Spiced Punkin Ale-Brewed 10/14

Howdy! Well after a fairly long break from brewing which included the Chicago Marathon, a few trips out of town, a puppy been spayed, going to work.....well you get it..just life stuff. Which is no excuse to stop brewing for 1.5 months! Wont let it happen again as I'll be doing 3 batches in as many weeks (1 cider, 2 Belgium ales). And to warm up for this brewing activity last week I got our 2 bedroom Chicago apartment smelling of hops, malts, and pumpkin.

After trying various seasonal pumpkin ales (and a few lagers) over the years I decided that it would be fun to give my own a shot. This is an all grain batch which incorporated just 4 lbs of roasted pumpkin and a smidgen of spice to give it that pumpkin pie like aroma and taste.

The brew day started a bit late as I didn't get the mash water heated up until 8am, but I was able to have it into its primary fermenter by 2pm, which put me right under 6 hours..cant complain about that.

Pitched with Wyeast 1056 (American pale ale yeast) this ale took off extremely quickly, take a look at the flocculation going on here:

After 1 week in primary I have racked over to secondary and have found that the taste leaves something to be desired for, the spice is barely present and I do notice that it is a little hotter than I would like for this brew, a hint of hot alcohol at first tasting which is covering up the pumpkin pie like flavor I'm looking for, I feel I can likely explain this easily by pointing at my mash temp of 148 (153 at mash in), I missed my temp but could not bring it up so I just rolled with it, coupled with a 90 minute mash this batch was way too fermentable..

Hopefully this brew will be a little more well rounded when I bring it out of secondary this coming weekend for bottling, and if not I'll be willing to let it age for a few weeks before it goes into my "cellar" for next year and/or xmas time.

Fermentables:

Grain:
-10 lbs 2 Row
-.516 lbs Caramel 20L
-1 lbs Caramel 120L
-.10 lbs Belgium Biscuit

Other:
-1 lbs Brown Sugar
-1 can organic canned pumpkin
-3 lbs cubed pie pumpkin, roasted in 350 degree oven for 1.25 hours.

Hops:
Bittering: Start of 90 minute boil.
-1 oz German Tettnanger (4.6% AA)
-.25 oz Amarillo (8.6% AA) **added for a little additional bittering over the German T.)

Flavoring: 15 minutes to flame out.
-1oz German Tettnanger (2.7% AA)

Aroma: 5 minutes to flame out.
.25oz German Tettnanger (2.7% AA)

Spice/Herbs: Added at 5 minutes to flame out.
.5 tsp All Spice
.75 tsp freshly grated Cinnamon
.5 tsp Nutmeg
1 Vanilla Bean, scraped.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056-American Pale Ale.

Other:
Irish Moss-added at 10 minutes to flame out.

Stats:
Mashed for 90 minutes
-154F at mash in.
-148F at mash out.
-Sparged with 3.75 gallons at 170F
-90 minute boil.
-Final volume: 4.5 gallons.

OG-1.060

Primary Fermentation notes:
-Temp Started at 68F and held for the first two days, temp gradually elevated to 76F at time of racking to secondary (10/21).
-Tasting of brew at racking to secondary, slight spice and pumpkin aroma/taste, slight hot alcohol bite.

Tasting Notes:
1 week in primary-harsh alcohol notes, little to no pumpkin or spice notes.

-After 1 week in Secondary (2 weeks total): Tastes really great! Slight alcohol harshness, but the additional spices really have come through as has the pumpkin taste-not too heavy but very nice. My hopes with this one are renewed, looking forward to tasting after its been in the bottle for a few weeks.