Beer is one of the oldest fermented beverages known to man.  It has changed in many ways of the past 7000 years or so, and we are at a very exciting moment in beer history.

Craft beer and microbrews have exploded all over the world.  If one goes to a decent package store these days the beer section is simply amazing.  Every kind of beer is being brewed and by many different breweries.  The underlying beauty to all of this is, you can make it yourself!  What is more satisfying than pouring a beer at the end of a tough day or when the game is about to start?  Pouring one that you brewed!  I hope this blog inspires you to enjoy beer, broaden your understanding and appreciation of beer, and maybe even brew some of your own.

Cheers!

I'm not going to debate this here as it's an argument that 1. will never end and 2. who cares how someone chooses to make their beer?

All the beers I've brewed have been extract with steeped specialty grains.  I have not the time or money or mechanical cleverness to make all grain beer.  If you do, good for you!  The point being, every beer that I have made (with one major exception) has looked and tasted great.  I do not compete so I do not know how my homebrew stands up to the rest.  The point being, I enjoy my beer, and everyone I've had the privilege to share it with has enjoyed it as well.

So do what's right for you, though I strongly recommend that if you're just getting into brewing, start off as simple as possible.  I love Alton Brown, but his beer episode is too simple. 

This was recently posted on the BBC.  Further proof that alcohol in moderation is a good thing. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8367141.stm

Being from and living in New England nothing says autumn like pumpkins.  They are every where, on front steps, in the fields, in your bread and best of all, in your beer.  The style of pumpkin beer ranges from lager to stout (with practically everything in between) and from heavy pumpkin pie spice to no spice and pumpkin only.  Personally, I prefer a pumpkin ale with some spice and some pumpkin.  Have you ever eaten just a pumpkin?  Probably not because it's kind of bland.  Ever eaten just cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and mace?  Yeah, over kill.  That's why pumpkin pie is a little slice of culinary heaven.  Savory and sweet joining in harmony.  I like to keep my homebrew simple and reasonably priced so I tend to use extract kits from homebrew suppliers Midwest or Northernbrewer. For my pumpkin ale I used Midwest and I roasted 9 pounds of sugar pumpkin at 375 degrees and then steeped this for 1 hour at 155 degrees before adding the specialty grains.

There is a major problem with this procedure from a brewing perspective.  Pumpkin has a lot of starch in it that should be converted to sugar before brewing.  If not this starch can cloud up your beer and add off flavors.  If I was brewing all grain, there would be enough enzymes from my mash to take care of this problem.  Since I'm lazy and like extract I need to find a way to convert this unwanted starch.  The answer?  Beano.  I crushed 5 tablets and added it to the steep of pumpkin.  The result?  A very clear beer and no extra starch. 

For yeast I used about a third of a yeast cake from a previous batch of homebrew.  The strain is Whitelabs 007, a workhorse of a yeast with great attenuation that leads to a clear beer.

So how does the beer taste?  I like it, but next year I will double the spice that came with the kit.  I have a fairly sensitive taste and can barely detect the pumpkin pie spices, but I can definitely taste the pumpkin.  'Till next year!