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

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What do you taste? I made one that was totally starchy and herbal/vegetal. Not good and almost no spice characteristics.


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I brewed this early September for Thanksgiving. It was decent then, better now. It also had some carbonation issues, low and slow. It's been in the bottles about ten weeks, after three in the fermenter. I like it well enough to drink regularly, but so far I don't think I'll brew it again. I added the spice at flame-out, 1tsp Cinnamon Plus. I'm happy with the spice, noticeable but not dominant. If I made a mistake while brewing or fermenting, I don't know what it is.
 
Planning on entering mine in a competition soon. I've seen two styles that people are saying the base style is, American Amber Ale and Northern English Brown. For those that have entered their beer, what base style did you choose and what was your feedback. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Can someone help me understand and explain the spice addition on this one. I got through page 10 or so and couldn't find a detailed explanation so I gave up and just jumped here to ask. I noticed one person added the spice at flame out but Yuri says do it a cleaning stage (isn't that the transferring to the secondary stage after 7 days of primary?). I am just doing a 5 gallon batch all grain so can you please tell me what measurement of what exact spice I need and how/when to add it? Also, what temp is good for fermentation on this and is there any special aging process needed in the keg or is this recipe good to go after only 21 days?
 
copper2hopper said:
Can someone help me understand and explain the spice addition on this one. I got through page 10 or so and couldn't find a detailed explanation so I gave up and just jumped here to ask. I noticed one person added the spice at flame out but Yuri says do it a cleaning stage (isn't that the transferring to the secondary stage after 7 days of primary?). I am just doing a 5 gallon batch all grain so can you please tell me what measurement of what exact spice I need and how/when to add it? Also, what temp is good for fermentation on this and is there any special aging process needed in the keg or is this recipe good to go after only 21 days?
Click to expand...

When I made this, I made a "spice tea" with the following:
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp Allspice
0.5 tsp cloves

and I added it it little bits beginning at 15 minutes til flameout.

In 2ndary, I also added 1 oz on Vanilla extract, and I primed with demerara
sugar instead of dextrose.
 
Most of those spices will still endure very well if not boiled too long. Vanilla, on the other hand, is very volatile and boils away fast, so should definitely not be added to hot wort. In fact, the flavor of natural vanilla is actually achieved from the aroma of it "boiling" right on your tongue.
 
For me, I make a spice tea mixing about a tbsp. of Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus spice blend with about a cup and a half of boiling water. I then let it cool and add it to my bottling bucket and then rack the beer on it when I'm ready to bottle...
 
I am also wondering if the first page recipe is the most up to date recipe from Yuri, not peoples' additions and changes.

Also, has anyone made this without the pumpkin? My pumpkin ales in the past have turned out very well without any pumpkin in them. The pumpkin added to the mouthfeel, but the flavor was still amazing without. Just wondering how this recipe was without any pumpkin addition. Can't wait to make this this fall.
 
Holy crap I'm exhausted....this beer kicked my a$$. OG 1.060 :ban: and 5.5 gal in fermenter ... Whew

I used 4lbs of Libby's canned pumpkin and 1lb of rice hulls in my 10 gal round cooler mash tun with a SS false bottom.....I'm not sure 10lbs of rice hulls would have helped that sparge. For the love of all that is cold and frosty...if you have this set up I strongly suggest you put the pumpkin into a BIAB bag or something...at least put half the pumpkin in some kind of bag so you can pull it if you do get stuck.

Awesome color...can't wait for it to clear...I'm thinking in 2018. :cross:
 
Finally finished reading through the entire thread... Had a few questions:

Several people have mentioned that the spice contributes the bulk of the flavor and the pumpkin isn't necessary. Others say that it contributes a more full character to the beer. In my opinion, you can't brew a pumpkin beer without pumpkin. My question is: what about reducing the amount of pumpkin and slightly increasing the DME to balance out with the increased water volume? Do you anticipate that this could noticeably change the taste?

Has anyone modified the spice tea to incorporate bourbon instead of water? I've seen several people mention vodka, rum, or spiced rum, but never any bourbon. I feel like it could really add a great taste, but am hesitant to throw it into my first batch unless someone (with more experience than myself) says "huh, that could actually work pretty well." I've done bourbon pumpkin pies before and they turned out awesome.
 
Just finished this and my prefermentation gravity is 1.069. :/

i calculated BS2 at 70% efficiency and slightly up'd my SG so i could get closer to 1.055. Well, it appears according to BS2 my efficiency was closer 87%. (allegedly)

What should I do?
 
corypedia said:
Just finished this and my prefermentation gravity is 1.069. :/

i calculated BS2 at 70% efficiency and slightly up'd my SG so i could get closer to 1.055. Well, it appears according to BS2 my efficiency was closer 87%. (allegedly)

What should I do?
Click to expand...

If you absolutely want it to be per the recipe, you'd have to water down the wort, but that will thin the body and it probably won't be the same.

Purdue22 said:
Enjoy it. Was that real question?
Click to expand...

I would do this.
 
Moose_MI said:
Holy crap I'm exhausted....this beer kicked my a$$. OG 1.060 :ban: and 5.5 gal in fermenter ... Whew

I used 4lbs of Libby's canned pumpkin and 1lb of rice hulls in my 10 gal round cooler mash tun with a SS false bottom.....I'm not sure 10lbs of rice hulls would have helped that sparge. For the love of all that is cold and frosty...if you have this set up I strongly suggest you put the pumpkin into a BIAB bag or something...at least put half the pumpkin in some kind of bag so you can pull it if you do get stuck.

Awesome color...can't wait for it to clear...I'm thinking in 2018. :cross:
Click to expand...

Ok...after 2 weeks in primary I racked this over and added the 1/2 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice after steeping in a cup of hot water. Gravity right now a bit higher than recipe ...I'm at 1.022. I've not racked a beer to anything other than bottling bucket for a long time but glad I did this one. It's really cleared nice already so I will be in good shape for bottling in another couple weeks.
Hydro sample had a lot of pumpkin flavor...not sure why some folks say pumpkin doesn't add much flavor. It came through really nice for me. Really looking forward to final product
 
I have the opposite issue. It's been in the primary for a week and is sitting at 1.005, where the starting gravity was 1.069. My quick calculation says that's almost 8.5% ABV.

I tasted the wort and the alcohol content is VERY noticeable. Possibly even overpowering. Should I go ahead and rack to secondary after a week?

Anyone experienced this?
 
corypedia said:
I have the opposite issue. It's been in the primary for a week and is sitting at 1.005, where the starting gravity was 1.069. My quick calculation says that's almost 8.5% ABV.

I tasted the wort and the alcohol content is VERY noticeable. Possibly even overpowering. Should I go ahead and rack to secondary after a week?

Anyone experienced this?
Click to expand...


Where r u located.....I think we could blend these into something perfect! [emoji3]
 
What's the turn around time on this recipe from grain to glass? Wanna time it oh right for Halloween time to have on tap roughly a week beforehand.
 
Going to BIAB brew this one this weekend. What would be a good water chemistry profile? I use the Bru'n Water spreadsheet to get my numbers.

And what is a good temp to ferment at if using WLP002 as stated in the original recipe? I see on the Whitelabs website it is listed as optimal from 65-68, so thinking around 66 degrees?
 
Has anyone tried adding some bourbon soaked chips to this? Just curious as I made it and happened to find one from last year taste is still there but not as aggressive was thinking a bit of bourbon, not much, could make this beer a very interesting BA spiced beer....comments?
 
maurtis said:
Going to BIAB brew this one this weekend. What would be a good water chemistry profile? I use the Bru'n Water spreadsheet to get my numbers.



And what is a good temp to ferment at if using WLP002 as stated in the original recipe? I see on the Whitelabs website it is listed as optimal from 65-68, so thinking around 66 degrees?
Click to expand...


Treat wlp002 as you would any other yeast. Pay special attention to finishing out fermentation as it likes to floc early sometimes. If you can keep it going it's a true beast fermenter. I used to target 70f with it and didn't have any issues.
 
Anyone else experience an unexpected mash pH being really low on this? I built up my water on a quick whim using Brun Water from distilled water. No need to go into detail on what what I added or how low I got. I just wanna know if anyone has experienced a low mash ph on this and what flavor side effects they had from it if they did. I must say this smells amazing going into the carboy.
 
brewski09 said:
Treat wlp002 as you would any other yeast. Pay special attention to finishing out fermentation as it likes to floc early sometimes. If you can keep it going it's a true beast fermenter. I used to target 70f with it and didn't have any issues.
Click to expand...

I've done two batches of this in the last three weeks. i used both the s-04 and the wlp-002. for the s-04 i fermented at 70* and it's quite dry.

i used 002 in my second batch and decided to start fermentation at 62* and step it up 2* every 5 days until maxing at 68*.

While still early, i much prefer the lower starting temp and 002. Not really an apples to apples comparison given the difference in temp, but i'd definitely start lower than higher.
 
I'm curious on when ppl are adding the spiced tea. I have my second batch winding down it's primary fermentation and was thinking of adding the spices now, while there is still small amounts of co2 being produced by the yeast, so when i open up my carboy the co2 will ultimately force out any oxygen that may end up in it.

also, how long are ppl keeping in their primary? i was wanting to avoid racking to secondary and go straight to a keg once done to again, avoid any chance for oxygen to get into the beer.
 
Cory, I'm keeping mine on primary for 2 weeks. It's my standard. As far as my spices went...I did 1.5 tsp at flame out and have a feeling it's gonna be plenty considering how pumpkin pie-y it smelt going into primary. I'm gonna take a sample taste on legging day as soon as primary is done at that two week mark. No secondary for me on this one. If anything I'll just let it age out a week or two in the fridge then connect to gas. We'll see if I can even wait that long
 
copper2hopper said:
Cory, I'm keeping mine on primary for 2 weeks. It's my standard. As far as my spices went...I did 1.5 tsp at flame out and have a feeling it's gonna be plenty considering how pumpkin pie-y it smelt going into primary. I'm gonna take a sample taste on legging day as soon as primary is done at that two week mark. No secondary for me on this one. If anything I'll just let it age out a week or two in the fridge then connect to gas. We'll see if I can even wait that long
Click to expand...
That's kinda what I'm gonna do too. Guess I'll spice today and see how it goes. How large of a batch did you do?
 
I was thinking of cold crashing in my fermentation chamber to like 40* prior to transferring to my keg. Would this help with clearing it before transfer?
 

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