Pumpkin Saison Recipe feedback

Howdy!

Brewed a pumpkin saison yesterday. Brew day went well and it was by far the best smelling mash I've ever come into contact with. Just wanted to post my recipe here and get a bit of feedback. I'll post again how it turns out once I actually get to drink it.

Thanks!

Pumpkin Saison (Saison)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.058 (°P): 14.3
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8
Alcohol (ABV): 5.70 %
Colour (SRM): 18.4 (EBC): 36.2
Bitterness (IBU): 28.4 (Average)

81.63% Pilsner 10 lbs
8.16% Crystal 60 1 lbs
8.16% Melanoidin 1 lbs
2.04% Chocolate .25 lbs

0.2 oz/Gal(1 oz) Spalt (4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.2 oz/Gal(1 oz) Spalt (4% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.2 oz/Gal(1 oz) Spalt (4% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)

0.1 oz/Gal Cinnamon @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.1 oz/Gal Nutmeg @ 5 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 148°F for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 85°F with Wyeast 3724 - Belgian Saison

Will leave in primary for about a month.
Will secondary for about a month and then keg and force carbonate.

Notes: Adding pumpkin to mash.

4 15oz cans of libbys canned pumpkin
- Bake at 350 for a half hour
- Add to mash

In last 5 minutes of boil add,
1/4 tsp - Cinnamon
1/4 tsp - fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp - vanilla extract


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I'll be interested to hear how the spices and the end hops taste together. I was entertaining how much hops to put in my pumpkin saison and thought that hop flavor/aroma may combat instead of reinforce the spices. Let us know what you think!

That's a good point. I hadn't really thought of that. My reasoning there was that I had read in many places that the spices can really help to bring out the pumpkin flavor. Then for the hops, i recently had Southern Tier Pumpking and it blew my mind. They managed to make a pumpkin pie beer, but it still had a noticable hop character that blended well. I picked spaltz because it isn't a very high alpha but is also a touch spicier as hops go.

I'll certainly add more info after I give this a taste!

How'd this thing turn out? I made a 11gal batch of pumpkin and pitched a belgian yeast in one fermentor. It was ECY13 trappist strain, and the flavors from the yeast did not work well with my grist. Maybe it'll improve with time but the yeast killed my spices and has a strange flavor mix.

TheBaconator said:

I'll post again how it turns out once I actually get to drink it.

Click to expand...

So how has it turned out? Are you happy with the results?

Well it doesn't really taste like a pumpkin beer. As beer goes, it's awesome. As pumpkin beers go its on the right track but not quite there yet. Next time I try this I think I'll double the amount of pumpkin that I put in. 4 pounds made the mash smell spectacular and gave the head a slightly orange color. But otherwise there is no discernible pumpkin flavor. I was reading Ray Daniels Designing Great Beer and he said for weaker flavored fruits(e.g. pumpkin) you want to add two pounds of fruit per gallon of beer. I usually err on the side of caution when trying out new things as I did here. I'd have to go with Ray on this one though.

In terms of the spices: I think I'd leave these as they are. It has a noticeable spiciness to it but it isn't overwhelming and I can't pick out the individual spices. That is essentially what I was going for. In all honesty I used a saison yeast, so that may be providing the spiciness. But either way this came out well.

Hops: I'd hop it in a similar fashion also.

Overall its a great beer and I like it alot, it just isn't pumpkiny. Its a smooth drinking, slightly nutty, slightly spicy belgian brown ale. I'd almost call it a dubbel if it was a touch dryer.

For future reference though I would use way more pumpkin next time. Personally I would keep the spices the same, but if you wanted a more pronounced spice flavor you could safely add more. I'd add more vanilla also, or maybe oak it for a little bit.

Last but not least, rice hulls rice hulls rice hulls! Oh what a thick mash this was. It smelled good enough to eat on its own and was a beautiful color, but it did not want to let the wort flow through. I thought i was going to get carpal tunnel from all the stirring. In my defense I meant to get some and just forgot. But I wouldn't do another beer with canned pumpkin without it.

sounds like a really cool experiment.

In a few days Im actually trying something similar, attempting to replace some of the spicing (clove, allspice, etc.) by using the Westmalle strain to create a Belgian Pumpkin ale.

is the spiciness coming more from the yeast in your case (earthy, peppery) or more from the actual spice additions? I'm trying to dial in the contributions of each into the final flavor of the beer. I may end up holding off the spices until fermentation has ended to go by taste. we'll see.

also good to know that 60oz of pumpkin is on the short side, I'll try with 90 and see what happens other than turning my mash into concrete-like slurry

cheers

I did a pumpkin ale with WLP001 as I liked the idea to add a little citrus profile. The recipe had 3.5lbs of pumpkin and 1tsp of pumpkin pie spice; nutmeg; and cinnamon. I think the pumpkin pie spice kicked in the pumpkin flavor as I liked this beer for a fall style. The falvor was there.