A Ghostly Glug and a Wild Chug.......Eventually

Without so much as a fanfare or an introduction, here it begins.

Most of the home brew I have made in the last couple of years has been either country wines or infusions, with the only real dabbling in beer being from home brew kits. A few months ago however I bought a tin of malt extract from a home brew shop. I don't know why, I had no use for it back then, but I guess the "kid in a sweetshop" syndrome kicked in. And anyway, it lasts for ages.

Fast forward a few months, and the wild hops I foraged last year are completely dried and ready to use, and the pumpkins we carved for Halloween either need to be used ASAP or thrown away. As luck would have it, I found a recipe for the hops, and a separate recipe for the pumpkin, both requiring malt extract.

So tonight I got stuck in and made both together

Before I begin, here's the last pic of the pumpkins in all their ghastly, ghoulish, ghostly glory. I'm already hoping they taste as good as they look

And here they are looking less scary with the remaining ingredients required. I only had wine yeast, but what's the worst that can happen!!

I'm just going to put the recipes below and leave it at that. There is more than enough time to go through the hows, the who's, the what's and the why's when it's not half past midnight on a work day!

Ghostly Glug (Pumpkin Beer) 

• 2kg pumpkin
• 1kg malt extract
• 750g sugar
• 13 litres water
• Ale Yeast  

 

• Chop the pumpkin and roast for 20 mins at 200c/gas mark 6. Allow to cool then scoop the pulp out.
• Bring 7 litres of water to the boil, throw in the pulp and boil for 30 minutes.
• Pour the malt extract and sugar into fermentation bin and stir to mix.
• Strain the pumpkin liquid into the bin and stir to ensure sugar has dissolved.
• Pour remaining 6 litres of cold water over wort.
• When cooled to room temperature pitch the yeast.
• Seal the bin and leave for a week or until fermented.
• Siphon into bottles, leave for 10 days, then drink.

Wild Chug

• 0.5 litre hops
• 225g malt extract
• 225g sugar
• Yeast
• 4.5 litres water

• Bring 4.5 litres water to the boil, add the hops and boil for 15 minutes
• Strain into a fermentation bin and mix in the malt extract and sugar
• When cooled to room temperature pitch the yeast
• Leave for 5 days
• Siphon into bottles, leave for 10 days to 2 weeks, then drink

So hopefully by Christmas I'll be able to report back on how these brews turns out. I'll cover brewing in more detail in subsequent posts for anyone curious too.