Pumpkin Ale Recipe Check please

[user 31093]

Well, I got it into the keg, carbonated for a 2 days and did the taste test.
Was a bit disappointed.
Colour is pretty lame.
Taste is a bit watery.
Alcohol level is a bit too high for my liking.
I'm letting it age a bit now I think. Will try it in a few weeks and see if it's improved (rounded off in flavours etc).
Ahh well, it was worth a shot.
Packs a punch though, so it'll be good to get the head fuzzy with LOL.
:chug:

Can you taste pumpkin?

 

[Chuckie]

Hardly :-(

 

[Bizenya]

Bugger. I'm still planning this one . Once of "hallowoween" brew . Will try maybe mid June so it's got four months in the bottle before enjoying.

Do you think more pumpkin? Maybe use a litre of pumpkin soup?

 

[Bizenya]

Sorry per 10l

 

[Chuckie]

I would look for a better recipe. The one I used had a ABV of 7.2% predicted, I think.
Looking back at it I shouldv'e gone for something with a lower ABV, say 4.5%. That would give a rounder alcohol level.
And it needs more colour and a better malt profile.
I'm also not sure about the pumpkin. I did cut it into chunks when I roasted it and then I tossed it in a mesh bag to go into the fermenter. If I were to do it again I think I would mash it before I put it into the bag.
Yeah, the pumpkin soup might work. Dunno ?
Cheers.

 

[TimT]

I made my pumpkin ale last night, in the end following the all grain recipe from Homebrewer mag. Simple enough - pale alt malt base, a little Vienna malt (this was my sub for Munich malt), some crystal malt, and pumpkin in the mash. I think it went well, but my gravity was four points below what was predicted - they gave in the recipe an OG of 1.064; I got 1.060.

Pumpkin is probably an unpredictable brewing ingredient anyway - not sure how much sugar it has in it, and it would probably vary depending on which type of pumpkin you had. I may have slightly overestimated the weight of the pumpkin (not making allowances for scraping out seeds, skin, etc). And I finished the boil a bit too early so it hadn't entirely boiled down (because the damn boil was just taking so bloody long, closer to 2 hours than 70 mins!). So, given those factors I guess a gravity four points below what's predicted isn't too bad. I checked other recipes with a similar grain bill and found the predicted gravity was in the 50-55 area, so I guess the pumpkin probably added a good 5-10 points to the original recipe.

The pumpkin's added some distinctive sweetness, a nice orangey colour (a bit muddy at the moment but it should clarify in the fermentation), and.... a little charcoaley taste from the skins. I think it'll make a nice spicy brew.

 

[Chuckie]

A quick update on my Pumpkin brew.
It's been 3 weeks since kegging/bottling now. I've had a keg in the fridge and it's still there.
BUT !
I cracked a stubbie I had bottled with the remainder of the fermenter and it's pretty good actually.
It has the nice Christmas spice about it and a reasonable pumpkin colour and a hint of pumpkin taste.
If I were to do it again I'd lover the ABV (is 7.4%) and add some more colour and maybe a bit more pumpkin (was 500g).
I haven't yet checked the kegged beer which I thought was dodgy, but I'll do that later today.
It might be that it got a keg infection and the bottled brew didn't.
So, maybe a bit of tweaking and maybe I'll try it again at some stage.
I'll be interested to hear how you guys go.
Cheers,
Andrew

 

[Bizenya]

Nice one

I've managed to find some canned US pumpkin, so when I do this brew I'm going to try with that. The US foods shop Melbourne has it in stock!!

Great to hear your is tasting better- you seemed quite defeated over it last time you posted!!

 

[Chuckie]

Yeah, I was pretty bummed. I did have a schooners of it from the keg last night and it was..........ok.
Certainly not great. Possibly not even pretty good or even good.
Just.......ok.
Ah well, live and learn.
I couldn't drink more than 1 at a go. Definitely not a session beer.
Hope the canned stuff gives you some better flavour. Could well do.
Cheers
Andrew

 

[Chuckie]

PS - in retrospect : I would keep the ABV down. Certainly not above 5%.
Also I would up the bitterness from my recipe (under this topic). Mine is definitely too sweet.

 

[TimT]

Is it a pumpkiny sweetness? The pumpkin might have some unpredictable sugars in it, I think - stuff that's more hard to ferment than malt sugars.

 

[mr_wibble]

Do you boil it with the skin on ?

 

[TimT]

I roasted my pumpkin first to get caramelisation happening, then the next day I mashed. Skin still on. If I'd been more fussy I would have removed the skin before dunking it in the mash. All the flesh seemed to dissipate during the mash anyway.

Roasting would probably be better than boiling - no chance of any starch or sugar being lost in the boil water.

It's looking very foamy now. I have a feeling this could be a very frothy heady beer (pretty much what I want, so I'm happy).

 

[r055c0]

Is it a pumpkiny sweetness? The pumpkin might have some unpredictable sugars in it, I think - stuff that's more hard to ferment than malt sugars.

Yeah, my FG was a few points higher than I expected, I even pitched more yeast (us-05) and gave it another week but the gravity didn't drop below 1.020

Edit: testing a bottle on thursday

 

[user 31093]

Yeah, my FG was a few points higher than I expected, I even pitched more yeast (us-05) and gave it another week but the gravity didn't drop below 1.020

Edit: testing a bottle on thursday

What was your mash temp?

 

[r055c0]

Around 65C

 

[user 31093]

Around 65C

Well that's not your problem.

On another note - here's the recipe that I'm considering:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/80599-a-pumpkin-ale/

 

[r055c0]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Had a go at mine last week, I was pleasantly surprised. The high FG gave it a really nice thick mouthfeel, the overwhelming flavour is the spices but you can taste some roast pumpkin there too. I made a traditional pumpkin pie last week so I could see what the yanks were on about and the beer was pretty close to that flavour. It's not a quaffer but definitely one I'll be bringing out when friends are over for dinner. [/SIZE]

 

[user 31093]

Mine's been in primary for 7 days and woah can you taste the pumpkin. It's still young and I'm not even going to think about bottling it for another 2 weeks.

I did add some more spice as I found they didn't show through at all...