Brewing a pumpkin ale requires plenty of pumpkin

Actually, it doesn’t. A lot of the perfectly good pumpkin ales you’ll find in stores are brewed with 0 lbs of pumpkin. Much of the flavor comes from the spices, like a pumpkin pie. But in our case, we used 10 lbs of pumpkin for 10 gallons of beer. That’s almost 1 lb per gallon, if you do the math.

Check out the pumpkin (which Joel roasted beforehand to get it nice and soft) just simmering in the wort as we finish up the sparge:

That color is amazing. Here’s the first spice addition (of 4 total), including cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg:

We’re actually not quite sure how this beer will turn out. We took pretty crappy notes last year so “adjusting the amount of spices” was really more like “starting over.” But Jeff has informed me that he’s not afraid to brew another pumpkin beer this month if need be. Last but not least, a picture of 5 lbs of freshly-baked pumpkin sitting at the bottom of our fermenter, waiting to accept 10 gallons of 80-degree wort. Mmmmm.

Thanks to everyone who came last night! It was a fun time. If you didn’t make it, buy yourself some gas and come next time.

Brewing the Headless Horseman Pumpkin Ale tonight

Come on by tonight where we’ll be brewing our annual batch of Headless Horseman Pumpkin Ale. It should be interesting. This will be our third year and we’re curious to see what transpires. Our first batch turned out great. We used a partial mash though, so we wanted to step it up our second year brewing it.

Last year we did an all-grain batch and instead of putting the pumpkin in the boil and primary, we threw it in the mash. We also added enough pumpkin spices to keep a pie store in business for the month of October. Mistake. It was like drinking alcoholic potpourri.

We’re hoping to redeem the beer this year. We’ll be doing an all-grain recipe, but will be backing off the spices and adding the pumpkin to the boil and primary fermentation. The goal is to make the beer worthy of the awesome label we developed last year:

Come on by! We’ve got a bunch of beer on tap and another beer that needs redemption. To receive text alerts on your phone about brewing each Monday, sign up here.

Wedding Beer

As Jonathan has already ranted on my “unsanctioned” beer I figured I might as well share the full story.  My younger sister Martha was getting married this past weekend and since her husband-to-be was the creator of the official MNB tap I figured it only appropriate we do a custom beer to celebrate the occasion.

The beer we settled on was a modified version of our yet-named Belgian Wit.  I actually added back the coriander and fresh orange zest from the original Weiss Guy recipe.  For an added twist I added some fresh ginger at the end of the boil (inspired by the Allagash Fluxus I had in Portland last month).  The result was a spectacular beer that won the hearts and taste buds of all who attended (that were legally of age and tasted it).  Even my grandmother who hates beer partook in quite a few herself.

We dubbed it the Equally Yoked Heifer-Weizen.  The quote is especially dynamite on this one too.  If you can’t make it out it reads:

Who was the first guy that looked at a cow and said “I think I’ll drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?”

Yes.  Something we’ve all wondered at one time or another I’m sure.

Kid Rock has a new beer. Is there room for Bryan Adams up there?

Lew Bryson posted a great little article about Kid Rock’s new beer. Wait, what? Yes, Kid Rock, the king of class, now has his own beer brand, which has been billed as a “premium domestic beer.” From Bryson’s analysis (his analysis in parentheses):

Kenny said, “Drinks will come to market rapidly with Kid Rock’s beer. We are in the process of interviewing breweries now (So, Mister…Brewery, where do you see yourself with Kid Rock’s Beer in five years?) and working with Kid Rock to make sure that every aspect of the beer and the marketing support is as exciting as everything else Kid Rock does (Everything? Got any video of him sorting his socks?). We think that by very early spring we will have a compelling product and that consumers will love the look, taste, and branding that Kid Rock creates (wait, he’s creating the taste, too? How is it with grits sandwiches?).

So this is great news. For Bryan Adams. If Kid Rock can do this without a brewery, Bryan Adams can do this WITH a brewery. Granted, we’re not a “brewery” in the sense that we “make and sell beer,” but we will be one day soon. And I would like to formally invite our patron saint, Bryan Adams, to contact us if he is interested in brewing his own beer.

We are now accepting names for the Bryan Adams brew.

Brewing recap: a lot got done

Despite starting earlier than normal, we actually had a fairly late night last night. Things weren’t quite as smooth since Jeff couldn’t get there till later and Joel was suspiciously “out of town” for work. Methinks not.

We had a good turnout and brewed another batch of our popular Eye Patch Ale. We also had all 3 beers on tap, which was both rare and awesome.

However, we also had a lot of non-brewing tasks to complete, such as:

1. Cleaning Joel’s dirty beer kegs from a private, non-sanctioned MNB event (his sister’s wedding). Seriously?
2. Dry-hopping and draining an Eye Patch Ale
3. Transferring our experimental stout into 2 batches, one with bourbon-soaked oak chips and the other with cherries and vanilla. Yes, we’re excited. We went a little light on all ingredients since we’ve had some bad luck with overdoing things the first time around. *cough* spruce beer *cough*

Thanks again to all who showed up. Sorry if Jeff and I seemed a little frazzled. Actually, Jeff was probably fine. But I was frazzled. It won’t happen again (it might happen again). I just need to relax and have a homebrew. Fortunately we were able to unwind at the end of the night and drink a few beers:

Man, I love our end-of-Monday-night ritual, even though it makes Tuesday morning tough. I also love Jeff’s weird dribble stain on his shirt. I think it’s yeast. Or dribble.

Brewing our Eye Patch Ale tonight

We were planning on brewing some good ol’ Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale… but our yeast starter failed to start. Then Jeff looked at the packaging. EXPIRED! This was actually my fault for not buying yeast with enough lead time.

So come on by Jeff’s tonight to brew with us (and drink with us). It should be fun. And since Joel is out of town, there won’t be anyone there to screw everything up. Perfect!

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Yarrr! Tis a glorious day for me Eye Patch Ale!

A pirate’s life be hard to beat. Pillage till noon. Hardtack, bacon and a flagon o’ t’ Eye Patch Ale for lunch. Afternoon watch on calm seas. Orange to prevent t’ scurvieeees. A dip in t’ ocean wi’ scalawags and man-eating sharks. Pleasant eve wit t’ captain and a wench or two, and more Eye Patch Ale. Talk to me parrot, Sir Silly Legs, before bed. And do ‘t all agaaaain t’ next morn!

Whether ye be a landlubber or a swabber of poop decks, have a blessed Talk Like a Pirate Day!