Pumpkin Ale Plan

I'm all geared up to make some Pumpkin Ale...Ive got my grains, malt, hops, pumpkin, and yeast.  I just need to bottle the Chianti before I get started so I have the fermenter ready. 

 This is a basic recipe:

4½ lb Pumpkin
2¼ lb malt extract (Im using a light dried malt extract)
2oz dried hops (optional, but i am going to throw in about an ounce of some Hallertau)
1½lb sugar or pale dried malt extract  (Since my ex
26 pints of water
Ale yeast

My alterations to the recipe to bump it to 5gal and to fit what I have:

4½ lb Pie Pumpkin (roasted for 30min - 1hr)
6 lb malt extract (Im using a light dried malt extract)
1oz dried hops - Hallertau
1 lb briess creamy malted  red wheat (steeped, this will give me some good color and flavor too, hopefully)
1/2 lb brown sugar
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice mix
Ale yeast

This should do pretty well for a 5 gallon batch.  I may be about a pound short for the grain bill, but I am not sure.  I will have to bust out a calculator

From the research I have been doing, people usually over do it on the spices. they put in cloves, ginger, all spice, etc and use too much.  So I am just going to stick with 1 tbsp and see how it goes.

I will post some pics and whatnot when I get this going



If you have any tips on pumpkin ale, I am all ears!

Limoncello

Alright,

The first batch of Limoncello appeared to be ready to bottle. 

The color seemed to have faded out of the zest pretty well and it was smelling delicious. 

So I got to work and cooked up the simple syrup.

I used the same recipe that I used for my Limecello.

1 cup sugar to 1 cup water.  Some might think this is too sweet, but remember I'm using straight grain alcohol, not watered down vodka : )

I filtered the brew off of the zest into an amaretto bottle I had sitting around.  Recycling FTW

But there was still quite a bit of color left on the zest unfortunately....  So I think that the lemons take longer than the limes to brew.

Next time I will wait a bit over 2 weeks and check the zest better before I filter the alcohol off of them. 

The color is still amazing, and it certainly tastes delicious.  It seems to need a little something.  Probably a bit longer on the zest and maybe I will throw the zest of a lime or two in there as well next time...
I managed to get this and my Chianti going and make it out to the
beech just before sunset!!!

Saw a bunch of birds chasing a school of fish up the coast, the tide was pretty high and right on the tail of the fish was a crap ton of Tiger Sharks!  I couldnt get any good pics with my phone but they were pretty crazy!

I bottled the Limecello last night, it has a great green color and is very smooth.

Also, I am experimenting with some Limoncello now.  I just zested a dozen lemons and have them mixed with the alcohol.  I'm going to follow the same recipe that I made for the Limecello for now, to see how it turns out.  I will probably tweak it later on.

I'm pretty excited that all of the Autumn or harvest style beers are coming out in the stores now.  Finally! they are some of my favorite. 

Unfortunately, my favorite seasonal brew from Leinkugel's (their octoberfest) was already sold out!  I picked up a 12 pack of Sam Adam's Oktoberfest to satisfy my thirst.

I am planning on brewing about 5 or 6 gallons of mead.  I'm waiting on some local honey.  I'm thinking a cider would be awesome as well.

no fermentation

Well, the popcorn ale did not ferment naturally.  I tried throwing in some champange yeast to see if I could get anything going, but no luck yet.  Maybe some more time will help it out...

I just purchased a dozen limes and a dozen lemons.  Im making a batch of my Limecello and I am going to make a batch of Lemoncello while Im at it.  I'm hoping to get it started tomorrow morning before things get too busy.   I will throw some pics up here when I'm done....  just found out a micro brew is going to be built in town.  I'm a big fan of micro brews but I'm sorta jealous, I've been seriously looking into opening one myself.

rackn

The fermentation is complete and I've started to rack the experimental popcorn/malted wheat brew.  The flavors are much more subtle now (unfortunately) but it certainly has a kick.  I'm not satisfied with the taste just yet though. 

I decided to add a bit more ground cinnamon and to give it some more time to sit.  Hopefully, it will clear up some because it is still more cloudy than I want. 




I'm planning to make some gruit here soon.  Gruit is, basically, a very old style beer/ale that uses herbs other than hops to get the aroma, flavor, and bitterness that the different kinds of hops normally add.  I've done a bit of research about the herbs that were commonly used in the past, and I have some growing right now.  I need to pick some other ones up, but it sounds like it will be tasty.

I'm also planning to make a gluten free brew.  Not sure about the ingredients quite yet, but that is partially what this previous experiment was all about....using corn.  I will need to make a recipe that eliminates the malted wheat completely.  Corn and rice are two of my reasonable options.  I know that corn is often used in mash and rice has been used for thousands of years to make alcohol...so it is possible

New Pages and Content Coming!

I am adding new sections  with recipes to the blog!

I put a handful up on a new page that are small, easy to make batches that anyone can do with stuff around the house or a trip to the store and keep it under $10.  They aren't the most 'refined' or sophisticated brews but it is great to drink something you made yourself.  If you are new to brewing, they should be pretty straight forward.  If you are a Vet, experiment with your own tweaks and alterations.  Most of these brews get better with time too.

I'm not sure how exactly to organize the recipes.  I put them on a new page, but I can't edit the page well enough for what  I want to do, it just makes one big post.  Anyone have any ideas on how to make the recipes page more accessible/organized?

Another experiment

I had a bunch of of old un-popped popcorn laying around an I got to thinking....I should try to make some alcohol with it.

Im not completely sure I can get the right starches out of the popcorn without popping it first.  But I gave it a shot.

Since it was a test, I only made about a gallon of the brew, here is recipe I used:

4 qts water heated to 140F
2 1/2 C popcorn kernals
    Hold at 150-160F for 20 min
1 C red malted wheat, lightly crushed
    Hold at 150-160F for 10 min
Boil and hold for 20 min
1 C brown sugar, 2 C white sugar, 1/2lb rasins
    Boil 10 min
Remove from heat, add  ground cinnamon, vanilla extract and some almond extract.
Then pitch some yeast in there and let it sit.

I tasted the mash before adding the yeast and it tasted like liquid pumpkin pie.  I hope it holds some of that flavor after it ferments, but I am sorta doubtful.

It has been a little over 1 week and the fermentation is slowing down so I am going to rack it and give it a taste. We shall see!