Slightly Smaller Rumpkin Clone

After reading about Avery's Rumpkin I knew that I was going to brew my version of it for a fall beer. Rumpkin is an imperial pumpkin beer. Its aged on Gosling's Rum barrels for 6 months, coming out to intense 13.2 ABV. I decided to make it slightly smaller as I wasn't going to age it for 6 months and I wanted it ready to drink as soon as possible. I baked the pumpkin pie mix at 350 degrees for an hour, then mashed it in with the rest of the grains at 155 degrees. (Well as close to 155 as I can hold with this electric stove)
The pumpkin was prespiced and if the beer needs more spice I'll add it when I add the spiced rum later. I plan on using Kraken or Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum. 

Specifics 
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 14.6
Anticipated IBU: 24.1
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.070

Grain
3oz of Maris Otter
3oz of Flaked Oats
2oz of Crystal 120
8oz of Brown Sugar
1lb of Honey @ 5 min
4lb of Canned Pumpkin Pie
3.5lb of Amber LME

Hops
.50oz Cluster (7.00%) @ 60 min
.25oz Cluster (7.00%) @ 30 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Four (Well Three) Spent Grain Bread

After brewing my Four Grain Ale, I took the spent grains and made bread. I should have started this a long time ago! It was fantastic, we had friends over and both loaves were gone before the end of the night.

 This the recipe I used and probably will continue to use. It makes me want to brew more because everytime you brew the bread will come out different. From what I've read the only grains you want to stay away from are really dark roasty grains.

Spent Grain Bread
1 cup Warm Water
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3 cups Spent Grain
1 pkg dry Bakers Yeast
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups Flour

Combine sugar and yeast with warm water. Add salt, oil, spent grain, and 1 cup of the flour. Mix well. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough.

Knead well, cover, and let rise for several hours (until doubled). Punch down and shape into two loaves. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 425 degrees F. for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F. and bake for 10 more minutes or until nicely browned.

Four Grain Ale

Last night I brewed what I call a Four Grain Ale. I used Oats, Wheat, Rye, and Barley. I based the recipe off some rye recipes. It came out to a nice mellow 1.046 original gravity, I wasn't aiming for anything to  high in alcohol. I attempted to brew this as a partial mash and comparing with my Beersmith notes It looks like I hit about 70 percent efficiency.I added a majority of the extract in late to keep the color light.

Specifics 
Batch Size: 2.75 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 10.8
Anticipated IBU: 29.4
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.046

Grain
1.5 lbs of Amber liquid Extract @ 60min
2 lbs of Amber Liquid Extract @ 30min
4 oz of Flaked Oats
4 oz of Flaked Rye
4 oz of Torrified Wheat




Hops 
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 60 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.50%) @ 30 min
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 15 min

.25 oz Cascade (5.50%) @ 10 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Waxing Bottle Tops

I bottled the peach mead that had been sitting in a carboy in my closet for 6 months now. I decided to add an extra flare and dip the top of these bottles in wax. After researching the topic I found there was two different ways to do it. Either premade wax balls you can buy in hobby stores or mixing your own using crayons and hot glue gun gluesticks. This thread was very helpful.   The ratios he stated gave me a basic guideline to go off but I found some experimentation was necessary, I think partly because I used the cheapest crayons available to me. I attempted to use a double boiler to melt the wax/glue but it was too slow and wasn't really working. I ended finding the easiest method was to heat the oven.
Once liquid the process is very straight forward. Dip the bottle and slowly rotate it while the wax cools.  I am very happy with how the bottles turned out, the only worry I have is that the wax will not be too brittle.

Sweet Potato English Ale

Since I read a recipe that included it, I've wanted to brew something with sweet potatoes. I finally got around to it. I brewed a 2.75 gallon batch as I wasn't sure how it would turn out, also I've decided to start brewing smaller batches. I based the recipe off a english nut brown ale. This ended up coming out with a lot higher gravity than I expected, but since it was planned as a fall beer it should have time to mellow.
I diced the sweet potatoes into finger nail sized pieces and then roasted half in the oven for about 45 minutes at 450 degrees. Some ended up burning on the outside but that should just add to the flavor. I then mashed all the potatoes for about an hour at 155 degrees (At least as close to that temperature as I could maintain. I wish I had a gas stove.) I then separated the the potatoes and proceeded to boil the wort as normal. Hopefully the orange color comes through in the end. I am excited to taste the final product.

Sweet Potato Ale

Specifics 
Batch Size: 2.75 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 7.0
Anticipated IBU: 15
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.072

Grain
.5oz Biscuit Malt
.5oz Chocolate
.5oz Special B Malt
.5oz Special Roast
1.25oz Dark Brown Sugar
1oz Flaked Oats
1oz Sucrose
1oz Torrified Wheat
3lbs of Golden Light DME

Hops
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 60 min
.25oz Willamette (5.50%) @ 20 min

Yeast
WLP013 London Ale Yeast