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randbrewer1010
Joined: 22 Apr 2012 Posts: 110
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Link Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:59 pm Post subject: Simple Pumpkin Ale |
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I am charting out a simple Pumpkin Ale. I checked out Northern Brewer's Pumpkin Ale and reviewed the American Amber Ale style. This will be for a halloween party so I am only doing one early addition of hops with the goal of making a more drinkable beer (to the average persons palette). At the end of the boil the pumpkin pie spices go in. I will also be mashing with pumpkin. So this will be a low IBU, sweeter pumpkin ale. Recipe:
Here is a quick sketch:
12.5 lbs 2 row pale malt
4.5 lbs munich malt
1.5 lbs Crystal (80L)
.5 lbs Crystal (60L)
.5 lbs Crystal (120L)
Cluster Hops: Start of Boil
Spices: End of Boil
Mashing with about 8 - 10 lbs of roasted pumpkin flesh. Spices will be Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Allspice (added at the 0-5 minute, near / at the end). Only a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (it tends to be rather strong). Design choices: I wanted to go with more munich malt as it is a safe-ish choice to use and common in Oktoberfest beers. I am hoping this will give it a little more character since there will only be pumpkin spices (no late addition hops). I am on a 3 week schedule with this beer, so it won't have a ton of time to age. I am going for a couple weeks fermentation and then packaging.
BeerSmith Recipe: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nwpagoqi12z10b/SimplePunkAle.bsmx
I am assuming 93.7 percent efficiency. I will probably use a couple teaspoons of gypsum in the mash.
I will report back with results.
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Castermmt
Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 863 Location: Lowell, In
Drinking: Steelhead Porter, Alt-Toids, Hefty-Weizen, Terry's Kolsch, African Amber, Pumpkin Ale, Double Dog Ale
Working on: Janet's Brown Ale, Terry's Kolsch, Pilsner
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randbrewer1010
Joined: 22 Apr 2012 Posts: 110
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Link Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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Castermmt wrote: | What yeast are you planning on using? I'm going to brew a Pumpkin ale but not sure what recipe t use. The farmer next to my home has acres of pumpkins and he offered a few up for brewing. |
Safale US-05. I based my recipe on American Amber Ale. I use that for pretty much all of my standard American-y ales
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randbrewer1010
Joined: 22 Apr 2012 Posts: 110
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Link Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Happily fermenting away. With no late hops it has a very sweet malty smell in my fermentation chamber. I can't wait to give this one a a try.
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crush
Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 706 Location: Telemark, Norway
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Link Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like a tasty recipe. With the 3 week schedule in mind you don't have much time for conditioning, so you may want to scale back the recipe a little to reduce the abv, or if you have temperature control ferment slightly cooler (e.g. 62-64F as beer temperature, 60F ambient) to reduce any hot alcohol notes and raise the temperature slowly after a week to help finish off and condition. For a party, 1.055 is on the heavy side for a session ale, so maybe a good idea to scale back for the sake of your guests! As homebrewers, I think we have a natural resilience to alcohol!
I made my first pumpkin ale 3 weeks ago, OG was 1.062 otherwise the recipe is similar to yours - a touch more munich and subst 10% of the crystal for biscuit malt: 50% pils, 25% munich, 10% biscuit, and 15% various crystals. With the highish OG the beer was not ready after 3 weeks, but also I did ferment warmer than I'd like - about 68F ambient. Beer temp was up to 72F. I'm glad I still have 3 weeks for the beer to condition!
_________________ ...just one more.
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randbrewer1010
Joined: 22 Apr 2012 Posts: 110
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Link Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 2:20 am Post subject: |
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Quick update on this one. I was off on my OG target a bit (low), so we dropped a few percent in ABV by coincidence. I sampled it last night (about 1.5 wks since yeast pitching, with active fermentation dying off a couple days ago). None of the spice flavors were overpowering. It was sweet, almost too sweet, but the hops kick in at the end to make it nice. I am thinking with full carbonation it will have enough bite to make it highly sessionable. The pumpkin and spices are there but in the background like I wanted. You can smell them more than taste them. There are very few green beer flavors, surprisingly. I think I had a great pitching of yeast and fermentation as it is feeling very nicely conditioned for its age.
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