Pumpkin beers brewed exclusively with pumpkin?

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by BH712, Sep 10, 2014.

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  1. BH712

    BH712 Initiate (0) Jan 29, 2014 District of Columbia

    Forgive me if this has already been asked. Now that pumpkin season is in full swing, I wanted to throw out this question to the wonderfully knowledgable BA community. Does anyone know which pumpkin beers, if any, are brewed exclusively with pumpkin? I know the original logic to pumpkin beers was that pumpkins were an alternative source of fermentable sugars when barley was out of season (or something). In this day and age, we don't really need to concern ourselves with such trivial matters as seasonality (pumpkin beers in June and July, anyone?), so there is no real need to completely substitute pumpkin for malt. For the beers that do not exclusively use pumpkin (which I assume are most of them), what exactly are the base beers? Other than "ale brewed with spices," of course. Are the same hops used? Same yeast? Which types of hops and yeast lend themselves best to complementing pumpkin (and the loads of requisite spices) used? I'm talking specifically about the traditional pumpkin ales (and the occasional lager) here, no Belgians or stouts or anything like that.
     
    #1 BH712, Sep 10, 2014
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  2. westcoastbeerlvr

    westcoastbeerlvr Grand Pooh-Bah (4,115) Oct 19, 2010 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Would probably taste like a cream ale. Pumpkin is extremely fermentable.
     
    #2 westcoastbeerlvr, Sep 10, 2014
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  3. infuturity83

    infuturity83 Initiate (0) Sep 22, 2009 Massachusetts

    I don't know of any beers that currently replace malt with pumpkin exclusively.

    Hell...I believe most don't even use real pumpkin, but flavor extracts in a crappy beer covered up with a tongue-numbing amount of pumpkin pie spice.
     
    #3 infuturity83, Sep 10, 2014
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  4. kzoobrew

    kzoobrew Initiate (0) May 8, 2006 Michigan

    If you were to completely replace malt with pumpkin, by definition you would not have a beer. The idea sounds like more trouble than it is worth.

    Base beers will vary between breweries, as will the hops and yeast. Generally speaking you will see more lower AA% hops, more spicy rather than fruity, piney or resinous. Yeast will generally remain consistent with the breweries house yeast. Pumpkin alone does not provide much flavor, most of the flavor associated with the style comes from the spices. This is why there are many "Pumpkin" beers that are brewed without pumpkin, I am not aware of anyone using flavor extracts.
     
    #4 kzoobrew, Sep 10, 2014
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  5. BeerVikingSailor

    BeerVikingSailor Grand Pooh-Bah (3,667) Nov 19, 2009 Ohio
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    You question cannot easily be answered......to my knowledge, no modern brewery uses exclusively pumpkin as their main fermentable; that would not be a "beer" per se. Beer is made with malted barley, yeast, hops and water. Supposedly, native pumpkins and others in the gourd family, were used in pioneer times, to stretch out the meager (and very expensive) imported malts from the UK, as a fermentable sugar source.

    As has been mentioned many times, pumpkins do not add much in the way of flavor, but add mouthfeel / body, and sugars which can then be fermented to alcohol. Most of the "flavors" people associate with pumpkin pie and the autumn season, comes from the spices used, not the pumpkin itself.....

    As far as what "base beer" is used, again....not easy to answer, as there are many.....most use some sort of brown or amber base ale, with the pumpkin (puree, fresh or not at all, depending on the brewer) and spices. Hops are used very little, typically very low AA acid types that do not clash with the autumn spices used. The Pumpkin beer "style" is very broad and varied.....there are regular pumpkin ales, pumpkin porters, pumpkin stouts, pumpkin barleywines, even some pumpkin lagers out there.

    I have tried over 60 pumpkin beers over the past few years, and enjoy the style and diversity.

    Hope this helps!
     
    #5 BeerVikingSailor, Sep 10, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2014
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