Pumpkin

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Willie3

Willie3

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Has anyone brewed a pumpkin Lager before? I want to brew a pumpkin ale but was thinking about lagering it instead. Would this be a good idea? I was going to go with similar ingredients as Richbrewers Pumpkin Ale but use a dry ale yeast instead. Sounds interesting but was wondering with the size of the trub that will occur will that wreck the yeast?

Thougts?

- WW
 
Funny you should ask, I actually made two pumpkin lagers last year and on my second one this year, my current being a pumpkin wheat lager. Trub really is not an issue for me as the pumpkin was added to the mash.
 
How'd it turn out? Awesome I bet! I was thinking about adding wheat too. Man this AG brewing is da bomb!

- WW
 
The pumpkin wheat lager was brewed last week and just something I threw together. The 5 gallon batch went something like this:

50% Wheat
40% Munich
10% Crystal 40
9 IBUs Pride of Ringwood (Boil)
Wyeast German Lager Yeast
O.G. 1.044

Tossed in a 15oz can of pumpkin to the mash
Added .1oz of pumpkin pie spice last 5 minutes of boil.

Not much pumpkin compared to what I see posted. My personal approach is to treat it like a speciality grain that needs to be mashed, something like adding oats.
 
Im gonna try to do a pumpkin ale as soon as they start selling them here. Ive got a few recipes that say to cut it up and add it to the boil. Plus you add spices in the boil and at secondary. If I had the means i would like to lager some too.
 
Does this idea work? :cross:

I'm going to use canned pumpkin, so I'm not wanting to muck up my mash tun with it.

Could I put a couple cans of pumpkin in some water with some 6-row (in a grain bag) and stick that in the oven at 155 for an hour?

When it's done just add the liquid to the boil??
 
Im getting ready to do a pumpkin ale

5lb pale ale malt
1 medium pumpkin cut and baked (havent decided to mash it or put in secondary)
1-2tsp of pumkin spices
scottish ale yeast (i think this will bring out the heavy malty taste)
hops yet to be determined
 
Hopleaf said:
Does this idea work? :cross:

I'm going to use canned pumpkin, so I'm not wanting to muck up my mash tun with it.

Could I put a couple cans of pumpkin in some water with some 6-row (in a grain bag) and stick that in the oven at 155 for an hour?

When it's done just add the liquid to the boil??
Click to expand...

I'm wondering the same thing, I like 4 cans (toasted in my oven) to the boil last time and got a wonderful pumpkin flavor and aroma, but the trub was so big that it took me down to 4 gals of beer instead of 5. If mashing works I'd love to do it that way from now on.
 
I've always mashed the pumpkin and it works great. I actually use banana squash because it's available at the store, fresh. Mashing does gives you flavor, but it can slow down the sparge and lauter. I batch sparge my brews and don't use any rice hulls, and I have not had problems yet, keeping in mind that I use a copper manifold. I would probably recommend hulls to a brewer who uses a false bottom though. The key is a good mash out temp and slow, steady lautering so you don’t end up with a stuck mash.
 
Iordz said:
I've always mashed the pumpkin and it works great. I actually use banana squash because it's available at the store, fresh. Mashing does gives you flavor, but it can slow down the sparge and lauter. I batch sparge my brews and don't use any rice hulls, and I have not had problems yet, keeping in mind that I use a copper manifold. I would probably recommend hulls to a brewer who uses a false bottom though. The key is a good mash out temp and slow, steady lautering so you don’t end up with a stuck mash.
Click to expand...

I use a copper manifold and no rice hulls as well. Never had a stuck sparge, even with 70% wheat.
 
I used one can of pumpkin in my last batch baked and added to the boil. It has a slight hit of pumpkin that is there and definitly not overpower. Very nice if you ask me. The can was 16 oz. For my next batch I would like to try fresh pumpkin and use between 1.5 lbs and 2lbs and try to boost the pumpkin flavor just a bit.

As far as spices I added .3 oz to the beer in the last 5 mins of the boil and a sprinkle to the bottling bucket. Comes across nicely in the nose, but again not overpowering.
 
I used one of the big cans and one of the small cans of pumpkin solids in mine, roasting them in the oven for an hour at 350 first. When racking to the secondary I took a taste, and me and the girl agree that I should have used more pumpkin. I got the other spices just right, though. Next time I will use at least two of the larger cans.
 
chefjosh - How big is a "larger" can, out of curiosity? I have 15oz cans. Also, did you mash it or put it in the boil? Thanks
 
Im looking forward to the fall season. This is one ingredient Im interested in using in my beers. Ive never actually had pumkin beer but I love the flavor of pumkins. Im gonna make sure I buy enough pumkins to experiment with.
 
I used 4 of the regular sized cans, I think the 15 oz ones. The pumpkin was not overwhelming, and I honestly would've enjoyed more. It did come through though and there was a solid pumpkin flavor and aroma.
 
What about adding the pumpkin mush to the secondary (like a fruit beer). Has anyone tried that? Just thinking of different ways to acheive the pumpkinny goodness.

- WW
 

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