Witches, Goblins and Pumpkin Patch Ale Oh my

 The summer has passed by ever so quickly this year. The cool breeze is moving in and the leaves are starting to show some color. We start seeing Pumpkin coffees and lattes being served at Dunkin Donuts (which happens to be one of my favorites) along with their pumpkin donuts and muffins. The grocery stores (In the Granite State) stock their shelves full of seasonal beers like Shipyards Pumpkin head, Dogfish heads Punkin Ale, or even Anheuser-Busch's Jacks Pumpkin Spice Ale to name a few. This is a great season for beers and beer drinkers! If you haven't grabbed yourself any of these great seasonal beers you might as well do it soon.

  Shipyards Pumpkin Head Ale became so much in demand that they even extended it this year: “We usually stop brewing Pumpkinhead around Halloween,” said Master Brewer Alan Pugsley. “This year, we began brewing it a bit earlier and will end after Thanksgiving.”

Gutting the Pumpkin to be roasted in the oven

 For this season I created my own Pumpkin beer which is called "Pumpkin Patch Ale". An english inspired Ale using premium English malts like Marris Otter, Caramel Malt, and a Special roast malt. I also had used some German munich malt for its color an unique flavor it imparts. I picked up a Pumpkin locally and Roasted it in my oven for an hour at 400 degrees (talk about making your home smell like a pumpkin pie). I did add a little more Hops than I normally do but stuck with only English hops such as East Kent Golding for its spicy/ floral aroma and I also threw in some Fuggles for its earthy flavors. The spice profile is pretty much the same as if you are eating a Pumpkin Pie at home some cinnamon sticks, crushed allspice, whole cloves and a dash of nutmeg. Brown sugar was also used in the making of this Pumpkin Patch ale for a touch uniqueness. This was all put together today and is currently sitting in the fermenter with Wyeast 1335 British Ale II which should attenuate very well especially since its OG was at 1.060.

Here it is a stuck mash!

 Overall making this batch was a little bit tricky this time. I had the pleasure of experiencing a Stuck mash! Too much Pumpkin particles clogged up the grain bed and the wort was not draining out properly. This took up a lot of time trying to get my wort collected. Next time I will just cut them up into bigger chunks. Hopefully this turns out good though. It smells fantastic!