{"id":195,"date":"2010-03-25T11:56:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T16:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?page_id=195"},"modified":"2011-01-05T17:34:43","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T21:34:43","slug":"batch-11-10-pumpkin-ale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?page_id=195","title":{"rendered":"Batch #10-10: Pumpkin Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Style<\/td>\nThomas Jefferson’s Pumpkin Ale (Recipe)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ingredients<\/td>\nView Here<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brewing Date:<\/td>\nMonday, November 15, 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Primary Fermentation:<\/td>\nMonday, November 15, 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original Gravity:<\/td>\n1.050 @ 77 F\u00a0 (1.0521)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Secondary Fermentation:<\/td>\nSunday, November 28, 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interim Gravity:<\/td>\n1.012 @ 72 F (1.0133)\u00a0 5.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bottling Date:<\/td>\nFriday, December 3, 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Final Gravity:<\/td>\n1.012 @ 72F (1.0133) 5.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Release Date:<\/td>\nWednesday, December 22, 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alcohol by volume:<\/td>\n5.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brand:<\/strong><\/td>\nMaster-Yeast Theater<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Release Name:<\/strong><\/td>\nCarriage Return
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Release scheduled for Christmas week.\u00a0 This will be similar to last year’s recipe, except with some extra dextrose to up the alcohol content.\u00a0 I’m shooting for about 7% this year.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/p>\n

A near perfect brewing session, except… I added the aroma hops about 15 minutes too early.\u00a0 I’m not sure how I lost track of time for that, but I don’t think the impact will be bad.\u00a0 I watched the temperature carefully on this batch, and avoided any chance of a boil over.\u00a0 In fact, I like how consistent the boil was on this batch.<\/p>\n

I varied slightly from the recipe in two ways.\u00a0 First, I did not add any ginger.\u00a0 This does add a bit of bite to the beer, and I decided I wanted to remove that for this batch.\u00a0 Second, I added two cups of corn sugar at 30 minutes into the boil to boost the mono-saccharides for the yeast.\u00a0 The wort tasted smooth, and is very sweet.\u00a0 I am very pleased with the OG for this batch.\u00a0 The yeast starter was at 48 hours when pitched, and it was 77 degrees in the bucket.\u00a0 The yeast should take hold quickly in this batch.<\/p>\n

Fermentation is again with wick cooling.<\/p>\n

28 Nov 2010 @ 11:30PM — I moved the batch to secondary about 5 days later than planned.\u00a0 The brew has a dark orange-reddish color and is very smooth, yet it has very little floral aftertaste.\u00a0 This is probably the effect of mistakenly putting in the aroma hops 15 minutes too early.\u00a0 Still, I really like the overall taste.\u00a0 Not adding the ginger to the batch has taken a lot of bite out of the palate.<\/p>\n

And the alcohol measurement after primary is 6.4%.\u00a0 This is an achievement for me: the highest ABV yet, and well on target for my 7% goal.\u00a0 One thing I did do for this batch is use a delta offset for the temperature of the wort at the time I took hydrometer readings.\u00a0 The information I use for the offset is here<\/a>.\u00a0 I also added 16oz of\u00a0corn sugar boiled in water to the secondary fermentor, which should easily push this batch above 7% after conditioning (allowing 0.5% added during the conditioning).<\/p>\n

This is a strong batch: I got a wine-style buzz after trying only half a glass.\u00a0 I am pleased with the taste as well as the alcohol content.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to see how this comes out after conditioning.<\/p>\n

02 Dec 2010 @ 11:45PM — I looked at my math and it looked suspicious.\u00a0 Sure enough, it’s not 6.4% but 5.1%.\u00a0 I must have entered a digit wrong in the calculator somehow.\u00a0 Still, that would be 5.6% after conditioning, so it is still the strongest batch I have made so far.<\/p>\n

03 Dec 2010 @ 7:45PM — Bottling yielded 50x 12oz, and 1x 34oz Ikea snap top.\u00a0 The wort is very clear, and very smooth.\u00a0 There is very little hop aftertaste, and it takes a lot like English bitter made from pumpkin.\u00a0 I really like the taste of this year’s pumpkin ale, compared to last year.<\/p>\n

06 Dec 2010 @ 8:30PM — Opened the first bottle to check conditioning and taste.\u00a0 The head is starting to\u00a0 form, but is thin at the moment.\u00a0 Taste… wow!\u00a0 This has to be the smoothest beer I have produced yet.\u00a0 Flavors are very well balanced.\u00a0 Putting in the aroma hops 15 minutes too early was a blessing in disguise.\u00a0 It has the bitterness, and a very slight aroma.\u00a0 This works very well with the pumpkin flavoring.\u00a0 I am impressed already.\u00a0 This bottle was chilled 2 hours in the fridge before opening.<\/p>\n

23 Dec — The taste got even better with the next two weeks in conditioning. This beer was different from the batch last year, but was very well received by everyone I shared it with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Style Thomas Jefferson’s Pumpkin Ale (Recipe) Ingredients View Here Brewing Date: Monday, November 15, 2010 Primary Fermentation: Monday, November 15, 2010 Original Gravity: 1.050 @ 77 F\u00a0 (1.0521) Secondary Fermentation: Sunday, November 28, 2010 Interim Gravity: 1.012 @ 72 F (1.0133)\u00a0 5.1% Bottling Date: Friday, December 3, 2010 Final Gravity: 1.012 @ 72F (1.0133) 5.1% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-195","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195\/revisions\/405"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}