First attempt at pumpkin

I think you might need a bit more pumpkin spice than that. I used 2.5 pounds of pumpkin in the mash and 1.5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice in the secondary and the pumpkin flavor is there but more of a background flavor. Not sure .5 teaspoons will be enough, especially in the boil since you will lose some aroma/flavor to the boil and during fermentation.

 

I would day that spice mix at 60 won't do too much, but I really have no idea. Most people spice in the last 10/15 minutes and then you can dry hop with spices if needed. Its easy to add and impossible to take away.

It also seems like you are asking a lot out of your 2 row in converting pumpkin, flaked barley, and c60. I'd try to use 6 row and possibly more of it for easier conversion. With that, is it possible to do brew in a bag? Even with 6 row its not going to be a fast conversion.

I would say you can dry graham cracker it for a few days if you so choose.

 

I just did a pumpkin ale and only used the can pumpkin, half a can in the mash the other half in the boil. It's not whats going to give the beer much flavor if any just some extra sugar. Add your spices at flame out, or in the secondary. As far as the graham crackers flavor, I think you'll get that by just using the vanilla and your spices.

 

+1 to vanilla bean and recommend a pound of victory/biscuit/special roast instead of throwing some factory processed sh*t in your homemade beer.

i just kegged my pumpkin ale... much smaller at 4.3%, but i used 7lbs of pumpkin for a 5.5 gallon batch and about a tsp of spice. came out as expected. finished at like 1010 so i didn't need much spice for it to shine through but i agree with the above that you'll need more for it show up in something that's going to finish at 1018.

i also stuck with a single 60 minute addition, so nothing else was competing with my pumpkin and spice additions. but that's personal preference.

also keep in mind there is almost definitely more fermentables in that graham cracker, which will change your beer. if it's a simple sugar (sucrose), it could dry you out a bit, but probably not much.