Pumpkin Ale! Recipe sanity check

[Carl Spakler]

OK, I am firmly in the camp of enough info on recipe creation to be dangerous... With that said I came up with this based on what I brewed last year which was extract +steeping, this year I want to do a MM.



3 lbs. American 2-row
1 lbs. American Caramel 60°L
.5 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
.5 lbs. Caramel Wheat Malt
4 cans 100% pumpkin

3.3 lbs. Liquid Light Extract
1 lbs. Dry Light Extract

.25 lbs. Dark Brown Sugar
.25 lbs. Molasses

1 oz. Mt Hood 60 min.
.5 oz. Hallertau 5 min.
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg


S-04


OG - 1.058
FG - 1.012
SRM - 15
IBU - 13

[darylM]

I would skip the brown sugar and that is a lot of Molasses.

[Carl Spakler]

I mistyped the amount of molasses, it should be 1/2 cup.

What is the reason for skipping the brown sugar?

Thanks. :)

[beerking]

Brown sugar really does not add any flavor to a beer. The brown is really just coloring. You are basically adding plain sugar to the beer, which will thin it out a bit. The amount you have listed won't make much difference, but most homebrewers tend to avoid adding sugar (except for priming) on general principle, except for a few specific styles (Belgian Strong Golden, Tripel...).

[Carl Spakler]

OK, so it's more of a "psychological dark sugar" then? ;) I had assumed that the dark sugar would act different than white sugar, you know what they say about assuming.

The comment about how it will thin the beer makes me even less likely to add any as I was already planning to experiment with mash temp (155?) for a higher FG beer.

I just re calculated the OG/FG numbers and have 1.051/1.010, other than just adding more extract any suggestions to bump those up? I don't have any gravity points from mashing the pumpkin, should I expect to get much?

TIA.

[beerking]

You could add a couple more pounds of pale malt to your mash. As far as the amount of sugar added by the pumpkin, I have not used it, so I really don't know.

[hooky]

I believe brown sugar has molasses in it. I'm not saying they don't add coloring also, but i'm pretty sure molasses is in the mix.

[beerking]

It is my understanding that brown sugar is white sugar with a light form of molasses added back into it (it gets taken out during the refining to make it white). since what is added back is so light, and so little, it makes almost no difference (certainlly no detectable difference) in color unless you add so much that the beer is an awful tasting sugar beer.

[cul8rv8]

I believe you are correct, beerking. I know it's molasses that's added to make it brown, but I do believe it is too small of an amount to really make a difference.

[Carl Spakler]

Thanks, the brown sugar will be omitted and as noted before I will reduce the amount of molasses. Time to buy ingredients!

[Mill Rat]

The comment about how it will thin the beer makes me even less likely to add any as I was already planning to experiment with mash temp (155?) for a higher FG beer. I think the pound of 60 L caramel and the 1/2 pound of caramel wheat will give you plenty of body (higher FG) anyway. I'd keep the sacc. rest at 150 F or even a little less.

[Carl Spakler]

I think the pound of 60 L caramel and the 1/2 pound of caramel wheat will give you plenty of body (higher FG) anyway. I'd keep the sacc. rest at 150 F or even a little less.

Thanks, I imagine cutting out the sugar that I used last year will help appreciably towards my goal with no other changes.

[Mad Scientist]

Thanks, the brown sugar will be omitted and as noted before I will reduce the amount of molasses. Time to buy ingredients!

If you are omitting the brown suger, I'd keep your original amount of molasses.

[JayShaw91]

So do the spices to in with the boil or are they going in secondary?

Man, I may be switching gears and going one of these for the weekend's brew. I was going to do another amber, but that can wait :)

[Mad Scientist]

There are different opinions on spicing, but the few times I have used spices, I have always used them the last 10 minutes to flameout

[JayShaw91]

I know when I do my wit I throw in the coriander and orange peel near the end. I figured that'd be an easy enough way to do this.

[JayShaw91]

FYI, I just tried a variation of this, and for you AG folks, I have two words for you: stuck sparge. Oh, and two more: rice hulls. I didn't have any (talk about not thinking) and had to essentially keep adding hot water until I go enough wort to start boiling. Sort of, kind of a mash/sparge at the same time thing goin' on.

This stuff was frickin' cement at the bottom of my cooler. I have no idea how I'm going to get this brick out of there!

[JayShaw91]

I just did my version of a Pumpkin Ale using these spices, minus the vanilla. PERFECT! Good call Spackler! :) Definitely use this measure of dry ingredients in the last 10 minutes of a boil.

[Fweezle]

I like your recipe man...thinkin' about doing it. Can you give the specifics of your MM schedule and any other details you might find important?

[Carl Spakler]

I finally brewed my pumpkin ale this past weekend, I ended up skipping the brown sugar and molasses altogether...mainly because I forgot about the molasses until after the lid was on the bucket. :) Oh, well. I did roast the pumpkin meat ~45 minutes as opposed to just raw last year.

As for the MM schedule, heat water (1.25qts/lb grain) to ~165* add grains and pumpkin, stir and check the temp. I mashed at ~150* for 60 mins then using a multi-pot I drained the liquid from the grains/pumpkin and sparged with ~2 gallons water to get the pre-boil volume. I don't have a pot large enough for a full boil.

[JayShaw91]

Carl, any chance we could do a beer swap? I'd like to see how yours is compared to mine. Our grain bills are very different, so this would be for "scientific purposes", of course :)

[Carl Spakler]

JayShaw - Sorry for the delay, PM'ed you.

Could you post the recipe? I'm curious how you cooked up your brew.

[JayShaw91]

Go check out Drunken Pumpkin Ale in the recipe section here. That's mine!