Great Pumpkin Ale 2011 Recipe

I brewed this beer tonight.  I wasn’t planning to brew a pumpkin beer, which would have broken my streak, but I didn’t have ingredients to brew what I was planning to brew next.  Ever since the second year I started brewing, I’ve brewed a pumpkin ale.  It started when I was still brewing with a Mr. Beer kit and found a recipe for it.  At the time, there weren’t many commercial pumpkin beers (the only one I could find at the time was Buffalo Bill’s).  Ever since then, I’ve brewed my Great Pumpkin ale every year (and actually brewed a porter or stout version as well the last couple years).  The recipe usually varies, depending upon what ingredients I have at hand, however, some things never change – like adding pureed pumpkin and spices both after the boil and in the secondary.

Oktoberfest is Lagering

Last weekend I brewed an Oktoberfest and get to try out my chest freezer for the lagering process.  Unfortunately, the first smack pack of Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager yeast I had didn’t really seem to take off.  So I ordered a second one, which arrived on Thursday.  After smacking that one, it swelled up and I pitched it that night.  Now, two days later, there are some obvious signs of the fermentation process.

For the chest freezer, I picked up a Ranco temperature controller on Ebay for around $50 and used an old extension cord to wire it up.  At the last homebrewers club meeting, someone suggested putting the element in a bucket of water to simulate what the liquid temperature would be in the carboy.  It worked perfectly.  As the chest freezer turns on and off, and there’s a cooling element on the floor of the freezer, I thought it might be doubly good to put down the towel – to catch the condensation and keep the carboys from being in direct contact with the floor of the freezer.

My hope is to lager the beer in the cooler for 2-3 weeks, transfer it to new carboys, give it a diacetyl rest for a week, and transfer it into kegs for lagering for a couple weeks.

St. Louis Mini Micro Brew Tour

This past weekend, I visited St. Louis and got to play a couple of rounds of golf and visit several microbreweries. As you can imagine, a very fun and relaxing weekend was had. On Friday evening, our first stop was The Stable, a somewhat new brewpub and microbrewery in the old stables of the Lemp Brewery (almost across the street from A-B). Looking at their brew system, it looks like they’re just getting started brewing their own and it looked like it was about a 20-25 gallon brew system. Despite only having one of their beers on tap – the Marzen, which was quite good – they did carry quite a nice selection of local and regional brews on tap. I was able to try another newer nearby brewery’s beer, which was recommended by my friend – Charleville Brewery‘s Hoptimistic. Our next stop was Mattingly Brewing Company, where I had the brown ale and their tripel. Both were pretty good. Our next stop for the evening was Square One Brewery in Lafayette Square. I had the IPA from the cask and their Single Malt Scotch Ale. Not bad, but both seemed a little on the light side. We stopped at Randall’s to pick up some bottles to go, and I got some of Charleville’s Hoptimistic and Amber Ale, some Schlafly APA, Racer 5 IPA, and some of Avery’s Maharaja. Our last stop of the evening, was the Cabin Inn at the City Museum – not a microbrewery, but a unique bar where we could get Schlafly.

Saturday was an early tee time at Tapawingo National Golf Course, but we finished in perfect time to enjoy lunch at Schlafly’s Bottleworks. There, I enjoyed their Helles Summer Lager and their Export IPA… both very good. The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent laying by the rooftop pool watching the activity at the City Museum and enjoying some of my homebrews. Sunday was a rough morning, but we managed to get in a round at Annbriar Golf Course before I headed home.

A great weekend, which I can’t wait to repeat again soon!

Brewed a Pumpkin Porter

Finding the time to brew (and do other household projects) has been tougher and tougher, especially now that our 1 year old daughter is mobile (and loves to climb). Keeping an eye on our 1 and 3 year old has forced me to start brewing in the evening until late into the night (or morning). Well, Sunday night I got a chance to brew a pumpkin porter. I’ll post the recipe here shortly, but it was based on one I found in Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head.. I was just happy to brew again after about a 8 week hiatus.

1 gallon of water
60 oz of pure Libby’s pumpkin
Boiled it for 20 minutes
Let sit for 2 hours (not by choice, the kids were acting up)
Added 1 gallon of water
Brought to 156 degrees and added crushed grains in grain bag:
1 lb Briess Chocolate Malt – 6-row Lovibond 350
1.5 lb Briess 2-row Pale Malt Lovibond 1.5
Added 2 tsp of gypsum
Maintained the heat between 153 – 157 degrees for about 45 minutes
Removed the grain bag and strained some of the pumpkin out (as best I could)
Added 4 gallons more water and brought to a boil and added
1 oz Kent Goldings (product of UK) pellet hops A.A. 4.8%
Boiled for 40 minutes, then added
3 lbs Muntons Plain Amber Dry Malt Extract (color 20 EBC)
3.3 lbs Muntons Light Liquid Malt Extract (color 8-12 EBC)
.5 lbs of Lactose
1 oz Ken Goldings (product of USA) pellet hops A.A. 4.5%
2 tsp of Irish Moss
Boiled for 10 more minutes and added
.5 oz Cascade pellet hops A.A. 6.3%
.5 lb corn sugar
1 tsp Allspice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
Boiled for 10 more minutes and removed from heat.
It cooled down slowly over 24 hours.
Original Gravity = 1.074
Shook the carboy vigorously and added Coopers Dry Ale Yeast – 7.5 grams

It started fermenting today, so I’ll try and keep you updated on its progress. I’m still debating adding 15 oz. more of pumpkin and 1/4 teaspoon of each of the spices to the secondary. Your thoughts?

Brewed a Pale Ale

I brewed a Pale Ale this past weekend. It might be close to an IPA, but I’m not sure. Here’s the recipe…

Steeped .5 lb of Crystal 40L for 24 hours in 5.75 gallons of hot water from the tap
Brought up to 155F and let sit at that temp for 30 min.
Brought to a boil and removed grains.
1 oz. Cascade hops A.A. 6.3%
Boiled for 30 min.
.5 oz. Cascade hops A.A. 6.3%
2 cups of corn sugar
2 cans of Alexanders Sun Country Pale Malt Extract
1 tsp Irish Moss
Boiled for 15 min.
.5 oz. Cascade hops A.A. 6.3% Boiled for 10 min.
.5 oz. Cascade hops A.A. 6.3%
Boiled for 5 min. and removed from heat
Cooled the wort and added Muntons Gold yeast at around 79F
Gravity = 1.066

I’m planning on dry hopping (my first experiment with dry hopping) with .5 oz. Cascade hops A.A. 6.3% after a week in the primary and let sit for another week in the primary before transferring over to the secondary. Again, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Moved Hefe to Secondary

Last week was busy and I had a wedding this past weekend, so I finally moved the hefeweizen over to the secondary after 2 weeks in the primary. Again, I’m experimenting a little… I went to a local flea market and bought a 5 gal. carboy for $6. This allowed me to split the 6 gallons into 2 carboys – 1 with 2.5 gal. and one with 3.5 gal. In the secondary carboy with 2.5 gallons, I added 1 can of Oregon red raspberries with juice to make a raspberry hefeweizen. Again, I’ll let you know how it turns out when I bottle it in a week.

I’ve already purchased the ingredients to brew an IPA this weekend… This is partly because of my excitment that my local homebrew shop finally has a new supply of hops. I bought several packs of Cascade hops for my upcoming IPA recipe. I’ll post the recipe next week after I brew.

Moved Hefe to the Secondary

Last week was busy and I had a wedding this past weekend, so I finally moved the hefeweizen over to the secondary after 2 weeks in the primary. Again, I’m experimenting a little… I went to a local flea market and bought a 5 gal. carboy for $6. This allowed me to split the 6 gallons into 2 carboys – 1 with 2.5 gal. and one with 3.5 gal. In the secondary carboy with 2.5 gallons, I added 1 can of Oregon red raspberries with juice to make a raspberry hefeweizen. Again, I’ll let you know how it turns out when I bottle it in a week.

I’ve already purchased the ingredients to brew an IPA this weekend… This is partly because of my excitment that my local homebrew shop finally has a new supply of hops. I bought several packs of Cascade hops for my upcoming IPA recipe. I’ll post the recipe next week after I brew.