Saturday was a big day for me. Not only did I bottle my Weizen, but I also brewed two batches of beer with help from my friend Rob!
Rob Morrison doesn't like his picture taken. He's not giving me the peace sign.
So, we started with the Chocolate Stout. Here is the recipe I followed (based off of Rogue’s Chocolate Stout):
1.5lb two row
7lbs liquid extract
.5lbs 120L crystal malt
.5lbs chocolate malt
.5lbs rolled oats
3oz roasted barley
1.5oz chocolate extract (in secondary)
1oz Cascade (90 min)
1oz Cascade (60 min)
1oz Cascade (30 min
1oz cascade (0 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss
The recipe calls for BrewTek California Pub Ale (CL-50), but I felt cheap and got some Safale US-05 instead.
Safale US-05 Yeast
So, mashed the grains for 60 minutes at 150 degrees. Sparged them with about a gallon and a half of 170 degree water, then onto the wort boiling and the hop additions.
Chocolate Stout Ingredients
Mashing the Grains
Sparging my chocolate stout
Now, a funny thing happened. I finished the boil and suddenly realized that I forgot to add the malt extract. Oops! So, I added it at the end. We then strained the hops out of the beer and transferred it to the fermenter. Now on to the pumpkin ale!
The pumpkin ale is based off of Papazian’s Cucurbito Pepo (Pumpkin) Ale recipe. I was going to try to find a really good quality pie pumpkin for it, but ended up settling for one out of the pile of carving pumpkins at Fred Meyers. I hope that doesn’t screw up the flavor too much.
Pumpkin after roasting in the oven
Mashed up pumpkin guts
My beautiful wife helping me!
So, I roasted the pumpkin, mashed it up in a blender, with the help of my wonderful and amazing wife Tracy Gorley. Then it was time to brew.
Pumpkin Ale Ingredients
Here is the recipe for those inclined to repeat this:
7lbs extra light dry liquid malt extract
1.5 lb Pilsener malt
1 lb Crystal/Caramel malt (20-40 Lovibond)
7 – 10 lb whole pumpkin (I used just under 10lbs!)
1.5 oz Willamette whole hops (at 75-90 minutes): 10 HBU
1/2 oz (14.2 g) Cascade hops (at 75-90 minutes): 2.5 HBU
1 oz (28.4 g) Goldings hops (at 0 minutes) (aroma)
1 tsp (4.7 g) ground cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, chopped
1/2 tsp (2.3 g) freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1.2 g) ground allspice
1/2 tsp (2.3 g) ground dried ginger
1/4 tsp (1.2 g) powdered Irish moss
2 packages of liquid ale yeast, or dry yeast, or an equivalent yeast starter (I used Safale US-05)
I modified the recipe by using liquid malt extract plus I lowered the Willamette hops.
So, I mashed my grains along with the pumpkin mash, then sparged them. The sparging was slow due to the pumpkin pulp slowing up the run off.
Sparging Pumpkins, er, Pumpkin Ale
I then boiled the wort, adding the liquid malt extract this time. At 90 minutes came my first hop addition. With 10 minutes left I added cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, vanilla and Irish moss and continued boiling 10 more minutes. Then I added my aroma hops, waited a few minutes, then strained out the pumpkin and hops.
Pumpkin guts mixed with hops is not a pretty sight!
Pumpkin pulp mixed with hop pellets
So, with both beers cooling in fermenters, I waited till Sunday after church to pitch the yeast. For the pumpkin ale, I sanitized a 22oz bottle put some corn sugar and water in it, then put two packets of yeast in, covering it with a cloth soaked in sanitizer solution. I did the same with the single yeast packet, except no bottle- just a sanitized cup.
I aerated and pitched the yeast in the stout first, then the pumpkin ale so as to allow the yeast more time to activate and grow. Initial gravity on the stout was 1.054. The pumpkin ale was 1.064. Fermentation is strong on the stout. Pretty weak on the pumpkin ale. I was originally going to use some yeast nutrients in the pumpkin ale, but forgot to. This Friday I will transfer the stout to a secondary with some chocolate extract and let it finish fermenting. Looking forward to both of these beers.
Brett and Rob- The Beer Duo
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