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

[murphyslaw]

I brewed this a little over 3 weeks ago and plan to add the spice tea as soon as i find the time. Ive never added spices to the fermenter and have two questions about that:

1. When adding the tea little by little and tasting, do you all do that over a few days or just add, stir, taste, add, stirr, taste...?

2. After adding the tea, is there any benefit to letting it sit longer, or should I just cold crash and keg? [I dont mean the age old 'how long should i leave my beer in the fermenter' but rather, i want to know if the spices need any additional time to...i dont know, meld.]

Thanks!

 

[Calman2k]

I brewed this a little over 3 weeks ago and plan to add the spice tea as soon as i find the time. Ive never added spices to the fermenter and have two questions about that:

1. When adding the tea little by little and tasting, do you all do that over a few days or just add, stir, taste, add, stirr, taste...?

2. After adding the tea, is there any benefit to letting it sit longer, or should I just cold crash and keg? [I dont mean the age old 'how long should i leave my beer in the fermenter' but rather, i want to know if the spices need any additional time to...i dont know, meld.]

Thanks!

I just added more flavor to mine. Brewed it about 2 weeks ago and it finished fast. I don't like it to get too dry so I kegged it and have been slowly drinking it since it still tastes great. Pumpkin flavor got a little light, so today added more flavor.

Here's how I do it.

Take some of the beer, carbonated or otherwise, make sure you know how much you have. Then add 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it tastes right. Then scale up. That way if you screw up and go too far, your whole batch isn't ruined. I've found in the past the pumpkin flavor and spice flavor tend to mellow the longer it sits.

Also, it is possible to add pumpkin flavor in. Get a pie pumpkin, juice it, cook the juice with some more spices and poor off the clear liquid after boiling it. That clear liquid will be pumpkin spice flavoring you can add to the keg or beer before bottling/keggin.

 

[Calman2k]

As far as primary/secondary goes, I just primary mine until it reaches a level where I like the taste. Usually I stop it between 1.018 and 1.015. That way it isn't too dry. Then I go straight to keg. I let it age there if needed since there isn't any O2 in the keg.

 

[BigPicture]

I just had a 1st with the WL002 in the new "pure" packaging. I made a starter on the stir plate like I usually do. Let it stir for 48 hours and this stuff took off!!!! I've been making starters for over 4 years now and never had anything even come close to this.

Wow.

Now I'm making a Gold Metal Winner ESB that specifically uses the WL002 so I can do it again. http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/ESBNHC2011

Oh, and Beer & Brewing mag has a switch up on Pumpkin Ale. http://beerandbrewing.com/ just to try something different. I've brewed this Thunderstruck for 3 years now, but after the initial "WoW" it needed an additional "PoW". I've added FRESH ingredients to do just that. It will be ready end of October.

I can't wait.

 

[Moose_MI]

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

Ok...finally drinking this. It ended up being the first beer I kegged! I have a deaf palette so I'm terrible at giving reviews but I'm enjoying the beer. It's a little sweet and has nice mouth feel which i sort of expected after all my mash/sparge problems. Only been a week in keg at about 12psi so it will probably change some more but man drawing a beer you made from a keezer that you made is such a cool feeling.

Thanks Yuri!

 

[bbohanon]

I actually went a different route this time around adding the spice..
I put about 1/2 cup of vanilla flavored vodka mixed with a tsp of PPie Spice into a sanitized mason jar, shook it up a good bit, covered it and left it overnight (some folks call this a "tincture"). Strained it through sanitized cheesecloth (to get the ppie spice granules out of it), poured into keg and racked the beer on top of it. Smelled great and should turn out pretty solid.
Will report back in 3 weeks after it sits on the gas and conditions at 36Deg.
:fro:

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I like the vodka tincture idea. Maybe use unflavored vodka and vanilla beans along with the spices for a richer flavor.

 

[bbohanon]

I like the vodka tincture idea. Maybe use unflavored vodka and vanilla beans along with the spices for a richer flavor.

I thought about doing this until I saw the price of whole vanilla beans..$14 for just a single bean around here..

I do think it would add more pronounced and richer vanilla profile to the tincture and thus the beer..I just need to find some cheaper vanilla beans to try this next go around with it.
The beer I think as it is, is going to turn out wonderful and I thank you Yuri for the awesome recipe!
Will post pics of the first pulls in about 2 more weeks.

 

[eulipion2]

I thought about doing this until I saw the price of whole vanilla beans..$14 for just a single bean around here..

This is where I usually get mine:
http://bostonvanillabeans.com/collections/vanilla-beans/products/bourbon-vanilla-beans

 

[copper2hopper]

How about vanilla extract? I got about 4.5 gallons going into my keg Thursday and plan on upping the already faded flavor from brew day. Plan on adding a cup of water with McCormicks brand pumpkin spice dissolved in it with a few drops of vanilla extract? Any thoughts?

 

[bbohanon]

Pulled a first (second and third) glass from this batch and its really good. I have tried alot of pumpkin beers, but to date, this one is my favorite by far. Its clean, crisp and the vanilla vodka/PPie spice tincture lends just a hint of the spice and vanilla but does not overpower the smoothness of the grain bill.
Very nice and I will certainly need to try the vanilla bean soak in vodka/ppie spices for the next batch (but I think doing the tincture was the a much better option for adding the spice/flavoring this time around), but this one is a clear winner and will not last long once my family and friends know its ready to drink.

 

[copper2hopper]

Kegged and carbed this one one up two days ago. Should be good to go tonight hopefully fully carbed after being on 30psi now for that 2 days. I ended up doing 1.5 cups of water boiled and dissolved another 1.5 of McCormicks pumpkin spice in it. Cooled it down and splashed in some vanilla extract and threw that concoction into the keg and racked my 4.5 gallons on top of it. Can't wait to drink it up tonight. Perfect timing! Happy Halloween!

 

[armenianbrewer]

Anyone make their version of this yet to be ready for fall time drinking?

 

[MMJfan]

I haven't yet. I will probably brew this up soon though...

 

[Luzer]

Just put the airlock on mine!

 

[Radboud]

Going to do a biab of this one soon. I hope the pumpkin pulp won't seal my bag when draining

 

[JohnSand]

I found that the pumpkin did make for slow draining. I started the boil and let the bag continue to drain in another pot. Rice hulls may help. This year I made a different recipe and added the pumpkin to the boil.

 

[wtaylor3]

I may have to try this with the tincture I just so happen to have one whole vanilla bean left

 

[brewski09]

Going to do a biab of this one soon. I hope the pumpkin pulp won't seal my bag when draining

Let me know how that goes for you

 

[armenianbrewer]

What does the original post mean by clearing stage?

 

[Shock29]

What does the original post mean by clearing stage?

Secondary fermenter (see original post). I'll probably just end up adding the pumpkin pie spice during weeks 2 and 3 of the primary. Either that, or in the keg.

Cheers

 

[SourHopHead]

Brewed this up again on Monday. Always a Fall favorite!

 

[tpaulsen]

I made a batch of this back in Oct 2016 and I had several people tell me it was the best pumpkin ale they ever had. I concurred! Thanks for the recipe.

 

[MrBlackrock]

So thinking about making a test batch of this.


Couple questions:

The spices: I read about steeping them in hot water (1 cup) and adding.

Do you use a tea bag ?? Or just dump them in.

Also, any dry yeast subs for the suggested ? Thinking Windsor/Munich

 

[rtstrider]

Hey guys I have a question on this beer. I'll be brewing the extract version soon. I have a chance to brew this a tad early (1 week primary, 6 weeks secondary) or should I just wait and do the normal (1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary). That would be aging prior to bottling which would be the normal 3 week conditioning. Would this be better off bulk aged or is it better a tad young? Also if bulk aging is recommended when would you recommend I add the pumpkin pie spice tea?

 

[JohnSand]

I added the spices in the boil, I think at flame-out.
Mine always needed aging. It is not at all soon to make it now.

 

[seph]

Brewing this recipe this weekend. The girlfriend really wants to make pumpkin beer. Who am I to say no.

 

[Irishguy42]

Was looking at doing the extract recipe soon (though I will be doing 2.5g batch) and I was wondering...pumpkin directly in the wort for the boil, or in a bag in the wort? If so, what size bag is good for, in my case, 30oz of pumpkin? And how much trub am I going to expect once it's done in primary?

Also, are their any other good yeast alternatives for this, like US-04?

Also, those are the quantities required for a 6g batch of extract recipe? So for a 2.5g batch, I'm looking at (going off of Brewer's Friend):

~2.6 lbs DME
~.42 Crystal 60L
~3.33oz Biscuit
~1.67oz Flaked Wheat
~.31oz Goldings
30oz pumpkin for boil and 1 tsp pumpkin spice for secondary

Right?

 

[MMJfan]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's been a while since I extract brewed but I'm pretty sure that I added the pumpkin straight to the boil. Are you using canned pumpkin? If so, don't bother with a bag. And yes, you can expect close to a gallon of trub in this one. Oh and I don't add my spices until bottling. I make a spice tea and add rack on it in my bottling bucket.

I'm brewing up my first batch of this for 2017 this weekend even though it's going to be more like summer than fall here in Ohio this weekend?!

 

[Irishguy42]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's been a while since I extract brewed but I'm pretty sure that I added the pumpkin straight to the boil. Are you using canned pumpkin? If so, don't bother with a bag. And yes, you can expect close to a gallon of trub in this one. Oh and I don't add my spices until bottling. I make a spice tea and add rack on it in my bottling bucket.

I'm brewing up my first batch of this for 2017 this weekend even though it's going to be more like summer than fall here in Ohio this weekend?!

Yep! I brewed a different pumpkin recipe (milk stout) yesterday and even though I roasted the canned pumpkin puree, it all pretty much dissolved in the boil! So the bag would have been useless lmao.

I did put some spices in at flameout, and I'll give it a taste before I rack into secondary. If I think it needs more, I'll make a tea and then rack right on top of it!

Now I do need a long turkey baster because my 5 gallon carboy is being used for my 3 gallon primary. Otherwise...sampling might be tough