Pumpkin ale question

I am starting a pumpkin ale tonight. I just put canned pumpkin on a cookie sheet to caramelize it. When should I add it? When I am steeping the grains, or after I bring it to a boil and add the LME? (I just throw the goop in the wort, right?)

You're going to need to upgrade to at least a partial mash. Steeping the pumpkin won't do you any good. You need to mash it and convert the starches.

Go for it! Partial mash brewing really isn't much harder than steeping grains. Just a bit more grain and you have to mind your temps. Get your water up to the right temp, throw in your grain, toss it in a warm oven and maybe give it a stir halfway through. When it's done, pour it through a strainer.

sorry, I am really new to this. can you explain a bit more, or link me to something?

When you mash, you are including base malts that have the enzymes necessary to convert starches in the base malt, specialty grains, and (in your case) your pumpkin. Instead of steeping your grains to get flavor out, like you would tea, you are actually letting the enzymes create wort. If you use enough grain, you can use less extract and save money as well.

When you make a pumpkin ale, you want to put the pumpkin in with your base malt and specialty grains and convert the starches in it to sugar. You won't get as much out of it if you're just soaking it in hot water with your steeping grains.

I don't know what your recipe calls for, but 6 row malt has enzymes that will help break down the pumpkin better than 2 row. You may want to add some to your steep or mini-mash if you can.

Also... straining is a royal pain. Try to have someone around that can help you out a bit.

I know these tidbits didn't answer your question, but thought they may help.

No problem straining here. I have a strainer that fits right over my brew pot.

I got this recipe from my home brew store and bought the ingredients:

http://www21.inetba.com/westboylstonhomebrewemporium/filecabinet/recipes/pumpkin_extract.pdf

Will I be able to do a partial mash with that?

ChshreCat has good info on the pumpkin and as he stated, pumpkin does require mashing.

Most that I have spoken to that mash with pumpkin say that it isn't really worth the extra effort and hassle it can provide. Yes, in order to convert the starches in the pumpkin you would need to mash it, however, I'm trying to get the flavor and aroma from it.

I have done a little research here on HBT and spoken to a few people, and from what I understand, pumpkin imparts little flavor to the beer. Most of what people taste and describe as pumpkin flavor are the spices that are used.

I will be brewing my first pumpkin beer tomorrow (Tuesday 21st of July), and I will just be using 4 cans of organic pumpkin puree that I will caramelize in the oven @ 350° for about an hour (or until I see the caramelization begin) and add that to the boil for the full 60 minutes. I will add my spices @ 10 minutes and allow to steep for 5 more after flameout.

I will make sure to get all of the pumpkin and break into the fermenter, I understand this will help with flavoring.

Check these two recipes out maybe they will halp you to make a decision.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/richards-pumpkin-ale-23489/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/thunderstruck-pumpkin-ale-ag-extract-versions-26699/

Good Luck!

I'd worry about a starch haze from adding the pumpkin right to the boil like that. But then if it's a dark enough beer you won't even see it. Or if it tastes good, many of us wouldn't even care. heheh

humm....you know, for Thanksgiving desserts, I like pecan pie over pumpkin. Has there been a pecan beer recipe? Maybe I need to look into it! Like a good pumpkin pie recipe, the trick is always using fresh spices and not some that might be included in a can. Since the pumpkin itself is not adding much flavor to a pumpkin pie, I don't doubt it's more an ancillary ingredient for a pumpkin ale.

I've never had a problem with adding pumpkin to the last 15 minutes of a boil, no haze issues or anything....You are treating it like any fruit in this case. But roasting it like you did is a good thing, it will pull out some sugars as well as giving it a nice nutty flavor.

You CAN get fancy with it, putting it in your mash tun, or mashing half and adding half, but if you are an extract brewer, you don't really need to think you CAN'T just dump the pumpkin in the brew kettle....

If oyu look at my partigyle thread you will see that I just chucked the roasted can pumpkin right into my kettle.

But like so much in this hobby, there's a million ways of doing things, and they all work...including handling pumpkin.

davesrose said:

humm....you know, for Thanksgiving desserts, I like pecan pie over pumpkin. Has there been a pecan beer recipe? Maybe I need to look into it!

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Do a search of the site and you'll be happily surprised. More than one person has looked into it and posted their experiences.

Thanks for the clarification Revvy. I haven't actually brewed a pumpkin beer yet so I was going off what I've learned on here.

How about adding it to the secondary? I've never used pumpkin and kind of frown on fruit beers but the pumpkins are coming on on my neighbors vine (it has some starting on my side of the fence even.) From some of what I've read it adds very little flavor and the spices are really what makes the beer a pumpkin beer.

Conroe said:

How about adding it to the secondary? I've never used pumpkin and kind of frown on fruit beers but the pumpkins are coming on on my neighbors vine (it has some starting on my side of the fence even.)

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You could...I still would do the roasting thing....BUT, you would probably want to think about racking it to a tertiary before attempting to bottle it. I know from experience that you HAVE to rack off the goop, you will have a huge amount of sediment on the bottom.

I'm about to bottle my 2.5 gallon batch of your red recipe, except IIRC I had to swap out one of your hops, and my lhbs guy ended up mis measuring one of the grain..so it is SORT of your recipe.

Looking forward to tasting it!

(heck, I'm even looking forward to sipping the hydro sample.)

ChshreCat said:

Do a search of the site and you'll be happily surprised. More than one person has looked into it and posted their experiences.

Click to expand...

Meh....the only dessert beers I like are the big ole stouts or barleywines! I save Georgia pecans and fresh grated nutmeg for my mom's world best pecan pie.


But the oils from the pecans might make for an interesting mash profile....I can see that as maybe adding more then pumpkin pulp itself. As for treating pumpkin like fruit: well I would think that it's a lot more forgiving then fruits that develop astringency while boiled/ give better fruity flavors as secondary. What about adding some toasted pumpkin seeds to the end of the boil? That might add some more interesting caramel flavors.

I just bottled the extract version of Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale (AG and Extract versions)with 2 weeks in the primary and 4 in the secondary. I added the baked pumpkin at the start of the boil. I forgot the Irish moss in the boil so I used gelatin in the secondary and it's crystal clear.

This was the first time I used cooper carb drops because I lost about a gallon due to the trub. I couldn't resist opening a bottle after a week. Even flat it was good, not great, but it will be.

OK-- So what I ended up doing was caramelizing the pumpkin and then putting it all into a steeping bag and leaving it in there during the boil (60 min). Smells good. . . we'll see how it turns out!

I used to do a pumpkin ale where I would throw fresh cubed pie pumpkin in during the last 15 min of the boil. I'd wait for it to change colors from light to dark orange, which would sometimes take an extra 5 min or so. It was super easy and came out great, imparted some color and aroma but not too strong. Only problem is most grocery stores don't carry pie pumpkins until late october or mid november.