Peter Peter Pumpkin Ale - vol. III

Jon helping me rack the beer
The beer looked like it had finished fermenting by Friday afternoon, 5 days after it was brewed, so I threw it in the cold room over the weekend and today we racked it. The specs:
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.7%


The pumpkin in mid-rack
I took a big ol' whiff (waft) of the hydrometer sample and it smelled somewhat rancid - not outright foul (eg. compost), but like an fairly infected beer. Had it smelled somewhat decent I would have primed it with some DME to let it carbonate naturally, but I was pretty sure after smelling it this afternoon that it was going to be a failure, so we just racked it to a keg and put some CO2 on it to force carbonate it. I'm going to give it two weeks or so to absorb some CO2 and then we'll give it a proper tasting.

Bea and Barak

Bea was appointed as
Dancing Damsel of State today

Peter Peter Pumpkin Ale - vol. II

Fermentation!
So, four days in and the beer seams to be fermenting fine and the pumpkin appears to be holding up, but some funny business has started to set it in...

Notice around the rim of the lid some slight mold coloration is noticeable. This may not be really mold coloration, some might postulate that it is actual mold. I guess time will tell.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Ale - vol. I

Hand Carved Fermentation Vessel
So, I've been scheming since this summer about brewing a pumpkin beer in an actual pumpkin; I'm not sure it's ever been done before or not. I bought this pumpkin at Hannafords for $5 back in October and have been putting this project off for no reason in particular. The pumpkin has stayed in fantastic condition because of my brilliant root-cellaring skill-set.

This is mainly an experiment done on a small pumpkin that I hope to scale up to a giant pumpkin once I have worked out all the problems. That being said, here are the problems I foresee at this point:

* the pumpkin is probably impossible to sanitize without putting its structural integrity in jeopardy

* the pumpkin may loose its structural integrity from being filled with liquid after a few days, and by liquid I mean fermenting beer

* the non-sanitized pumpkin could contribute microbes that may potentially and substantially sour any beer that comes in contact with it

* risk for infection of the beer in the pumpkin from exterior microbes is highly possible from lack of airlock and unsealed seam where pumpkin lid is re-attached

So, with those known problems lurking, I do not necessarily anticipate a success, merely an attempt.


The pumpkin filled with wort
I tried to char the inside of the pumpkin, a la bourbon barrel, but my little creme brulee torch did not have the gumption to really get the job done - I was only able to slightly scorch a 2" by 2" portion of the inside, but the good news is that the pumpkin held the lion's share of the 5 gallon batch: 3.5 gallons (+/- some non-scientific margin of error).
Here's some stats from today's brewing:

EXPECTED OG: 1.051
MEASURED OG: 1.063 - probably incorrect, hydrometer sample had high amount of trub/hop sediment
IBUs: 25
MALT: 2-row, Munich, Vienna, Wheat, Aromatic
HOPS: Challenger, Crystal
YEAST: California Ale (WLP001)

So, that's all for now. I will continue the saga as events unfold

Blessed is my Mother

Ha, I dedicate this one to my mother.
The sign hangs in the Portland Gritty McDuff's pub.