Doing my first pumpkin tomorrow - strain out the pumpkin or no?

I'm using Libby's canned pumpkin in my boil. Should I bother to strain out the pumpkin or dump it in my primary? I'm using the Cooper's fermenter and my only concern is the pumpkin trub might be higher than the spigot and cause me to not be able to take a hydro sample or bottle from the fermenter. I have more fermenters and a siphon so I can still bottle but was wondering. I'd think straining would be a nightmare.


Rev.

I use a whole pumpkin chunked up when I make pumpkin ale. I always dump into primary. With canned, as I understand, it's a drama to strain. Sorry no firsthand on that one.

Well, everything went awesome! Except for spilling a cup or so of wort when I poured a little too quickly into my fermenter. Boy, the things forgotten in only a 3 months brewing hiatus. I missed my target OG of 1.065 and got 1.060. Since there was 60oz of pumpkin and I put it all in my fermenter (no straining) I figured I'd add 60oz of extra water. No biggie though. It smelled amazing and tasted awesome from the hydro sample!! I went with 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp cloves.


Rev.

I strained out all the pumpkin following the boil, and now I'm not sure it was worth the effort. It smells awesome, the hydro sample tasted pretty good, too; but i think i should have just left it in the primary.

ymmv, but i'd say dont bother straining.

Yeah, I didn't. I just put it all in the primary. I have to say I am so excited about this one, it's bubbling away nicely (I double pitched) and the smell out of the airlock is perfect. Even the taste out of the hydro, which usually tastes pretty crappy being all the sugars are still present, tasted amazing. And, it will be ready right for Halloween weekend.


Rev.

for future reference, or anyone else interested, i baked 60oz of canned pumpkin for about an hour at 350, then put it in a muslin bag and put it in the boil. I was very surprised to find that the majority of the pumpkin mush stayed in the bag when i pulled it out. It didnt really make the mess I expected and there was hardly any pumpkin trub in the primary, just the normal yeast mess. I will definitely use the muslin bag method again, I couldnt imagine dumping it in there by itself and straining it out.

Do we all roast our pumpkins?

DodginBUIs said:

I will definitely use the muslin bag method again, I couldnt imagine dumping it in there by itself and straining it out.

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I did the same thing with baking the 60oz for an hour at 350. But I put it all in my fermenter. This is my first time doing a pumpkin but overall I came to the conclusion it shouldn't be a big issue for me. I would think the pumpkin will settle to the bottom of the fermenter. if that's not the case, oh well so what... I get more pumpkin in my beer!


Rev.

No....I have baked a raw pumpkin for the amopunt of tim it takes to soften the squash. I have used cannned raw organic with great results. I use a nylon bag at the boil. ..saves a lot of problems with the trub.

I just started a pumpkin ale too using a canned raw organic brand which was all I could find. I wish I'd used a nylon bag to keep some of the pumpkin out but I think it'll settle in the primary.

Does everyone add spice at flame out? I was going to rack onto some spices for a secondary. I plan on boiling some cinnamon, nutmeg, and perhaps some cloves/allspice which I'll add to the secondary but have no idea how much. I want more spiciness than you can get commercially but don't want to end up with something like a Christmas ale.

I'm wonder what is a good recipe to do a pumpkin ale. I want to do one soon to have early November or to take on thanksgiving. I would liketo use extract, but haven't seen a good recipe. maybe I need to do some more digging.

Thanks

Look up thunderstruck in the search. i just brewed it, bottling this thursday. it's a 6-gallon recipe but i got some foamstop at the lhbs and didn't have to use a blow-off in my ale pail. tasted good out of primary and smelled really good after racking onto the spices

I am going to try my own take on this recipe...

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Gold Liquid Extract (10.0 SRM) Extract 50.8 %
3.30 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 28.0 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
2.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (60 min) Hops 34.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
60.00 oz Pumpkin (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
1.50 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 12.7 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


I am using 6 lb Pale LME and 3 lb Amber DME for fermentables, and I am adding 0.5 lbs of Special B malt as an additional specialty grain
I am going to use fresh pumpkin instead of canned and I will roast it first before adding it to the boil in large grain bags to reduce trub
I am going to use different pumpkin pie spice than listed in this recipe and I will modify amounts based on aroma/taste
Oh and I couldn't find Wyeast 1056 at Listermann's so I picked Safale US-05 instead

I just transfered my pumpkin to my secondary. I used 60oz of pumpkin (roasted with spices and 2lbs brown sugar for 1/2 hour) also straight into the boil. 1/2 at 30minutes and remainder at 45 minutes. Wish I would have used the bags, had 1 gallon of trub. I did not expect this much, I added extra 60oz of water to the primary. Oh well, a sample tasted good, pretty spicy but not overpowering. Bottle next week, condition and drink up.

Just brewed mine today. Mashed with pumpkin in small grain bag, rinsed during sparge and then added to boil. Two nice sweat pumpkins.

I just sampled a bottle of MW pumpkin ale that's been in the bottle 2 weeks after 3 weeks in the primary. I think it needs more time, but it tasted pretty good. I did leave the 60 oz of canned pumpkin in the primary. My only complaint is that there was a gallon of waste in the bottom of the fermenter. A bit more in the bottom of the bottles than usual in my (limited) experience.

Yeah I'm still deciding on this myself... To bag or not to bag... I've heard arguments for both, but I'm wondering if leaving the pumpkin in the primary actually makes much taste difference. Thoughts?

I'm saving this brew for thanksgiving, but I've had a couple over the month or two just to see how it's coming along. The beer is more pumpkin-colored than most, but I can't really say that it tastes like any baked pumpkin thing I've eaten (pie, bread, cookie, etc). So if you're doing it for taste alone, I say bag it.

zandrsn said:

Yeah I'm still deciding on this myself... To bag or not to bag... I've heard arguments for both, but I'm wondering if leaving the pumpkin in the primary actually makes much taste difference. Thoughts?

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I'd say definitely bag the pumpkin. However, I did my first AG pumpkin 2 weeks ago, still in the fermenter, and I put the pumpkin in the mash as most do. Personally, I think for pumpkin ale's AG is easier as you mash the pumpkin in with the grains, then sparge, and don't have to really worry about it. I used one can less pumpkin then my extract recipe and can actually smell the pumpkin, not meaning the spices but the actual pumpkin, out of the airlock. I can't wait to try it.

But, if I were doing an extract pumpkin again I would bag it with a fine mesh bag and steep it with the steeping grains (in a separate bag).


Rev.

Great, thanks for the advice!

My pumpkin ale has been sitting in my keg for over a week and is still coming out with zero foam. It's as if the beer is not taking the co2. Like its refusing to carbonate. Has anyone else experienced this? Beginning to think its not going to be my thanksgiving sensation I wanted it to be.

Well I'm tossing in my $.02... I've done both canned and whole pumpkin, bagged and non bagged. I definitely got more 'pumpkin' flavor out when you put the pumpkin in the primary. I've found that bagging is irrelevant as the the stuff settles like everything else and it's not a big deal to hose out the carboy. Frankly it was more annoying dealing with the cleaning the bag then the trub. My preference for simplicity is using the raw can in the late boil, then all in for primary w/o filter. And I think the source and prep of the pumpkin can come secondary to the flavor of the added spices, so go gentle with those if you've done a roasted pumpkin and want that flavor to come out. As for AG, yeah, mashing it for simplicity.