Me and pumpkin beers have not gotten along. 4 years ago was the first time i made one. It was a simple fall type of ale with some pumpkin spice. No pumpkin was used in this first batch. It tasted OK but it just didn't have that pumpkin flavor I was looking for.
Next year I tried making the pumpkin porter kit from Brewers Best. I used their kit but added pumpkin to the secondary. It smelled great. Only after two weeks in the bottle though it was basically a bottle bomb in the waiting. They gushed foam like I've never seen. Maybe the pumpkin has some sugar in it that was not done fermenting... who knows?
After the gushing beers, I decided to not make it last year. Instead I made my Pajer's Apple Ale.
So this year I get the latest Zymurgy magazine and see the article written by Scott Jackson – The Quest for the Perfect Pumpkin Beer. There was a very detailed outline on how he makes his award winning pumpkin beer. I figured to give it a go.
Unfortunately, this may be my last pumpkin beer ever. A stuck sparge like the one I had last night will do that to you though. I followed the process as he outlined with one exception. I just use a single infusion mash tun and he states that a protein rest at 120 degrees for 10 minutes will help break up the gumminess of the pumpkin. I just did not know how to do this with my set up and it looks like it is a very important step.
My sparge essentially turned into concrete. I was able to drain the mash tun on the first pass collecting about 1.25 gallons of pumpkin infused wort. The batch sparging is where things got ugly – real ugly.
I added my sparge water for the first batch sparge and it was running fine for the first half gallon. After that nothing. I checked blogs and other sites for advice and tried it all. None worked. It basically made my grain bed a solid concrete block. I had to scoop out the water on top of the grain bed with a cup and put it into my pitchers. I then took some of the grain and put it over a strainer that was over my boil pot and then washed the grain cup by cup to try and salvage my brew day.
The wort that I had collected was way more cloudy than I ever wanted it to be but I didnt see how to solve the problem. So I boiled away for an hour and filled up my carboy and left a good bit of the wort hoping that I grabbed more of the cleared up wort.
I amazingly was right on point with my gravity reading. I sligtly tweaked the recipe since my HBS did not have the Melanoidin Malt in stock. I just left it out and my target gravity was 1.058 and that is what I hit.
Here is hoping that it works out in the end. I will follow up with any other comments as the fermentation process continues. It is already underway only after 11 hours so I will take that as a good sign. The recipe and process is after the jump.
Update: The krausen on this beer never really settled back into the beer like all of my other brews have. It just sat on top. Looking like a disgusting sea foam. It smelled OK so it has since been transferred to the secondary. This is the first time I am using the East Coast ale from White Labs. I wonder if the yeast just stays in suspension a lot longer.
Pumpkin Ale - Zymurgy Recipe September /October 2013
Revised based on available ingredients and time - scaled for a small batch
All Grain - 2 gallon batch
3 lbs - American 6 Row
3.5 oz - Victory Malt
3.5 oz - Crystal 60
4 oz - Rice Hulls
1 lb 4 oz - Canned Pumpkin (Libby's 100% - with single infusion mash)
6.5 oz - Maple Syrup (flame out)
6.5 oz - Wildflower Honey (flame out)
0.75 tsp - Pumpkin Pie Spice (Homemade or McKormicks)
0.25 oz - Magnum Hops (60 min)
1 vial - East Coast Ale Yeast
Dissolved pumpkin in strike water before adding to the mash. Mashed at 152 for one hour. Batch sparged. Collected 3.5 gallons of wort. Boiled for 60 minutes (recipe called for 90 but the stuck sparge forced me to shorten due to time constraint). Magnum hops for full 60 minute boil. Honey and Maple Syrup added at flameout. Chilled to 75 degrees and yeast and yeast nutrient added. Shake carboy to add air.
Signs of fermentation 11 hours after yeast was added.
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