Scottish Pumpkin ale recipe critique

I'm thinking of making a Scottish style ale with pumpkin and spices. I'm thinking something like a 70/ or 90/ Scottish ale.

I took a basic Scottish ale recipe, and combined it with the aspects I liked of Richard's Pumpkin Ale and St. Faud's Flaming Pumpkin Ale

here is the beginnings of my recipe.

Recipe Type: All Grain

OG Estimate: 1.057
FG Estimate: 1.015

7.5 lbs Pale malt (2 row)
2 lbs Cara Pils/dextrine
.25 lbs Roasted barley
.25 lbs Chocolate malt
.75 lb Maple syrup

Hops
.5 oz Northern Brewer (60min)
.25 oz Williamette (20)
.25 oz Cascade (5 min)

Spices (to be added to last 15 min of boil)
2 tsp cinnamon or 1-2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp ground clove, nutmeg and ginger
1 tsp allspice

8 lbs pumpkin baked at 350 for 1 hour and added to beginning of boil

The pumpkin is up for debate. I've read several things about fresh and canned pumpkin. Canned seems much easier though. I might end up going with less though. Most recipes I read consistently said 6-8 lbs of pumpkin though.

In Scotland, Pumpkin is almost only sold in the shops at Halloween and even then we don't eat it. Strange bunch the Scots. I eat it about four times a week here in Tassie.

A Scottish Pumpkin Ale sounds so crazy it may work!

Watch the finishing hops. That Cascade may not jive with the spices and pumpkin. Otherwise, I think it'll work just fine! Nice and malty with a touch of maple. I like it!

I never would have thought of this but being Scottish/Scotch ale fans, it sounds like it may work...

I would get rid of the cascade and leave it without any aroma hops. The spice should be enough aroma.

What is the IBUs? I would aim for something in the mid 30s.

Beerrific said:

I would get rid of the cascade and leave it without any aroma hops. The spice should be enough aroma.

What is the IBUs? I would aim for something in the mid 30s.

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I just dropped out the cascade as aroma and upped the boil time to 20 min. That puts me up at 20 IBU's. I might drop out the cascade and either replace it, or just increase the NB and Willamette.

I would get rid of the cascade all together (grapefruit and pumpkin pie don't sound good together) and up the Willamette.

Beerrific said:

I would get rid of the cascade all together (grapefruit and pumpkin pie don't sound good together) and up the Willamette.

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Good deal. Thanks for all the input guys!

Personally I would stick with just the Northern Brewer and drop the flavor and aroma hops as Scottish ales should really only have one hop addition.

The whole idea sounds pretty cool to me, you'll have to let us know how it turns out.

TheJadedDog said:

Personally I would stick with just the Northern Brewer and drop the flavor and aroma hops as Scottish ales should really only have one hop addition.

The whole idea sounds pretty cool to me, you'll have to let us know how it turns out.

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This had occured to me. The more I have read about the style is that some very traditional Scottish ales didn't even use hops, or used very little. If I was to do this, would you suggest using 3/4 to 1 oz Northern Brewer, or keeping it at 1/2 oz and letting the spices do the work for me?

Edcculus said:

This had occured to me. The more I have read about the style is that some very traditional Scottish ales didn't even use hops, or used very little. If I was to do this, would you suggest using 3/4 to 1 oz Northern Brewer, or keeping it at 1/2 oz and letting the spices do the work for me?

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It's gonna be a rather sweet beer, I think, so keep some hops in it for balance. Skip the additions beyond 60 minutes - you don't need hop flavor or aroma. I'd recommend something mild like Goldings, Tettnang, or another noble hop to achieve 20-30 IBUs.

Edcculus said:

This had occured to me. The more I have read about the style is that some very traditional Scottish ales didn't even use hops, or used very little. If I was to do this, would you suggest using 3/4 to 1 oz Northern Brewer, or keeping it at 1/2 oz and letting the spices do the work for me?

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Yeah, I'd up the Northern Brewer or do as Yuri suggests and use something with a higher AA to get to between 20 and 30 IBU. I use Target in my Wee Heavy (but then, I use Target in all my ales of the British Isles).

Alright, another few questions.

The first is about the pumpkin. Through what I've been reading, everyone disagrees. Some say to caramelize and boil. Others say this will add almost no flavor or body and suggest mashing. The people under this school of thought also say there are lots of convertible starches in the pumpkin. I'm worried that if I mash the pumpkin however, I'll be running pretty high risk of a stuck sparge.

I was also looking back over the grain bill. For some reason, I realized I still had the chocolate malt in the list. I had it there before I decided to go the Scottish Ale recipe. I'll probably end up knocking it out. I'm worried it will make the brew taste a little too rough.

I met with my brew partner, and we settled on a recipe. I trimmed it down a bit to more of a traditional Scottish ale recipe.

7.5 lbs Pale malt (2 row)
2 lbs Cara Pils/dextrine
.25 lbs Roasted barley

Hops
1.5 oz Goldings (60min)

and with a so far un determined amount of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and maybe clove.

For the pumpkin we thought of mashing it with the grain in a bag. That way we can pull it out, squeeze the water/wort out of it and sparge like normal. Would this be a bad thing? We were also thinking of taking that same bag with the pumpkin and including it in the boil to get more pumpkin essence, without the pumpkin mess.

Let me know if this would be a bad thing. Sorry for all of the questions too. I've been brewing for two years now and still feel like a noob.

This is just me, but I don't actually add the fruit until secondary even with pumpkin. I bake chunks of pumpkin, let them cool, add them to the secondary, then rack on top of them and add whatever spices I am using.

Not sure what others do, but I'm interested to hear their thoughts on adding the pumpkin to the mash.

I don't have nearly enough brewing experience, but some cooking experience and from a pumpkin perspective, you may want to consider the canned stuff. I just say that because that typical "pumpkin pie taste" usually comes from canned pumpkin, not fresh. Fresh pumpkin in a pumpkin pie can taste kind of bland and squash-like. Lots of chefs use the canned stuff instead of fresh for just this reason. It's one of the few exceptions to the general rule that fresh produce is better.

I've only brewed two batches so far, so I don't know what effects either would have on your finished product, but it seems to me that canned would probably give you better flavor. Just something to consider. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

... and I forgot to mention pumpkin pie spice, in addition to the spices you already mentioned. You should be able to find it at any supermarket.

I am going to be doing a pumpkin beer soon. I am going to throw it into the mash. Roast it first, then mix it with some hot water (maybe a quart or two) then throw it into the mash with .5lb of rice hulls. I don't anticipate any problems with a stuck mash.

I realize this is a four year old thread, but I was wondering if there was an update. I'm getting ready to make my first pumpkin beer and was considering using a Scottish ale as my base beer recipe. Can't find anybody else who has done this. What was the final recipe you would use/recommend? Any advice for brewing this?

RedGuitar said:

I realize this is a four year old thread, but I was wondering if there was an update. I'm getting ready to make my first pumpkin beer and was considering using a Scottish ale as my base beer recipe. Can't find anybody else who has done this. What was the final recipe you would use/recommend? Any advice for brewing this?

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I'm going to be brewing a Scottish/Pumpkin ale in the next couple of weeks as well. RedGuitar, have you settled on a final recipe? It'll be my first All-Grain, so I'm giving it a lot of thought.

I've decided to go for a 60 /- base beer, so it will have plenty of time to ferment and age by Halloween. I'm doing partial mash, and will use 6 row and crystal malt and maybe some black malt (need to go back and re-read that chapter of Designing Great beers) but haven't decided in what amounts yet. I also plan on using canned pumpkin, but haven't decided how much of that either. I'll put that recipe together today or tomorrow and post it here for critique.

Okay, just put up my initial idea for a recipe, open for criticism. Check it out.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/scottish-pumpkin-ale-recipe-help-265782/#post3214186