Home Brew Forum

Getting my brew on again this weekend with a Halloween themed pumpkin ale. Every year we grow a diverse selection of pumpkins and squashes and in the last few years we've been raising some comedy pumpkins.


Homegrown pumpkins by adrianfoden, on Flickr


That big fat fella at the bottom was a 16+Kg model. We kept the seeds from this and have spread them around the world. The flesh of just one of these things goes a long-long way. The president of the local chasse is boasting a 40Kg offspring but... let;s face it.. he is a fisherman so it could be a fishermans tale!

Right now 5kg of that very fruit it is in the oven, sprinkled with sugar, grated ginger, cinnamon and is filling the house with a glorious toasty pumpkin pie smell. The sticky brown goo that'll be left goes in the mashtun with some vienna, caramunich and other goodies as the base of tomorrows pumpkin ale!

Brewday pics, method, recipe and all that Jazz to follow. For now... the bottle lable is already half made!


Lava eyes by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Love the label!

My Mrs. being American makes a mean pumpkin pie, I'm not a fan of pumpkin unless its in that form (read: sweet and creamy). Be interesting to see what it brings to the beer.

Gricey.

All done after an early start.

Pumpkin sucked up giant quantities of water as it rehydrated after being roasted so had quite large losses in the mashtun but still managed to blow my numbers off the scale with the extract from the grains. Must change by efficiency numbers up a little as I'm getting far more efficient brewhouse stats.

Smells good. added Sticks of cinnamon, half a grated nutmeg, some cloves and ginger to the boil as late aroma/flavour additions... it smells like pie now!

Pics an ting to follow.

Recipe for my Jack-O-Lantern Belgian Pale Ale with added goodies.

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 22.2
Total Grain (kg): 5.900
Total Hops (g): 80.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.062 (°P): 15.2
Colour (SRM): 9.7 (EBC): 19.1
Bitterness (IBU): 10.9 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
2.000 kg Pale Malt (33.9%)
2.000 kg Vienna (33.9%)
1.000 kg Munich II (16.95%)
0.600 kg Pilsner (10.17%)
0.300 kg Caramunich III (5.08%)

Hop Bill
----------------
50.0 g Strisselspalt Leaf (2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (2.3 g/L)
30.0 g Saaz Leaf (3.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Aroma) (1.4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
4.0 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
3000.0 g Roasted Pumpkin mush @ 0 Minutes (Mash)
4.0 g Cinnamon Stick @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
4.0 g Ginger (powdered) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
15.0 g Ginger (root, fresh) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05

Pics are getting a bit samey for a brewday... there's not much to sing and dance about... so there's a few different ones in here.

RAW Source! I roasted about 4kg of chopped up pumpkin. Sprinkled it with sugar,cinnamon and grated raw ginger. 90 mins @ 220c. Even if you never make this beer you should roast pumpkin like this if only to ensure your house is saturated in the most awesome smell ever. Really.

Source Material by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Mashed in. Most recipes for this kind of beer are American and their pumpkins mostly come in cans. Sad.

Pumpkin Mashtun by adrianfoden, on Flickr


Left to right, first runnings after a little wort recirc, starting to sparge always throws a little sediment... I think the hotter water plays a part too. #3 and it soon cleared up and the very last one is my pre-boil colour. Pre boil OG was 1066 and I had 24+ litres.

Wort extraction by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Quatre Epices. Cinnamon Sticks, cloves, nutmeg and ginger roots. All in the boil for the last 10 mins before the Saaz aroma hops.
Quatre Epices by adrianfoden, on Flickr


Shiny and shinier. Whilst the IC was in doing its thing I sat and played the blues. It's a little known fact that if you play music to your beer it will taste better.

Beer and Blues by adrianfoden, on Flickr

EPIC hot break followed by even more EPIC cold break. Ground water temps are on the fall and the chill was much better than I've seen in the last few brews. I'm going to have to try the ice-bath method if this is what to expect. The payoff is coming in a minute...


Protein agglutination by adrianfoden, on Flickr

WOOF! Clearest beer I've ever seen at this stage. This was my final OG (1064) after the chill and was drawn as I filled the FV.

1064 - Coo by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Drinking that trial jar sample before FV... well .. it's always a mistake. Spice was good, the sweetness was cloying but it had an underlying earthiness. Not sure how it'll turn out of course but time will tell. Pitched re-hyrdated sachet of US-05 @ 21c and will see what we see.

Love the photos as always. The beer looks nuclear orange!

Where did you get your sample jars, they are fantastic.

My Mrs. says, "Correct him, plenty of Americans use real pumpkin, but the stuff in cans isn't as stringy so its easier to cook with if you're in a hurry."

The Orange was dialled in by Brewmate... I just juggled my numbers/grain bill until I got the colour right. It came out spot on. The flavours... well. I mashed high for good mouthfeel, a reaosnable mix of pale and vienna for the backbone and colour/nutty maltiness from the caramunich. Last off comes all the spice. We shall see how that works out in a few weeks!

Those little glasses are from a frozen-vodka set... but they double up well for brewday measuring and photos.

Please extend my apologies to Mrs Gricey. My comment was aimed at 'merkin homebrewers who seem to use canned pumpkin almost exclusively. They're so easy to grow and so sweet and rewarding... every home should have some!

She doesn't know any American homebrewers (except one blogger...) so you're probably right!

It sounds great, I've just finished off 4 Fullers Honey Dew to build up my stock of 330mL bottles ready for the RIS in a week or so... given me a bit of a sweet craving now

The demon-bastard offspring of the same fruit that went to make my beer surfaced today. It was (is!) a 60Kg Beast. So, no shortage of pumpkin beer for next year!

The aftermath by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Full tale here. The Jack-o-Lantern gets bottled in the morning. A cheeky Trial Jar sample this weekend was full of eastern promise.

Love the lolpumpkins!

Let me know how it goes when its ready to drink. I might have to similar, might even be able to trick the missus into it, her being such a pumpkin pie fan and all

Nice! Brewed a pumpkin beer myself on Friday, but using Tesco pumpkins so not quite as impressive.

In the bottle now.. and will get a couple of weeks to carb up. I went for a livelier than normal priming based on... a hunch. Good spice on the palate should suit a big fluffy mousse and being served quite chilled. Already mentally thinking of the food pairings!

I'd given this a two weeks in primary, one in secondary and even on xfer to the priming bucket this morning there was a ton of yeast that had sedimented out. I've mixed feelings on US-05 - not as flocculent as I'd like and you can't rush it. Upside of the long wait is the beer was super shining and clear going into the bottle.

I'd like to say that I'm a model of self-restraint when it comes to patience with bottle conditioning.

But then, I'd be telling porky-pies.

Had one tonight. Barely any fizz, the mildest pssst as I opened it and no head. Flavour was awesome. Far, far better than I might have expected.

I for one salute your lack of self-discipline

It's come right now.

Jack-o-lantern by adrianfoden, on Flickr

Good colour with a bit of character to it. Has a deep glossy hue that looks very appealing. Pours a big fluffy head, rapidly subsiding to a persistent 2mm head and laces well as it slips down.

Aroma... first hint of something a little different. A little bready. Gingerbread. Maltloaf. Just-baked granary/all-grain loaf. A Surprise!

And the taste.... pure Malty Soreen! It's just missing the thick butter spread on it. Underpinned by spice, raisins, fruit. No notion of pumpkin whatsoever... but unmistakeably like a liquid sweet pie/cake.

Some hop bite as it finishes which is slightly incongruous given the flavour profile. If it wasn't for that you'd not have much of a clue you were drinking an ale. The alcohol (6.7%!) is utterly absent from the beer. It's deceptively potent.

All told? Bit of a result.

Love that colour. Can't wait for my silly beer to be done in the fermenter so I can get something chuggable on again. That said the SNPA is doing the job, but it isn't going to last long.