Pectic Enzyme and Pumpkin

Got a question for ya. I'm making a pumpkin pie porter this weekend. I am going to mash the pumpkin after roasting it a home and add some puree to the boil. I have looked at a few recipes for pumpkin beers and a few of them call for pectic enzyme. Does this make more fermentable sugars available from the pumpkin or does that just help to clear the beer? If it'll make more alcohol, I will use it, but if it's just for clarity, I'd rather skip it. The SRM for the recipe I came up with is 44 pre-pumpkin, so I doubt that a little haze will matter at all. Thanks for any help.
-JT

Pectin enzymes are used in wine making to help break down the plant material and improve extraction of flavors from the fruit, in addition to reducing haze in the finished wine. I would think roasting the pumpkin would accomplish the plant wall breakdown, so the enzyme doesn't seem necessary for that purpose. That leaves clarity, and I agree haze shouldn't be an issue for a SRM 44 beer.

It's used to minimize pectin haze (clarity) by breaking pectin into smaller molecules. Pectin tends to hold spent yeast cells, bacteria and small particles is suspension via electric charges. You can also drop the pectins by cold crashing to 28F. Pumpkin is rich in pectins.

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate your help. Do you think that the pumpkin will raise or lower the SRM?

At 44 SRM I doubt that it will get noticeably brighter! Think about dropping pumpkin into a glass of cola, or something like that.

djonas said:

At 44 SRM I doubt that it will get noticeably brighter! Think about dropping pumpkin into a glass of cola, or something like that.

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I am a chef and have mixed pumpkin into quite a few things and it seems to lighten up, but I'm sure it's just reflecting more light because of suspended particles. I just thought I'd pick a few brains out there. I was kinda hoping that it would lighten it up a bit, being a little dark for a porter, in my opinion. I'm 3 weeks from the one year anniversary of my first brew. This weekend will be batches 62 and 63. There were 5 meads and a hard cider in there, but not too shabby if you ask me. Thanks again!

That sounds like quite a lot of beer.

I skipped the pectic enzyme. The wort turned out great. Very clear. Come on Yeast! It should end up at 6.7% and if the pumpkin flavor is cut in half, it'll still be a pumpkiney beer. BigBlueDog, I brew with a friend and we usually split what we make. A third of them were 10 gal batches, the rest 5. One mead was a show mead that was only a gallon, but still yummy. It is quite a lot of beer, but you have to drink a lot to be able to put more into the empties. Thanks again for everyone's help
-JT