Brewing Beer: Sour Pumpkin Ale Homebrew – Part 1

In this video we’re making a sour pumpkin beer that doesn’t suck. This is a kettle sour recipe that is perfect for Halloween and fall, and for people that like pumpkin spice lattes or spiced pumpkin ales, or both. Fall is also football season, so brew this beer up for a big game and share it with friends. This video series shows you all the steps you need to know to make your own kettle sour beer. We discuss what the proper PH is for sour beer and show you how to lower it to the appropriate range using lactic acid and lactobacillus yeast. We also add real pumpkins to this beer to give it real pumpkin flavor, like a pumpkin pie, but with alcohol. Check out the rest of the videos in this series and the links below for recipes and brewing equipment.

Our Brew Setup: https://www.clawhammersupply.com/collections/all-products/products/digital-electric-120v-homebrew-beer-system
Sour Pumpkin Beer Part II: https://youtu.be/a2NrGzmBTRQ
Full Recipe: https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/brewing-beer-sour-pumpkin-recipe
Sour Saison Brewday: https://youtu.be/mEV-tF5Mn9s
Craft Beer and Brewing Pumpkin Homebrew Article: https://beerandbrewing.com/perfect-pumpkin-ale-recipe/

We’re making a sour pumpkin beer for halloween. It’s a total gamble at this point, but we’re excited anyway. The reason is that we’ve never made A.) a pumpkin beer, or B.) a sour beer. So we thought, why not go big and check both off the list at once.
We’re pretty confident in the souring process and very confident that the pumpkin beer recipe is good. We’re not positive that they’ll go well together. But how else will we find out if we don’t try it ourselves?
The souring process is pretty straightforward.
1. Clean everything thoroughly.
2. Mash like normal.
3. Mash out and bring to a boil for 15 minutes.
4. Cool back down to souring temperature and adjust pH downward with lactic acid (to roughly 4.3).
5. Add lactose bacteria
6. Cover and let it sit for several days (until pH has dropped to 3.4)
7. Resume brew day like normal (boil, add hops, etc.).
This video covers steps 1-7. We’ll finish the rest of the brew day in the next video and of course will follow it up with a tasting video.
As always, we’re using Clawhammer’s Brew in a Bag (BIAB) Digital brewing system. It can be found on their website.
Enjoy!