Pumpkin Porter

Alright, this past Sunday the gravity on the cream ale was at 1.006 so I racked it to the secondary and then prepared for the upcoming brewday with Little Deej. Pumpkin spice porter, yum! For the base of this one I used a brown porter. Here it is:

12 lbs MO

1 lb Crystal 60

8 oz Special Roast

8 oz Brown Malt

4 oz Chocolate Malt

Mash @ 154F for 70 min

1.5 oz EKG @ 90 min

0.25 oz EKG @ 20 min

0.25 EKG @ flameout

5 1/2 lbs caramelized pumpkin in boil

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 90 min

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 20 min

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, allspice and clove @ flameout

The base beer is much more like a high gravity brown ale than a porter. I probably should've upped the chocolate. As far as the pumpkin goes, we used the Libby's canned variety spread onto cookie sheets and baked it @ 350F for an hour. The boil smelled amazing. I'm still getting horrible efficiency, my OG was 1.060 after the boil. I guess I'll start messing around with the water profile and pH for the next batch. We pitched the wort onto the US-05 yeast cake from the cream ale and it took off like a rocket. Within 3 hours there was krausen blowing out the hose and its still going strong two days later.

Labor Day Cream Ale

Finally finished. I began at about 11:30 this morning and the whole process took about 5 hours. Brewing in a new house presented its own set of advantages and complications but I think I'll have it down for the next brew session.

I mashed in with about 5 1/2 gallons of water and the sach rest went perfect temperature wise. 148F the whole way. I didn't have the same lautering problems I did the last time I used flaked grain. All the same, I think next time I'll put a handful of rice hulls in the mash just to be safe. My efficiency was awful. With 14 pounds of grain my initial gravity reading was 1.051. It should have more like 1.061. I'll have to figure out how to increase the yield when mashing on my system.

After the boil I had an OG of 1.059 so we should be looking at about 6-7% ABV. The yeast smelled a little fruity when I was rehydrating it. That's weird. As soon as the primary is done I'm going to rack it to a secondary and then put an RIS on the yeast cake. Should be fun.

Back in action!

After four months of not brewing my fermentation refer is now fully functional. I'll be brewing a cream ale:

11 lbs pale malt
3 lbs flaked maize

Sach rest @ 148F for 60 min

1 oz Czech Saaz @ 60 min
0.5 oz Czech Saaz @ 20 min
0.5 oz Czech Saaz @ flameout

This should set my ABV at around 7% and IBU's close to 17. I guess 7% is knocking on the double or imperial door. Oh well. I just can't wait to frickin brew again!

As for the porter I brewed back in May, it came out wonderfully. By far my personal favorite homebrew. It had all the chocolately flavor I was looking for and some citrus and coconut notes from the later hop additions. This will definitely be my go-to porter recipe.