BuonAnno

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Last night I’m relaxing on the couch watching a ball game when my wife leans over from the computer and says, “Hey when you do your pumpkin ale this year is there anyway you could malt the pumpkin seeds and add them to the mash? It may allow the yeast to create some unique esters.”

Now let me say that I love my wife and she is incredibly supportive of this hobby and clears 5 hours a week for me to brew but……. hearing this from her is like hearing a 2 month old child recite the Gettysburg Address. It just doesn’t happen. So I ask why she would know to ask me that and she says that Dogfish Head announced they were brewing their Punkin Ale today and she read that they use malted seeds in their mash.

Well the first thing I did this morning was come here because I was positive someone had tried this but all I see are threads discussing adding them toasted to the secondary.

So my question to you all is, Has anyone tried malting the seeds before? If not, I feel as if I have an experiment on my hands!

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COLObrewer

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I've never seen it but it's very interesting, sounds like fun. I'm wondering where to get bulk raw pumpkin seeds now, like 50 lbs. That would be a lot of pumpkin scraping. Health food stores probably have it.

BuonAnno

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Yeah thats what I was thinking too. I was thinking of using maybe 5 lbs in the mash and then going for the canned opumpkin in the secondary. My only issue is that I tend to heavily spice my pumpkin ale so I may not notice the subtle changes offered by the malted seed so.......

What I may do is put together a fairly clean recipe to test it. Maybe a 3 gallon batch using

5# MO
5# Malted Pumpkin Seed

.5 oz Willamette (60)

Ferment with a really clean ale yeast like US 05.

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Revvy

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Well this sounded like an amazing idea, but sadly looking at google, there is nothing about malting your own pumpkin seeds for brewing, except for this thread, LOL.

It doesn't mean it's not possible, jut that no one's apparantly tried it. I think it is worth a try. I think Colobrewer's got a tutorial on home malting, I would use it and try it with a pumpkin's worth of seeds. And if it works, scale it up.

There are however plenty of recipes that have toasted pumpkin seeds in the boil. It appears that Sam Caligone might have a recipe in extreme brewing.

But just because there's no info on anyone doing it. Please don't let it discourage you from trying. Too many folks come on here, have great ideas and are looking for someone who already has done it, then if noone has done it, the idea dies. I think this really bares trying out. Even if you only ended up with a few ounces, or a pound, even in a 1 - 2.5 gallon test batch, it might add a lot of flavor.

So don't back off on this nifty idea.

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Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

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BuonAnno

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I'm actually excited that it has never been done before! Nothing like a good challenge.

I just read through COLObrewer's fantastic thread about Home Malting and I think I'm going to start this weekend. I'm only starting with 5 lbs of seeds and I think I'm going to use my old Mash Tun for the soaking (Does that sound doable COLObrewer?).

I'll stick with the recipe listed above unless anyone can think of a better idea.

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Revvy

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Keep us posted and take pictures!!!

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Like my snazzy new avatar? Get Sons of Zymurgy swag, here, and brew with the best.

Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

Bobshannon1

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Pioneer on for us and keep us posted!

GilaMinumBeer

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No reason not to try but, my only comment is;

I wouldn't expect much from the seed. The germ to seed coat ratio for a creal grain is pretty high. The opposite applies to pumpkin seed. In that there is not much germ inside that seed coat.

I am not saying this is not do-able. I am just saying don;t expect much yield from pumpkin seed.

That said, it will be interesting to hear what kind of flavor contribution this may have.

WPStrassburg

Recipes 

I was just staring at my garden last night waiting to see the first of my giant pumpkins start and had the same thought. It should be easy enough to get a few pounds of seeds, but will they germinate right away or would you have to overwinter seeds from this fall's pumpkins?

GilaMinumBeer

Recipes 

Might even look at whether oir not pumpkin seed needs to be fermented to germinate. Lest you are using prepared garden seed. Not sure about pumpkin but I do know that there are several wet type fruit/vegetable seeds that must be fermented to allow germination (like tomatoe seed).