I'm seeking some advice with a pumpkin ale recipe. I basically looked at several pumpkin ales and based my recipe off those. Going to be doing a 5 gallon partial mash. Fermentable: 9 lbs 2-Row Brewer's Malt (60 min. boil) 2 lbs Caramel Malt 40L (60 min. boil) 1 lb Caramel Malt 60L (60 min. boil) 4 oz Chocolate Malt (Steeped for 30 minutes) 8 oz Barley, Flaked (Steeped for 30 minutes) Hops: 2 oz Golding (60 min. boil) 1 oz Golding (15 min. boil) Yeast: American Ale Yeast Other Ingredients: 1 tsp Nutmeg (Ground, last 5 minutes of boil) 1 tsp Cinnamon (Ground, last 5 minutes of boil) 1 tsp Allspice (Ground, last 5 minutes of boil) .5 tsp Irish Moss (Last 10 minutes of boil) 4 lb Pumpkin (60 min. boil, prebaked in the oven) Brewtoad has this at 37 IBU's, 6.8% ABV and 21 SRM. Most of this was shooting from the hip and looking at other pumpkin ale recipes. However, I do know that I want a balanced beer (not overly bitter or overly sweet) and I want the SRM to be in the low 20's. Do I need to reduce the amount of dry malts? Critique away please!
I don't have much experience in pumpkin beers, but at least for your cinnamon addition consider using 1 stick, instead of ground. I don't honestly know if it will make a huge impact on flavor, but it will keep the cinnamon out of your primary and add less particulate matter.
It does not appear that you intend to mash your pumpkin. Is that correct? Why aren’t you mashing the pumpkin? In the Sept./Oct. issue of Zymurgy there are two recipes provided by the author which lists 1 tablespoon of McCormick’s pumpkin pie spice added at the end of boil. It is my understanding that this spice has the following ingredients in it in this order: · cinnamon · ginger · nutmeg · allspice Ingredients are listed by largest amount to smallest. Other comments: You have a total of 3 lbs. of crystal malt. That seems like too much to me. I personally would think a total amount of 1.5 lbs. would be more appropriate. Flaked Barley needs to be mashed; mash it with the 2-row malt. Cheers!
Why are you doing a PM? you have 9# of basemalt, mash everything!! - also what do you mean by "60min boil" Also, pumpkin adds little to a beer, especially if you dont mash it, and even then it wont add much in the way of fermentables. Think about pumpkin pie, its the spices that really flavor it, not the pumpkin I also think that 37ibu is far too high for a spiced beer, take it down to 15max Personally i would also move the 15min EKG's to flame out as well Also no comment on the amt of spices as I dont have any notes around for how much Ive used in the past, but I would say always err on the side to too little, as its easy to add more later
Alright I'm an idiot. I wasn't paying attention to the malts I was picking. I don't have a mash tun so I have to steep crushed grains. I'm ditching the flaked barley and adjusting the amount of malts Fermentable: 8 lbs Plain Amber DME (60 min. boil) 8 oz Caramel Malt 40L (Steeped for 30 min.) 8 oz Caramel Malt 60L (Steeped for 30 min.) 4 oz Chocolate Malt (Steeped for 30 min.) Now brewtoad has it at 35 IBU's, 7.4 % ABV and 19 SRM. Hops will stay the same as well as the spices. Now I want to use a real pumpkin (no canned stuff). Since I can't add it to the mash, how should I add it?
If you can steep grains, then you can partial-mash. Depending on how big your brew kettle is, you can mash some or all of the pumpkin if you substitute a couple pounds of 6-row malt for some of your DME. Put it all in a grain bag with your specialty malts, and increase your 30 min steep to a 60 min mash. Easy, huh? If you'd prefer to not mash (or if your kettle isn't big enough to hold 3+ lbs of grain and 60 oz pumpkin), then you can add your baked pumpkin (then smashed or pureed) directly to the boil, say around 30 min. I did this with success a few times with canned pumpkin before switching to all-grain. Just be sure to give it plenty of time to settle while chilling, and then decant, strain, and/or siphon off the wort to leave as much trub in the kettle as you can. I've had over a gallon of trub settle after fermentation--so plan to have less than 5 gallons of finished beer, or adjust your recipe for a larger volume to make it up. If you mash the pumpkin instead, then the grain bag will capture most of the pumpkin matter. I would also agree with the above post regarding hops/IBUs. You want to taste the pumpkin and spices, not hops, in this beer. I would eliminate the late hop addition and only give a 60 min bittering charge for around 15-25 IBUs, IMO. Pumpkin beers are awesome, though. I have a pumpkin ale and a pumpkin porter fermenting now. Cheers!
My kettle is a 10 gallon, so I could definitely mash the pumpkin. How much 6-row malt would I substitute?
3 lbs of 6-row should be good for a partial mash with your specialty grains and pumpkin, around 153F for an hour. It would be good to have a large enough grain bag that allows you to stir the pumpkin into the grains for good mixing at mash-in. To keep your OG roughly the same, you can reduce your DME from 8 lbs to 6 lbs to account for the added 6-row.
