Seasonal brewing

Bottled 10/12 - pretty tasty...

Saisons in summer, pumpkin in fall. Lagers in winter, we love them all.
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This one is adapted from a pumpkin ale recipe in the Sept/Oct 2013 issue of Zymurgy. Pumpkin beers are pretty hit-or-miss, so when someone prints one they've used successfully for a decade or so, I'm willing to give it a try. I changed the adjunct sugar from a maple/honey mix to all maple, and upped the pumpkin a bit.

Batch #83
Autumnal Equinox

10 lbs Golden Promise
0.5 lb Victory
0.5 lb Crystal 60L (US)
10 oz Melanoidin
~3.75 lbs pumpkin (mix between canned and cooked fresh)

7 AAU, 60m, I used 1.2 oz 5.8% Cascade pellets

Whirlfloc, 1 tab, 10m


2 qts maple syrup (~1 3/4 lb sugars) at flame-out
1/2 Tbsp pie spice at flame-out

Safale US-05, 11.5g

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.012
ABV: 7%
IBU: ~30

Dough-in with 20qts water at room temp, direct heat with constant stirring to bring to 154F, about 1 hour ramp time. Hold there for about an hour. I batch sparged 14qts to save some time today.

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.

Sandeep's Commission

Update 4/5 - Wheaty, but the orange and coriander show well. Tastes awful with toothpaste. SG 1.008
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Sandeep asked for a Blue Moon Clone. So, I don't know, I guess this might work. I don't drink Blue Moon very often, so this might be a bit more citrus than the real deal, but as I recall there's honey and people who claim to have good clone recipes use marmalade. Also, I thought I'd use an inconspicuous high flocculating yeast to help keep the beer American and clear.

Batch #56
Cold Pressed Ham
--5lbs Ger. Pils
--3lbs White Wheat Malt
--2lbs Flaked Wheat
--4oz Munich
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--0.67oz Perle 7.5%AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--8oz Orange Blossom Honey (5min)
--fresh zest from 2 tangerines and 1 grapefruit (5min)
--2T orange marmalade (5min)
--crushed coriander (5min)
--Safale US-05
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.008
ABV: 5.75%
IBU: 15

Single infusion at 154F in 16 qts. Sparge with 17 qts at 170 to collect 7 gallons for a 90 min boil. Spices and such just a few minutes before flameout.

My First Mead

Update 12/23 - Bottled. Only got about 3/4 gallon. It's pretty tasty, so we'll see how it ages. Easy to make, so I'll probably throw in another one soon, too.
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Because why not. Based on what some people recommend as a mead to start with - Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead. And because I had the itch and was lazy. Just like any recipe, I made changes and subs based on what I had and what seemed like a good idea.

Mead Batch #01
Joe's Ancient (1 gallon)
-3lbs Mesquite Honey
-1 large navel orange
-1/4 cup dried blueberries
-1 cinnamon stick
-1 clove, whole
-dash nutmeg from grinder
-1/8 tsp Fermaid K
-1 tsp bread yeast
OG: 1.110 (calculated)
FG: 1.019
ABV: 12%
Brought a half gallon of water with yeast nutrient to a boil. Washed and cut the orange, and jammed it into my fermenter. After water boiled for a little bit, tossed in berries, spices, and killed the heat. Added the honey while heating a quart of water in a tea kettle. Used the hot kettle water to rinse out my can of honey. Let it cool off a bit, and poured everything into the fermenter. Topped off to 1 gallon with the left over kettle water. As it turns out, 3lbs of honey is dang close to 1 qt in volume and with the orange this method got me just about on the nose for volume. Let the whole mess cool to room temperature and added the yeast. I know, it makes no sense, but I'm just going to trust Joe on this one. Fermented at ambient in the dark. Waiting for mead.

I'm actually sort of excited about this. It's a lot faster than brewing, and there are a few recipes I want to try - persimmon mead, t'ej (hopped, had some at GABF...dang good stuff), chocolate mead...maybe even one that's just mead. Damn. Now I have to go to the Renaissance Festival.

Halloween!

It's October, and there are pumpkins aplenty. Two pie pumpkins are used in this bottom of the grain bucket amber (hence the odd quantities on a couple of the grains). Spice should be fairly restrained. I'll likely add a little vanilla extract at kegging.

Batch #47
Pumpkin Beer
--8.5lbs 2-Row (RAHR)
--0.5lb Crystal 75L
--2oz Brit Pale Chocolate
--6.75oz Melanoidin
--7.62oz Crystal 40L
--1 fresh pumpkin, ~3lbs pre-cooked weight (15min)
--1 fresh pumpkin, ~3lbs pre-cooked weight (mash)
--1 oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (65min)
--1 oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (20min)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (15min)
--0.75 tsp pie spice (15min)
--1 tsp vanilla extract in keg
--1/4 tsp gypsum (mash water)
--Safale US-05 Ale Yeast, 11.5g
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: ~30

Cut, cleaned, and cooked both pumpkins. Removed the skin, and mashed into a paste. Mashed one of the pumpkins and grains for 60m at 152F. Collected 7 gallons wort. Boiled for 65m (I've got my reasons...reheat time after adding pumpkin and such), adding rest of ingredients as indicated. Chilled and pitched yeast (without rehydrate).

Winter warbler

Update 11/28/08 - Bottled. It's...interesting. We'll see.
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Update 11/18/08 - Decided this should be boozier. Threw in 2 pounds of turbinado (raw) sugar. That should give the yeast something to think about now that the kraüsen is settled. I figure it's good for another 2%abv or so.
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Winter beer time! After careful consideration and some serious drinking (emphasis on serious and not on drinking), I decided to brew three beers for the coming holiday season: a nut brown, a wassail, and a raspberry brown. The inspiration for this came from three sources: a nutcracker tap handle in the works, a desire to brew a traditional holiday ale, and New Belgium Frambozen, respectively.

I started with the wassail (you know, for wassailing). Some people just spice, others claim it's a blend of brown ale and spiced cider. This is probably the longest ingredients list I've dealt with in my experience. Here's the recipe I used:

Batch #24
Winter Warbler Wassail
--7.25lb Scot. Golden Promise
--1.5lb Vienna
--0.5lb Caramunich
--0.5lb Amer. Special Roast
--2 oz British Chocolate
--8 oz Brown Sugar
--8 oz Honey (15min)
--1oz Kent Goldings 4.2%AA (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (30min)
--1/4tsp ginger
--1/4tsp nutmeg
--1/4oz sweet orange peel
--1 whole cinnamon stick
--1 whole clove
--2qts unfiltered apple juice
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--WLP005 British Ale, 1L starter
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
ABV: 7.7%ish?
IBU: 20-25

Mashed grains for ~70 minutes (forgot to start the mash-out water on time) at 154F in 3.5gal water (up to 4gal after temp adjustments). Extracted 6gal wort, mixed in brown sugar. Brought to a boil. After 15-20minutes (my timer stopped working...rargh!), added first bittering hops. I used whole hops today. Added second hops with 30 minutes to go, honey with 15, spices in a stainless steel tea ball for 5 minutes (crushed cinnamon into large pieces). After the ~75min boil, I had around 4.75gal of wort. Added the apple juice and pitched the yeast. Fermenting just under 70F. My efficiency came out to about 67%, but I'm not certain of the expected yields and need to calibrate my hydrometer (although it shouldn't be off by more than about 2 points).

It's pie time I brewed this.

Update 8/14 - Bottled. Spices are good, pumpkin flavor is a little mild. I think I'll add that a little differently for the next round. In other news, I'm done with WLP007. I don't really want a FG below 1.010. I didn't even really want that yeast, but am too impatient to wait for the Los Altos B3 shop to get the right strains in stock.
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I was advised to try brewing Old Pumpculiar, as everyone that has made it seems to love it, and I'm looking for a good pumpkin brew for the fall. So, it being August, I decided to give it a go. I figured that if this is ready by September, that gives me plenty of time to decide on changes before the Halloween edition.

Batch #18
Old Pumpculiar (with substitutions)
--8 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt
--1 lb Flaked Wheat
--2/3 lb Crystal 75L*
--8 oz Cane Sugar
--8 oz Molasses
--75 oz Canned pumpkin* (in mash)
--1 oz Glacier 6% AA (60min)*
--0.5 oz Willamette 4.6% AA (15min)*
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1 Tbs Pie spice* (15min at flameout)
--White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.006
ABV: 5.2%
Calc. IBU: 23

*Substitutions and changes. I added cloves to the pie spice because they belong there.

Mash grains and pumpkin (fresh or canned) at 153F for 60 minutes. I collected 6 gallons of wort, which makes for a slightly small batch. I'd recommend 6.5 gallons. My OG was about 10 pts low - I think due to over sparging during lauter. [I ended up making closer to 7.5 gallons of wort and not collecting all of it. The mistake: submerged hose tricked me into thinking I needed more water in the tun. So, my efficiency was low (really low...like 50-60%) unless I use the 7.5ish estimate which puts me right around 75%.]

Add hops and sugars at the appropriate times during the boil. Add the spices at flame-out and rest for 15 minutes before chilling. I used yeast from a 2L decanted starter. Good kraeusen when I checked about 10 hours after pitching.