Pumpkin Beer Additions

I purchased NB's Smashing Pumpkin kit and I'm deliberating on if I want to add anything. I've seen multiple threads concerning pumpkin ales but haven't seen many people's impressions after they've finished their brew. Based on everything I read here are my thoughts:

Take 60oz of Libby's Canned Pumpkin and sprinkle some brown sugar on top. Bake for ~20-30 minutes at 350. In secondary, I was planning to add a vanilla bean. I was also planning to put the pumpkin in a steeping bag and add at boil instead of putting it directly into the pot to reduce the amount of pumpkin trub in primary but that may be a mistake as well?

As a frame of reference, I really enjoyed Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale last year which is pretty close to pumpkin pie in a bottle. If you haven't had that, I'm essentially looking for big pumpkin/pumpkin pie flavor. Can anyone provide insight on if NB's kit will give me that effect untouched? Otherwise, I think I'm going to proceed with the above unless someone sees a problem with it. I also bought some extra pumpkin spice just in case someone recommends that.

That pumpkin will dissolve right through the bag.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

That pumpkin will dissolve right through the bag.

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Thanks, good to know!

You have to add the pumpkin in the mash to get the body and mouthfeel from it. The brown sugar Id add in the boil. As far as the trub just pour your wort through a fine cheese cloth into your fermentor. The vanilla bean looks like a good addition just make sure its split and scraped to get the most out of it. I just made a couple batches of pumpkin and used 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice for the last 15 of the boil. So far the sample tastes really good.

Just finished clean up with this brew.. I didn't modify the recipe much. I ended up adding 45oz of pumpkin and an extra tsp of pumpkin spice. I did however end up with an OG of 1.040. The target OG on the recipe listed 1.054. I know this is the first time I've used a carboy and I didn't really aerate the wort as much as I have in the past with a bucket. Could it be that the water wasn't mixed well enough with the wort?