The Headless Horseman rides again!
For now, I’m going to refer to our Pumpkin Ale as the Headless Horseman. It doesn’t simplify things, but it keeps me happy.
We made some tweaks to our recipe this time. For one, we added pumpkin to the mash instead of the boil. See the pumpkin-infused wort trickling into our boil pot above. Notice the bazooka tube (that mesh wire thing) that Joel jerry-rigged to fit the threading. Silly Joel.
And, for good measure, here’s our sparging setup – “in action” as the kids say. Rinse those grains!
The Headless Horseman turned out really well. We added a few less spices this time so it doesn’t end up tasting like liquid cloves. We also were ABOVE our target gravity, so this could end up being an imperial pumpkin ale. Schwing!
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
October 31st, 2007 at 9:19 am
Is that a hot liqour tank above and a mash tun below? How do you connect it to the sparge arm? Also, do you drain completely before you sparge or is are you trying to keep a relatively stable amount of water in the mash tun?
Thanks.
I’m working out my all grain set up, and every little idea helps.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:26 am
Kevin: Yes. We use gravity and high temperature hoses to connect it all. Hot liquor tank up high, mash tun a bit lower, and brewpot on the burner. We keep the brewpot on the burner so we can get it close to boiling as we’re sparging – it saves us about a half hour.
And we try to keep a relatively stable amount of water in the mash tun. As a general rule we like to keep the grains just covered… maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Here’s a video of our system:
http://mondaynightbrewery.com/?p=241
Let us know if you have more questions!
November 1st, 2007 at 9:19 am
On a scale of 1 to pwn, how good do you think Headless Horseman will be?