Making a pumpkin beer

Hey everyone. I promised my wife I would make her a pumpkin beer. I started putting together a recipe but got stuck right away because I'm not sure how adding in the pumpkin is going to affect my OG. Any advice?
Thanks,
Shane

Canned pumpkin or fresh?

Canned. I'm in south Texas, so fresh isn't an option this time of year.

My initial plan is all grain...

75% Maris otter
13% Crystal 40
7% Special roast
5% Dark brown sugar
6 pounds pumpkin

Target OG 1.058

I've never made a pumpkin beer before so I'm not sure how adding the pumpkin will affect the gravity. I assume it will raise it?

If you really want to make it simple on yourself, Northern brewer has a great All grain Pumpkin ale kit that i've been brewing for the past 3 years. I don't know what kind of system you have, however this year I'm using a recirculating mash system and the pumpkin created a stuck recirc and sparge - pain in the ass. I think this past year will be the last year I use canned pumpkin in the mash. I'll just leave it up to the spices. I don't know if it made a huge difference.

Generally what I did with mine is that I baked 2 cans of pumpkin and added brown sugar which did bump up the abv a bit, however it was welcomed.

Genuine said:

If you really want to make it simple on yourself, Northern brewer has a great All grain Pumpkin ale kit that i've been brewing for the past 3 years. I don't know what kind of system you have, however this year I'm using a recirculating mash system and the pumpkin created a stuck recirc and sparge - pain in the ass. I think this past year will be the last year I use canned pumpkin in the mash. I'll just leave it up to the spices. I don't know if it made a huge difference.

Generally what I did with mine is that I baked 2 cans of pumpkin and added brown sugar which did bump up the abv a bit, however it was welcomed.

Click to expand...

Can't answer your question, but if you go this route, adventures in homebrewing has a really good pumpkin kit. Comes with the spices you need. Nobody believed me when I said there wasn't any actual pumpkin added. Great reviews from everyone who tried it as well.

Which reminds me...I still have a couple bottles squirreled away in the back of a closet...

stuknkrvl said:

My initial plan is all grain...

75% Maris otter
13% Crystal 40
7% Special roast
5% Dark brown sugar
6 pounds pumpkin

Target OG 1.058

I've never made a pumpkin beer before so I'm not sure how adding the pumpkin will affect the gravity. I assume it will raise it?

Click to expand...

Here is my last pumpkin recipe that came out great (10 gals). I will not change a thing next halloween. Definitely recommend those exact spice ratios and boil them for last minute.

2 Row 14 lb
Victory 3 lb
Crystal 60L 3 lb
Flaked Wheat 2 lb
Kroger 29 oz canned pumpkin (Mash) 3 cans

Magnum 0.5 oz 60 min

Cinnamon 2t 1 min
Allspice 1t 1 min
Ginger 0.5t 1 min
Cloves 0.5t 1 min

S-05

mwjtennis said:

Here is my last pumpkin recipe that came out great (10 gals). I will not change a thing next halloween. Definitely recommend those exact spice ratios and boil them for last minute.

2 Row 14 lb
Victory 3 lb
Crystal 60L 3 lb
Flaked Wheat 2 lb
Kroger 29 oz canned pumpkin (Mash) 3 cans

Magnum 0.5 oz 60 min

Cinnamon 2t 1 min
Allspice 1t 1 min
Ginger 0.5t 1 min
Cloves 0.5t 1 min

S-05

Click to expand...

Did you secondary on the pumpkin? Roasted?
Not trying to hijack, but I brewed a pumpkin last year that was basically gross until the last few at 6 months maybe smoothed out.

mwjtennis said:

Here is my last pumpkin recipe that came out great (10 gals). I will not change a thing next halloween. Definitely recommend those exact spice ratios and boil them for last minute.

2 Row 14 lb
Victory 3 lb
Crystal 60L 3 lb
Flaked Wheat 2 lb
Kroger 29 oz canned pumpkin (Mash) 3 cans

Magnum 0.5 oz 60 min

Cinnamon 2t 1 min
Allspice 1t 1 min
Ginger 0.5t 1 min
Cloves 0.5t 1 min

S-05

Click to expand...

Are those teaspoons or tablespoons?

t = teaspoon.
T = tablespoon.

Pumpkin beer? In the spring?

Guess I'll start brewing my winter warmers then. They'll be ready just in time for the July heat wave.

stuknkrvl said:

75% Maris otter
13% Crystal 40
7% Special roast
5% Dark brown sugar
6 pounds pumpkin

Click to expand...

Regarding your recipe: The pumpkin itself is not going to add much noticeable flavor. I would suggest adding some pumpkin pie spices to the boil.

frazier said:

t = teaspoon.
T = tablespoon.

Click to expand...

tsp = teaspoon
tbsp = tablespoon
t =

I use 29 oz (2 big cans) of pumpkin puree in my pumpkin beer.

Also, I throw 1/2 lb of rice hulls in the mash to help prevent a stuck sparge. The pumpkin gets pretty thick as you can imagine.

Not sure how much this adds, but I also bake the pumpkin in the oven at 375 for about an hour with brown sugar on top. Then cool it and add it to the mash.

My spice regime is completely different than above so I'll keep it to myself.

Here is my pumpkin recipe that I brewed for my wife and it is her favorite beer ever. It is based on Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale. I added pumpkin pie spice at the last 5 minutes of the boil and more pumpkin spice in the secondary to her taste:

American Amber Ale (6 B)

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.79 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
End of Boil Vol: 5.98 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 4.60 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 74.4 %
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.4 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.4 %
5.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.3 %
2.1 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.0 %
0.50 oz Hallertau [4.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 6 7.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Hallertau [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 13.2 IBUs
1 lbs Brown Sugar, Dark [Boil for 60 min](50.0 SRM) Sugar 8 7.4 %
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.50 oz Hallertau [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 1.3 IBUs
2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 11 -

Notes
Additional mash: 60 oz Libby's Pumpkin Pie Filling (unspiced) baked at 375 for 60m.
1.5 Tbs McCormicks Pumpkin Pie Spice (last 5 min of boil).

Good luck!

If you've ever tasted actual fresh pumpkin, it has little to no taste. What you think of as pumpkin flavor is the spice bill in front of the residual sweetness of the remaining ingredients. The first 3 years doing pumpkin I was shy on the spices and got little to no flaor. This year I went overboard and got a very bitter brew. Next year I'm going to do 1 rounded table spoon each of
ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and allspice
at 5 minutes (like an aroma addition) .

I always drop my wort into the fermenter through a ss seive, so I think in previous years I was straining out all my spice. This is half the spice I did this year.

For a 5.5 gallon batch I baked 75 oz (5x 15oz cans) of pumpkin puree on 3 cookie sheets in a convection oven for a few hours to get a nice toasty crust on it. First the oven will need to drive off the water before it can caramelize. Then I had to scrape and redissolve the crusty puree in the strike water. Lautered with 12oz of rice hulls, and it took over an hour to get the last runnings.

When all was done there was a only the slightest detectable hint of pumpkin flavor in the resulting beer (spicing was kept very simple and subtle) and perhaps some of that smooth mouthfeel I had heard of. The color was the most outstanding, a beautiful orange. Next time I will use 2 or 3 more cans, but since I'm not sure baking really adds much, I may skip that ordeal. I'll add some oats too for extra smooth mouthfeel.

The beer got better with age and was about perfect after 6 months in the keg. Still looking to get more of the real pumpkin flavor, though.

Added:
If you get a chance to try, New Belgium brews a remarkably good Pumpkin Ale. I can actually taste the pumpkin in it. I suspect they use some sort of flavoring.

+1 for rice hulls if you are sparging. As previous posters have mentioned, most of the flavor comes from the spice. I wouldn't add it until the end of the boil and/or to the secondary.

Mexibilly said:

Did you secondary on the pumpkin? Roasted?
Not trying to hijack, but I brewed a pumpkin last year that was basically gross until the last few at 6 months maybe smoothed out.

Click to expand...

No pumpkin in fermentors, only mash.

Radobrewer said:

+1 for rice hulls if you are sparging. As previous posters have mentioned, most of the flavor comes from the spice. I wouldn't add it until the end of the boil and/or to the secondary.

Click to expand...

I was actually considering to add the pumpkin puree itself to a secondary for a couple weeks and filter through a fine mesh hop bag when racking. The pumpkin puree sludge can be strained and squeezed under sanitary conditions, contributing more color and hopefully some flavor.

hunter_la5 said:

tsp = teaspoon
tbsp = tablespoon
t =

Click to expand...

t meant for teaspoon, sorry

I roasted my pumpkin at 375 for 90 minutes until it started to caramelize on top then I added it to my sparge water, mixed it up good and used that mixture for my sparge. Added the pumpkin pie spices to the boil with 5 minutes to go.

Took about 4-5 months of conditioning, but it's pretty good now.

I also recommend the Northern Brewer Smashing Pumpkin Ale recipe. I mashed three 15-oz cans in with the grain. I hate the taste of nutmeg, so I used 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp each of cloves and ginger in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I also made a spice tincture by steeping the same amount of spice in 5 ounces of vodka for two weeks before bottling, and then adjusted the spice level before I added the priming sugar. In addition, I added 1-lb of lactose to the bottling sugar water to add some sweetness and extra mouth feel. It turned out fantastic and was very well like by everybody who tried it.

hunter_la5 said:

Pumpkin beer? In the spring?

Guess I'll start brewing my winter warmers then. They'll be ready just in time for the July heat wave.



Regarding your recipe: The pumpkin itself is not going to add much noticeable flavor. I would suggest adding some pumpkin pie spices to the boil.

Click to expand...

I'm fairly new to brewing. So far I've only brewed with a buddy but I'm about to get my own setup and told my wife I'd make her anything she wants. She wants a pumpkin beer. Who cares about the season if the beer tastes good, right?

Anyway, I only posted the grain bill in my original post, so here's the completed recipe...

5 gallons
Target OG 1.064
80 minute boil
Mash @154 for 75 minutes

10 pounds Maris Otter
2 pounds Crystal 40
1 pound Special Roast
Half pound dark brown sugar (added after the mash)
6 pounds pumpkin roasted @350 for an hour - half in mash, half added to boil
1 ounce UK Kent Goldings at 60 minutes
2 T ginger
1 T clove
1 T allspice
0.5 T cinnamon
0.5 T nutmeg
(Spices all in at 3 minutes)
Wyeast 1450

Most of the recipes I've looked at use pale 2 row for the base, but I wanted a little more malt on the backbone so I chose Maris Otter.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!