Squash; My wife. Again.

With Michelle’s help, I brewed another batch of Squash; My Wife, Spiced Ale. This time I only used sweet meat squash and had to skip fresh ground ginger for the dried variety. Also, I steeped half the squash for 45 minutes with the grain, and boiled the other half. The O.G. was 1.054 and the taste is delightful. Here’s the recipe:

Grain bill:

• 7 lbs LME
• 1 lbs domestic 2-row
• 0.5 lbs Crystal 80L
• 0.5 lbs Crystal 40L

Hops:

• 2 oz Vanguard @ 60 min. (4.4% aa)
• 2 oz Vanguard @ 10 min.

Misc:

• Fermentis Safale S-04 dry yeast (with 1 liter starter)
• 10 lbs sweet meat squash, cubed and baked
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp allspice
• 1 Tbsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp dried ginger

Michelle cubed and baked all the squash and prepped spices, and since she enjoys the spice addition, we may add more to secondary if the flavors mellow when racking. So far it tastes great. I tried the steeped and boiled squash and both were bland and stringy – a good sign that the fermentable sugar and flavor had been extracted.