I'm starting to plan my late summer/early fall brews, and I'm thinking of doing a pumpkin ale. I've only brewed one and it was about seven years ago, so I don't remember much about it.
I've been reading old threads about brewing them, and I've seen conflicting advice about whether pumpkin ales benefit from a bit of aging and if so how much.
Anybody have a sense of whether it's better to brew a pumpkin ale in August and let it sit in a carboy for an extra month, or brew it in late September with my typical turnaround time of two weeks in a fermenter then a week in a keg?
For reference, I have a fermenter that can prevent oxygen ingress and then do a closed transfer to a keg, so I'm not super concerned about oxygenation during aging. I would probably have to age it outside my temp controlled ferm chamber, though, because I can only have one beer in there at a time. I could do temp control during active fermentation, but then would have to swap it out for the next beer in the pipeline.
Alternately, I could brew it early, keg it when fermentation is gone, carbonate in the keg and then bottle it for longer te storage. I'd love to be able to leave it in a keg for a month or two, but I don't have enough space to have an untapped keg.
I've been reading old threads about brewing them, and I've seen conflicting advice about whether pumpkin ales benefit from a bit of aging and if so how much.
Anybody have a sense of whether it's better to brew a pumpkin ale in August and let it sit in a carboy for an extra month, or brew it in late September with my typical turnaround time of two weeks in a fermenter then a week in a keg?
For reference, I have a fermenter that can prevent oxygen ingress and then do a closed transfer to a keg, so I'm not super concerned about oxygenation during aging. I would probably have to age it outside my temp controlled ferm chamber, though, because I can only have one beer in there at a time. I could do temp control during active fermentation, but then would have to swap it out for the next beer in the pipeline.
Alternately, I could brew it early, keg it when fermentation is gone, carbonate in the keg and then bottle it for longer te storage. I'd love to be able to leave it in a keg for a month or two, but I don't have enough space to have an untapped keg.