I love Fall. I love the colors, the crisp air, the food, and of course the beer. We harvested more than our fair share of pumpkins and squashes from our garden this year, and I have been trying to use them for things other than pie and soup, mmm bread. While flipping through my latest BeerAdvocate magazine (#57), I spotted a recipe for a pumpkin ale and knew that I had to make it. I tweaked the recipe a bit according to taste, and brewed this past, beautiful, fall weekend.
Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
8lbs Pale malt 2-row American
2lbs Munich malt
1lbs Crystal malt 60L
1.5lbs Roasted Pumpkin
1.25lbs Roasted Butternut Squash
8 fl oz Molasses
1.25oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (60min)
0.75oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (20min)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (5min)
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger (5min)
1/8 tsp Nutmeg (5min)
1/8 tsp Cloves (5min)
1 vial California ale yeast (White Labs WLP001)
I roasted the pumpkin and squash at 350F for 90 min the night before I brewed. On brew day, I did a single infusion mash with grains and squash at 153F for 60 min. I did a 60 min boil and added the molasses with 10 min left. The wort smelled amazing as it was chilling, just like a pumpkin pie. After the wort cooled, the original gravity was 1.050. I was too lazy to make a starter for the yeast, but they seem to be doing alright. If things go well, this should be ready to start drinking for Thanksgiving!
