2017:
Mash temp was 154º.
Boil was 90 minutes.
Spread one can of 100% pumpkin onto a pan lined with tin foil and baked for an hour at 350º.
Added 3 teaspoons of McCormick's pumpkin spice and half the baked pumpkin to the boil at knockout. Forgot to add the half pound of brown sugar. Cooled wort to 10º above pitching temp, and racked to primary. Left for a few hours, and pitched yeast when I got home.
Yeast used was Lallemand London ESB dry yeast.
Fermentation in the closet between 75-73º.
Fermentation began within a few hours of pitching yeast. 12 hours into pitching, fermentation was so strong I couldn't keep a stopper and blowoff tube on the fermenter.
By 48 hours, it appears that all fermentation has stopped, which is normal for this brand of yeast. It's best to add sugar to the kettle with this strain, which I forgot to do, so I'm hoping that it comes out okay.
Taste:
It tastes great! I'd like to tweak the recipe for 2018. Here's the feedback I've gotten so far: One friend said that it's the first pumpkin ale he's had where he can actually taste the pumpkin. It's a bit on the vegetabley side. Another friend said it's got a slight bit of a cider thing going on. My opinion is that it needs less pumpkin, and more body. Need to change the malt bill a little bit. Also I should consider sweetening it with a small amount of sugar in the keg before cold crashing.
Overall I'm happy with it. Friends enjoyed it and were coming back for seconds. I'm definitely in the ballpark with this one, but I'd like to continue to tweak the recipe.
Note: Add flaked oats next time. It needs more body
******2018********
By far the best Pumpkilla! yet. Nearly exactly what I wanted it to be. perfectly balanced, a good amount of sweetness, and a delicious taste with just the right amount of spices. The color was exactly what I think a pumpkin beer should look like.
This year, I changed the grain bill, the spices, and the pumpkin. The grain bill is as above. For the spices used 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice that I got from a spice store in Sarasota while I was on vacation. Spice was added at knockout. Their website is: www.spiceandtea.com. In the interest of time, I thought this to be a good compromise between using McCormick's and making your own, and it worked out very well.
Instead of using canned pumpkin, this year I took a butternut squash and peeled it, cubed it, and drizzled it in molasses before baking it in the oven for an hour at 350º. I then added it to the mash.
The only things that can be improved with this recipe is to possibly add a touch more bittering hops, as it it slightly cloying (it is a pumpkin ale after all), and a touch of vanilla. Use beans, not extract. This was a very, very good beer.