Pumpkin Ales and Secondaries

Rarely do I ever use a secondary. However, over the weekend I brewed a pumpkin ale. I used 90 oz of canned pumpkin throughout the boil. As expected, much of the pumpkin ended up in the wort and in my primary. If I don't rack this to a secondary and just use a primary for 1 month, does anyone feel that the beer sitting on the pumpkin for this long will impart some bad flavors? Or, in peoples experience with Pumpkin Ales, does letting the beer sit longer impart that pumpkin flavor I'm after? Thanks for the input in advance!

when i do a pumpkin ale, i boil the pumpkin, but make sure it stays in the boil kettle. i secondary this, though, both to get rid of more sludge and to add a spice tea.

I just bottled my Punkin Porter. Like Lumpher, I secondaried (although I don't usually) and added a spice tea. It was AMAZING going into the bottle! I was nervous about the trub effects, too.

I just bottled my pumpkin after three weeks in the primary, there was plenty of trub on the bottom, I started my siphon from the top of my primary to the bottling bucket and I moved it down slowly so that I got clear beer and I stopped siphoning when it started to become cloudy. I also boil my pumpkin.

Not really relative, as I mashed my pumpkin, but I did everything in the primary. I ended up adding the spices directly (not as a tea) to the primary 5 days before I kegged as a "dry hop".

Mine came out perfect!! And with a force carb was ready to drink in 4 weeks total. Side note I absolutely love the color, it truly looks like a pumpkin ale!

Thanks for the replies guys. I was just worried about the beer getting some bad flavors from sitting on the pumpkin for so long. I can secondary, but it sounds like I should be fine without it! I'll give it four weeks total in the primary then bottle it!

Does anyone care to tell a guy what their spice tea was and how you made it? With my beer, I used the AHS recipe kit. I tweaked it a little. When I baked my pumpkin, I added 1/4 TBS of pumkin pie spice to the pumpkin. I added the recipe kits pumpkin seasoning packet at 5 minutes left in the boil as directed. I also added 2 TBS of vanilla extract to my primary. I'm afraid that adding a spice tea later in my primary may overdo the seasonings, but does anyone feel differently?

I used this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10890

Both in the boil and just dropped in the primary after three weeks. I did not make a tea.

Paulgs3 said:

I used this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10890

Both in the boil and just dropped in the primary after three weeks. I did not make a tea.

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I was a little worried about the AHS spice pack because of the orange peel. I hope it's not overpowering on the orange. Have you sampled yours yet? Let me know how it is!

I absolutely love mine!

I sampled it, I bottled on the 22nd and patiently waiting for carbonation, but it is amazing!!!!!

Thanks guys! What yeast did you use? I used the Nottingham. It seems slow but it sounds like that's typical. I hope it turns out good. I have to ferment in my basement right now and it's maybe a bit cool at 64 to 65 degrees. It should be alright though.

I can't wait to try my beer! I hope my vanilla addition was a wise move. Time will tell.