Pumpkin Ale

I would like to know this as well. Im going to make a batch on my birthday (this weekend) and it would be nice to do a pumpkin that would be ready in time for fall. Im assuming canned pumpkin would give more flavor seeing as its more concentrated.

Also other ingredients like cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg are what really bring out the flavors in a pumpkin beer. Ive read just using pumkin and no other ingreadients results in a bland brown ale.

-xICooRsYIx

 

I was just listing off ingredients associated with pumpkin and wasnt thinking when i put in brown sugar. I know some beers are made with brown sugar, but im sure it adds an entire different process to the homebrew. Stick to the other spice ingredients that both you an I mentioned. Allspice would definitely help intensify all flavors!!!

-xICooRsYIx

 

I did a slightly darker version of a Punkin clone last year that came out pretty good. Used canned pumpkin. I don't think I'd personally ever use fresh because of all the extra work but it may be worth it.

 

I just bottled a pumpkin amber that I brewed with canned pumpkin. I roasted some of it first in a cookie sheet to get it more flavorful. I added brown sugar, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon. It was a partial grain recipe with mostly LME for the sugars. Give me a few weeks and I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

I've done a pumpkin beer every year for the last 4 to serve with Thanksgiving. I have always used fresh pumpkin roasted before adding to the mash. (I always assumed canned pumpkin would turn into a sticky lautering nightmare.) I've varied the timing and the amount a bit, but have found that the spices are the more important bit. I'm not saying to leave out the pumpkin...but you could. Lol.

I've used both brown sugar and maple syrup in these brews and they ferment out leaving only a hint of the original flavors. My favorite flavors come from the allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and cardamom.

As far as using brown sugar...use it just like extract. That's what it is after all. Sucrose extract instead of maltose extract. Higher gravity and higher alcohol. That's what the pumpkin should do as well...add a bit of sugar and a bit of flavor.

 

Suggest using canned pumpkin, spread out on cookie sheet and baked for 45 minutes or so at 350 F; you can add some spices (usual cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, etc) to the puree before you bake it, then add to your mash.....using fresh pumpkin works as well, best to also cut into chunks and roast in oven until soft; bit more work using fresh, and not available yet in most places.....have done it both ways

You will want to condition in the bottle for 2-3 weeks minimum, it tends to get better if you wait a bit longer from my experience......as far as the brown sugar additions, etc.....as mentioned earlier, it will mostly just ferment out, whether you use brown or turbinado sugar, honey, molasses etc.....just will boost the alcohol with more fermentables than just your grain or extract....

Some folks add some rice hulls to avoid getting a stuck sparge, which is not a bad idea, but I have not had that much of an issue brewing with either canned or fresh baked pumpkin....

I will be brewing an Imperial pumpkin, a pumpkin maple porter (with vanilla bean), and a ginger pumpkin pilsner over the coming weeks....along with a fresh harvest ale with some fresh hops from my garden!

Enjoy!

 

If you want to be drinking your pumpkin beer around Thanksgiving I would suggest waiting until early-mid September to brew it. For me pumpkin beers are best when fresh. If you brew it now it will probably be at it's peak in late September.

Also McCormick's pumpkin pie spice works fairly well. I add some at the end of the boil. I taste it before bottling and if I think it needs more I add some to the bottling bucket. It consists of Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg and Allspice.

 

Don't really agree with the comment " pumpkin beers are best when fresh", be it homebrew or commercially available.....the flavors take some time to meld and coalesce....these are not hoppy ales that will fade quickly.....I have had pumpkin brews with 1-3 years on them in my cellar (mostly imperials, higher abv) and they taste awesome with some age......ditto with my homebrew experiments.....ones that are only a month or so old are not as good (to me) as ones which I have aged in the bottle a few months.....do your own things and see what works best for you! Using a pre-made "pumpkin spice blend" is one way to do it, but feel free to experiment as sometimes these "blends" are not ideal for homebrewing.....use the freshest spices available or grind your own in a small coffee mill / grinder for even better results.

 

look at the ingredients on that can of pumpkin, unless it says 100% pumpkin, I would not use it. buy a pumpkin and bake it. There are other squashes that get mixed in, they will also use corn starch in some pumpkin puree's. Just check the label to ensure your getting pumpkin. And by all means DO NOT USE PUMPKIN PIE MIX, all kinds of nasty crap in there you do not want close to your beer.

 

I brewed a split batch porter last weekend and will be adding McCormick's Pumpkin Pie spice mix to it part in secondary. I have the spices soaking in vodka right now to make an extract. I'm not planning on adding any pumpkin though I did think about roasting some canned pumpkin, then boiling it and adding it to secondary.

 

I made a blanket statement when I should of specified. There are many types of pumpkin beers and maybe some are better with some age on them. But from my personal experience I prefer the majority fresh. Schlafly is probably my favorite. I saved a few a couple of years ago until February in my basement(60F). It was nowhere close to as good as it was when it was first released. It was actually getting to the point of being undrinkable to me.

My pumpkin beer is similar to an amber and find it is best early on. I also do not over spice it so it is somewhat balanced to begin with. At the 3 month mark the spice is barely noticeable. I saved one last year for 6 months and it seemed like a waste. My personal preference is to start drinking them 3 weeks after bottling.

 

Most canned pumpkin I have ever seen is 100% pumpkin and nothing else.....and indeed, you don't want to use the Pumpkin pie mix in the big Libby's cans for your beer.....buying a pumpkin and baking it is only an option if you can get them, which typically is not until later in August at the earliest or September. It is also a bit more work to use fresh, and the results I have found are not noticeable from using canned pumpkin. That's why most commercial brewers wind up using canned as well.....

 

In my opinion aging does not bring out the spices in any style of beer. You lose the spice flavor the longer it ages. If the beer is over spiced to your tastes then aging it will help tone down the flavors and create a more balanced beer.

 

Yes Libbies sells a 100% can pumpkin, other that do not say 100% have squash added. otherwise I would not have said that

 

I believe pumpkin needs mashed. There's got to be a ton of starch there.

 

you are correct, which is why using a can is good, it has been cooked already and all you do is add to mash. For those that use whole pumpkin you must cook/bake it prior to adding to mash. I have no Idea how much you actually get from mashing the gourd but I'm sure it'll add a few points.