Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale
Brewed: 09/20/2020 Kegged: 09/27/2020
 The SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife), is really a fan of pumpkin ales. In fact, the past couple of years, her whole GABF strategy was to visit breweries with pumpkin beers to try. Every year the SheppyBrew Brew Master tells himself that he should brew a pumpkin beer, but every year just runs out of Autumn time brewing other things. Finally, in 2014, he decided to finally give it a try.
It took him a fair amount of time to figure out what he wanted the base beer to be. Eventually, he decided a basic Brown Ale would be the best. The recipe uses mostly rich English malts and a higher than usual mash temperature to add a bit of perceived sweetness, balanced up just a bit with bitterness.
Canned pumpkin is grilled and then added to the mash. This should provide some fermentable sugars, but the Brew Master was unable to determine how much and so left that off the recipe. The grains themselves should bring this to a 5% AVB beer. We will have to see how much more the pumpkin adds.
If everything goes as planned, this beer should be ready to drink sometime around mid-October.

For more information about this beer on the blog, see Sheppy's Blog: Will-o-Wisp.
Will-o'-the-Wisp Ale --- Batch 6 |
Style |
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Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer |
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Batch Size |
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6.50 gal |
Type |
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All Grain |
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Boil Size |
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8.23 gal |
Brewhouse Efficiency |
|
70.00 |
|
Boil Time |
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60 minutes | Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity |
|
1.053 SG |
|
Estimated FG |
|
1.016 SG |
Recipe Bitterness |
|
27.0 IBUs (Rager) |
|
Alcohol by Volume |
|
4.9 % |
BU : GU |
|
0.508 |
|
|
|
|
Recipe Color |
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18.2 SRM |
|
|
|
|
Measured OG: |
|
1.053 |
|
Measured FG: |
|
1.016 |
ADF: |
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70 |
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Measured ABV: |
|
4.9 | Ingredients
Ingredients
Amt |
Name |
Type |
# |
%/IBU |
Volume |
3 lbs 10.0 oz |
Pumpkin (8.0 SRM) |
Adjunct |
1 |
22.1 % |
0.41 gal |
10 lbs |
Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM) |
Grain |
2 |
61.1 % |
0.78 gal |
2 lbs 8.0 oz |
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) (55.0 SRM) |
Grain |
3 |
15.3 % |
0.20 gal |
2.0 oz |
Midnight Wheat Malt (550.0 SRM) |
Grain |
4 |
0.8 % |
0.01 gal |
2.0 oz |
Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM) |
Grain |
5 |
0.8 % |
0.01 gal |
0.250 oz |
Magnum [14.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min |
Hop |
6 |
12.2 IBUs |
- |
0.750 oz |
Magnum [14.50 %] - Boil 25.0 min |
Hop |
7 |
14.8 IBUs |
- |
1.00 tsp |
Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) |
Other |
8 |
- |
- |
1.00 Items |
Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) |
Fining |
9 |
- |
- |
1.0 pkg |
SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] |
Yeast |
10 |
- |
- |
0.50 tbsp |
Pumpkin Pie Spice (Primary 2.0 weeks) |
Spice |
11 |
- |
- |
0.50 tbsp |
Pumpkin Pie Spice (Secondary 5.0 days) |
Spice |
12 |
- |
- |
0.13 oz |
Cinnamon Stick (Secondary 5.0 days) |
Spice |
13 |
- |
- |
Mash Profile
Mash Steps
Name |
Description |
Step Temperature |
Step Time |
Mash In |
Add 20.47 qt of water at 168.2 F |
156.0 F |
45 min | Batch sparge with 2 steps
(0.96gal, 4.12gal) of 168.0 F water Recipe Notes Mash grains as
directed for about 30 minutes. During this time, cook the pumpkin on a cookie
sheet on the grill low heat. After 30 minutes, add the cooked pumkin to the
mash. If this lowers temperature, add enough boiling water to get mash up to
155. Note: recipe does not take into account fermentable sugars from the
pumkin. There will be some, but I don't know how much. Boil as directed.
Cool to as close to 60 degrees as possble. Add first 1/2 tbsp of pumpkin pie
spice to fermentor with wort. Hold low temperature for first 24 - 48 hours of
fermentation, allowing to raise where it wants after that. After about a week
of fermentation, add more pumpkin pie spice. Add spice and Cinnamon Stick to
secondary fermentor and rack beer on top of this. Make a tincture with more
pumkin pie spice so that you can evaluate spicing of beer at time of bottling
and add tincture to taste.
Brewing Record
Brew Date: |
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Strike Temp: |
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Mash Temps: |
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Pre-boil OG |
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(1.047 SG) |
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Pre-boil Vol |
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(8.23 gal) |
Actual Mash Efficiency |
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Pitch Temp |
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Fermentation |
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Day 1: |
Day ... |
Day ... |
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