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

[MMJfan]

Oh yeah. I roast mine too. Now that I think about it, I still wait to add it to the boil even doing all grain instead of mashing with it... LOL!

 

[gdawg]

Just wanted to say thanks for a fantastic recipe.

I've brewed this at least a dozen times and can say after trying numerous commercial pumpkin beers your recipe is by far the best.

 

[MMJfan]

Just wanted to say thanks for a fantastic recipe.

I've brewed this at least a dozen times and can say after trying numerous commercial pumpkin beers your recipe is by far the best.

I agree. I've had a couple of commercial pumpkin ales that I like out of the dozens and dozens that are out there now. Thirsty Dog had an excellent one as does Fat Heads. Outside of those two, I prefer this recipe over everything else I've tried over the years!

 

[IwanaBrich]

I'm thinking of brewing this recipe in a couple days and I'm confused on how much spice to use and when its best to add it. It seems like some add the spices to taste at the end before kegging....Is that true? This will be my first pumpkin ale ever...and I've been brewing about 25 years!

Also how much rice hulls should I use?

Thanks...Bob

 

[jinjorge]

I'm thinking of brewing this recipe in a couple days and I'm confused on how much spice to use and when its best to add it. It seems like some add the spices to taste at the end before kegging....Is that true? This will be my first pumpkin ale ever...and I've been brewing about 25 years!

Also how much rice hulls should I use?

Thanks...Bob

for a 5 gallon batch per the OP

During clearing stage, add a spice tea of 1 tsp "Pumpkin Pie Spice" or Pampered Chef "Cinnamon Plus." Steep spices in 1 cup hot water for 10-15 minutes, cool then add. Consider adding the spice tea a little at a time to achieve the desired flavor profile.

for rice hulls - I've seen similar recipes that recommend using 1# of rice hulls

Hope that helps

 

[jakeasaur]

Going to be making this next week. 5lbs of c60 seems like a lot for 15 gallons

 

[alex_wilkosz]

Is the extract recipe on Page 1 still accurate. I've read through some of this thread (THERE IS A LOT!) and it seems to be a lot of different people chiming in doing different things. Is this page 1 recipe still the main way to go?

Thank you

 

[Leapsandbounds]

Just finished a slightly tweaked version of this (subbed some ingredients for what I had on hand). I’m gonna have a hard time letting it age. Can’t wait to try it!

 

[ChaseP]

Is the extract recipe on Page 1 still accurate. I've read through some of this thread (THERE IS A LOT!) and it seems to be a lot of different people chiming in doing different things. Is this page 1 recipe still the main way to go?

Thank you

I am wondering the same, let us know!

 

[jdauria]

Just poured my first pint after burst carbing, nice head but it faded quickly. Beer smells and tastes great, like pumpkin pie in a glass. Cinnamon dominates the other spices , made a home version of Pampered Chef pumpkin pie spice using Saigon Cinnamon. Think as this mellows after a few weeks it will be perfect.

 

[jdauria]

Update - My batch of Thunderstruck won my homebrew club's annual Pumpkin beer comp last night. Thanks again for posting the recipe Yuri!

 

[jdauria]

Another update...my batch of Thunderstruck took 2nd place in SHV category at the New England Regional Homebrew comp with a 38.

Edit - Took 1st place at the Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews with this beer, with a score of 39.

Will definitely brew this again! Once again thanks for posting the recipe!

 

[brewmore71]

Looking forward to brewing this soon!
Is this the all grain recipe conversion people have had luck with for a
5 gallon batch?



For those who are interested, I scaled this back to 5 gallons with brewsmith and it is almost exactly 1/3 recipe...

7# 2-row
1.66# Crystal 60
0.83# Biscuit Malt
0.33# Flaked Wheat

60oz Pumpkin

1 and 1/8oz EK Goldings 60m

all spiced just use 1/3 of what yuri posted[/QUOTE]

 

[rkhanso]

I'm going to brew this recipe this week. Just picked up the ingredients for a 7.5 gallon BIAB brew.
After bringing the ingredients home, I noticed that my LHBS put the flaked wheat in the same bag as the rest of the un-milled grain. Oh well, I guess it will have to go into the mill with the rest of the grain to get crushed.

'Tis the season for a pumpkin beer. I probably should have brewed this a month ago.
Hopefully it'll be ready by November. Or at least by Thanksgiving.

9 lb of 2-row
2.25 lb of Crystal 60
1 lb of Biscuit
.5 lb of flaked wheat
1 oz of East Kent Goldings
1 pkg of S-04
Yet to pick up: 4.8ish lb of canned pumpkin

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I'm going to brew this recipe this week. Just picked up the ingredients for a 7.5 gallon BIAB brew.
After bringing the ingredients home, I noticed that my LHBS put the flaked wheat in the same bag as the rest of the un-milled grain. Oh well, I guess it will have to go into the mill with the rest of the grain to get crushed.

'Tis the season for a pumpkin beer. I probably should have brewed this a month ago.
Hopefully it'll be ready by November. Or at least by Thanksgiving.

9 lb of 2-row
2.25 lb of Crystal 60
1 lb of Biscuit
.5 lb of flaked wheat
1 oz of East Kent Goldings
1 pkg of S-04
Yet to pick up: 4.8ish lb of canned pumpkin

agreed.
should of thought of this last month for Halloween. oh well.
I'm kegging so maybe it will be ready by end of October if I brew this weekend.

 

[rkhanso]

I'm not sure what went wrong, but I only ended up with 1.037 instead of 1.057. Big difference.
Going to have to go over those numbers again in BIABacus. I'm still trying to get my head around that spreadsheet.
But - in the fermenter at 67F now. (Im)patiently waiting.

 

[rkhanso]

I tried a couple bottles of the pumpkin beer this past week. I know, only about 4 weeks after bottling....
But it's got a sour taste. Not quite like vinegar, but pretty sour. I had to dump them out - couldn't drink them. There was OK carbonation, but not excessive. I would have liked a little more though.

I've read where pumpkin can take a bit to mellow, but I'm not sure this is capable of getting any better - not with that taste.
But I also wonder if there may have been an infection. The last beer before this I made was a Belgian Tripel. During and after that was in the fermenter (plastic conical with only 4 brews done in it), there were a lot of tiny flying bugs around that part of the garage, which I assume were fruit flies.

Now that winter is coming, I suspect all the flies will die off (and I haven't seen any for a few weeks now anyway).

Before the next brew, should I let some bleach water soak in the fermenter to make sure it's OK? Something else?



EDIT - I forgot to add, the beer is very watery. No mouth-feel at all. It really does feel (not taste) like you're drinking water.

 

[CodeSection]

I've read you should avoid using chlorine bleach as a sanitizer on plastic since the chlorine can be absorbed by the plastic leading to off flavors in the beer.

I would use Brewer's Alkaline Wash.....

 

[gbbeer]

Bit of an old thread but giving this a shot in preparation for fall. Early start gives time to make more batches if I like the outcome.

 

[CharlaineC]

https://www.food.com/recipe/baking-spice-copycat-pampered-chef-cinnamon-plus-mix-45672
updated info for the Panpered chief clone since the change back to food.com

 

[rnewt]

https://www.food.com/recipe/baking-spice-copycat-pampered-chef-cinnamon-plus-mix-45672
updated info for the Panpered chief clone since the change back to food.com

Thank you, I was just about to google one of these recipes!

I'm tweaking OP's recipe. I've got a grain bill of vienna, biscuit, and rye. I'm really excited about that Vienna base malt. I'll add some toasted (canned) pumpkin at mash and then some more at flameout, then spices.

I'm going to rush it a little bit to have it ready for a party on the 8th.

I didn't see a ton of notes on water chemistry in this thread but I'll go for something like an amber malty on bru'n.

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

Made this in September '21, kegged it and left it alone until early October of this year. We put it on nitro and it's been the best pumpkin beer we've ever tasted, as well as one of the best beers I've ever made. Going to make this every year going forward, and try each time to make it taste as much like a slice of pie as possible. Currently have 1 lb of lactose in there to try and amplify the whipped cream vibe and maybe a little extra biscuit IIRC but I think that's about all that's different from the original recipe. The nitrogen pour absolutely makes this shine. It's kind of addictive...the mouthfeel alone is so so good. Ours clocks in around 10.5% so you can't exactly session it...but we want to.

I'll say that this beer does need some age. I made it the first year and drank it about 3 weeks after brew day and it was pretty good, noticeably better than the Pumpking we tried it against, but something magical happens to this after it ages for a year. It's damn near perfect. My brew partner and I have decided to make this every January, to be aged and then drunk between October and Christmas, and we'll make tiny moves each time to try and improve it.

 

[ComfortLevel]

Brewed this with butternut squash instead of pumpkin and it was delicious. My OG was 1.071 so I was expecting a strong abv, but it finished out at 1.023 which was a pleasant 5.6 % abv. I used a brew bag and the squash really did not let the wort drain out - popped a hole in the bag from squeezing too hard. RIP brew bag, but it was worth it.