Pumpkin Ale Recipe Question..

Hey all.

I was looking to get in a little early practice on some pumpkin ale as my first partial mash attempt. Naturally it being summer in mid-summer here in Missouri, pumpkins are not yet available. I found the following recipe online....http://www.thebrewsite.com/2004/10/11/pumpkin_ale_recipe.php
(first one that popped up in google" and I decided to give it a try. However, it does not mention any quantities for the good ol' processed pumpkin in a can.

It does mention 6-10lbs of pumpkin, but I only ask to reassure there are no differences in the "flavor exchange"
ex: does 6lbs of real pumpkin leave more flavor to your wort than the processed? If so is there a known ratio to add from?

And also just wondering if anyone else had tried this recipe and had any tips or variations. I already have all of the ingredients except for: vanilla, canned pumpkin, or the actual spices.


Thanks in advance,

D

I just purchased Austin Homebrew Pumpkin Ale kit and recipe calls for 3-4lbs pumpkin or a can of non-spiced pumpkin. You could put your own spice kit together or purchase one from Austin for $1.99. But here is the ingredients in the pack. 1 tsp Cinnamon, 3/8 tsp Nutmeg, 1/8 tsp Mace & 7g Sweet Orange Peel. I know this didnt answer your question but thought I'd through some info out there.

One thing though my recipe sheet doesnt mention when to introduce the pumpkin into the brew.

Well, the link I've posted said it's a partial mash. Which is even more confusing....Do I mash the most of the grain, and take the remainder and steep it with the pumpkin? Do I mash it all? Mash all of one type of grain and steep the others? Or is the mash not mandatory and I just steep everything? If I could get that cleared up, I'll brew this beast tonight! lol

I've also been looking for canned pumpkin in the stores and haven't seen any yet. I did find a store online that sells it but shipping is kind of pricey: https://www.organicdirect.com/index.php I'm curious to see if anyone has been able to find it in stores yet or when to expect it.

bschindl said:

I've also been looking for canned pumpkin in the stores and haven't seen any yet. I did find a store online that sells it but shipping is kind of pricey: https://www.organicdirect.com/index.php I'm curious to see if anyone has been able to find it in stores yet or when to expect it.

Click to expand...

I bought some canned pumpkin at a Whole Foods store about 2 weeks ago.

If you are looking for pumpkin in the can in St.louis, I know the walmart in south county has organic pumpkin in the can for aroun $3 a can. You might also try out whole foods.

Organic Pumpkin seems to be the only stuff you can find right now. Call ahead to stores because I found that 3/4 of the grocery stores where I live had none and I did a lot of unnecessary running around.

As far as the pumpkin goes, I have read that you need to put it in the oven for awhile first to get any real flavor out of it. I did an extract batch with 60 oz of canned pumpkin (4 15 oz cans) which I spread out on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. I then added the whole lot to the boil for all 60 minutes. It is due to be bottled here soon but the SG sample I took had great pumpkin flavor. I used the spice mix from this recipe as well:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/samhain-pumpkin-ale-140674/

Mine went in the mash and I baked it at 350F for 1 hr first.

I had another question I forgot in my initial post. The recipe in the above link...is that for a 10 gallon split batch? That seems like a lot of fermentable sugars for just one 5 gallon batch. Or maybe I'm just showing my greenhorn here...lol

Looks like its for 5 gal. Unless you want a 3% pumpkin ale.