Pumpkin Ale without the pumpkin?

Been trolling my local grocery stores trying to find pumpkin for the pumpkin ale I am really wanting to brew today (I know I am going to want to brew another batch this season). No pumpkin anywhere. I know, I know, its still early in the season for pumpkin pies, but I wanna brew gad-durndit!

Went into myLHBS (in 7 corners for those in the Alexandria VA area) and asked if they knew where I might find some. He tells me that pumpkin does not contribute much to the beer and that the spices are all that matter. In other words that all they contribute is a 'vegetable' flavor and that I should just skip the pumpkin. In my opinion that sounds like it would go against the fact that it is a PUMPKIN ale. Thoughts? Should I hold off for some pumpkin and then do a double batch, or just skip it and give it a try? To take his advice or not? I trust you all to help me keep it a decent beer.

Can you get sweet potatoes? Bake some of those up and add to mash and they will do just the same thing as far as flavor and startches (maybe mouthfeel and slight flavor). With spices, baked sweet potatoes look and taste just like pumpkin pie. Most of the flavor comes from the spices anyway, but I feel like you gotta put some vegtable in there. This year I cut back to one can of Libby's (about 2#'s) for my 6 gallon batch, just to have it in there, baked it at 300 for about 40 mins, and the batch smells great.

I use sweet potatoes in mine, and I can get pumpkin.

I ran into the same problem a few weeks ago. I went to all four grocery store chains in my area, and no pumpkin. I dropped by my local whole foods store and they had pumpkin galore, althrough it was organic pumpkin at a premium price. I paid $2.99 for each 15 oz can, recipe called for 56 oz, I threw in 60 oz, $12.00 for the pumpkin.

I know there are a lot of whole foods stores in the DC area, so try there.

As far as the flavor, pick up a small container of pumpkin pie spice in the spice section of the grocery store. About 2-3 table spoons in the last 10 minutes of the boil. The spice will do the heavy lifting when it comes to the pumpkin flavor in the final beer, but there is something about the pumpkin meat that makes the spice blend and balance better and taste more like authentic pumpkin and less like just separate spice in the final beer, so definitely go with the pumpkin meat as well if you can find it. Either way is good beer, though.

I will check out the hippie nothing-but organic stores tomorrow after work and if I am unable to locate any punkin, will go with the sweet taters. I just can not see blaspheming a beer by not including one of the ingredients that is in the name. If I go sweet potato it will just be a tater ale instead of a pumpkin. I will let you all know what I think if I try taters.

Don't rule out the canned pumpkin.

Read the label on the can of pumpkin. Make sure that there are no preservatives in there or it will mess up the beer.

Why not make your own homemade pumpkin puree? It's far superior to the canned stuff, and it really doesn't take that much effort. I'm not really into pumpkin ale, but I make puree for pie, and it was a hit with the family last Thanksgiving. I've seen some farms locally already advertising them available at their stands.

Here's a guide on the number of ways to make it: http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php

The only thing is that you'll probably need to adjust is your water since the homemade stuff contains more water. It might help using a cheesecloth to get rid of the excess liquid.

Also, frozen butternut squash is a decent substitute for pumpkin.

Dont skip the pumpkin,brew with squash or sweet potatoes if you can,im probably going to try them in my next one.Its not a pumpkin without one or something similar to it,it would just be a "pumpkin spiced" beer.

I found my local wal-mart carries pumpkin year round in the pie filling section.

I would just wait for a good baking pumpkin. I do agree that if you use it raw, you'll put a vegetable taste into the beer though.

One of the best pumpkin beers I've had, the guy bought a baking pumpkin, cut it in a couple big slices, took the seeds out and then wrapped them in foil, seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg and baked until they were soft.

Take the soft pumpkin off of the skin and mash up and use that.

If you just like the spices, just call it a spiced ale or lager instead of pumpkin. The way I think is, you can't call it pumpkin, unless it's got pumpkin in it.

~r~

bronzdragon said:

The way I think is, you can't call it pumpkin, unless it's got pumpkin in it.

~r~

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Agree

The pumpkin does not impart a lot of flavors to the beer but it is subtle and does add fermentable sugars as well.

Those are my thoughts too. It seems to be cheating if the pumpkin is left out. Didn't make it to the store today, after work was checking out a motorcycle I was thinking about buying (someone beat me to it). Tomorrow, though I will look for something suitable. I couldn't even find canned yesterday. I guess its just not being stocked yet.

DrunkleJon said:

Those are my thoughts too. It seems to be cheating if the pumpkin is left out. Didn't make it to the store today, after work was checking out a motorcycle I was thinking about buying (someone beat me to it). Tomorrow, though I will look for something suitable. I couldn't even find canned yesterday. I guess its just not being stocked yet.

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Not even canned huh? That sucks...I found it at two different grocery stores without even looking for it. It was in the baking aisle. Oh well, I guess when you need something is when it's harder to find.

I remember reading that the pumpkin also adds a certain mouthfeel to the beer as well (squash or sweet potatoes would probably add the same mouthfeel if I had to guess). I remember it being described as "unctuous"

Pumpkin has a strong association with pumpkin pie. And the dominating flavors in pumpkin pie are spices, not the pumpkin itself. Those spices are cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and clove. Pumpkin by itself is just a lot of starch. This is why you'll see some pumpkin beer recipes that look like a spiced amber ale recipe.

Then again pumpkin may add a flavor that's irreplaceable. I don't think you could do without some of those spices, though, and still have it taste like what you were hoping for.

Look for the non-spiced Libbys canned pumpkin. They come in 29 oz cans in the baking section. I used two of them on my first pumpkin pie beer this year. I roasted them in the oven for an hour or so and put them in the mash with the rest of the grain bill.

It's fermenting now and the hydro-sample tasted awesome.

I've got a no-pumpkin pumpkin fermenting right now, and it smells amazing! 2 ounces of Penzey's pumpkin spice in 11.5 gallons of brown ale basically. I'll let you know how it turns out, but I don't really see what flavors actual pumpkin can provide that a little aromatic & crystal malt can't. It's just starch & a little caramelization, after all...

Many of you have probably listened to this already, but Basic Brewing Radio did a podcast in 2009 pretty much saying that pumpkin is a waste of time:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr11-26-09pumpkinexp.mp3

It's a pretty good listen. Description from the website:

Does pumpkin really make an impact on beer flavor? Home brewers Joel Neal and Phil Saylor share the results of their pumpkin beer experiment.

Most stores have the libby's pumpkin pie mix in stock.. not 100% pure pumpkin but it has the spices in it already. I used it for my DFH punkin clone... it turned out AMAZING! Used a German ale yeast

For those of you wondering, life got in the way a little bit, work mainly, no travesties or anything though. I'm saving the pumpkin for a little bit, maybe I can check out the farmers market on Tuesday and ask when they are going to have em ready. Found canned the other day though (spiced, drat).

Pumpkin Ale without the pumpkin...is a spiced ale. A sweet potato beer with spices is a sweet potato beer. Do not be ashamed to call it what it is.

I toast my canned pumpkin and it DOES, beyond a doubt, add flavors.

When using canned pumpkin do not forget the rice hulls!

I forget if this has been mentioned but you could always do a side by side experiment. Same beer brewed twice, one with pumpkin one without and see how much of a difference there is.

bwomp313 said:

I forget if this has been mentioned but you could always do a side by side experiment. Same beer brewed twice, one with pumpkin one without and see how much of a difference there is.

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This is exactly what I plan on doing. I'm going to bottle my "Spiced & Canned Pumpkin" Ale next week and my next brew will be using whole pumpkins and putting them in the oven for an hour or so, then into the mash.

A side-by-side review will help me decide how I'll brew this every year.