste bad. i used canned and cooked it a good hour.

Also a bit odd...I tapped this keg and another at the same time (Cheesefood's cream ale) and this seems both not as cold and not as carbed. the latter I can understand from the different SG's...but does SG effect temp too?

 

[Scut_Monkey]

Going to be brewing this on Monday but I have a question. Do you account for the mass of the pumpkin when calculating the mash water volume. I assumed you included it but this makes it practically impossible to do a sparge after doing a mash out. If I calculate the volume based only on the grain bill I'm afraid it will be to thick of a mash.

 

[Spyd3r]

Kegged this badboy this morning...it tasted pretty sweet!

My FG never dropped below the 1.020 I got after primary. Secondary definitely helped clear it out, and let the yeasties clean up their mess...however, they never really took off after the leftover malted sugars. Perhaps, I should've just let the temp rise up to the high seventies in secondary, rather than keeping it at the 68-72F range.

Net yield was only about ~4gallons. Next time I brew this, I'll account for the excess trub and start with closer to 6gallons.

I can't wait to try this ish out!

12 day primary 68F
14 day secondary 68-72F
Crash cooled the night before kegging
7 day carb and keg condition 40F

 

[BenS]

Has anyone ever just left this in a primary for 3 to 4 weeks instead of putting it in the secondary? I'm wondering if leaving it on the pumpkin trub for a bit longer would help or hurt the final taste and mouthfeel. Any thoughts?

 

[Indy418]

Just looking for an up/down vote from folks on two issues:

Spice tea or add spices at boil?

Different spice mix (ginger, nutmeg, cinna., etc) or just pumpkin pie spice? And how much?

 

[JamesM]

I used 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice boiled for the last 10 min of a 2.5 gal batch. It made a Very light but still noticeable spice flavor. I thnk I'm going to add a bit more tea before bottling.

 

[barracudamagoo]

When brewing the extract version of this receipe, has anyone filtered out the pumpkin first; or, do you let it sit in the primary, then transfer to the secondary?

 

[JamesM]

When brewing the extract version of this receipe, has anyone filtered out the pumpkin first; or, do you let it sit in the primary, then transfer to the secondary?

I strained it using one of those hops boiling bags, the pumpkin fiber clogged the bad pretty well, it tool a long time and a lot of squeezing to get all the fluid out, there were hops leaves and pellets in the bag too so i"m sure that didn't help at all. Even after that there was still a lot of sediment in the bottom of the primary, I haven;t opened up the secondary yet.

 

[barracudamagoo]

Excellent! I may skip the CFC to cool this down, and just put it in an ice/water bath outside (temps in the 40's-50's) in order to cool it down. I appreciate the advice.

 

[Sacdan]

When brewing the extract version of this receipe, has anyone filtered out the pumpkin first; or, do you let it sit in the primary, then transfer to the secondary?

I let it sit in the primary. When I racked to the secondary, it all stayed behind. It was unbelievably clear too. On a side note, we bottled this two days ago and it tatses fantastic. Can't wait to taste the finished product.

 

[Joe C]

Does anyone have a picture of the final product? I'd love to see some poured into a glass!

 

[dracus]

Mine was pretty clear in the primary after sitting for a week or so. I cooled mine with my immersion chiller. Even after throughly rinsing it. I found it sticky. I had to wash it twice. I can only imagine the inside of an CFC.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

uh oh I just realized something bad... I was so excited to brew this beer that when I made it I wrote down ounces instead of the correct measurement... I only had about half of what was required on hand and only put about half of that in... I tasted it the other day... Its very tastey but spicy as all hell... Certainly drinkable... however I screwed the pooch on the spices area.... oops.... It also stopped at 1.017 which I am fine with...

Hmmm... I's gots to get my eyes checked.... lol