BYO Blogs

Growing giant pumpkins and fermenting beer inside them was a fun side project this year, and I was just thinking about one thing I learned and what it might mean. I learned that pumpkins will remain intact with fermenting beer inside them far longer than I thought. This year, I fermented inside the pumpkins for 5 days, then racked to a secondary fermenter. I racked after 5 days because I was going to visit my folks for the holidays and didn't want to mop up 10 gallons of pumpkin ale when I returned. After racking, I put the lids back on the pumpkins and set them in my back yard. 

When I returned home, 10 days later, I was surprised to see that the pumpkins were virtually unchanged. (Note: it did not freeze during the time I was away.) I could see a little discoloration where I had cut them open, but they were still looking good and a quick thump on the sides suggested that they were still in good shape. It was another 10 or so before they started to show any noticeable signs of rot. 

By the time the pumpkins started to rot, I was amazed that they lasted so long. Compared to my memories of how long it took for a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern to go bad, these pumpkins seemed to keep for a very long time. Then it occurred to me — I'll bet that fermenting the beer inside them actually acted as a preservative. 

I grew up in Sioux Falls, SD and still go back there to visit my folks at least once a year. In college (Augustana), I drank a lot of beer, but it was all basically the same kind of beer. My fizzy yellow water of choice was Old Milwaukee because it cost $5 a case, and you got part of that back when you returned the bottles. Occasionally, I would try an "exotic" beer, which at the time meant Corona, Moosehead or Becks, but I usually stuck to what was the least expensive, but still drinkable. Even if I had been more adventurous or knowlegable about beer at the time, I couldn't have found much variety. I knew one store in town that carried Guinness, but that was it. Even well-known imports like Bass didn't make it to Sioux Falls at that time. 

Things have certainly changed and now Sioux Falls is a beer oasis in the upper Midwest. They don't have a brewpub now (Sioux Falls Brewing shut down years ago), but many local beer stores have a nice selection of regional craft brews alongside the usual American Pilsners. One store, though, really stands out -- Taylor's Pantry (at 41st and Minnesota). It's a gas station, but it also has a beer selection that includes a wide variety of Belgians (including several Cantillon lambics) along with the Midwest micros. Their biggest strength, however, is in Scandinavian beers. They have beers by Nøgne Ø (Norway), Haand (Sweden), Huvila (Finland), Mikkeller (Denmark) and others. Taylors also recently started selling homebrewing supplies and are consulting with the local homebrewing club (Big Sioux Brewing Society) to meet the needs of local homebrewers. 

The beer selection at local bars is highly variable, but many of the better bars and restaurants have at least have a couple local micros on tap. But again Sioux Falls has one standout -- Monks (on 8th street, downtown). As you might expect from the name, Monks carries a lot of Belgian beers. And, they have a decent selection of Belgian glassware, so you won't end up drinking your Trappist ale out of a Shaker pint glass. They also have plenty of regional micros. I tried a Surly Furious -- a double IPA from a Minneapolis, MN brewery --there and thought it was fantastic. 

So, if you ever find yourself in Sioux Falls and were expecting it to be a beer desert (as it was throughout the '80s and much of the '90s), you'll be happy to discover that an oasis has formed there. 

I brewed a pumpkin ale on Wednesday. These spiced ales are popular this time of year, but I did one thing a little differently than most — I’m fermenting the beer inside of three giant pumpkins. 

The idea of fermenting a beer in a pumpkin is not original. A couple years ago, we profiled a guy (in Homebrew Nation) who did this. But, he used a regular Jack-O-Lantern sized pumpkin. I’m using  giant pumpkins that I grew myself. As such, I was able to fit 5 gallons (19L) of wort in a single pumpkin. The remaining 5 gallons (19 L) was split between two smaller pumpkins. 

Did somebody say, “Chris, I’m fascinated. Please tell more about growing giant pumpkins?” I know you’re saying, “no” — and I additionally see people who know me waving their hands and making that “cut him off” gesture — but I’m hearing “yes,” so here’s a quick introduction to growing huge mutant squash: 

Giant pumpkins are large, orange squash from the species Cucurbita maxima. (“Regular” pumpkins, such as almost all Jack-O-Lanterns, come from Cucurbita pepo.) They were bred from Hubbard squash and a Japanese winter squash called kabocha. In 1903, some guy named William Warnock grew a 403-lb. (183-kg) squash of this variety. (In contrast, a big Jack-O-Lantern type will weigh around 20 bs./9.1 kg) That record held until 1976, when Bob Ford grew a 451-lb. (205-kg) pumpkin. Since then, using a pumpkin variety bred by Howard Dill (Dill’s Atlantic Giant), the world record has been broken almost every growing season. In 2009, a young woman named Christy Harp grew a 1,725-lb. Atlantic Giant. Growing your own giant pumpkins basically involves planting the seed of a giant pumpkin variety — and these include Dill’s Atlantic Giant, Prizewinner and Big Max — in rich, well-drained soil, keeping the young vine protected from squash vine borers (insect pests that feed on the plant) and feeding the adult vine with seaweed extract. 

I had a great weekend, the highlight of which was the Austin ZEALOTS annual Xmas party and chili cookoff. (The Austin ZEALOTS are the Austin, Texas homebrew club I belong to.) The party is hosted every year by Corey and Angela Martin and is always one of the highlights of the ZEALOTS calendar.

This year, we had 25 kegs of homebrew at the party, and lots of bottled beer -- both homebrewed and commercial -- was passed around as well. There were a lot of great beers there, ranging from a nicely-balanced Helles (Corey) to all manner of big and/or hoppy beers. I could go on and on about the homebrews there, but I realize that a long list of beers you can't taste, brewed by people you likely don't know, doesn't make for terrifically exciting reading. [So, I'll just give the short list instead: Black Forest Imperial Stout (way to go Will), smoked porter (yummy, thanks Joe), "Finnish porter" (awesome Jim), Octoberfest (killer as always Kerry), Xmas IPA (hop-a-licious Corey) and a bunch of others.]

As far as commercial beers went, JB from Austin Homebrew brought Saint Arnolds Divine Reserve numbers 3 through 8. (Saint Arnold is a Houston brewery; their Divine Reserve is brewed annually.) The Dewberrys (longtime ZEALOTS) brought a whole bunch of old Sierra Nevada Bigfoot's. I can't recall all of the years that were represented, but I remember enjoying the 2002. My wife and I brought a magnum of 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Anchor Christmas beer. Another ZEALOT, Jonathan, brought a magnum from 1999. (I liked the 2006 and 2008 the best.)

There were also 25 chilis in the chili cookoff and a lot of people, including myself, were sweating as they made their way through the entries.

Here is the suggested recipe for the BYO/BBR extract method experiment. (See my previous blog entry if you don't know what I'm referring to.) It’s a double IPA that took some inspiration from a variety of hoppy beers — including Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, Stone IPA, Racer 5, AleSmith IPA and Rogue I2PA — as well as my own IPA recipe I’ve been fiddling with. This recipe is not clone of any of the commercial beers. This is intended as a light-colored, highly-attenuated, American-style IPA/double IPA. I give both 5-gallon (19-L) and 2.5-gallon (9.5-L) versions of the recipe. An advantage of the 2.5-gallon version is that stovetop brewers can perform the full boil trial. (Note: a stovetop brewer could also do the full wort boil as a 2.5 gallon batch and one or more of the other trials as a 5-gallon batch.) If you don’t like this recipe, feel free to use a Pliny clone or the IPA/dIPA recipe of your choosing.

In the instructions for these beers, I’ll point out some things to keep in mind in order to keep the experiment as tightly controlled as possible. The basic idea is to keep everything between the two or more batches (experimental trials) identical except for the experimental variable, which in this case is the wort production method. Along these lines, it would be a good idea to buy your ingredients in bulk, so you’re not just using the same recipe, but the same exact ingredients. Use the same equipment for brewing each batch, with the possible exception of using multiple fermenters. Keep the hops frozen between batches. If possible, crush the grains yourself on brewday. 

1.21 Gigawatts (AKA Doc Brown’s Double)
(5.0 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)

OG = 1.069  FG = 1.014
IBU = 121  SRM = 7  ABV = 7.1%

Ingredients
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) domestic 2-row pale malt (~2 °L)

0.50 lb. (0.23 kg) British 2-row pale ale malt (~ 3 °L)
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) Vienna malt (~5 °L)