It's Pumpkin Time

Boo-zers! It is that time again... this year's hop harvests are wrapping up and the pumpkin harvest is beginning to crank up! But what to do with all that pumpkin... make some ale! The first ale that yours truly ever brewed was a pumpkin ale, and it is still a seasonal favorite, and not just because of my love affair with the Great Pumpkin.

This season, I am rising the Great one up from the patch with four different batches of pumpkin ale, just so he knows I've been patiently brewing and waiting for him all year long.

With that said, allow me to discuss with you some things that, to me, make the distinction between optimum red-faced pumpkin madness and just your regular old boozehoundery.

First and foremost: USE REAL PUMPKIN!
Disturbingly often, one will hear of people trying to get away with making a pumpkin ale that contains 0.00% pumpkin, and instead creating the flavor of a pumpkin ale with spices only. A few notable benefits of using real pumpkin include: higher alcohol content, thicker texture that is characteristic of a fine pumpkin ale, and extra badass points for using big vegetables in your boil.

I've spoken with some brewers who are afraid to use pumpkin because of all the mess it makes, and thus, don't know how to use it. Thus, here's a quick run-through of how to do it right:

a) Get pumpkins: small sugar pumpkins are best, but a medium size like the one pictured furthest to the right will do as well

b) cut into halves, remove seeds and guts
(optional) add pumpkin pie spice

c) bake skin-side-up on 375F for ~90min.
The flesh should be cooked now. Take it out
and remove the skin and the stem. Now, add
it to your beer when you start boiling*

*Boiling your pumpkin for 60 minutes is pretty standard, but you will lose all the pumpkin flavor and gain all its fermentable sugars and the thick texture. I have heard of people adding pumpkin at the last minute for flavor, but I cannot speak in favor if this latter technique.

With that out of the way, let us now delve into the rest of what makes a pumpkin beer unique... the spices!

Typical pumpkin beers include such spices as cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. I'm always experimenting with when and how much, but generally using 1-2 tsp (per 5gal of beer) of your preference of spices in the flavoring-aroma stages of the boil (30-10 minutes left). Adding a dash of vanilla extract at bottling is also occasionally done, I'll be trying this for the first time soon. I have heard of people adding powdered lactose (non-fermentable milk sugars) after fermentation ends as well, to really thicken up the flavor, but I just don't have the heart to do it. Ultimately, it's a matter of pumpkin-y preference, so do what sounds the most delicious to you!

That is all of my gourd-derived wisdom for you libation-lovers today. Spend this October and Halloween drinking pumpkin ales and getting into drunken mischief; may the Great Pumpkin be with you!

Infernally fermenting,
Mr. Beerd

[primary: Palouse Pumpkin Porter]
[secondary: Big-Ass Pumpkin Beer]
[tap 1: Rye Pale Ale]
[tap 2: The Great Pumpkin's Ale]

Redfacery Post #101; A New Introduction

Greetings boozers!

Mr. Redface has graciously invited me to write guest columns on beer and brewing. My designated mission is to share my adventures in home brewing with you, the debaucherous public. Hopefully, my experiences honing the art can serve to better inform you drunks on the other end of the boozing spectrum, where all the ingredients are mixed into your drink weeks (or months) prior to intoxication.

In future posts, you can expect to read about experimental brews I'm testing out as well as tips on improving your batches. I will also use this blog to document progress on larger brewing projects that I'm working on (coming this winter... my switch to all-grain & increasing my batch volumes; coming this spring... building a fermentation chamber).

I look forward to pouring you the bubbly, carbonated knowledge for which you are all thirsting. I will leave you for this time with a few photos of my most recently finished project...

After four long years of washing and cleaning bottles, I recently made the jump to investing in a kegging system.

This is a look into the mini-fridge.

In order to fit the kegs, the freezer
compartment had to be bent down
and into the back of the fridge, and
some plastic and insulation had to
be cut and removed.

This is the business end: the CO2 regulator, tank, and gas lines.

The fruits of my labor, my very first homebrew pint on tap!

A rye pale ale, it pours perfectly and tastes like
you could drink a dozen and still crave more.

Brew On!

Mr. Beerd

[Primary: The Great Pumpkin Ale]
[Secondary: empty]
[Bottles to drink: G13 Ginger beer, Copper ale, Slamboom Imperial Stout]
[On tap: Rye pale ale]