Autumn is Ausumn

Spooky Christmas is again almost here,
so it's time once more for our favorite beer.
Brewed with four pumpkins thrown into the mash,
we'll later add spices but, please, just a dash.
A fistful of caramel and another of chocolate,
a pound of roast malt to make a sweet stout of it.
Just enough fuggles for bittering hops,
we swear that you'll scream, 'this is the tops!'

Batch #65
Pumpkin Stout
8 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb British Roasted Barley
1 lb White Wheat Malt
6 oz British 70/80°L
4 oz British Pale Chocolate
6 lbs Pumpkin flesh (cooked, smushed)
8 oz Rice hulls
1.5 lbs Molasses (10m)
4 oz Lactose, 10m
1 oz Fuggles, 5.1%AA (60m)
1 oz Fuggles, 9.2%AA (20m)
1 tsp calcium chloride (mash)
1 tab whirlfloc (10m)
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: ~25

Get up earlier than usual. Split, scrape out the seeds, and bake your pumpkins at 300F for an hour to 90m (want the skin to be a little saggy and the flesh to caramelize a bit). Pie pumpkins are best (sweet taste as opposed to just big). I had four pumpkins, weighing almost 17lbs total, to get the 6lbs of flesh (cooked weight). Once cooked, scrape out the flesh and save in a bowl for the mash.

Mashed in with 4 gal water (162F) to reach an initial infusion of 146F (difficult to calculate thanks to the pumpkin and rice hulls (pumpkin = starch, rice hulls = no stuck mash, please). Added tea kettles full of near-boiling water after 15m and 30m mash time to reach 150 and 153F, respectively. This was not my plan. I initially wanted a single infusion at 154F, but the pumpkin threw me off.

Boil 60m, adding hops and adjuncts as indicated. Cool to fermentation temp (I like 68F) and pitch yeast.

Yeasty experiments

Update 8/29 - It's all bottled now. The small batch was in bottles last week, and I finally had some time to rack the other 4 gallons today. It didn't taste sour, but the gravity sure reads like it.
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More Saisons today...this batch was split into two fermenters, ~4 gallons in one carboy, and the rest in a gallon jug. The idea is to compare WLP565 Saison with Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I also added the sugar during the boil to make less work for myself since I'll be bottling the scotch ale and making root beer this week, too.

Batch #42 (and 42.5)
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
--10.5lbs Ger. Pilsner
--1lb White Wheat Malt
--0.5lb Amer. Munich Malt (mostly, a little CaraPils to round out the half pound)
--1lb Cane Sugar (15min)
--2.25oz Hallertauer 3%AA (60min)
--0.75oz Hallertauer 3%AA (15min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--Wyeast 3711 French Saison, 1L starter (for carboy)
--WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast, vial saved from previous batch (for jug)
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.000+ (Read ~0.999, but hydrometer tube is unreliable below about 1.008)
ABV: ~8.5-9%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in 16qts at 150F, allow to fall as low as 145F over the course of 90min. Batch sparge to 7 gallons wort. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at 68F for 2-3 days, then allow to rise into mid to high 80s F.