Surferjoe13
New Member
I looked at some recipes for pumpkin ales. It was unclear how to use pumpkin in a recipe. Do you just toss it in with the malted barley in the wort? Does it go into the fermented?
smagee said:... And some secondary. I don't think that there is really a consensus "best" way; it'll vary from recipe to recipe.
pumpkin is a lot of starch. it needs to be converted by the enzymes in a mash. if you are using fresh pumpkins it's good to use baking pumpkins and actually bake them a bit before scraping out the meat and mashing with it. otherwise you can use canned pumpkin.
and then there's a school of thought that you don't need pumpkin at all, since it's arguable that it contributes much to the beer anyway. this school of thought sees pumpkin beer as a spiced beer. both can produce good beers, the spices-only version is much easier, though.
when adding it in the mash, how much is common to use? Also, how does run off go? Would it be a good idea to add rice hulls at end of the mash to help facilitate run off?
bbarer said:I just bottled my yearly pumpkin ale and the taste is as close to creamy pumpkin pie as I have ever seen. I have tried every way ever mentioned here on adding pumpkin and this is my best result by far. I made an all grain 5 gal batch and mashed 3 small cans of Libby's pured pumpkin. Yes my mash got "stuck" but no problem I just strained it all out in small batches. I added my spices in with 5 minutes left in the boil. I put one more can of pumpkin and some more spices in the secondary. End result at bottleing is incredible...don't know how I will be able to wait for it to carb and condition. My plan is to wait till Thanksgiving....
BellsFan said:Im glad to read it turned out so well! Care to share your recipe?
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