Pumpkin Mild Ale Recipe Critique

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by nathanjohnson, Aug 7, 2012.

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  1. nathanjohnson

    nathanjohnson Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2007 Vermont

    My wife and I have a (new) tradition that she makes a beer idea/style request and I brew it for our anniversary. This year she requested a pumpkin mild. I recently brewed Orfy's mild, and loved it, but I'm looking to change it up a bit. Goal (this is for you, HB42): Malty, with some toffee, biscuity notes, and underlying chocolate-roastiness, with some squash and spice, mostly spice of course.

    Mischief Night looks like this so far:
    5.5 lbs Crisp Maris Otter
    1.0 lbs Crystal 60
    6 ounces Victory malt
    4 ounces pale chocolate
    2 15-oz cans of organic pureed pumpkin in the mash
    ~OG of 1.036

    ~20 ibus with magnum. I'll add use pumpkin pie spice at FO. I'm still working on the amount of spice to add.

    Any ideas, thoughts? Thanks.
     
    #1 nathanjohnson, Aug 7, 2012
    Thorpe429 and Eriktheipaman like this.
  2. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    Mostly great. I'd roast the pumpkin puree to get some caramelization and melanoidins and go *very* easy on the PP spice. I'm going in the other direction, gonna make a pumpkin weizenbock in Oct.
     
    #2 skivtjerry, Aug 8, 2012
  3. nathanjohnson

    nathanjohnson Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2007 Vermont

    Thanks Jerry. I'll definitely roast the pumpkin. The weizenbock sounds great. I'm impressed with the number of styles that can be pumpkin-ized. My pumpkin sour fermented with East Coast Yeast Bugfarm 5 is almost ready to bottle and is tasting awesome.
     
    #3 nathanjohnson, Aug 8, 2012
  4. Jefeipa

    Jefeipa Initiate (0) May 6, 2009 Arizona

    Jerry I'm doing something close to weizenbock. I'm going to brew a pumpkin dunkelweizen.
     
    #4 Jefeipa, Aug 8, 2012
  5. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    Sounds excellent! I'm planning an imperialized version of the Alchemist's Uncle Daddy pumpkin weizen... tentative name is "Uncle Daddy's Mama". I will go slightly darker than Uncle Daddy though.
     
    #5 skivtjerry, Aug 9, 2012
  6. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    I forgot to ask: what yeast? Ringwood might be interesting with pumpkin and spice but WY1968 is probably safer.
     
    #6 skivtjerry, Aug 9, 2012
  7. nathanjohnson

    nathanjohnson Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2007 Vermont

    Damn you, now you've got me missing the non-HT brews, like pappy''s, sterk wit, and holy cow. I really liked the uncle daddy as a hefe, really disliked the saison version.
     
    #7 nathanjohnson, Aug 9, 2012
  8. nathanjohnson

    nathanjohnson Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2007 Vermont

    Harvested Nottingham from my AK, a pale mild from 1911.
     
    #8 nathanjohnson, Aug 9, 2012
  9. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    I'm definitely thinking the hefe version. I was going to do this last year and leave a few bottles on John's doorstep, with snarky labels but Irene intervened (time out to cry a little).
     
    #9 skivtjerry, Aug 9, 2012
  10. skivtjerry

    skivtjerry Pooh-Bah (1,865) Mar 10, 2006 Vermont
    Pooh-Bah

    How viable is 101 year old yeast?:slight_smile:
     
    #10 skivtjerry, Aug 9, 2012
    nathanjohnson likes this.
  11. BedetheVenerable

    BedetheVenerable Initiate (0) Sep 5, 2008 Missouri

    First of all, the anniversary challenge w/your wife is an awesome idea. My wife and I just decided to try to do a slightly dift. recipe for a Belgian Dark Strong every year for our anniversary (Chimay Blue was the first 'real' beer that really got her hooked). Also, the idea of a pumpkin mild is AWESOME!
     
    #11 BedetheVenerable, Aug 9, 2012
  12. Ilanko

    Ilanko Initiate (0) Aug 3, 2012 New York

    Nathanjohnson happy anniversary, we're celebrating our anniversary tomorrow.
    Please share the Orfy's mild recipe.
    Thanks
     
    #12 Ilanko, Aug 9, 2012
  13. nathanjohnson

    nathanjohnson Initiate (0) Aug 5, 2007 Vermont

    Thanks dude. The idea for the pumpkin mild was all her. It is literally the least I can do, considering she puts up with the constant brewing caused messes, two chest freezers, brewstand, kegs, etc, plus she helps me on bottling days.

    Thanks. Here's a link to the recipe, and lots of reviews: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/mild-mannered-ale-ag-e-uk-us-52776/
     
    #13 nathanjohnson, Aug 9, 2012
  14. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    I recommend adding spice to taste at bottling as an alcohol-extracted tincture (e.g. vodka). Add to taste, on a small scale to figure out how much you want and then scale up. I've liked some spiced beers that I have had, but I really screwed up the spicing on a pumpkin ale by guessing. I was left with 2 cases of cooking beer.
     
    #14 pweis909, Aug 9, 2012
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