Its been sometime since I have brewed, with the birth of my child this past year I have just been so busy. My brother just built me a new three tier system, I'm dying to try it out. For my first beer in over a year and a half I decided to make a imperial pumpkin ale. Here is the recipe I stole from brew smith 9 lbs pale malt 16.0 oz of caramel malt 120l 1 lbs white wheat malt 12.0 oz biscuit malt 4.0 oz candi sugar .08 oz mt hood .02 oz mt hood American Ale Yeast. Does anyone see anything that I need to change, also when do I add the candi sugar?
What batch size is this for? I see a 6% beer coming from that grist, barely "imperial" Why so light on the hops? Are they so high AA that they will get you the necessary IBUs? Why two hop mentions? Different times? .02 late hop is going to do nothing. Candi sugar? Use table sugar. Way cheaper, but why are you adding it? The grist is all over the map. Wheat & crystal are normally viewed as thickening a body, while the sugar normally dries it out.
I got this recipe from beer smith, it had some good reviews, I guess I should of done my research first. It's a 5 gallon batch, the recipe said it would be 8.1 abv. The IBU's are projected at 24. .08 oz at 75 mins and .02 at 30 mins. I guess the candi sugar is to bump up the alcohol.
Something (more than one something) is clearly not right here. Perhaps you could post a link to the recipe.
So if I wanted to make this an imperial pumpkin ale, what should I add to my existing grain bill? I would like to keep it around 8 abv
You typed in your hops wrong on here. 0.8oz and 0.2oz are what you meant. I would just use table sugar since you are only using 4oz, unless you have candi sugar on hand. Otherwise it seems fine after looking at the link.
This part is kind of important: "Notes Take a 4lb pumpkin cut in half and place flesh side down, Bake for 60min at 350. Scoupe out, crush, and add to mash onces re-circ has stabilized. At 5min left on Boil add the following: 0.25oz Pumpkin Pie Spice .2oz Cinnimon ( .05oz Nutmeg (1/3 TeasSpoot)" It looks like the recipe is counting on about 20-25 gravity Points Per Pound Per Gallon (PPG) from the pumpkin to hit the OG/ABV targets. I don't know if that's about right for pumpkin flesh or not. But if so, you wouln't need to add any fermentables beyond what's in the recipe.
