Calaveras Hoppy Brewers Big Brew Day!

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Andy Thomas

Saturday, May 2nd at the Thomas home in Rancho Calaveras.

I’ll be brewing the beer shown here, then I’ll need 3 people to take home a little more than a gallon of it and ferment it with a different yeast. Please finish the fermentation, bottle it and bring it to the next club meeting. I’ll provide the wort, fermentors (2.5 gallon plastic water bottles), plugs, airlocks and yeast. Let’s find out what different yeast does with the same wort!

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5 gal	60 min	27.2 IBUs	12.5 SRM	1.062	1.016	6.1 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American Amber Ale	6 B	1.045 - 1.056	1.01 - 1.015	20 - 40	11 - 18	2.3 - 2.8	4.5 - 5.7 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt, Maris Otter	9.25 lbs	80.43
Munich Malt	1 lbs	8.7
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	12 oz	6.52
Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L	8 oz	4.35

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Horizon	0.6 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	12
Cascade	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	5.5
Centennial	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	10
Cascade	0.25 oz	0 min	Boil	Pellet	5.5
Centennial	0.25 oz	0 min	Boil	Pellet	10

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

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Tax Time Amber

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Andy Thomas

I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn’t brewed since November, and couldn’t right now because I owed more taxes than I expected. Zach suggested that I probably had plenty of leftover ingredients from previous brews to make beer. Well, turns out he was right. All I had to buy for this one was the yeast.

The base was a few pounds of DME that I had on hand for yeast starters and brew day emergencies.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think I’ll brew it again using a simpler malt bill. It’s a little sweet, maybe. What do you think?

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5 gal	60 min	31.1 IBUs	15.1 SRM	1.058	1.011	6.2 %
			Actuals	1.054	1.01	5.8 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
American Amber Ale	10 B	1.045 - 1.06	1.01 - 1.015	25 - 40	10 - 17	2.3 - 2.8	4.5 - 6.2 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Munich Malt	1 lbs	12.45
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L	8 oz	6.23
Pale Malt (2 Row) UK	8 oz	6.23
Special B Malt	8 oz	6.23
Melanoiden Malt	6.4 oz	4.98
Light Dry Extract	3 lbs	37.36
Extra Light Dry Extract	1.6 lbs	19.93
Honey	8.48 oz	6.6

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	1.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Goldings, East Kent	0.5 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Willamette	0.7 oz	5 min	Boil	Pellet	5.5

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Safale American (US-05)	DCL/Fermentis	77%	59°F - 75°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

Notes

Available ingredients

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Breaking the Long Fast from Brewing-OctoberFest2014

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Andy Thomas

FINALLY! I brewed again the weekend before last. This will be my first lager. I ordered the White Labs yeast from MoreBeer, along with the ice pack. I guess I should have ordered several, as the box was sitting in the sun when I got home and the yeast was quite warm. I put it in the fridge to cool it down, then made a starter Friday night. Not much was happening on Saturday…even after waiting all day. I figured it was no good, but I re-pitched a second time anyway. By Sunday morning there was maybe a little life and by noon the was action for sure. So I went ahead and brewed. Nothing out of the ordinary during the process…it went well. I ended up a little low on the OG, and a little light on the volume. But, by golly, after 2 weeks at 53F, the little lager yeasties are plodding along, doing their job.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	90 min	41.5 IBUs	36.3 SRM	1.044 SG	1.010 SG	4.4 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Dry Stout	13 A	1.036 - 1.05	1.007 - 1.011	30 - 45	25 - 40	1.8 - 2.5	4 - 5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
MCI Stout Malt	7 lbs	70
Chocolate Malt	1 lbs	10
Crystal 190 Patagonia	1 lbs	10
Wheat Malt (Gambrinus)	1 lbs	10

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	1 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Challenger	0.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	7.5
Hallertauer Hersbrucker	0.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	4
Challenger	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	7.5
Goldings, East Kent	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Hallertauer Hersbrucker	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	4

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	10.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.20 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Windsor Yeast (-)	Lallemand	75%	62°F - 72°F

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Brew Day – National Homebrew Day – Beamish-ish Stout- BS1

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Andy Thomas

For our first club brew session, the Calaveras Hoppy Brewers met at Bob’s Brewing in Valley Springs for National Homebrew Day, 2014. We had a great time, and it was lots of fun seeing everybody’s setups and techniques. Plenty of good food, friends and Homebrew!

Some of the gang!

I chose to brew a recipe from Michael Dawson. I was able to match most of his ingredients.

It was a lot of fun brewing at a remote location, but I really had to think things out. Some worked out OK, others not so much. The mash tun and burner/brew kettle worked just fine. I had to cobble together a mash tun stand using my piano keyboard stand, and I think I’ll keep using this rig at home. I had a little more trouble preparing to re-hydrate the dry yeast. I chose to boil the water at home and then rinse an Erlenmeyer flask in StarSan before poring the boiled water in it to cool. I think too much of the sanitizer was left in the flask. The primary fermentation has been a little sluggish…we’ll see how that comes out. If I were to do it again, I’d boil the water in the flask, then cover it. Next time I’ll also make sure to bring a Y-valve for the faucet, so I’ll be able to share the water at kettle cooling time. I did hit my final gravity, so I’m happy with that, too.

FINALLY got this batch into bottles yesterday (6-1-14). SG was still about 10 points high after 2 weeks when I transferred to secondary. Quite a bit of yeast activity after racking. I kept it in secondary until yesterday. A bit of effervescence, but not too bad. SG was down to 1.008, and it tastes pretty decent!

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	90 min	41.5 IBUs	36.3 SRM	1.044 SG	1.010 SG	4.4 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Dry Stout	13 A	1.036 - 1.05	1.007 - 1.011	30 - 45	25 - 40	1.8 - 2.5	4 - 5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
MCI Stout Malt	7 lbs	70
Chocolate Malt	1 lbs	10
Crystal 190 Patagonia	1 lbs	10
Wheat Malt (Gambrinus)	1 lbs	10

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	1 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Challenger	0.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	7.5
Hallertauer Hersbrucker	0.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	4
Challenger	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	7.5
Goldings, East Kent	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Hallertauer Hersbrucker	0.25 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	4

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	10.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.20 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Windsor Yeast (-)	Lallemand	75%	62°F - 72°F

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Not sure where this fits in the style guidelines!
Maybe Foreign Extra Stout?

On Deck: Yo-Ho Hogan Ale-DG2

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Andy Thomas

Judging sheets from California State Fair 2014

This will be the second attempt to clone Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale. I tried to harvest Pacman yeast from a commercial bottle…without success. I assume it must have been pasteurized or something similar that killed the yeast. I was bummed until I remembered that I still had a couple of bottles left of DG1. It took off slowly, but after 3 days it’s fermenting like crazy! I credit the yeast nutrient I got from Bob’s…thanks, Bob! I’ll re-pitch the starter tonight and perhaps once more before Brew Day…tentatively scheduled for this Sunday.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	60 min	33.0 IBUs	11.6 SRM	1.067	1.015	6.9 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Mailbock/Helles Bock	5 A	1.064 - 1.072	1.011 - 1.018	23 - 35	6 - 11	2.2 - 2.7	6.3 - 7.4 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	11.697 lbs	73.35
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	1.5 lbs	9.41
Melanoiden Malt	1.5 lbs	9.41
Special Roast	1 lbs	6.27
Honey	4 oz	1.57

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Galena	0.5 oz	90 min	Boil	Pellet	12.5
Northern Brewer	0.5 oz	90 min	Boil	Pellet	8.5
Willamette	0.5 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	5.5
Saaz	0.4 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	4

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.20 Items	5 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Pacman - 1764	Wyeast	75%	60°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

Notes

Harvested yeast from a bottle of the previous batch.

Substituted Melanoiden malt for Munich...must be out of season!

All Grain Directions:

Mash at 150° F (65° C) for 60 minutes. Sparge at 175° F (79° C) to collect 6.5 gallons (24.5 L) of preboiled wort.

Boil 90 minutes, adding hops and Whirlfloc when indicated. Cool to 60° F (16° C) and pitch yeast. Ferment at 60° F (16° C) until fermentation is complete, then siphon into secondary. Allow to remain at cold storage temperatures 40-50° F (9-10° C) for two to four weeks, then package and condition.

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Brew Day: Jamil’s Ordinary Bitter OB1

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Andy Thomas

Brewed 2-9-14

This is the bottom half for our Black and Tans this coming St Patrick’s Day. This is my first try at this style. I was very careful not to thin it out too much in hopes of retaining a higher gravity than Eileen’s Irish. To that end, I also mashed a little higher, around 156 F.

The mash went OK. In retrospect, I could have probably done a 60 min boil instead of 90…I lost a little too much to evaporation and ended up with 4.5 gallons to ferment.

BJCP style guide

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5 gal	90 min	29.8 IBUs	13.7 SRM	1.043	1.013	4.0 %
			Actuals	1.044	1.01	4.4 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Standard/Ordinary Bitter	8 A	1.032 - 1.04	1.007 - 1.011	25 - 35	4 - 14	0.8 - 2.2	3.2 - 3.8 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) UK	7 lbs	82.84
Crystal Extra Dark - 120L (Crisp)	1 lbs	11.83
Munich Malt - 10L	7.2 oz	5.33

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	1.2 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Goldings, East Kent	0.5 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Goldings, East Kent	0.5 oz	1 min	Boil	Pellet	5

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968)	Wyeast Labs	69%	64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

Notes

Mill the grains and dough-in at around 1 qt. of water per pound of grain (about 2:1 L/kg) and a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold the mash at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Infuse the mash with near boiling water while stirring to raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 5.9 gallons (22 L) and the gravity is 1.032. Boil wort for 75 minutes. Add the bittering hops with 60 minutes remaining and the flavor hops with 30 minutes left in the boil. Add 1 tsp. Irish moss with 15 minutes left in the boil and add the last hop addition just before shutting off the burner. Chill the wort to 67 °F (19 °C), pitch yeast and aerate thoroughly. Ferment around 67 °F (19 °C) until the yeast drops clear. Allow the lees to settle and the brew to mature without pressure for another two days after fermentation appears finished. Rack to a keg or bottling bucket. Target a carbonation level of 1 to 1.5 volumes. (Use about 2.0 oz./57 g of corn sugar for bottle conditioning.) If you’re cask conditioning the beer, add priming sugar, any cask finings (gelatin or isinglass), and dry hop with 0.25 to 0.5 oz. (7–14 g) of whole East Kent Goldings hops. Allow the beer to condition in the cask for several days and serve via a beer engine or by gravity feed at 50–55 °F (10–13 °C).

Subbed German Munich for Special Roast and doubled the Crystal 120L.

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Brew Day – Eileen’s Irish

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Andy Thomas

Yes, she is. She’s a McDonald by birth, after all…

This is a nice dry stout that will serve as the top half of Black-And-Tans for St. Patrick’s Day. The recipe is the stock one in BeerSmith, and it’s pretty simple.

Setup

The brew session went pretty smoothly. It was a blustery Super Sunday (glad I had something to occupy my afternoon other than that pathetic game!)

BrewSmith Timer

I’ve been using BrewSmith for designing (or transposing) beers, then ordering ingredients. I also like the timer during the brew session.

Adding Kent Golding Hops

The mash went the best it has for me so far. The trick I needed to learn was not to put too much mash water in. I hit the gravity pretty well, although my brewhouse efficiency calculated out to around 67%. Here’s the hops being added to the boil.

Yeast Starter

I made a yeast starter, as I am doing more often. I started early enough in the week that I was able to feed it twice. By pitching time, there was plenty of yeasty activity, and I saw decent bubbling in the airlock withing a couple of hours.

BJCP style guide

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5 gal	90 min	43.2 IBUs	32.6 SRM	1.039	1.010	3.7 %
			Actuals	1.039	1.01	3.8 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Dry Stout	13 A	1.036 - 1.05	1.007 - 1.011	30 - 45	25 - 40	1.8 - 2.5	4 - 5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) UK	5 lbs	62.5
Barley, Flaked	2 lbs	25
Black Barley (Stout)	1 lbs	12.5

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	2.25 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	10.00 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
British Ale Yeast (1098)	Wyeast Labs	74%	64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	154°F	60 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

A very simple all grain beer that produces a great Guiness-style taste every time. So light in body that I have even made black and tans with it using a full body pale ale in the bottom of the glass.

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Christmas Porter 2013 – Brew Day

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Andy Thomas

Christmas Porter 2013 Brew Morning

This is a chocolate mint porter. Brew Day started bright and early on Sunday. I still struggled with the mash. I need to look carefully at how I’m building the recipe in Beersmith (actually, this an interpretation of a Jamil Robust Porter recipe from a user on Beersmithrecipes.com that I modified for my purposes). I believe I’m using too much water. The starches are being converted and giving the right gravity, but by the time I sparge, it dilutes down too far. I had 1-2 gallons of wort that never made it into the boiling pot. It wasn’t too far off, though…I think it’ll work fine for this brew.

Christmas Porter 2013 Boil

The 90-minute boil went fine, although I did have a bit of foam spill over at the beginning of the boil, making a bit of a mess on the outside of the pot. It turned into a dark, dark brown wort with a nice tan “head” that I hope carries over to the finished product.

I fell a little short on the hops (didn’t have the surplus I thought I had), but I want the sweetness of the chocolate to come through, anyway.

Christmas Porter 2013 adding mint

I ended up with about 1/2 ounce of fresh mint from our garden. This worked very well in the Mojito Beer, so I have high hopes for it here. I only gave it about 10 minutes in the boil… looking for more aroma than flavor. I’m really hoping for a chocolate-mint candy impression in the finished beer. If it needs more mint after primary fermentation, I can add more to the secondary. That’s also when I plan to add the cacao nibs.

Christmas Porter 2013 chocolate

However, I added about 3 ounces of this wonderful dark chocolate I found at BevMo in Lodi. Yum…

BJCP style guide

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	90 min	38.0 IBUs	36.0 SRM	1.061	1.016	6.0 %
			Actuals	1.06	1.01	6.6 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Robust Porter	12 B	1.048 - 1.065	1.012 - 1.016	25 - 50	22 - 35	1.8 - 2.5	4.8 - 6.5 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Simpsons Ale - Golden Promise	10.878 lbs	75
Bestmaltz Munich Light	1.595 lbs	11
Joe White/Maltcraft Chocolate	13.92 oz	6
Simpsons Black Malt	9.28 oz	4
Weyermann® Carapils®/ Carafoam®	9.28 oz	4

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent	1.4 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5.4
Fuggles	0.8 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Fuggles	0.89 oz	30 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Fuggles	0.42 oz	0 min	Boil	Pellet	5
Goldings, East Kent	0.42 oz	0 min	Boil	Pellet	5.4

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.00 Items	15 min	Boil	Fining
Fresh Mint Leaves	2.00 oz	10 min	Boil	Herb
Chocolate (Dark)	4.00 oz	5 min	Boil	Spice
Cacao Nibs	4.00 oz	0 min	Secondary	Spice

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
British Ale Yeast (1098)	Wyeast Labs	74%	64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Saccharification	154.4°F	60 min
Mash Out	168.8°F	10 min

Notes

From Beersmith recipes Regan Dillion Porter (Jamil BYO).

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Brew Day – Pumpkin Ale PA-1

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Andy Thomas

Slicing pumpkins

Brewed on Sunday, Setpember 29, 3013…sorry for the lag on posting this. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Larry, Dave, Zach & Josh for the input and special thanks to Josh for the pumpkins and Larry for the homegrown hops!

So here is the slicing…

Baking pumpkins

and the baking. I placed the halves flat-side down in about 1/2″ of water and baked at 375(?) for about 45 min. They came out nice and soft, so It was easy to scoop out the meat.

Pumpkin and lots of rice hulls in the mash

Baked pumpkin ready for mash

I added 2 pounds of rice hulls because I was afraid the mash would be very sticky. It seemed like a LOT of hulls, but the sparging went very well.
I took a gravity reading at the end of the mash and it was at the target gravity…but I knew the mash out/2nd sparge would dilute it down, so I added 1 pound of extra light DME to the boil. Next time I’ll try to stretch the mash out further to get better gravity.

the Boil

90 minute boil…

Larry’s home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

Fresh (well, they’ve been frozen for a couple of weeks) homegrown Mt. Hood hops from Larry.

Spices added to the boil.

Recipe as it was brewed (pretty much):

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	90 min	18.0 IBUs	8.2 SRM	1.060	1.014	6.0 %
			Actuals	1.041	1.01	4.1 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer	21 A	1.03 - 1.11	1.005 - 1.025	0 - 70	5 - 50	2 - 3	2.5 - 12 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Fresh Pumpkin	5.004 lbs	27.35
Rice Hulls	8.11 oz	2.77
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	9.37 lbs	51.21
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L	8.75 oz	2.99
Wheat, Flaked	8.11 oz	2.77
Munich Malt	7.8 oz	2.66
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	7.05 oz	2.41
Munich Malt - 20L	7.05 oz	2.41
Extra Light Dry Extract	15.87 oz	5.42

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Mt. Hood	0.49 oz	60 min	Boil	Leaf	6
Perle	0.49 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	8

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.20 Items	5 min	Boil	Fining

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

Reddish orange in color, creamy tan head, sweet and spicy, rich and unique. Like a New England fall afternoon.

(5 gallons, grain and extract)
Ingredients:

2 to 3 lbs. pumpkin
0.5 lb. two-row pale malt
0.5 lb. malted wheat
0.5 lb. medium crystal malt, 40° Lovibond
5 lbs. unhopped amber malt extract (or 4 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
1 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 57 min.
0.5 oz. of pie spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, cardamom, ginger in cheesecloth bag
Ale yeast (such as Wyeast 1056, American Ale)
1 cup light dry malt for priming

Step by Step:

Cut in half, clean out, and bake one pumpkin at 300° F for one hour or until flesh becomes mushy. Crush two-row and crystal malts and malted wheat. Mash the malt and the pumpkin together in 5 qts. of water at 152° F for 55 minutes, then raise the temperature to 165° F for five minutes. Run off and sparge with 5 qts. of water at 170° F, gathering (hopefully) about 2 gals. of sweet wort.

To the kettle add malt extract (or dry malt), brown sugar, and molasses. Bring to a boil, then add Mt. Hood pellets. Boil 55 minutes. Add pie spices in a bag and boil just long enough to mix them in (two to three minutes). Remove the bag.

Remove the kettle from the heat, chill, and top off to 5.25 gals. in your primary fermenter. Ferment with a clean ale yeast, prime with light dry malt, and bottle condition cool (50° to 55° F) for a month. Serve at cellar temperature to allow the blend of flavors to truly express themselves.
Notes:

Pumpkin: Avoid using canned pumpkin pie filling. It is already spiced, often, and is laden with preservatives and artificial products (although if you can find organic, all-natural, no-preservative, unspiced canned pumpkin, by all means use it). It is important to use a partial mash with this recipe; I can't figure out any other good, efficient way to use the pumpkin and get anything out of it (I'm open to suggestions!).

Malts: All-grain brewers can adapt this recipe to a standard "amber ale" grain bill, but be sure to include a little malted wheat for better head retention. Extract brewers may have trouble using the pumpkin unless they do a partial mash as described above.

Spices: The biggest problem with this brew is the proper ratio of spice to beer. It is very easy to overdo, especially with strong-flavored spices such as ginger and clove. I have arrived at a dose of only 0.5 oz. total, which will not seem like enough as you brew but will be noticeable in the mature beer.

My personal blend is "heavy" on nutmeg and cinnamon and very light on ginger and clove, just enough to indicate their presence. IÕve found that leaving the spices in the fermenting beer tends to become overwhelming, hence the use of a bag or some other device to steep the spices in the boiling wort but then remove them.

The commercial "Pumpkin Pie Spice" mixtures available on the grocery store shelf seem to me a little too gingery/clovey, so I make my own blend. Also, I have better luck with larger pieces: crushed or shaved whole cinnamon stick, allspice berries and nutmegs, whole cloves, and small pieces of fresh ginger. rather than any finely ground forms.

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Brew Day for Dead Guy Clone DG1

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Andy Thomas

I had a fun morning with this. I started one smack pack or Wyeast Pacman yesterday and it was looking good today. Beersmith called for 2 packs, but I cheaped out and only used one, but made a 1 liter starter with it. Hope that didn’t hurt me. Considering I missed the gravity by 1.020 or so, maybe the extra yeast won’t be needed.

Fancy table for the mash tun

I’m not sure what happened with the mash. PH was right on, I was able to keep the temperature pretty close, and the iodine test showed good conversion. I hit the gravity on the first rinse just fine, but the second was way low, making the pre-boil gravity low. I think I used too much water, since I added a gallon to the initial mash-in to raise the temp. I should have cut a gallon off the second rinse.

The Boil

The mash tun worked well. I added the ball valve using these plans:http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

New Ball Valve

I ended up using 4 stainless metric steel fender washers that were very close to 5/8″ and fit pretty well. No leaks so far!

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	90 min	33.4 IBUs	8.3 SRM	1.063	1.013	6.5 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Mailbock/Helles Bock	5 A	1.064 - 1.072	1.011 - 1.018	23 - 35	6 - 11	2.2 - 2.7	6.3 - 7.4 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	11.697 lbs	78.66
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L	1.462 lbs	9.83
Munich Malt - 20L	1.462 lbs	9.83
Honey	4 oz	1.68

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Perle	1.34 oz	90 min	Boil	Pellet	8
Saaz	0.67 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	4

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Whirlfloc Tablet	1.20 Items	5 min	Boil	Fining

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Pacman - 1764	Wyeast	75%	60°F - 72°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	152°F	60 min

Notes

All Grain Directions:

Mash at 150° F (65° C) for 60 minutes. Sparge at 175° F (79° C) to collect 6.5 gallons (24.5 L) of preboiled wort.

Boil 90 minutes, adding hops and Whirlfloc when indicated. Cool to 60° F (16° C) and pitch yeast. Ferment at 60° F (16° C) until fermentation is complete, then siphon into secondary. Allow to remain at cold storage temperatures 40-50° F (9-10° C) for two to four weeks, then package and condition.

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