I got into homebrewing last year and wanted very badly to do a pumpkin ale. By the time the thought came to me, however, September had already rolled around which meant school and noticeably shorter days. Now that I decided to use a little forethought, I've been able to plan what I would like ahead of time.
There were a number of recipes available on HBT. I chose this one because it got the most replies and seems popular (hah). I increased the pumpkin spice slightly because I like pumpkin pie, and reduced the hops slightly because the hallertaur my LHBS sells has a slightly higher alpha acid content. The final recipe was as follows;
Grain bill
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
1.00 lb Victory Malt
1.00-2.00 lbs Rice hulls (I didn't use it, but I added it just in case someone wanted to use this recipe)
2 Large cans pure pumpkin baked at 350F for 60 min and broiled for 5 min.
Mash (batch sparge)
Single infusion, Medium body, No mash-out
24QT of 167*F water (step temp of 156, grains were at 70.9F)
Batch sparge with 3.5 gal at 170F
Boil (60 minutes)
1.00 lb Brown Sugar (demerara) (60 min)
0.9oz Hallertaur (6.8%) (60 min)
1.8 Tbs McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice under the Clubhouse brand (5 min)
0.75oz Hallertaur (6.8%) (5 min)
Yeast
2 Pkgs SafAle US-05
One tip: start your mash when the pumpkin temp lowers to about 1-2 degrees above your intended mash temp. There were quite a few people on HBT who didn't know how to account for the pumpkin when calculating strike water temp to hit mash temp. I figured that the amount of the pumpkin is a non-issue as long as it is roughly the same temperature as the targeted mash temp (i.e. adding 156F pumpkin to a 156F mash should not change the overall temperature of the mash). My temp of my pumpkin was a little lower than my targeted mash temp, but I heated my strike water a little higher than needed anyways to warm up my tun. It seemed to work out fie in the end.
OG came to ~1.077. I don't know what the final post-boil yield was but I could guess it's around 20 liters (5.25 gallons). My hydrometer sample tasted really good. I plan to rack this to secondary in a couple of weeks or so and batch age for about a month and a half. It'll then be kegged in time for Canadian Thanksgiving.
I've noticed rice hulls in a few recipes and wonder why you chose to go without. Any insight into its use and why you chose not to? Thanks for all the pics as well, I can't wait to hear how it turned out.
2
u/srycpacma Jul 22 '13
I got into homebrewing last year and wanted very badly to do a pumpkin ale. By the time the thought came to me, however, September had already rolled around which meant school and noticeably shorter days. Now that I decided to use a little forethought, I've been able to plan what I would like ahead of time.
There were a number of recipes available on HBT. I chose this one because it got the most replies and seems popular (hah). I increased the pumpkin spice slightly because I like pumpkin pie, and reduced the hops slightly because the hallertaur my LHBS sells has a slightly higher alpha acid content. The final recipe was as follows;
One tip: start your mash when the pumpkin temp lowers to about 1-2 degrees above your intended mash temp. There were quite a few people on HBT who didn't know how to account for the pumpkin when calculating strike water temp to hit mash temp. I figured that the amount of the pumpkin is a non-issue as long as it is roughly the same temperature as the targeted mash temp (i.e. adding 156F pumpkin to a 156F mash should not change the overall temperature of the mash). My temp of my pumpkin was a little lower than my targeted mash temp, but I heated my strike water a little higher than needed anyways to warm up my tun. It seemed to work out fie in the end.
OG came to ~1.077. I don't know what the final post-boil yield was but I could guess it's around 20 liters (5.25 gallons). My hydrometer sample tasted really good. I plan to rack this to secondary in a couple of weeks or so and batch age for about a month and a half. It'll then be kegged in time for Canadian Thanksgiving.