When Does Canned Pumpkin Become Available?

I know that many people say that using pumpkin in beer is kind of useless, though it kind of seems like cheating to make a pumpkin beer sans pumpkin.

It's available here already. I'm in the DC suburbs by the way.

The_General said:

It's available here already. I'm in the DC suburbs by the way.

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Cool. Good to know it's at least available elsewhere.

LOL! I was going to start a "its time to start the pumpkin ale threads" thread. Pumpkin hit the stores about a week ago around here. New England, btw.

I dont use pumpkin much. Just the spice and the right grains. But a buddy roasted some canned pumpkin in his smoker last August. With summer sausage and keilbasa. Just wow on that beer. But too much work for me.

I would prefer real pumpkin over canned, but we have enough supplies for two batches, so I might try canned pumpkin and real pumpkin and see if using one over the other makes a real difference.

it seems to be available all year here hidden in the supermarket baking isle.

around fall it gets moved to the canned vegetable isle, near thanksgiving you have to fight your way past it to get into the store.

KirbyTails said:

I would prefer real pumpkin over canned, but we have enough supplies for two batches, so I might try canned pumpkin and real pumpkin and see if using one over the other makes a real difference.

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Canned pumpkin is real. If you mean fresh, I can't imagine the difference. Canned has probably been pasteurized in the can, but most people bake their pumpkin anyway, so hmmm.

Note that many, many brewers don't use any pumpkin at all in their pumpkin beer. I have won gold in a large comp without any pumpkin in my pumpkin beer. I have a friend who did exactly the same (with a different recipe). Just a thought. I do understand the desire to put some pumpkin in there to make it genuine.

passedpawn said:

Canned pumpkin is real. If you mean fresh, I can't imagine the difference. Canned has probably been pasteurized in the can, but most people bake their pumpkin anyway, so hmmm.

Note that many, many brewers don't use any pumpkin at all in their pumpkin beer. I have won gold in a large comp without any pumpkin in my pumpkin beer. I have a friend who did exactly the same (with a different recipe). Just a thought. I do understand the desire to put some pumpkin in there to make it genuine.

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Yup. There are specialty grains out there that taste like pumpkin seeds. No need for the real deal. But that beer my buddy made had the smoke, the pumpkin, the sugars developed, the spices from the sausages, all those subtle secondary flavors, along with the big smoke and pumpkin from smoking his all night in his smoker. It was not your father's oldsmobile. It was a cold fall night in front of a huge stone fireplace in a glass.

Pumpkin pie get's it's flavor from the pumpkin spices, namely nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon (not of fan of the last one). So, those are the flavorings you want to start with. A very interesting idea is to experiment with hazelnut and graham cracker flavorings. Hmmmm. Get some vanilla bean in there too.

passedpawn said:

Pumpkin pie get's it's flavor from the pumpkin spices, namely nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon (not of fan of the last one). So, those are the flavorings you want to start with. A very interesting idea is to experiment with hazelnut and graham cracker flavorings. Hmmmm. Get some vanilla bean in there too.

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I add vanilla bean to mine. No graham cracker tho. And pumpkin pie spice.

If I had the patience, determination, and drive to do what my buddy did last season, I'd make that too. He smoked his pumpkin all nite with summer sausage and keilbasa then had a brew day with the pumpkin in the morning. Along with wrapping, packaging and freezing his sausage. It was a similar recipe to my pumpkin ale after that, with the pumpkin add and strainings thrown in. But that stinkin smoked pumpkin that picked up all those sausage flavors overnight.....