Pumpkin Beers

I like your idea!

IMO ST Pumpking is a bit over the top on spices (it's good and I like it but I can only drink about 1/2 a bomber) while DFH is more balanced and very delicious (and I could drink the entire 4 pack). DFH is a brown ale and ST is quite a bit lighter in color.

I had Wachusett Imperial Pumpkin last year and I thought that was good and they used Belgian Candied Sugar in it... Just throwing that out there as another option to put on your plate that seems to be full already... ha-ha.

 

I made this beer last year and it is by far the best beer I've made to date.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/imperial-pumpkin-pie-ale-200122/


I'll be brewing 10 gallons of this bad boy soon.

 

Anyone getting that graham cracker/pie crust flavor that is so prominent in Pumking out of these recipes? I was thinking of something very similar, but also adding some biscuit and victory to bring that graham like flavor out. Thoughts?

 

I wish I came up with that recipe, haha. It's just something I found last year and modified it a bit to work with my system. When I made it, I added a can of pumpkin puree and mashed it. Don't know if it made a difference or not, but I just couldn't justify calling it a pumpkin beer without a bit of pumpkin in there.


I seriously cannot wait to brew this beer again. It even smells good as it's fermenting.

 

I have little experience with brewing a pumpkin beer, but when making a pie, it makes an enormous difference if you cook the canned pumpkin in a saucepan for about 20 minutes on med-high - until it begins balling up and pulling away from the edges.

The difference in flavor is night and day. I cook mine with the brown sugar mixed in for extra caramel character. Love me some pumpkin pie.

 

If you want a sweet, full bodied beer, I wouldn't use the Brown Sugar. It's almost entirely fermentable and is a simple sugar, so it actually dries out the beer. The key to beers like DFH Punkin and ST Pumking are fairly high final gravities relative to the strength.

My experience brewing with candied ginger is similar, too. It's expensive stuff, it's hard to find, and it's basically just regular ginger that's been cooked down in simple syrup. In the finished beer, the sweetness fermented out and what you were left with was a taste/aroma nearly identical to fresh ginger, which is cheaper and easier to find on its own.

Also keep in mind, ginger is a main component of pumpkin pie spice and McCormick's is pretty gingery. By adding the spice blend and candied ginger, you're double gingering, which might be overkill.

Those were my thoughts anyway. Otherwise, I think the recipe looks good.

 

This is a similar idea to what I do with my Pumpkin Ale. I toss the pumpkin in maple syrup and bake it for an hour or so until the sugars are very caramelized, just shy of being burnt, then I toss the whole shebang into the mash. Without that caramelization, I always find Pumpkin Ales get more of a squashy flavor than a pie flavor.

 

That'll take some experimentation. Every time I brew a pumpkin ale I find it to be not quite pumpkiny enough, so I've increased the quantity with every batch. My last batch at 3 lbs. of canned pumpkin tossed with 10 oz. of maple syrup, but I haven't tried this recipe yet to see if it's any better or worse than last years. My base beer is also a Scotch Ale, though, and it's bourbon barrel aged, so there are tons of big flavors going on that hide the pumpkin. In a more traditional pumpkin ale recipe, you might have a bit more mileage with the gourdy goodness.

 

It's very unlikely that you will get any pumpkin flavor from adding pumpkin into a beer at the homebrew level. The "pumpkin" flavor comes from the spice additions. I think you'd have to add WAY more pumpkin than would even be practical to get a pumpkin flavor from actual pumpkin.

There's an episode of Basic Brewing Radio where they discuss this, it's worth a listen:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr11-26-09pumpkinexp.mp3

 

I have made a pumpkin ale two years in a row now that is very similar to Pumking in flavor and aroma. I do not have the recipe near by but, for the malt bill I am using the Pumpkin Ale recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. This is quite a bit darker and lower in alcohol than Pumking, but still quite tasty. For flavoring I use pumpkin extract made from pie spices soaked in vodka for 2 - 3 weeks. This is added after the beer has been kegged and carbonated. In addition to pie spice the extract I add graham cracker flavored extract. http://capellaflavordrops.com/grahamcracker.aspx All to taste of course. This gives me a very close flavor and aroma to Pumking. The graham cracker extract does seem to effect head retention a bit so this past year I added (or increased the amount of) carapils and it was spot on. Back in April, some friends and I cracked open a growler of it that I filled when I was emptying out the keg for another batch and it was still fantastic.

The graham cracker flavor and aroma is really the key to Pumking, in my opinion.​

Others have said that Southern Tier uses candied ginger and vanilla beans at flameout to achieve the signature aroma. I have yet to try this. Overall I am extremely happy with my method. Because it has been such a hit the last two years, I will be brewing it twice this year, two ten gallon batches.​

 

I would strongly suggest that you try out the Graham cracker flavor extract in a few commercial pumpkin spiced beers. This way you can get a feel for the way it tastes. If you think about the flavors that make up "Graham cracker", they are cinnamon, vanilla, and biscuit. The flavor extract that I have mentioned adds quite a bit of vanilla and cinnamon. After trying it out you might decide to cut back on the amount of cinnamon and vanilla that you use. You may might even decide to eliminate the vanilla all together.

 

BS - If you know what pumpkin tastes like, you can detect its effects beyond the spices used. Pumpkin does not taste like spices - its vegetal and woody (and gives a certain dryness to the mouthfeel) when used raw, and a slight nuttiness if roasted. Too many people confuse pumpkin flavor with pumpkin pie flavor - which yes, tastes like it does due to the spices.

 

Just using vanilla along with pumpkin pie spices is enough to give the illusion of the graham cracker crust.