When Grace and I were thinking of opening our brewery, there were some drivers which gave us the confidence to take the plunge and sign our lease. Mike being behind us and helping from the very start was one of those reasons. In fact, I’d say it was the biggest driving factor of them all.
Mike had the odd (home) brew of mine at family events, but a few years ago I made a test batch of a pumpkin beer. He loved the beer. If you ask him I think he’d say that this beer was the one that convinced him to be part of the soon-to-be brewery. So this beer, which we scaled to 10BBLs from it’s original 2.5 gallon test batch size, is now called Pfeiffer’s Pumpkin Rye. The brew was a big contributor to the brewery opening at all – and so we’ve named it after Mike.
When I designed this recipe, I didn’t want boiled pumpkin to be in the beer – I wanted a different take on a pumpkin brew. I wanted it to be more delicate and lighter than a ‘traditional’ pumpkin beer. The base beer is a light rye beer, with 37% rye (rye malt and flaked rye). Toasted pumpkin seeds are a primary flavor component – we rested the base beer on a pound per barrel of toasted pumpkin seeds. This is similar to “dry hopping” a beer . We also rested the beer on pumpkin, molasses, and a little spices. And gave it enough time to infuse itself on the flavors, and meld together. Below is a summary of the beer.
Cheers, and have a great pumpkin beer season!
Adam
PFEIFFER’S PUMPKIN RYE
5.4% ABV 32 IBUs
A rye brew rested on pumpkin, toasted pumpkin seeds, molasses, and a little spice. It’s a lighter take on a pumpkin beer – the spice of the rye complimenting the pumpkin, with a little nuttiness from the toasted seeds.
Malts:
US 2-row, wheat, rye
Hops:
Magnum, Crystal, Centennial