Pumpkin Ale

That time of the year to start thinking about making a batch of pumpkin ale for your Halloween party.  If you never tried pumpkin beer your in for a treat.  It's like drinking your pumpkin pie but with a little kick.

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains and pumpkin)
OG = 1.048 FG = 1.012 IBU = 19 SRM = 6 ABV = 4.6%


Ingredients

1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) Muntons Extra Light dried malt extract
3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg) Northwestern Gold liquid malt extract
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) CaraPils malt
5–6 lbs. (2.3–2.7 kg) pumpkin (cubed)
5 AAU Cascade hops (60 mins)
(1.0 oz./28 g of 5% alpha acids)
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dried ale yeast
0.75 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

Boil pumpkin cubes in water for 15 minutes. Heat 0.75 gallons (2.8 L) of water to 163 °F (73 °C). Place crushed grains in steeping bag and steep grains at 152 °F (67 °C) for 45 minutes. When pumpkin is ready, add chunks to grain bag and add cool water (to maintain 152 °F (67 °C) temperature). Combine grain and pumpkin "tea," dried malt extract and water to make 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the start of the boil. Add liquid malt extract and spices with 15 minutes left in the boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Top up to 5 gallons (19 L) with water. Aerate and pitch yeast. Ferment at 69 °F (21 °C).

All-grain option:

Replace malt extract and 1 lb. (0.45 kg) 2-row malt with 8.0 lbs. (3.6 kg) 2-row pale malt. Boil pumpkin cubes in water for 15 minutes. Mah grains and pumpkin chunks at 153 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops with 60 minutes left. Add spices with 15 minutes left in boil. Ferment at 69 °F (21 °C).

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Technorati Tags : Beer, Homebrewing, Pumpkin

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How To Brew Beer Index

Extract Brewing

Partial Mashing

All-Grain Brewing

Other Recommended Links on Brewing Beer

John Palmer's Site

Instructables

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Wine Kit Tips

 

I'm not a great fan of making wine with kits.  I think it is because I'm basically too cheap or maybe it is because I want to do it "The Old World" way.  Like telling time by the position of the sun.  How many of use do that? 

 

Wine kits do have their advantages.  For a person just starting out they provide a very easy way to get into the hobby.  For the more experienced winemakers, they can save time.  Overall, they are easy to use and usually pretty fool-proof. 

 

Here are a few tips to use when making wine from a kit.

 

Read the instructions -  Different kits have different instructions as to when to add things or the manufacturer has found a better way.

 

Cleanliness - Hey you drink this stuff, so if your equipment is full of crud, your wine will be full of crud.

 

Write it down - keeping track of your wine allows you to see how you made great wine or lousy wine.  I generally write down the ingredients, the date started, original gravity, when racked etc.

 

Keep fermenters full - Pretty much a no-brainer.  Don't put 3 gallons of wine in a 5 gallon carboy and allow tons of space.  That will generally cause oxidation and make a very bad wine.  You can either fill your fermenter with water or I use a watered down peach wine to fill most of my fermenters.

 

Stir well - Juice concentrate and water need to be blend very well.  So stir like crazy and make sure it is thoroughly mixed.

 

Control temperature - Make sure that the temperature where your wine is fermenting is between 68 - 72 degrees F.  Also, try and keep it from doing to extremes.  ie from 60 to 80 in a matter of a few hours.

 

Time - Take your time.  Most kits will be ready to bottle in 1 to 2 months but the wine should age for at least 6 months.

 

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George Washington Porter - Revisted

I got e-mail the other day from Kermode Bear at Kermodebear.org.  He actually made a batch of George Washington's Porter and the e-mail tells of his adventures.  Of course, back in George's day they fermented just about anything, since most supplies were very limited.  A molasses beer probably did taste pretty good back then, but according  to K. Bear it sucks.  Well, anyways, he gave me permission to post his e-mail, so here it is.

 

 Hello,

I had been wanting to make George's porter for a while now, and I suppose that your blog entry was the catalyst I needed. Porter made. I fudged on the recipe a bit; I have several one gallon jugs for experiments, and when I experiment I'm much more liable to goof off; so the following is what was used for a one gallon batch:

1 gallon of water
15oz of blackstrap molasses
1/8 oz Cluster pellet hops, 7.2%AA
1 tbsp LDME, primer
1/5 packet Nottingham Dry Yeast (Yeah, I know...)

Starting Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.020

I'm not a big fan of hops; I like less hops and more malt in my beers. I  often cut them by a third in most recipes. He does says to my taste, so. I boiled for an hour, not three.

I also used more molasses than I should have, 15oz instead of 13oz, and it was added to the boil. I have not used molasses before, and I didn't research it like I should have, so I am not sure if this had any effect.

Nottingham dry yeast, the stuff that comes in the Brewer's Best kits, was my yeast of choice. I need to get rid of them somehow.

Fermented for ten days, bottled with 1 tablespoon of light dry malt extract. Fermentation was active for a few days and trailed off as usual, nothing extraordinary. I noticed very little krausen, but that is common with such small batches.

The result? Yuck. The molasses odor is, well, it smells like molasses, strong and pleasant - if you weren't planning on drinking it. Even with half the molasses, I think the molasses flavor would be far too strong. The hops are nowhere to be tasted, it is terribly bitter, and quite honestly, it sucks. I've had three sips so far and I'm not going to continue. The molasses is just overpowering.

I have all the respect in the world for President Washington, but this just didn't work out for me.

What would I change in the future?

The bulk of the fermentables would be malt; Molasses and brown sugar added for some flavor, perhaps a bit of cinnamon or cardamom.

Samuel Adams makes a great molasses porter, by the way. Highly recommended over what came out of my batch. (o;

-K. Bear

 

Thanks K. Bear for the run down on your experiment.  Maybe the next experiment will be better.

 

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