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

[jakecpunut]

Couple of questions.. I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch of this and wondered:

Is it ok to bake the pumpkin on the cookie sheet the night before and cover it with foil till the next morning? Any problems with that?

How thick/thin do you spread out the canned pumpkin on the sheet?

Thanks!

 

[Diaperload]

this is what we did too, very little trub. we baked our pumpkin first. boiled for 60 minutes. im wondering if this will be enough for the pumpkin to come through in the beer? what do you think?

As I was baking the pumpkin in the oven I was expecting a wonderful pumpkin smell but I was disappointed. Not much smell at all....that is until I added the pumpkin spice at the 5 min left in boil mark.

 

[Justibone]

The trub cake looks like bread dough. I BIABed the pumpkin in the mash, and it still left a huge slime pile.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Couple of questions.. I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch of this and wondered:

Is it ok to bake the pumpkin on the cookie sheet the night before and cover it with foil till the next morning? Any problems with that?

How thick/thin do you spread out the canned pumpkin on the sheet?

Thanks!

Should be no problems with keeping the pumpkin overnight.

I bake mine in a 9x13, heaped rather high, but that's because I use A LOT of pumpkin in 15 gallons. You may get better results by spreading the pumpkin somewhat thin (more caramelization).

 

[sensibull]

Hey Yuri,

If you have a minute, can you respond to my question that got lost among the multiple new posts/updates. I accidentally dumped the spice straight into the secondary instead of steeping it. Any guesses about the results of that error, or advice for how to fix? Thanks.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Taste it. If it tastes good, you made no error. If it isn't spiced enough, make the suggested tea and add some. I don't know how much - you be the judge.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I am waiting my way through the slow sparge right now. I added one pound of rice hulls to a five gallon batch in a five gallon mash tun. I also upped the pumpkin by one can. Probably not the best decision I've made but I want pumpkin dangit.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Your mash tun is not very well equipped to handle a brew this size. Be patient - you'll get through it!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Your mash tun is not very well equipped to handle a brew this size. Be patient - you'll get through it!

This I know. I have plenty of distractions to get me through it.

Edit: finally dumped it off to my hlt, removed the braid, and transferred it back. It's slow, but moving again.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I got through it. It was a train wreck of a brew session. Finished with low volume and high gravity. I didn't take a preboil gravity because I was still running off when I started boiling. It looked like high efficiency and incomplete sparge. I made up my missing volume with water to get an OG of 1.054

 

[ckarpys]

A little bit curious about adding the spices. When talked about making a tea and then adding (but not filtering). Do the spices get put in a cloth and dipped as to not get any particles into the wort or just dump them in?

Also a question about volume. When steeping the grains how much water should be used? Do most people wing it and then top off (with sterilized water) when racking to primary?

 

[Justibone]

I have put the spices straight into a beer I was drinking. They settled to the bottom. If you don't drink the dregs (and either bottling or kegging, you shouldn't), then you won't notice the spices.

As for volume, I guess that would vary slightly by your setup, right? If you want it to be a sweeter beer, though, wouldn't you want a thin mash, i.e., 1.75-2 quarts per lb. of grain? Just spitballin' here.

 

[ckarpys]

Thanks.

I should have mentioned I'm planning on making the 5gallon extract method.

First time venturing out from a 'kit' so just trying to get some of the details that aren't listed down.

 

[scratchex]

Kegged the batch this evening and the sample I tasted was amazing. Was also able to bottle some as well. Went ahead and made the spice tea & added that to the keg. I added some spice to the 2ndary but not much so hopefully the spice tea won't over power it once it's finally ready to drink; I doubt it will though. Kept it in the 2ndary for 10 days & cold crashed it before kegging. Will post the final results in a couple of weeks but I'm sure it will be an echo from the previous statements, which is...awesome.

 

[refect]

not sure if i missed this, but in the extract version when are you adding the DME? At the beginning of the boil, at the end, or some in the beginning/some in the middle, etc.? I figured at the beginning of the boil, but just want to make sure..

 

[Yuri_Rage]

At the beginning. No need for a late addition with this beer.

 

[refect]

At the beginning. No need for a late addition with this beer.

Cool thanks Yuri! I just ordered all the ingredients to pick up on from my LHBS Thursday, and am finally going to brew it on Monday. I'm hoping to have it bottled and ready to drink just in time for thanksgiving. I have been looking at the recipe for some time now and it seems like this is an epic recipe you have made Yuri! Can’t wait to brew it!! Thanks again!

 

[wedge421]

Hmmnot sure what I screwed up but after 10 days my beer is still sitting at about 8 Brix or around 1.030. I had a 2 lt starter and a very vigorous ferment so the only thing I can figure is that my mash was not stirred up enough or I mashed in too high. Oh well

 

[SourHopHead]

Added spice tea to one batch last night and smelled great. Second batch will get the tea in the keg. Made my own pampered chef blend and smells so much better than just spices last year.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[Justibone]

Tapped my keg last night -- SWMBO said it was my best... beer... EVAR.

My alteration to the extract recipe was to use wheat extract (65-35 wheat/barley). It's not a clear beer, but the head is almost like pumpkin pie itself! I would highly recommend subbing the wheat extract for the barley, or using head-enhancing techniques to make a dreamy, creamy, lace-y beer!

(I'm giddy -- it's that good.)

 

[duffman2]

Looks like I missed my mark on this year's batch. Gravity came in really low at 1.040 I think and now its down to like 1.014 so getting close to done.

But my sample tasted weak and without a lot of that wow pumpkin flavor. Still haven't added spices yet so I will do that soon. I guess the only thing I am thinking about is adding malto dextrin and a little lactose to sweeten it up a bit.
And might want to add a little extra spice to kick it up a notch.

Just not sure yet on how much is too much lactose. Anybody try to do this with their thunderstruck?

 

[Justibone]

Without the spice, it's not even close. The pumpkin is hardly noticeable, it's the spices that do it for ya!

 

[steven_b]

Just brewed the extract version of this pumpkin ale this morning. Missed Halloween, but looking forward to having this beer on tap come Thanksgiving!

Steven b~

 

[OlRed]

I brewed the extract version of this and had my first bottle tonight after only two weeks in the bottle and it was AMAZING!!!! I followed the recipe exactly except I used 6lbs of light DME and .25 lbs of amber DME because I had some laying around. I'm not sure if that really changed the end result but either way this recipe is freaking awesome. I used McCormick's pumpkin pie spice for the spice tea. It ended up with just the right amount of sweetness/pumpkin pie flavor without being overpowering. Thanks for the great recipe!!!

 

[gclunde]

This sounds like a great recipe

 

[Stephonovich]

Brewed on a whim yesterday. I used fresh sugar pumpkin, roasted for 1.5 hours. Ended up being about 120 oz because I had no idea how much a pumpkin weighed, and by the time I weighed the pieces, figured oh well.

Wort tasted great, but after talking with guys at LHBS, I did a spice add at flameout, and will do a spice tea before bottling.

O.G. was 1.064. I used two packs of S04; really quick start. (Didn't have time for a liquid with starter)

I plan on primary for 3 weeks, and bottling for 2 - just in time for Thanksgiving.

 

[makisupa]

I just finished brewing Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale with my electric HERMS and thought I'd offer some tips. This is my third time brewing this recipe but my first on an electric HERMS. Before, I was using a three-kettle, direct heat, and pump-fed system to brew this recipe and I suffered from stuck sparges and clogged pumps. Today's brew went off with out a hitch! Here's how...

I use an electric HERMS that's operated with two pumps and a HERMS coil in the HLT. I use a silicone tube inside my MLT (Sabco-style) for re-circ and I allow my mash to re-circ through the coil for entire mash. I wanted to accomplish this today without getting clogs and I did!

I added 1.25lb of rice hulls to the recipe and made sure to mix them well with the other grains and wheat. I mashed-in with the grains to hit the 158-deg mash temp. Then, I took my room temp Libby's pumpkin (which was already baked for 30-min at 350-deg) and placed it in a 1-gal paint strainer/bag and laid that flat across the top of the grain bed. My re-circ tubing was relatively close to the pumpkin/bag.

That's it! I mashed for 60-min with constant re-circ and then fly-sparged for about 45-minutes to collect my wort. The pumpkin color/flavor was extracted nicely, my efficiency was normal (75%), and the pumpkin stayed collected in the paint strainer. I hope this helps anyone who might be considering this recipe for their HERMS.

It's been three weeks since brewday and I've kegged my Thunderstruck. I used Wyeast 1968 (Wyeast's equivalent of WLP002) from a 1500mL starter and hit 1.020 as my FG. I was hoping to do better but alas...

Fermentation occurred over 6 days at 65-deg. After, I tried agitating the carboy and increasing the temp to 68-deg to get it to drop a couple more points but it didn't budge from 1.020.

I should also mention the beer dropped bright right away. Love this yeast's flocculation ability but I'm not all that thrilled with its attenuation.

 

[ckarpys]

Looks like I missed my mark on this year's batch. Gravity came in really low at 1.040 I think and now its down to like 1.014 so getting close to done.

But my sample tasted weak and without a lot of that wow pumpkin flavor. Still haven't added spices yet so I will do that soon. I guess the only thing I am thinking about is adding malto dextrin and a little lactose to sweeten it up a bit.
And might want to add a little extra spice to kick it up a notch.

Just not sure yet on how much is too much lactose. Anybody try to do this with their thunderstruck?

Same, my gravity is about 1.042, just racked to primary. Guess I'll keep a watch on it and will probably do the same.

 

[BrewBeer4fun]

My first attempt was the same way. My efficiency was horrible and came in at 1.040 and was Very weak and no prominent pumpkin flavor was discernible. I brewed it again last weekend and decided I would not miss my gravity this time. I brewed another 5 gallon batch, using 60oz of baked pumpkin which carmelized beautifully. I did however have to beef up the grain bill and try a different mash technique to achieve the 1.067 OG I ended up with. I used a 1 tsp of Pumkin Pie Spice in a tea for this batch and when tasting the wort, it seemed like I had finally achieved pumpkin perfection! Time will tell, I have at least 2 more weeks before I can keg it and try the final product.

 

[mrwilson]

Brewed this today. My OG came out at 1.052. Six gallon boil with five gallons at finish probably the reason. Topping off to 6 seemed excessive so I left it at five gallons. Will see how it goes. Also put 1 tsp of pumpkin spice in at 10 min left.