So I had this idea to make a pumpkin brown... I did some searching online for some recipes, and one of the ones was a pumpkin porter. I printed it out way back in 2003, but it wasn't until this year (2009), 6 years later, that I pulled it to use it as a base recipe. Well to my surprise, I knew the author. I couldn't believe it, so funny. Anyways, I changed a few things around from his original version... and my pumpkin brown ended up becoming a pretty damn good pumpkin stout.
THE RECIPE:
OG 1.050 (estimated)
FG 1.018
6.6# Pale LME
1# Choc Malt
1/2# Victory Malt
1/4# Crystal 10L
1/4# Crystal 40L
1/4# Crystal 60L
1/4# Crystal 80L
2/3 oz EKG (60 min)
2/3 oz Homegrown Tettnang (60 min)
1/3 oz EKG (15 min)
1/3 oz Homegrown Tettnang (15 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss
Pumpkin Mix: (baked @ 350F for 45 min prior to boil)
45 oz canned pumpkin
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 c. Brown Sugar
8/16 BREWDAY:
I made a yeast slurry on 8/15, and put on stir plate for 24 hours. Started brewday off with making pumpkin mix and put it in the over @ 350 for 45 minutes. I also added the specialty grains to the water and started raising the temp to 150F.
8/26 RACKED TO SECONDARY:
Racked 4.5 gallons to secondary. Gravity =1.014. Bitterness was gone, pumpkin aroma & taste was hardly noticeable Tasted very much like a porter. Added another 1 T of pumpkin pie spice.
9/18 BOTTLED:
Dark, looks pretty clear, spicey aroma, enticing, tastes pretty good, only better with bottling!
10/16 BEER TASTING:
Decided to pull a bottle out and try it at our Fall beer tasting. And although it poured a little flat, I had everyone try it, and there were mixed opinions of which people liked better... my pumpkin ale or my pumpkin stout, but everyone enjoyed both. Two particular people that attended, Ernie & Paul, were a beer judge and local micro brewer (respectively). They both thought this would do well with some aging.
10/1 SECOND TASTING:
Ahh... nice tan frothy head this time. Almost all pumpkin flavor has been masked by malts. Definitely needs some more time.
10/30: Took a 22 oz bottle to Cape Ann Brewing Co. I tasted their Pumpkin Stout for the first time and I really couldn't believe how close mine was. Jen and I brought home a growler of it, and did a blind taste test to each other. We both got them wrong, we really couldn't tell them apart. I asked the guys at Cape Ann to write to me with a review, even upon asking again they didn't send anything. :-(
5/1 HOMEBREW COMP: So I had two 22oz bottles left and I decided to enter one of them into the local homebrew competition. Glad I did because it placed 3rd in category 21A, the Spice, Herb, and Vegetable Beer category! Attached below are two judges scoresheets/comments. I still have 1 bottle left and plan to open when I brew it again this summer.
