Tis the time of year for a frightening recipe. Better brew this now to have it ready for Halloween. By the way nobody has been brave enough to actually ferment IN a Pumpkin yet ...
Ingredients:
Procedure:Heat rocks over a beechwood fire while making beer. Crush grain and mash into 3.5 gallons of 135 degree water. Stabilize at 122 for a 30 minute protein rest. Raise to 152 degrees and hold for 90 minutes. Sparge with 4.5 gallons 170 degree water. Total boil for 120 minutes. Boil hops for 60 minutes. Add Tettnang hops , spices and Irish Moss last 10 minutes. Turn off heat. Whirlpool gently and let sit for 15 minutes. Hollow out a very large Pumpkin scooping out seeds. Carefully siphon hot wort off of the hot break material into the pumpkin. Carefully lower the 3 hot stones into the wort. Wait 20 minutes. Chill wort with immersion chiller. Remove stones, cool and put in a sealed, sanitized container and refrigerate. Add yeast.. Top up pumpkin with cool water. Rack to secondary fermenter when krausen head falls (or right before the pumpkin breaks). Add stones to secondary fermenter.
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Malt Extract brewers:
Substitute the 12 lbs. Pale malt with 6.6lbs Amber Malt Extract and 2 lbs. Light dry malt extract. Add crushed crystal malt to 2 gallons of 160 degree water and hold for 30 minutes. Remove grain, add extract and bring to a boil for 60 minutes.
Pumpkin options:
Rather than fermenting in the pumpkin you can more safely add 7-10 lbs. of baked pumpkin to the mash or add about 6 lbs. of peeled pumpkin flesh into the last 10 minutes of the boil.
Skip the rocks:
While it won't be a German Steinbiere anymore it will still be great. Refer to the Winter 1992 issue of Zymurgy for more information about Steinbiere.