Pumkin Ale

I am not a fan of spiced beers. But for some reason this year, I have a craving for a pumpkin beer. My plan is to make a delicious brown ale with a hint of spice, pumpkin, and brown sugar. I am using a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, modified to add pumpkin and brown sugar.

Paulo's Pumkin Ale:

Grain:

• 11 lb Marris Otter
• 0.5lb Aromatic (15L)
• 0.5lb Crystal (40L)
• 0.5lb Crystal (120L)
• 0.25lb Special Roast (50L)

Hops:

• Kent Goldings 7.2%AA, 60m, 1oz
• Kent Goldings 7.2%AA, 7m, 1oz (I tasted the wort during the boil and could barely detect hops, so I added some at the end)

Extras:

• Added during mash 30m:
• 29oz can Libby's Pumpkin Puree (100% pumkin)
• Added in last 1m of boil:
• 1/2tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4tsp Ginger 
• 1/8tsp Nutmeg
• 1/8tsp Allspice
• 0.5lb Dark brown sugar

Yeast:

• WLP002 English Ale

Instructions:

• Mash at 154f for 60m

Notes so far:

• I made a starter with one pint H20 and 1/2cp maltose.  I added the yeast after cooling.  I don't see bubble formation.  Usually I don't get very active yeast formation, not much bubbling, but in this case, I see none.  I've worried about the yeast in every batch of beer I've made, and they all seem to work out, so I'll just hope this one does too.  Maybe next time I'll add more than one pint of water for the starter because I lose volume during the boil.
• I wonder how much of the pumpkin and brown sugar flavor will show up in the finished beer.  I want to be careful about the spices because they can be annoying if not done subtly.  I will take Jamil's advice and add 2/3 of the spices at the end of boil.  After fermentation stops, taste the beer and add more spices if needed.  
• A friend may lend me some kegging supplies to try out.  I've never done that before, but I'm excited to actually drink my beer without the wait. Nope, they no longer have the equipment
• Next time, I shouldn't pack the hops so tightly in the hop bag.  I think I'm limiting the utilization.
• I read a different recipe that suggests roasting the pumpkin in the oven at 350f for 60m.  It will add caramel flavors.  Sounds like a great idea.  

Janet's Brown Ale: Recipe

I decided to make Janet's Brown Ale from Jamil Zainasheff's book, Brewing Classic Styles. Brown ales are my favorite type of beer, and this one looked interesting; it has lots of hops, but is hopefully balanced out with a strong malt flavor.

When looking back on the beers that I've made, there are a few things I wanted to improve. I wanted more malt character, as well as more body. According to How to Brew, you can increase the body of the beer by adding carapils to your grain bill. This recipe calls for carapils, so I wanted to see if I could tell the difference in the body. Another interesting part of the recipe is dry-hopping. I haven't done that before, and I'm curious to see how it affects the hop character, or even if I have the palate capable of tellling the difference.

Here's the recipe as written (I changed it when I was brewing to use the hops I had on hand.):

Ingredients:

12 lbs American 2-row
1.25 lbs Belgian Cara-Pils
1.25 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
1 lbs White Wheat Malt
.5 lbs American Chocolate Malt
.3 lbs Weyermann Carafa® III
1.25 oz Northern Brewer (Pellets, 8.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.
1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellets, 8.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
1.5 oz Cascade (Pellets, 4 %AA) boiled 10 min.
1.5 oz Cascade (Whole, 6.5 %AA) boiled .01 min.
2 oz Centennial (Pellets, 10.4 %AA) used as dry hop.
1 oz. Northern Brewer pellets added to the mash.
1 tsp. Whirlfloc tablet boiled for 15 minutes.
Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale info