Saturday, October 29, 2011

Adventures in Homebrewing-Pumpkin Ale (Batch 2)!


On October 16th, I brewed up another batch of Pumpkin Ale (Batch #2).   This time, I had my Assistant Brewmaster (my father in law) to help me.  My beer seems to turn out better when he helps me.  I think it's because I have to multi task a lot less when he's helping me, and can really focus on the brewing (rather than the cleaning).  An extra bonus is that he is the only Assistant Brewmaster I know that will also clean your whole kitchen and vacuum your house during the brew day.


So here's the recipe we went with for Batch #2:

Malts:
7.5 lbs 2 Row
2.5 lbs Munich
.5 lbs Caramel 80
.33 lbs Caramel 60

Hops:
1 oz. Cluster  (60 min)

Other Ingredients:
3 Pie Pumpkins (Roasted in Oven for 90 minutes.  Scooped out the meat and mixed with some pumpkin pie spice.  Added on top of mash to avoid stuck sparge.
1 Cinnamon Stick @1 min
3 g Ginger Root @ 1 min
1/2 tsp Whole Cloves @ 1 min
1/4 tsp All Spice @ 1 min
3 1/2 g Cardamom @  1 min
3 1/2 g Coriander @ 1 min
1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice @ 1 min

Mashed for 1 hour at 150 degrees

Yeast: Wyeast American Ale Yeast

OG 1.054  Let it ferment for 10 days then transferred to secondary
FG 1.008

Here's the pics from the brew day!

 I attempted to use 4 pumpkins, but one was solid as a rock so I had to go with three

 Roasted for about 90 minutes


 The pumpkins caramelize and give some extra flavor!

It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it

 The grains!

 Tried to keep the pumpkin towards top of mash to avoid stuck sparge



If you need an Assistant, Joe C is your man!

 Used American Ale for the yeast

 Ended up just going with the Cluster hops on the right

 My spice concoction!

 Ended up at 1.054, right on target!

Successful brew day!  

After 10 days, I transferred to secondary

 Gave it taste and it tasted good! Like the color too!

 This is Pumpkin Ale Batch #1 in the secondary

I took batch 1 and batch 2, tried separately and mixed the two as well. 

Overall brew day was a success.  We hit our mark with a 1.054 OG.  After 10 days, I transferred to secondary and took the final gravity.  It finished at 1.008.  This will give us an ABV of 6.3%.   

Cheers!

Other Adventures!

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