Pumpkin Porter Brew Day

It has been a couple weeks since I posted.  I apologize for the delay but I took a wonderful vacation with my family.  Once I got back and settled, I started on the Pumpkin Porter that you all voted for and you can see the recipe here.  There were a couple of modifications, most notably I used 58oz of pumpkin as it came in 29oz cans.  I figured that this was close enough to the 60oz that I called for in the original recipe.  Also I was able to get some great local and organic cascade hops that I wanted to use so I substituted them in.  Here is how my bred day went.


Pumpkin Porter Brew Day

The first part of the process for me was to roast the pumpkin.  I spread the two cans of pumpkin out on a backing sheet and placed it in a 400 degree oven.  After 45 minutes of my house smelling deliciously of pumpkin I removed the pumpkin and took a look.  To be honest I was looking for more of a roast on top.  The sides and the bottom got a bit roasty but I would have liked some more.  If I was not a little pressed for time I would have put it back in on broil to increase the roasty character but I really had to get this brew done.

After the pumpkin was done I brought 2.5 gallons of water to 150 and began to steep my grains.  Thirty minutes later I had some nice dark and roasty wort that smelled fantastic.  I cranked up the heat and added my 7lbs of light malt extract slowly while stirring.  Next came the pumpkin.  This was my first time using pumpkin an I have to say it took a bit of work to get it to incorporate well.  It tended to stay all globed up.  The best method I found was to mush the globs with the back of the spoon on the side of the pot to break them up.

Once the boil started I added 1oz Kent Golding pellet hops and continued the boil for another 45 minutes.  At the 15 minute mark I added 1oz of the organic hole leaf Cascades and 1Tsp of pumpkin pie spice.  After some further reading I should have added the spice later possibly at flame out to get the most out of the spices but I can always add more in the secondary if it needs it.  The last hop addition was another 1oz of the leaf Cascades at the 5 minute mark.

The wort was chilled and transferred to the fermenter where the additional 2.5 gallons of water were waiting.  After a quick stir I pulled a sample for a gravity reading and taste.  The gravity reading came out a little higher than expected at 1.059 vs the expected value of 1.056.  I was expecting this as ibrewmaster did not adjust the gravity to account for the additional sugars in the pumpkin.  The wort tasted pretty darn good, obviously very sweet, but with a nice pumpkin and spice flavor.  I have good hopes that this will turn out pretty well and my become my annual fall beer.  I will update more on the as it progresses and let you know how it turns out.

Smoken Blond Ale Final Tasting

My Smoken Dirty Blond Ale is finally carbonated and ready for the final verdict.    After about two and a half weeks bottle conditioning I pulled one under the pretense of a carbonation test, the real reason being I just couldn't wait anymore.  The pour showed that it is mostly done carbonating, it should be fully carbonated in the next few days.  The color is still around 8 SRM although the picture on the makes it look a bit darker than it is in real life.

The Nose
This has a very traditional English ale smell.  I am not getting the vanilla aroma that I noted in the previous tasting.  There is a slight hint of the smoked malt which is pleasing but very faint.  Over all there is a very nice, lightly sweet, malt smell that mixes very nicely with the earthy hop aroma of the kent goldings.

The Taste
This is a very nicely balanced beer I am actually pretty amazed that it tastes almost nothing like it did two and a half weeks ago.  The distinct vanilla and bourbon flavors that were there when bottling are now gone.  These have been replaced with a nice balance of sweet malt and earthy hops.  The flavors that were very distinct at bottling have now blended and flow nicely from one to another.   If I had to compare it to something I would actually say it tastes like a lighter version of Newcastle.   

The Verdict
If you ask anyone they would say that I am my own worst critic especially when it comes to my beers.  Most beers I make to me are just "OK", while others say they really like them.  That being said, I really like this beer.   This one turned out well and may be my best beer to date.  It is light and easy to drink but still has a distinctive malt character that I find lacking from many lighter beers.   I will defiantly make this recipe again soon and I would encourage others to do so also.  I give this an easy 4 out of 5 stars.  The only bad thing is two cases will not last long at all.

You can find the recipe here
You can also find the previous tasting while bottling here

You Voted, I Brew

The poles are closed and all the votes have been tabulated.  The voting really came down to the wire.  It was a dog fight between the Saison and the Pumpkin ale but in the last few days of voting the Pumpkin ale pulled ahead and took home the checkered flag.

It was really fun watching and trying to formulate recipes for what ever was in the lead at the time.  I will defiantly let everyone vote on what I brew again in the future.  I hope others enjoyed it as well. I spent an hour or so formulating my recipe yesterday.  I wanted to do something a little different than your run of the mill Pumpkin ale, and with my somewhat unhealthy love affair with dark beers,  my Pumpkin Porter recipe was born.  Here is my first draft so there might be some minor changes down the road, stay tuned...

Pumpkin Porter 

Grain Bill
7.0lb Light Liquid extract
0.5lb Crystal Malt -60L
0.75lb Chocolate Malt
0.15lb Black Patent Malt
0.5lb Smoked Malt
60 oz Canned Pumpkin

Cider (Apfelwein)

After a recent discussion at my local home brew club meeting I was interested in trying my hand at making a cider.  Researching on the Internet lead me to the now fairly famous recipe for Edwort's apfelwein which can be found here.  Edworts Apfelwein 

This thread on homebrewtalk.com is very long but full of great information on many peoples experiences and recipe variations.  I have not read the thread in its entirety but I did read many pages and gathered enough information to give it a try.  I did modify the original recipe slightly based on some of the information I read and this is what I came up with.

Aaron's Edwort  Cider

2 gallons Treetop 100% apple juice (No preservatives or additives)
1 gallon Treetop Three apple 100% cider (No preservatives or additives)
5 Oz's Dextrose (priming sugar)
1 pkg Lalvin 71B-1122

Smoken' Dirty Blond Bottling and Tasting

The other night I got around to bottling my Dirty Blond, and grabbed a taste of my gravity sample.  The recipe this beer can be found here.   Here is my final haul from this batch.

I ended up a little light with approximately the volume of 45 12oz bottles.  Not too bad once you figure in trub loss and and a few gravity samples.  The Color came in right about where I wanted it, maybe just a touch darker than I had hoped.  I would estimate it came in somewhere between 7-8 SRM.  It turned out actually much clearer that I thought it would given the oats and the wheat in the recipe.  At this point is is pretty close to crystal clear.  After the bottle conditioning It may be be crystal clear by the time its ready to drink in three weeks or so.

First Mead

I have never had a mead before so after a bit of research I decided to try and make one.  I wanted to make a traditional "show" mead.  A show mead  is purely honey water and yeast with no other flavoring.  Having never tasted mead in my life I wanted to know what a true mead tasted like but my research showed that most people making mead are adding some other flavorings to it.  This made me a bit weary about making a full five gallons of "show" mead as it may be an acquired taste.  I at least wanted to make something that was drinkable so I decided to do a full five gallon batch and then split into two secondaries.  One three gallon carboy would remain a "show" mead while the other would get oak cubes apples and a vanilla bean.  Here is the recipe as I remember it...

Smoking Dirty Blond Ale

Smoking Dirty Blond Ale
My loving wife challenged me to come up with a beer that represented her for her birthday in November.  She is mostly English and Scottish, and a smoken' dirty blond. Using this for inspiration I devised a "Smoking Dirty Blond Ale".   Here is my first attempt bringing in the English and Scottish heritage along with some smoked malt in a blond.  I don't think I have heard of anything really like it so it at least should be interesting

Grain Bill
6.00 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract
0.5 lbs Smoked Malt
1.00 lb Crystal 20L
0.5 lb Flaked Oats
0.5 lb White Wheat

Hop Schedule
1.00 oz East Kent Goldings 60min
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings 15min
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings 5min