It’s Christmas! Which means there’s only one delicious thing you want: mince pies. BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THOSE, I KNOW HOW TO MAKE A PUMPKIN ALE SO GO ON THE BBC FOOD WEBSITE IF YOU LOVE MINCE PIES SO MUCH.
So here’s my special recipe for pumpkin beer and if I hear the words ‘mince pie’ again I will delete this blog so help me god.
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20L batch
4.4% / 30 IBU
GRAIN:
3.62kg (92.7%) - Maris Otter Pale Malt
0.14kg (3.7%) - Carafa II
0.14kg (3.7%) - Munich Malt
MASH:
65c for 60mins
HOPS:
10g - Magnum - 60mins
20g - Columbus - 10mins
50g - Citra - Whirlpool
(Here’s a Friendship Adventure secret - at flameout we cool our wort down to about 76-80c so that we extract pure delicious hop flavour without getting any more bitterness. If you tell anyone I will delete this blogso help me god).
50g - Columbus - Dry Hop
50g - Citra - Dry Hop
YEAST:
Anything you fancy but we use Safale 05 but 04 would work well too. Also a mix of the two. I don’t know. If you haven’t guessed already I take a pretty louche approach to brewing.
THE PUMPKIN SECRET:
Whoa. So many secrets in this recipe. Anyways adding anything to a beer post boil is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND MAY CAUSE YOU BEER TO GO BAD/EXPLODE AND DESTROY YOUR HOUSE AND ALL YOUR TOYS. So to impart a lovely subtle pumpkin flavour to the beer, I get a small pumpkin, cut it into chunks, sprinkle over some brown sugar. Roast them in the oven for 20-30mins to get some caramelisation and kill all beer exploding bacteria and then add the pumpkin in a muslin bag along with the dry hops. You could also sprinkle some cinnamon/nutmeg/spices over the pumpkin along with the brown sugar but be very careful as you’ll need A LOT LESS than you think. Less is always more when adding flavours post-boil. And worse than your beer EXPLODING AND DESTROYING YOUR HOUSE AND ALL YOUR TOYS, is a beer that is undrinkable because it just tastes of nutmeg.
Merry Christmas one and all! Jez