Pumpkin questions

I have a couple questions, first how are so many breweries selling pumpkin beers already when pumpkins are not in season? Are they not using pumpkins and going right for the canned stuff?

My next question is most say they have a crust flavor are they using some sort of extract or actual pie crust?

Most use canned pumpkin and graham flavored extract.

A lot of "pumpkin" beers actually contain no pumpkin at all, and rely solely on pumpkin pie spices. Look at the labels, many say whether they use pumpkin or just spices. I will say of the pumpkin beers I've had, the best do use real pumpkin (canned or fresh) too though. Some also use pumpkin juice, like Pumkick

Some brews use victory malt whcih has a buiscit flavor and will be interpreted as pie crust when the other pie flavors are present.

As far as using pumpkin, if you buy a kit it will most likely not have the pumpkin included but recommend canned. If it's a really good kit it will give you directions if you choose to go that route. It may not be as authentic but using canned pumpkin is a lot easier than processing it from raw.

If you do buy canned pumpkin make sure you buy just pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix. The mix has the spices included and when used with the kit will over spice your beer. When in doubt check the ingredients on the can. It should just say "pumpkin puree".

Has anyone not put spices in during boil and held off until flameout or even at bottling ?

wells11 said:

Has anyone not put spices in during boil and held off until flameout or even at bottling ?

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My LHBS recommended putting the spices in the boil, but go light. Then at bottling determine if it needs more and add as necessary. They are all very knowledgeable, so I take it spices at bottling is fine.

The way I make my homebrewer pumpkin ale is With 60oz of baked pumpkin with brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice, which then goes into the mash. I put in 1tsp of spices at flame out, cool and ferment. A week before I keg, I put in 1.5tsp into the fermented beer in the carboy. A Lil bit goes a long way. Some say the fermentation process takes some of the spice flavoring out, which is why I "dry spice" for a week before kegging.

I know people will disagree with this but I will never use pumpkin during the boil again. Even 1 pound baked for an hour and added to a 5 gal batch during the boil comes out tasting waaaay to starchy. It just tastings overwhelming like raw squash. My last pumpkin beer was done adding it to the mash, hoping that the enzymes break down that starch to some extent and the grain bed held most of the pulp behind. It is still fermenting.

I added spices at 5min but also made an everclear tincture of the same spice mix to add at kegging if necessary.

I made a pumpkin beer last year and oven roasted about 60 oz. of canned pumpkin. I added it to the boil in a hop bag, so I could get the "flavor" and not all the extra trub. I also added spices with 5 minutes left.

It turned out alright, but after all that work with the pumpkin, you really couldn't taste the pumpkin. It was there, but the spices overwhelmed the subtle squash/ pumpkin flavor. I feel like when people drink a "pumpkin" beer, its more the spices they are looking for than an actual mouthful of pumpkin flavor. More of the pie flavor that the actual pumpkin itself. I say try one out and go from there. Its the only way.