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

[HalfPint]

Perhaps. I figured the reason for making the "tea" is to sanitize the spices. Hope you don't wind up culturing some untasty microbes!

Also, the hot water probably helps release more spice flavor. No?

I think the tea also helps since most of those spices are almost insoluble in water considering their fat content. With that said, you can persuade them to distributed throughout the water by stirring the heck out of the spice tea. I know as stated somewhere on here that using vodka instead of water is possibly a better route.

 

[natural]

I jut realized the pumpkin pie spice I bought has sulphites in it. Is that bad?


Also any recommendations for how much dextrose to prime with for 5 gallon extract version?

 

[BeantownR6]

mmmmmmmmm this is good stuff!!!!

i mashed with butternut squash and added a pumkin pie spice tea. other than that its the same recipe! this will be made every year!


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Anubis]

Bottled yesterday!

I made my own tea:
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Cloves

Boiled in 2 cups water. Add spice. Boil 5 min. Cool. Rack just liquid into carboy.

We'll see how it turns out in a few weeks!

 

[TheWeeb]

brewed a version of this last night (extract), an "Imperial" version in an attempt to get closer to the Avery Rumpkin. From the recipe I used an additional pound of DME, one pound of brown sugar, one pound of pure maple syrup, a full pound of biscuit malt and a half pound of wheat. I doubled the hops to balance it (used a late addition for more aromatics vs. bittering). The pumpkin was baked for an hour with a light layer of molasses and spice on top. I used the Trappist Ale yeast (WL500) in a 3-liter starter. The spice tea consists of 12 oz of black rum with two tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice; it is sitting on the side for the secondary. OG came in at 1.084 It took off right away and is going like crazy. I hope my simple sugars are not too much for the yeast. I was going to add them later, but read that as long as you keep them to 20% or less of total fermentables it should be okay.

Very interesting convection currents in the wort during cooling. .. .

 

[brewdude25]

Man I forgot how much beer is lost to the massive amount of trub/pumpkin. It's a shame to have to dump that!

 

[BigB]

Man I forgot how much beer is lost to the massive amount of trub/pumpkin. It's a shame to have to dump that!

Experiment... Use it to make a pumpkin bread.

 

[TheWeeb]

Experiment... Use it to make a pumpkin bread.

Wonder if the yeast would be enough, seems like the addition of flour and sugar and salt to make a dough might just work.

 

[deaton83]

Thanks Yuri, I am going to try BIAB with this recipe tomorrow.

 

[HalfPint]

brewed a version of this last night (extract), an "Imperial" version in an attempt to get closer to the Avery Rumpkin. From the recipe I used an additional pound of DME, one pound of brown sugar, one pound of pure maple syrup, a full pound of biscuit malt and a half pound of wheat. I doubled the hops to balance it (used a late addition for more aromatics vs. bittering). The pumpkin was baked for an hour with a light layer of molasses and spice on top. I used the Trappist Ale yeast (WL500) in a 3-liter starter. The spice tea consists of 12 oz of black rum with two tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice; it is sitting on the side for the secondary. OG came in at 1.084 It took off right away and is going like crazy. I hope my simple sugars are not too much for the yeast. I was going to add them later, but read that as long as you keep them to 20% or less of total fermentables it should be okay.

Very interesting convection currents in the wort during cooling. .. .

I'm interested to see how yours ends up. That's a lot of sugar, and I'm worried that it would be a bit thin when the final product is done, but I guess we'll have to see. Interesting take on the recipe.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Let me know how the BIAB session goes. What's your strategy with the pumpkin?

 

[deaton83]

Let me know how the BIAB session goes. What's your strategy with the pumpkin?

Going to toss the pumpkin in the grain bag with all the grain. Should be fine, right?

 

[beninan]

Going to toss the pumpkin in the grain bag with all the grain. Should be fine, right?

it will turn to mush and leak out of the bag, rendering the bag useless for the pumpkin

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Actually, that's probably the best you're going to do. The same thing that beninan mentions happens in a more traditional mash/lauter setup, hence the massive trub after fermentation.

 

[TheWeeb]

How long before this starts to settle out? I just went in after eight days of fermentation to take a gravity reading, it was much the consistency of split-pea soup. I would like to get as much of this gunk to the bottom before racking to secondary. Sample tasted really good and came in at 1.018; still some krausen floating on top.

 

[HalfPint]

Going to toss the pumpkin in the grain bag with all the grain. Should be fine, right?

I used fresh pie pumpkins that were cut in 1/2, then roasted for 1.5 hours at 375. After cooled, I scooped flesh out and mashed with a potato masher. It was not the same baby food consistency as the canned pumpkin, and if I were you, I'd try this route b/c I dont't think it would leak out. You're going to need around 10-12 lbs of pumpkins before roasting to get the (+-)4 lbs of cooked pumpkin you need (of course that's if you go this route). good luck.

 

[BigB]

One other thing to consider... don't use a nylon paint bag to filter the pumpkin. Although it does a great job of filtering, it is so fine that it just plugs up... then all you have is a bag of wort that is heavy and drains EXCEEDINGLY slow.

 

[elproducto]

Alright folks.. I did the extract version it was my second ever brew. After 3 weeks in the bottles, I'm drinking it and it's wonderful. Exactly what I want out of a pumpkin ale. Lots of Ale characteristics, the pumpkin comes through and the spices are subtle. I had a veteran brewer friend tell me he really likes it, and he normally doesn't like "fruit/spice" beers.

My only concern is that there is very little head retention which I thought the flaked wheat was supposed to help with. It's gone after a minute.

 

[Dynachrome]

53 pages. Sounds promising.

I have pumpkin left over. This sounds tastey. Could you use a barley grain bed as a filter after your last sparge to separate the pumpkin fibers?

 

[surferdrew]

Yuri_Rage...thanks for the recipe.

The caramelized canned pumpkin is what really sets this pumpkin ale apart...yum.

I brewed 10g and split it into two batches with two separate yeasts...WLP002 and WLP500.

OG was 1.056 and FG was 1.018 for the WLP002 batch. Its been kegged and we drank some last night. LHBS said its the best pumpkin ale they've ever had! Cheers to you. Literally tastes like creamy pumpkin pie.

I'll be bottling the WLP500 this week to be ready for Thanksgiving...we'll keep you posted.

Have any of you tried warming beer and putting whip cream on top for a dessert?

 

[Randar]

Wow, this is probably the best Pumpkin ale recipe I have ever had.

I used fresh pumpkin that I cooked up and then did another round in the oven to roast it after the initial scooping and puree. I mashed at 156-157 (took a lot of stirring to get the temp uniform due to thickness of the pumpkin) and used Denny's Favorite 50 yeast (which seemed perfect for this kind of ale, IMO). I bloomed the spices in a pyrex measuring bowl with some wort I removed from the kettle and let cool to about 150 degrees or so before throwing the spices in for 15 minutes... adding them at flameout. I also freshly ground my own spices (either shaving the nutmeg, grinding the cinnamon in my spice grinder, or using the mortar & pestle). I let it sit in primary for 3 weeks since Denny's yeast takes it's time and is not a rapid flocculator.

 

[HalfPint]

Wow, this is probably the best Pumpkin ale recipe I have ever had.

I used fresh pumpkin that I cooked up and then did another round in the oven to roast it after the initial scooping and puree. I mashed at 156-157 (took a lot of stirring to get the temp uniform due to thickness of the pumpkin) and used Denny's Favorite 50 yeast (which seemed perfect for this kind of ale, IMO). I bloomed the spices in a pyrex measuring bowl with some wort I removed from the kettle and let cool to about 150 degrees or so before throwing the spices in for 15 minutes... adding them at flameout. I also freshly ground my own spices (either shaving the nutmeg, grinding the cinnamon in my spice grinder, or using the mortar & pestle). I let it sit in primary for 3 weeks since Denny's yeast takes it's time and is not a rapid flocculator.

That process seems very similar to mine. I freshly roasted the spices (except the ginger), and put them all in my spice grinder. I didn't steep them, but added them at flame out. I'll be kegging this Wednesday.

 

[Randar]

That process seems very similar to mine. I freshly roasted the spices (except the ginger), and put them all in my spice grinder. I didn't steep them, but added them at flame out. I'll be kegging this Wednesday.

Curious to hear how yours turns out. I haven't tapped the keg yet but couldn't resist popping a few bottles given the holiday yesterday. Which yeast did you end up using? I was surprised to not find (via search) that anyone had used Wyeast 1450 for this brew, so gave it a shot and it is a definite winner.

 

[HalfPint]

Curious to hear how yours turns out. I haven't tapped the keg yet but couldn't resist popping a few bottles given the holiday yesterday. Which yeast did you end up using? I was surprised to not find (via search) that anyone had used Wyeast 1450 for this brew, so gave it a shot and it is a definite winner.

Well, I originally pitched a sachet of Nottingham, but when it never took off, I ran to the LHBS and picked up some S-05. I tasted it a week after pitching the S-05, and it was awesome! With my high mash temp, 158, a FG of 1.015 isn't too shabby. When I tasted it, the freshly ground cinnamon was coming through pretty strong, but in no way overwhelming and I imagine it's about perfect right about now.

 

[deaton83]

Let me know how the BIAB session goes. What's your strategy with the pumpkin?

The BIAB went great except having 1 gallon of extra wort that killed my SG. Also had to get the girlfriend to help out with straining the bag. Live and learn but it was fun.

Thanks again Yuri.

 

[red123]

I just brewed the all grain 5 gal version this past weekend. Everything went great, I had the heat up a little too hight during the boil so I lost more wort than anticipated. The only change I made was adding the extra can of pumpkin during the boil. No particular rhyme or reason, just had an extra can I didn't want to waste. OG was 1.052 and its bubbling away beautifully!

 

[elproducto]

Update after 4 weeks in the bottle - extract version.

Fantastic. I love Pumpkin beers, but find them too malty and sweet sometimes. This has really nice ale characteristics and the spice is subtle. It reminds me of Shipyard Pumpkin which to date is the best Pumpkin Ale I've ever had.

My only regret, not making more.

 

[Dynachrome]

I'm doing a hashed up version of this. I see it was simplified later to just regular pumpkin pie spice. I added spices to the pumpkin mush and it seems to have gotten lost. I will probably add the spice tea later on. I also put two tea bags of green tea in with the pumpkin while I was boiling it down to try and start the starches to break down. Yuri seems to think that will cause the pumpkin flavor to fade away. I hope not.

It Will be beer.

 

[GillandCo]

So Im drinking my kegged batch from a couple months ago...I really like the Burton Ale strand I used over the WlP002 version my friend made...and no im not just saying this because this batch is mine. All in all im satisfied with this beer.

 

[TheWeeb]

I am assuming a few days cold crashing the secondary will allow much of the pumpkin mass to fall out, correct? How long would you recommend before bottling?