Chocolate Pumpkin Stout: Final Update

Very sturdy pellicle on the beer.  Infected city.

R.I.P. Chocolate Pumpkin Stout.  We never truly got to know you.

I went to bottle the pumpkin stout and it had a very firm pellicle resting on top of the beer.  This beer was too far gone.  It was not just some fatty acids but most likely bacteria present from the cocoa nibs that infected the beer. 

Sure, I could of added some Brett and just let it go to make a Sour Chocolate Pumpkin stout but I have other plans for my carboys this winter and didn't want to hold one up with a beer that may or may not turn out.

Lesson of the day: Sterilize your cocoa nibs in some vodka prior to putting into your precious beer.

Brew Day: Apple Pie Ale / Cider

Apple Juice with brown sugar and
3 varieties of cut apples

Last year I created an apple ale.  This year I created an apple ale that may be more like a cider.  One thing I thought that could improve from last year is the amount of apple flavor.  It was there and it was good.  I just wanted more.

After brewing the hard lemonade I thought it would be a great way to try another type of apple ale.

Here is what I did. 

Same exact process as the hard lemonade.  I took concentrated apple juice and brought it to a boil.  The one thing I did differently is added three different type of apple to sit in the mixture during the boil.

Once it came to a boil I added dry malt extract.  The lemonade only used 1lb of plain light malt extract but since I wanted the beer mixture to be more of a beer I used 2lbs.  One lb of amber and one pound of dark.  Hoping the more flavorful dark and amber extract will bring in some more beer flavor.

I finished it off with a very small dose of hops and about 2lbs of white sugar and apple pie spices.

What I am hoping to get is a very dry cider that has a strong beer flavor – or a beer flavor with a very strong cider flavor.  Either way it should be interesting.  We will find out how it turns out in about 2-3 more weeks.

Chocolate Stout and Pumpkin Beer - Update

A few days after adding the cocoa nibs to the chocolate stout I checked in on it to find a gnarly surprise.  It looked as is a lacto bacteria infection had taken place as a huge pellicle laid across the top of the beer.  I opened the mixed batch of chocolate and pumpkin and the same thing.

I got pretty upset and decided to just pitch the chocolate.  As I was pitching the beer down the drain I put my finger under the stream of beer and took a sample.  It tasted great. 

Realizing I may have been throwing away good beer (less than a gallon) I decided to research cocoa nibs some.  I read on another blog that someone had the same experience.  The responses on sites like Homebrewtalk.com suggest one of two things may have happened:

1. The fatty acids and the oil from the cocoa nibs are leeching out into the beer and interacting making a pellicle looking mess.
2. There is a bacteria on the cocoa nibs that should of been sterilized by placing the nibs in some vodka prior to pitching them.

With this in mind I decided to  save the mixed batch of pumpkin and chocolate stout to see what happens. I will be bottling this week if I feel it was OK.  Maybe a sour chocolate pumpkin stout?

Brew Day: Chocolate Stout

A few days after I brewed the Pumpkin beer I brewed up a chocolate stout.  The idea is based on mixing a Southern Tier Pumpking and Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  I find this combo to be much better than straight pumpkin beer.  The sweetness from the chocolate stout cuts the spices in the pumpkin beer and makes it have a more desert-like flavor you would expect from a pie.

Brew day was super smooth - except for one thing.  I forgot to take the OG reading.  So, other than that I am hoping it turns out great.

I have since transferred both beers to the secondary vessel.  I made two-gallon batches for a total of 4 gallons.  I have one gallon of straight pumpkin, one gallon of straight chocolate stout and then a two gallon batch of the two beers mixed.  Cocoa nibs have been added and they are set to age for two weeks before bottle day.

I will follow up on bottle day with the FG readings and any tastings prior to hitting the bottles.  The beer should be ready to taste in the second week of October.  A perfect week to start drinking pumpkin flavored beers – NOT August.

Cheers.

Brew Day: Pumpkin Ale

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.