Not done a write up in donkeys so decided to do one on my Pumpkin Ale that I'm brewing for Autumn/Halloween.
Brewday went well and I ended up massively over on my gravity and I think this is down to my increased sparge temp. I've been having efficiency issues for a while so have been tweaking things step-by-step. Today I tried a slightly hotter (78c instead of 75c) sparge water and it worked a lot better. Might do this from now on. Only bad point was my boiler filter got clogged up so I left a fair bit in the boiler. I tried to syphon and that got clogged too. I then literally poured out the wort from the boiler trying to minimise ***** coming across but when a few wee bits of hops went in the FV I decided to stop. I just hope that I didn't get any infections, etc whilst doing this. Ended up with 20 litres at 1072. Was aiming for 20L @ 1065 and when you consider I probably left a litre or two in the boiler, I was massively over on my efficiency numbers versus my previous brews.
Anyway, the recipe was fairly simple :
6.82kg M/otter (Crisp)
0.36kg Crystal
0.31kg Oats
0.06kg Chocolate
1.5 kg Pumpkin puree
90 min boil
15g Magnum @ 60
15g Fuggles @ 10
California V Ale yeast
Grain shot
Underletting
Starting temp
Overnight mash ended up at this with no pre-heating. Decent wee mash tuns these are.
Grain in morning
Very clear runnings
Pumpkin!
Sparging
Preparing the pumpkin - needs to get roasted for 30 mins
Hit 30 litres pre-boil bang on
Boil coming
Pumpkin about to go in the oven
Yeast!
Begin of chill
Starting to break
Pouring into FV - very slowly!
Colour
Gravity
Brewday went well and I ended up massively over on my gravity and I think this is down to my increased sparge temp. I've been having efficiency issues for a while so have been tweaking things step-by-step. Today I tried a slightly hotter (78c instead of 75c) sparge water and it worked a lot better. Might do this from now on. Only bad point was my boiler filter got clogged up so I left a fair bit in the boiler. I tried to syphon and that got clogged too. I then literally poured out the wort from the boiler trying to minimise ***** coming across but when a few wee bits of hops went in the FV I decided to stop. I just hope that I didn't get any infections, etc whilst doing this. Ended up with 20 litres at 1072. Was aiming for 20L @ 1065 and when you consider I probably left a litre or two in the boiler, I was massively over on my efficiency numbers versus my previous brews.
Anyway, the recipe was fairly simple :
6.82kg M/otter (Crisp)
0.36kg Crystal
0.31kg Oats
0.06kg Chocolate
1.5 kg Pumpkin puree
90 min boil
15g Magnum @ 60
15g Fuggles @ 10
California V Ale yeast
Grain shot
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/8f7/8f74afb3637a1a00fac3198fb0be78bf.jpg)
Underletting
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/8f0/8f0d297d619f674969e0a9d4cf594419.jpg)
Starting temp
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/300/300f1f7915cf5f4f5645b476f430b6b1.jpg)
Overnight mash ended up at this with no pre-heating. Decent wee mash tuns these are.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/64f/64fbe724390a10ffa4f81fff012ca047.jpg)
Grain in morning
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/789/7897990fadcb9268692672e813aba4cb.jpg)
Very clear runnings
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/d19/d1903d051c124acd7706f9cced221d12.jpg)
Pumpkin!
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/10c/10c4732a5d28a0449fe1811199d1bd77.jpg)
Sparging
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/68d/68da9d26eff6df57e7f829bf2aa05495.jpg)
Preparing the pumpkin - needs to get roasted for 30 mins
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/dcd/dcdba7d246c061622f9a3280aa425f6f.jpg)
Hit 30 litres pre-boil bang on
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/e1d/e1d4e84024e36e366a00ded64c2a141b.jpg)
Boil coming
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/5e0/5e08ab3dac46719b224348356f0a5ed6.jpg)
Pumpkin about to go in the oven
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/fa0/fa09b705d9f1b06ee7c05e6db29820bd.jpg)
Yeast!
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/b59/b59206482836311e01289544c3b18e50.jpg)
Begin of chill
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/af2/af2ce35f18e183616e7ff2fca9d2ac3f.jpg)
Starting to break
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/f4a/f4a4288cde050c98d8a2de0d1848c71d.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/a2a/a2a49671ebb473250e119af60a30bec9.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/fd4/fd4ebd332bdd10ecb054893e817b9b85.jpg)
Pouring into FV - very slowly!
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/8b6/8b634ff6fbe846fbcdd0a41b633d3415.jpg)
Colour
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/7b5/7b5e1b965d1a9fa07d495e275d3f55bc.jpg)
Gravity
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/f72/f724b597d0b6725ea250ef67cca9df46.jpg)