butternut squash barley wine

[DrowningManatee]

im readin 'radical brewing' a bit at the minute, and i came across pumpkin ale which id heard about from dogfish head as well. It mentions you can do the same with butternut squash of which im a particular fan in cooking, so i thought id give that a shot.

it mentions using a barleywine recipe and adding butternutsquash and an equal amount of pilsner malt, then adding this to the normal extract version of the barleywine recipe which is as follows:

19L batch

3kg LME (light)
.9kg vienna malt
.45kg 100ebc crystal
.227 kg biscuit malt
n. brewer 90mins 30g
ekg          90 min 20g
n. brewer 30min  20g
ekg          30min  30g
cascade   30min   10g
ekg            0min   30g
cascade     0min   10g

it says to add butternut squash (roasted at 300F for 2hrs pulp side down), 2.5-3.5kg, and add an equal amount of pilsner malt.

I use a 15L pot to boil, so should i do a smaller pot for the other grains and add that to the big pot (with the butternut and the pilsner) when i pull out the grainbags from each pot then? ie. boil all grains and squash in 2 pots, pul out grainbags and mix the two.

BTW, should i add the squash in a grainbag or just as is?

im also unsure about the pilsner malt, is this too much to add?(2.5-3.5kg) wont i get too much head etc using too many grains? ive kinda got it into my head that you shouldnt use too many grains (more than a kg)...

cheers guys in advance

[ColmR]

Hi, I think with this recipe you're in the ballpark of all-grain brewing. You'll need to do a proper mash of the grains and the squash to convert the sugars you need for brewing. But it may be a squeeze to do this in the 15L pot (assuming you don't have a mash tun, if you do you're laughing).

The Pislner, Buiscuit and Vienna malts all need to be mashed to convert. The squash needs to be mashed also and the reason for adding all the pilsner malt is so that the ensymes are present to convert the squash's starches to maltose.

So in this recipe if there is around 3kg of pils, 1.5kg other grains and 3kg of squash, you'll need to mash all this with maybe 12L+ of hot water which definitely won't fit in your pot

If you weren't to use the squash you wouldn't need to use as much pilsner malt (if any) and could definitely fit everything in your pot as normal. Or you could brew a smaller batch or just use less squash. But if you got your grains and squash down to around 4kg in total, I reckon you'd handle a decent mash in you're 15L pot and if you have a big grain bag that will fit the whole pot, then happy days. I'd do something like this, move down to 1.5kg Squash, 1kg Pils Malt and keep the other grains the same. You could then go with an extra can of LME to make up the difference (i.e. 4.5kg).

If you haven't done any all grain or partial mash brews before, you'll find plenty of advice out there. If you're equimpent is limited to one large pot and maybe you're fermenters I'd do it this way. This is kind of brew in a bag...

• Heat around 10L water for your mash to around 75C.

• Transfer to a fermenter

• Get your grains and roasted (and mushed up) squash ino a grain bag

• Put into your pot and add the water until almost full (should be a good bit less than the 10L)

• The temp will probably be between 65 and 68c. If way off adjust with boiling or cold water.

• Let sit for at least an hour. Give it the odd blast of heat to keep temp steady.

• You'll then need another pot (not necessarily as big) to get your sparge water ready.

• Take out the grain bag. Let it drip. Transfer the wort to your fermenter and note the volume.

• Then add that amount of 75-80C water to the big pot and add back in the grain bag to rinse. (Sit for 10 mins)

• You'll then have quite a nice amount of wort ready for boiling as normal

I'm suggesting to do it this way as it's quite difficult to guess volumes. It would obviously be easier with a bigger pot.

Hope this is useful.

[nigel_c]

I have pumpkins planted that I plan on using for a pumpkin beer later in the year if they come up well. Gonna keep an eye in this thread. I like the addition of off the wall ingredients.

Used pumpkin in a beer before and used it both in the mash tun and purée in the last mins of the boil.

[DrowningManatee]

That sounds great Colm, I knew i had to read up on the mini-mash bit, id just been a bit lazy. The instructions you outlined should serve me well Looking forward to this one now, my most advanced brew yet (technically). I'll keep ye updated on how it turns out nigel Id say ill stick it on on friday...

[DrowningManatee]

colin, just wondrin about the puree you added at the end of the boil. How do you make the puree(is it just mashed bits) and do you add it in a grainbag at the end? did you find it added much more aroma from the pumpkin?

Im thinkin of buyin one o them bazooka screens and attaching it to my tap outlet on my spare fermenter, i assume this is possible without drills etc? Looks like allgrain isnt too far off now

Ill get this one on this friday as i stuck my citra IPA on there last friday, should be fun...

[DrowningManatee]

just did this in BIAB and changed it to a summer ale for the comp. I removed the cans of extract.
Twas a disaster, used my fermenter as a mash tun with sleeping bags and camping mats etc - worked great as an insulater but the beer turned out not great at all - i think loadsa grains got into the beer and it came out well below gravity (aiming for1.035, got 1.02) so i added more honey and demerara to bring it up.
I bottled half of it and dryhopped two demijohns with ekg in one and cascade in the other...

cheers for the tips tho, i think ill get a sparging/mashing bag instead of hopsacks next time, they were old and had a few holes in em.

ps. i only used 1kg BN squash and 1kg pilsner malt

[Hop Bomb]

Im doing a pumpkin ale on Sunday with cans of libbys pumpkin meat. The pumpkin will be mashed with all the grain in the mash tun.

Re: bazooka tube - I think they might be too big for fermentor buckets. You can buy half size ones though that would fit. You'd need some threaded adaptor also as it wont just screw on to the back of your plastic tap. (Ive tried on those standard plastic buckets with bottling spigot)

[Eoin]

Lads, have ye tried pumpkin ale?

Try some before you make a big batch is all I'll say.

[Taf]

Lads, have ye tried pumpkin ale?

Try some before you make a big batch is all I'll say.

That's good advice!

[Hop Bomb]

Its for a halloween party. Basic brown ale recipe with pumpkin in the mash & a few wintery spices in the boil.

If someone can point me to an online off license Il buy some. Brewing it regardless though

[DrowningManatee]

i asked the young guy in HBWest and he said the same thing about the bazooka screen and threads, i think im just gonna get a sparging bag and try that a few times... but im gonna get a mashtun and a larger boiling pot soon, still deciding whether to go for 2 fermenter brews (ie66L capacity tun and pot) or just stick with 20L brews. Woulda taken that gas ring if i'd a seen it sooner Tom

All me beers are comin well below gravity tho, my hydrometer is now comin out at .997 in water, but im assuming thats just Galway water as i bought another one to check the other day and it came out the same.

Kinda glad to hear that pumpkin ale isnt generally meant to be super, maybe my BN squash isnt that far off the mark (tried a bottle last night), but its watery as hell from all the sugary additions... the brown ale sounds a fuller base for the pumpkin flavour, ive heard about some specific pumpkin spice mix people use for enhancing the flavours too. Brew on MacDuff...

[irish_goat]

Trouble's pumpkin ale is decent although I'm not sure if I'd want a full 20lt batch of it. It's a nice novelty though and would be good for a halloween party.

They make an amber ale, add roasted pumpkin to the mash and then add some "pumpkin spice" to the conditioning tank.

[Will_D]

All me beers are comin well below gravity tho, my hydrometer is now comin out at .997 in water, but im assuming thats just Galway water as i bought another one to check the other day and it came out the same.

I know Galway is a bit special but water 3 points lower than every where else?

What temperature is your hydrometer calibrated for ( usually 20C but may be 15C )?

Water at 20C has a gravity of 1.000

If you are trully reading 3 points low then it means your water is contaminated with something less dense like alcohol

[DrowningManatee]

just double checked it there with bottled water and both hydrometer's are at .997 @20C so i reckon ill just have to check a tonne o them in HBW to see, must just be two dodgy hydrometers despite the chances. And they are calibrated for 20C...