That being said, it reminded me that I'm very grateful to have family that knows and supports my hobbies, and as the saying goes "I don't have a drinking problem, I have a brewing problem"... as weird as this sounds, I feel like they understand me in that sense. I brew for the science and knowledge, not the alcohol (although the alcohol is a nice bonus).
Now, back to the book. It's titled Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione, the owner of the Dogfish Head brewery (fantastic beers), and let me tell you, this book does not false advertise. It has some of the strangest beer recipes I've ever seen, some of which sound incredibly tasty (kiwi beer!). When I first got the book back in June I was browsing through some of the recipes and stumbled across a Pumpkin Porter. Most pumpkin beers I've tried have always been amber beers, and the question that sprung to mind was "why hasn't anyone thought of this before?"... well, commercial brews anyway. I mean, the thought of having a pumpkin beer with hints of chocolate and toastiness, it would be like drinking a pumpkin pie with chocolate whip cream! I decided right then and there that this needed to be brewed and ready to drink by the fall.
The recipes in the book are extract recipes so I had to do a little tweaking to covert it to an all-grain recipe. So here's what I came up with:
Revenge of the Pumpkin Porter
Grains/Ingredients
11 lbs Rahr
2-row
1.0 lb Crystal 120L
0.5 lbs Black Patent Malt
0.5 lbs Chocolate
Malt
30 oz Pure
Pumpkin (2 cans added to mash)
1 tsp Allspice
(added 5 min left in boil)
1 tsp Cinnamon
(added 5 min left in boil)
1 tsp Nutmeg
(added 5 min left in boil)
Hops
1.0 oz. Hallertau (60min) 3.8%
AA
1.0 oz. Cascade (20min) 6.1%
AA
0.5 oz. Hallertau (10min) 3.8%
AA
Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale (Optimum Temp: 60-72F) 2nd generation – 1000mL
yeast starter
BrewDay Stats
Style: Porter
Brewed: 8/13/11
H2O/grain ratio: 1.15 qt/lb
(Added 1 tsp of gypsum)
Mash Temp (Time): 157.1-152.4F (60min)
Mash Out Temp: 160F
1st Batch Volume: ~2 gal
Grain Absorption (gal/lb): 0.??
2nd Batch Sparge H2O
Temp/Mash Temp: ~180F/166F (Added 0.5 tsp of gypsum)
2nd Batch Volume: 4+ gal
Pre-boil Volume: 6.25 gal
Pre-boil SG: 1.0?? – calculated: 1.055
Boil Time: 60min
Post Volume Boil: 5.2 gal
Mash Efficiency: ??%
Transferred to secondary:
Skipped
Bottled: 9/22/11
OG = 1.066
IBU = 26
BU:GU = 0.39
Fermentation Temp: 68F
FG = 1.013
Apparent Attenuation = 80%
ABW(%) = 5.5%
ABV(%) = 7.0%
The brewday went well with the exception of adding the pumpkin to the mash. Pumpkins weren't in season when we brewed this beer back in August so we had Pure Pumpkin in a can as a substitute. That was a HUGE hassle draining that mash tun with pumpkin clogging the drain every minute. Everytime we got a nice steady flow the pumpkin would clog it within a couple of seconds. Oh well, live and learn. The guys at my homebrew club suggested to add rice hulls to the mash next time, so if anybody else sets out to brew this one, learn from my mistakes.
Also, I've been working on making labels for my beers since the Christmas holiday season is right around the corner. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Revenge of the Pumpkin Porter":
I'm trying to go for a constant theme between all my beers with having my main scientist stick figure (from my logo) in all the labels. This image I took a screen shot from one of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes (I <3 the Simpsons!)
Anyway, Happy Halloween everybody!
