Brewers best pumpkin spice porter

Am planning on brewing this kit tonight. I have read a couple reviews saying that the spice pack is overpowering. Some said if you let it condition about 3 months it will be better, more balanced spice flavor. Others said to use half the pack if you want it to be good sooner.

Anyone have any recent experience with this kit that they can share?

Someone please answer this quickly as I am picking up and brewing this same kit this weekend.


HURRY HURRY HURRY!

(haha)

Yeah the spice pack is way too much, don't use the whole thing that is for sure. I would use less than half.

One consideration maybe is the boil volume. I'm doing a full wort boil, 5.5 gallons. Do you think a partial vs. full boil would affect the amount of flavor you get from the spices?

wanted to add to this forum. I plan on brewing this this weekend. But I wanted to actually add Pumpkin! Since it's not part of the kit. Do you recommend I just 60oz canned pumpkin?

If so, when do I add it? In boil? I was planning on roasting it a bit in oven first. Should I put anything on it, ie brown sugar before roasting it?

Thanks,
Lorne

Go for it! I listened to a brewing network episode where tasty goes, just bake a pumpkin pie and toss that in the beer.

Do I toss it in at boiling? Or Primary? Or Secondary? If it's at boil, do I keep the pumpkin in there for primary? How long?

There are a ton of variables that go into this so the best way to do it would be to experiment and figure out what works best for you. End of boil with the pumpkin is what I would do then go from there. What exactly are you planning to get from a pumpkin flavor? You know that when people talk about pumpkin flavor they are just talking about pumpkin pie spices and that is why the kit doesn't really have any pumpkin. The pumpkin is basically just the bland spice delivery device that has a nice texture for the pie. Since the barley wort is your delivery device the use of actual pumpkin is not really necessary but it makes it feel more real if you throw some pumpkin in the boil and have fun with it!

I just cracked open the first bottle of this that I made awhile ago. I used the entire package of spice and transferred it to a secondary for 4 weeks. Then bottled and let sit for 2 weeks after that. With the extra time the spice mellowed out a ton. I would have been disappointed if I would only have used half the package with that much time in the secondary. If you plan to let it sit for awhile I would give the whole package a try but I can see it being really strong if you don't let it age for awhile.

I recently made two pumpkin ales, one with a whole pumpkin and one with canned pumpkin. Here's what I did for the whole pumpkin:

8-10lb pumpkin

Cube and clean out seeds / insides

Cook on cookie sheet coved with tin foil in oven at 350 for 60-120min or until soft and cooked through

Remove pumpkin and let cool. Once cooled remove the flesh from the skin and place into a small bucket or bowl

then smash the pumpkin in 170 degree water to get it mushy

Add pumpkin into a filter bag and steep for 20-30 min with specialty grains (I think I used 2lbs of 2-row for this) make sure you pure the pumpkin water into the brew kettle also through the filter bag.

The canned pumpkin was similar minus the obvious pumpkin steps.

On the whole pumpkin I added the spices at flame out

For the canned pumpkin the spices went in, in the secondary.

Hope this helps, I pretty much was just experimenting.

I brewed this with the entire packet and found it just right. In fact, I added even more pumpkin spice. Very tasty.

I love this kit! I did this when I first started brewing. I do biab now,I ordered the kit, plan on doing it for thanksgiving. I also put the whole packet in. It's a great after dinner beer, like drinking dessert.

bd2xu said:

Am planning on brewing this kit tonight. I have read a couple reviews saying that the spice pack is overpowering. Some said if you let it condition about 3 months it will be better, more balanced spice flavor. Others said to use half the pack if you want it to be good sooner.

Anyone have any recent experience with this kit that they can share?

Click to expand...

With every pumpkin kit a get, I toss the spices that come with it and go with 2 teaspoons of Pumpkin pie spice with 2 minutes left in the boil (5 gallon batch). Comes out great!