Harvest Pumpkin Ale

Here's a recipe that I brewed over the Labor Day weekend (I don't like the name....please post both awesome and terrible suggestions in the comments section).  This recipe is from the September/October edition of Zymurgy.  I'm really excited about this recipe!!  I've been wanting to brew a pumpkin ale for a few years and I finally found a recipe at the right time so that the brew will be ready for Halloween & Thanksgiving.  

There are a few minor differences between my recipe below and the recipe in Zymurgy.  First, the brew store I went to did not have White Labs East Coast Ale Yeast, so I substituted White Labs California Ale.  Secondly, the talented brewer who wrote the article had the ability to fine tune their mash temperature and used a protein rest at 120 degrees F during the mash (my 10 gallon orange cooler is awesome, but unfortunately only supports single temperature infusion mashing).  Lastly, this recipe can double as a Pumpkin Saison by using East Coast Yeast Saison Brasserie Blend.  I did not brew the Saison version of this recipe, but I'm tempted to brew another batch in a few weeks!

Batch Size: 6 gallons

Grains:

11.4 lbs 6-Row Pale Malt
0.75 lbs Melanoiden Malt
0.6 lbs Crystal 60
0.6 lbs Victory Malt
0.6 lbs Rice Hulls

Hops:

0.6 oz Magnum Hops - 90 minutes remaining in the boil

Other Additions:

3.6 lbs Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin (add during the mash)
1.2 lbs Maple Syrup (add at the end of the boil)
1.2 lbs Honey (add at the end of the boil)
1 tbs Pumpkin Pie Spice

Here's a look a few of my ingredients.

Yeast:

White Lab California Ale WLP 001 (Zymurgy recommended using White Labs East Coast Ale WLP 008)

Mash & Sparge:

Bring 5.8 gallons of water to a strike temperature of 168 degrees F.  While the water is heating up, add the 3.6 lbs of pumpkin to the strike water.  Stir throughly to dissolve pumpkin into the strike water.  Target mash temperature is 154 degrees F.  You might notice that the water to grain ratio is about 1.75 quarts per pound.  I normally mash at 1.33 quarts per pound.  The higher water to grain ratio will help keep the pumpkin suspended and prevent a stuck sparge.  Mash for 60 minutes.

Strike water with pumpkin

My actual strike temperature was about 172 degrees F and actual mash temperature was about 158 degrees F.

Heat 3.4 gallons of sparge water to 170 degrees F.  Due to the pumpkin, you'll want to sparge as slowly as possible to prevent a stuck sparge.  Collect wort until the grain bed settles.  This should be approximately 8 gallons of wort.

Sparging!!

Sparging in progress....cool wort color

Bring wort to a boil and boil for 90 minutes.  Add 0.6 oz of Magnum hops at the beginning of the boil.  
If I were to brew this recipe again, I would probably scale this down to five gallons instead of six gallons.  Normally, I like to brew six because it gives me some flexibility to leave some beer behind in my fermenters as I rack from one stage to the next.  Unfortunately, for this batch I had several boil overs that created somewhat of a mess.  I had about 8 gallons of wort in my 9.5 gallon pot.

Orange Boil!

At the end of the boil add the maple syrup, honey, and pumpkin pie spice.  Cool the wort to about 75 degrees F and transfer to your fermentation vessel.  Aerate wort and pitch your yeast!

If possible ferment at 68 degrees F for two weeks in your primary vessel.  Transfer this batch to your secondary fermentation vessel for a least another two weeks to help the batch clear.  Add an additional teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice when you keg or bottle.  

OG = 1.070 (my actual was 1.060, this recipe assumed an efficiency of 85%.  I usually only reach 75-80%.  This could account for the lower OG reading, but this sounds like a separate post.)
FG = 1..014
ABV = 7.4%