I want to make a kick ass Pumpkin Ale...

I have a Smashing Pumpkin Ale kit coming from Northern Brewer. Here the list of ingredients:

SPECIALTY GRAIN
- 0.5 lb Briess Caramel 40
FERMENTABLES
- 3.15 lbs Amber malt syrup (60 min)
- 1.0 lb Pilsen dried malt extract (60 min)
- 3.15 lbs Amber malt syrup late addition (15 min)
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
- 1 oz Cluster (60 min)
- 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (0 min)
I plan on using Wyeast 1056 American Ale

I want to know from all of you pros with Pumpkin Ales what I can add or do different to make this a kick ass pumpkin brew.

Whether it be pumpkin, spices, hops, grains, LME, or anything else.

Thanks for your help in advance...

Are you convinced that the recipe as is won't kick ass?

Lol... I am sure it will, Northern Brewer always puts together excellent kits.

I've heard of people putting in canned pumpkin, ginger, and other spices...

Just looking for some input or something I could add... That's all.

Made this extract kit yesterday. Baked some pumpkin purée with brown sugar and then mashed it with 6-row per NB directions. Added 8oz of biscuit malt to steeping grains and plan on racking on top of two vanilla beans later. Looks and smell great, but I'm sure the kit would've been tasty on its own.

Happy brewing!

how about maple syrup as bottle conditioner rather than the normal corn sugar? Might take a little longer but should add some fun flavor notes

Trubnoob said:

Made this extract kit yesterday. Baked some pumpkin purée with brown sugar and then mashed it with 6-row per NB directions. Added 8oz of biscuit malt to steeping grains and plan on racking on top of two vanilla beans later. Looks and smell great, but I'm sure the kit would've been tasty on its own.

Happy brewing!

Click to expand...

How much pumpkin puree and brown sugar did you use?? And how about baking temp and time??

Thanks

gumpbrew said:

How much pumpkin puree and brown sugar did you use?? And how about baking temp and time??

Thanks

Click to expand...

I did a different recipe bui I too baked my canned pumpkin. I had 60 oz that I spread on a cookie sheet and baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. For the last 5 minutes I spread brown sugar over the pumpkin so I wouldn't carmelize the brown sugar...

More instructions from Northern Brewer:
If you want to incorporate actual vegetables in this recipe, you’ll need to purchase an additional 2 or 3 pounds of Rahr 6-row (#G002) and provide your own 8 to 10 pound pumpkin (winter squash like butternut or acorn will work if pumpkin is out of season). Cut up the gourd, discard the innards, and roast or microwave the pieces until soft and cooked through, then peel. Mash the peeled, cooked pumpkin flesh with upto 3 gallons of hot water, the 6-row and the included grains at 152°F for 1 hour. Then strain the liquid off and add it to the water in the boil kettle, topping up to achieve 3 gallons

Should I mash with 2.5 gallons and rinse with a .5 gallon for a total of 3 gallons? Then I will have 3 gallons of wort... I plan on using 60 oz. of pumpkin puree...

I did 60oz of the pumpkin purée at 350 for 20 minutes also. The brown sugar was cooked that whole time too. I sort of eyeballed and sprinkled it over the pumpkin. I think it was about a cup.

I mashed with 3 gallons because every thread I've seen says you'll lose some wort to the pumpkin. I strained the mash through a nylon bag and ended with 2.5.

I started a pumpkin beer I put a 30oz can of pumpkin in it with two pounds of brown sugar and I'm going to soak some oak chips in bourbon. Should be good

I strongly urge anyone brewing a pumpkin this year to use fresh pumpkin. It is a little more time consuming but super easy. Also we used 32 oz of pumpkin last year, thinking of drastically increasing that this year, to really showcase the pumpkin. Also, the vanilla bean in the secondary is a great idea, think about pairing that with cinnamon sticks. One last thing, maybe increase the pumpkin pie spice a tad.

How large of a fresh pumpkin would you use in a 5gl batch? What is the process?

One medium sized pumpkin should do the trick; it's up to you how much of the pumpkin you want to use. We used 32 oz last year, this year i'm thinking 64 plus oz.

The process is fairly easy. Cut the pumpkin in half, gut it, place in a large baking dish with the inside facing down, put a little water in the bottom of the pan, bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 to 3 hours or until tender. The pumpkin should scoop off of the skin very easily. Place in food processor or blender to puree and it's ready to use.

Why would you mash pumpkin with 6 row? It's my understanding that there is nearly nothing to "convert" in the pumpkin in the first place. As for priming with real maple syrup, you can do it -- you just won't taste anything. Maple syrup ferments out with very very little residual flavor, even in somewhat larger proportions. If you want to taste maple in a beer, buy some maple extract.

Hey Davida,

There is another pumpkin thread just below this one now. I was just thinking of adding molasses (it's what gives the brown sugar the flavor, so why not add a little more directly?). Have you done this brew with molasses before? Do you feel it adds a lot? At what point did you add your pumpkin to your boil?

Check out the Samhain Pumpkin ale recipe on this site. I did it last year and everyone loved it. Can't wait to do it again this week. I followed the recipe as written except that i used a fresh medium-sized pumpkin instead of canned, and I "dry hopped" the secondary with a couple of cinnamon sticks to increase the spice a bit.

screw the puree I steeped 10 lbs of REAL pumpkin in mine

So I had a William's Watermelon Ale kit that I bought at the beginning of summer on a whim. Didn't get around to using it, and it hung out in the fridge during the 6-day blackout after the Derecho on the east coast just before July 4. I also had 5 pounds of light extract from Austin that had been sitting on the shelf for at least a year, and a spare pound of extra-light dry extract.

The Williams extract is some 60/40 wheat/pale malt blend.

So I decided to re-purpose the kit and use some of the old extract:

Batch size: 5 gallons/60 minute boil

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
3.60 lbs 45.00 % Wheat Liquid Extract 30 mins 1.036
2.40 lbs 30.00 % Pale Liquid Extract 30 mins 1.036
1.00 lbs 12.50 % Pale Liquid Extract 30 mins 1.036 (this is the old Austin extract. It tasted good but had some mold around the inside of the can lid. I used what I thought was safe, and tossed the rest.)
1.00 lbs 12.50 % Extra Light Dry Extract 30 mins 1.044

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.75 ozs 11.33 Tettnang 55 mins 4.50 (Williams doesn't say what kind of hops they include. I took a guess, but who really knows?)

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.00 pkg Safale US-05 Fermentis US-05 (the Williams kit came with Wyeast 3056, but I like US-05).

Additions
Amount Name Time Stage
87.00 oz Wegman's Canned Pure Pumpkin 05 mins Boil (I didn't bake the pumpkin)
3.00 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice 00 mins Boil


The thinking on the 'mid-boil' extract addition was that it might mitigate the darker color from the old extract if it didn't boil so long (no idea if that's true or not). The spice addition at flame out was to emphasize the spiced character.

iBrewmaster estimated the post-boil OG at 1.54, and I was at 1.53. The smell was very good--plenty of pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice in a nice balance, but not overwhelming.

Krausen was present in a few hours. Looks like about a gallon of trub, but I'm not surprised.

I have no idea if it will turn out, but I've had those ingredients nagging me for a long time so I thought I would throw this together. I'll post back once I try it--my guess is early October.