“Nice Pumpkins” Ale

Brew Date: 11/21/11

Final Picture:

Ingredients:

• 0.5lb Chocolate Malt
• 0.5lb CaraMunich Malt
• 6.0lb Light DME
• 10.0lb Roasted Pumpkin, cubed
• 1.0oz Willamette hops, pellets, 60min
• 1.5oz Cinnamon
• 1.5oz Nutmeg
• 0.75tbsp Gelatin (fining)
• 1 vial each WLP002 and WLP051 yeasts

Recipe:

1. Scoop seeds and “insides” out of the pumpkin. Carve into 1″x1″ cubes, or as close to that size as possible, including the skin.
2. Roast at 350F for 1 hour.
3. Fill pot with 3.0 (~9L) gallons of clean water.
4. Raise the temperature to 150F. Add the pumpkin cubes and steep for 30 minutes.
5. Add the specialty grains in a muslin bag, and steep for another 30 minutes with the pumpkin still in the kettle.
6. Remove pumpkin with a sanitized strainer and sparge grains with ~1L water. Raise wort to a boil.
7. At boil, add bittering hops. Continue boiling for 60 minutes.
8. In the last 5 minutes, add spices.
9. At 0 minutes, drop in wort chiller to boil for 1 minutes and flame out. Run the wort chiller until the temperature has dropped to 75F.
10. Whirlpool the wort with a sanitized spoon and strain out cold-break material from center of kettle.
11. Add to 2.0 gallons of cold clean water to a sanitized glass carboy.
12. Decant liquor from the brewpot into the carboy, being careful to leave any remaining cold-break and hop matter in the kettle. Fill carboy to 5.0gal.
13. Pitch yeast at room temperature directly into the carboy.
14. After 2 weeks fermentation, reconstitute gelatin finings in 1cup of hot ~180F water. Add directly to carboy.

Primary Date: 11/21/11
Package Date:12/6/11
Package Type: 5-gal pin-lock keg
OG: 1.059
Fermentation Temp: 62-64 F
FG: 1.009
Final ABV: 6.1%

Aroma: Nice light caramel malt aroma, with nutmeg and allspice coming off the top. Probably could have used more cinnamon.

Appearance: Beer-bottle brown and crystal clear off the tap. Head is an off-white color with good formation and lasts a bit. No lacing on the glass.

Taste: Moderately strong malt flavor with a rich texture – probably from the roasted pumpkin. Spice comes off the back with a cinnamon and nutmeg flavor. Next time, add a little vanilla extract to create a more warming sensation. Good fermentation qualities, no phenolic or fruity characteristics, very even profile.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and velvet smooth, without being too rich. Addition of roasted pumpkin really did a great thing for this beer.