KEG's Pumpkin Pie Ale Rev. 1

[KEG]

Coopers Bavarian Lager Kit (23.5IBU)
1kg Coopers BE2
200g Treacle
150g LDME
100g Dark Brown Sugar
200g CaraMunich Grain, steeped
100g Carafa I, steeped
50g Carafa III, steeped
10g Saaz 2.5% AA, 20 Minutes
20g Saaz 2.5% AA, 5 Minutes
Approx 1kg Pumpkin, Roasted then mashed in steep grain
Approx 1.5 teaspoons 50/50 mix of Nutmeg and Allspice
Half a vanilla bean
2 cinnamon sticks
Safbrew T-58 Belgian Ale Yeast 11.5g packet

Roasted pumpkin til soft and darkened on edges. Put spices and grain in hot water, maintaining approx 60c. Put pumpkin in water, squashed with potato masher til no large pieces left. Left to steep 1hr. Strained, boiled wort with BE2, sugar, malt etc (transferred vanilla bean from grain strainings into wort). Coopers can added cold to fermenter with hot wort concentrate; topped to 20L. Yeast pitched. Problems: Sugar/BE2/Malt/Treacle mixture boiled over, lost roughly 30%. Also when pouring boiled wort concentrate into fermenter, lost roughly 5%. Also overfilled from 20L to 22L. Is going to be a mild pumpkin ale!

Pitched yeast last night, today it's got the airlock bubbling away more vigorously than i've ever seen.

All disasters aside, hoping this'll be a good one, even if it IS likely to come out below 4%

[timmy]

mmmm - looks nice.

There is a 'Pumpkin Porter' in the 'Extreme Brewing' book that follows much the same lines, but is all-extract. And he doesn't roast it, but roasting would make it heaps better IMO.

[Trough Lolly]

nice....but perhaps it's more like a pumpkin schwartzbier?

Cheers,
TL

[KEG]

well it is a bit dark lol.

i just make up recipes with what i think will taste good. i don't follow style guidelines, i'd rather be a bit more free to create my own.

by the way - i pitched the yeast thursday night - by saturday morning it had reached an FG of 1010 already, which it has remained stable at. quickest ferment ever.

[Trough Lolly]

A low/dry FG with the Saaz should make it quite a nice summer quencher!

[KEG]

notes from my brewing spreadsheet:

6/1/08: Spices a bit strong, nutmeg in particular. Probably would have mellowed with age, but it seems as though the beer would mellow to blandness – no strong backbone. Boiled 2kg of LDME, cooled in sink of ice then freezer, then added to beer, trying to minimise splashing. Increased volume to 25L. Expected ABV of around 7% now.

when I racked it, I added an extra ½ Vanilla Bean, 1tsp Cinnamon, ½tsp Nutmeg, ½tsp Allspice.

I've been storing this one in a cube, letting it age in bulk - my brewing spreadsheet tells me it's been in the fermenters for a total of 164 days

i filled a Cooper's PET bottle today, and used my "ball-lock to PET bottle" adapter to carbonate it. Didn't bother chilling it (cool weather here), but served it in a frozen glass... my goodness, it's good. you can tell it's a strong ale, but it's so mellow, the spices blend in well. no individual flavour overpowers it, it's very well balanced. can tell it's made with T-58, too - it's got that signature flavour. the pumpkin is not really apparent, but it's given it something... a kind of silkyness?

glad i didn't add any bittering hops; the bitterness from the kit can is quite sufficient when the spices are there as well.

i don't know what everyone elses' pumpkin pie ales have turned out like all over the world; i get the impression they're more average-alcohol pale ales, not darker stronger ales; but i'm very happy with this.