HALLOWHEAT!!!

THE PLAN:
Last Fall, we visited the Alchemist in Waterbury for dinner and some drinks. One of the great beers they had on tap was a pumpkin weizen. It was delicious! So, I vowed to try making one this Fall. I figured I'd go with a very light wheat base, use lots of pumpkin, and add some vanilla and ginger to the mix.

THE RECIPE:
6# Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (1st use of bulk grain purchase)
6# Wheat Malt
1# Flaked Wheat
8# pie pumpkins (de-seeded, cubed, sprinkled with brown sugar, baked @ 350 for 45 minutes)
2# butternut squash
1# acorn squash
Wyeast 3068 - Bavarian Wheat
1 Vanilla bean for secondary.

10/16 BREWDAY:
First time splitting my brew into 2 days. I mashed on Friday night (with help from my buddy Ash), sparged and collected 7 gallons, threw blankets over the kettle, then boiled, cleaned, chilled, and pitched on Saturday morning. Seemed to go fine!
So this was a "fun" batch... first I had a mess dealing with my now defunct grain mill; had to have a friend bring his over (thanks Matt). I was also using a new malt for the first time, which may have contributed to some low gravity numbers... but also could have been from missing a couple mash temps.
Planned a 3 step mash:
Protein rest at 122 for 30 minutes
Sacch rest at 154 for 30 minutes (ended up about 148)
Mash out at 168 for 10 minutes (ended up about 160+/-)
Sparge at 168 (low sparge #'s)
Pre-boil gravity at 70% efficiency was supposed to be about 1.069, mine was 1.059
Second day went well... wort was at ~119F the next morning, only took about 45 minutes for it to start boiling. Simultaneously, Jen and I prepped the squash and roasted it in the over for about 45 minutes before adding it to the boil. After doing so, I boiled for an additional 45 minutes (90 total). I had added an ounce of Hallertau at 60 minutes, and left it alone after that. Whirlpooled and racked about 5.5 gallons into primary, shook for 60 seconds, then added the yeast slurry. I took great care in trying to keep the fermenting temp right at 62 the whole time. It did creep up to 66 or maybe 68... but not for long. Once I saw that, I soaked a towell in cold water and wrapped it around the carboy. It brought the temp down to 62 and stayed there the remainder of its time in primary.

10/24 - RACK TO 2ND/Vanilla Addition:
First I minced 1 vanilla bean ($0.79 @ Healthy Living) and stuck it in the freezer for awhile, then threw it in the secondary fermenter and racked 5 full gallons on top of it.
Gravity was a little hard to read, but was somewhere around 6.75 Brix/1.009. Interesting that my OG was 10 points lower than the estimate, and the FG was 10 points lower as well.
I had a taste of it... the main things that caught my attention were 1) not much pumpkin flavor at all :-S 2) I'm noticing the same type of astringent presence that was in my brown ale, and others from early this year... which I attributed to my water. I know that this was the first time I used tap water since purchasing the new water filter. I really hope it's just my imagination. That would suck.
Planning on leaving it on the vanilla bean for 5-7 days. Then I'll bottle it. Can't wait. It'll be about 2 weeks late, but oh well. I should really try to have my pumpkin ales done for the Fall (September/October). This one won't be ready until mid-November... barely in time for Thanksgiving.

11/3 CHECK IN:
This puppy's been on the vanilla for about 10 days, and is ready to be bottled, so I got everything ready to bottle and found I had less than a 1/2 cup priming sugar, so I'll need to pick more up and bottle tonight or Friday night. Gravity was at 4.75 Brix/0.997 which does not seem right. I'm going to double check it against a hydrometer reading tonight. Smelled like a wheat, no pumpkin aromas noticeable. Tasted very much like a weizen, no pumpkin, vanilla came through nicely in the finish - just the right amount. Also had a strange kind of pop rocks taste to it... almost like a seltzer or champagne... which I'm sure will go away with priming in bottles. Debating about adding some pumpkin pie spice or throwing some canned pumpkin in for an extra day or two. Really want the pumpkin flavor in there balancing with the wheat.