Whats the deal with canned pumpkin?

Went to 3 stores so far to find a couple cans of Libby's for my yearly dogfish pumpkin clone and cant find any pumpkin. What gives?

1. To early due to reason 2.

2. There is/was a shortage last year.

I found some organic pumpkin but of course it was like quadruple the price. I paid like double the dollar amount for half the pumpkin in the can! Not like it was cost prohibitive but it still sort of made me mad.

In May I brewed a batch of KT's Caramel Hard Apple Cider that called for a teaspoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice for a 2 gallon recipe. I had a bottle last weekend and I could really notice the pumpkin in it, along with the apple flavors.

I was wondering how I would substitute canned pumpkin for the Pumpkin Pie Spice in a 2 gallon batch and what kind of difference it would make?

Screwy Brewer

Use butternut squash if you can find it, canned pumpkin is actually a dickinson "pumpkin", a hybrid of butternut squash.

ScrewyBrewer said:

I was wondering how I would substitute canned pumpkin for the Pumpkin Pie Spice in a 2 gallon batch and what kind of difference it would make?

Screwy Brewer

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This is passedpwns recipe, I have never made it but am planning on giving it a go soon. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/joie-de-vivre-fake-imperial-pumpkin-154242/

On a side note for others that may be interested in a pumpkin beer. Pumpkin really adds no noticeable flavor, unless it is scorched, to beer. FYI. I do understand the "nostalgia" of having real pumpkin in a pumpkin beer but it is not necessary.

My question to those who say "no pumpkin is needed" is this. Have you brewed the same recipe with just pumpkin and no spices, and then with out the pumpkin for comparison? I only ask because I figure if the pros still use pumpkin there has to be a reason. Otherwise they could just spice it make their lives easier and still call it pumpkin beer or at least "pumpkin-style".

I figure I'll do a controlled experiment for my own piece of mind as a BIAB 1gal batch this year.

smokinghole said:

My question to those who say "no pumpkin is needed" is this. Have you brewed the same recipe with just pumpkin and no spices, and then with out the pumpkin for comparison? I only ask because I figure if the pros still use pumpkin there has to be a reason. Otherwise they could just spice it make their lives easier and still call it pumpkin beer or at least "pumpkin-style".

I figure I'll do a controlled experiment for my own piece of mind as a BIAB 1gal batch this year.

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You're definitely missing out on some pumpkin flavor if you don't use it. I've had a homebrewed pumpkin beer and a no pumpkin spice only commercial pumpkin beer right around the same time last year and there was a noticeable difference. The pumpkin beer had no spices and it tasted like pumpkin as opposed to the commercial beer which tasted like pumpkin pie. I liked the pumpkin flavor so if I were to try to brew my own pumpkin beer I would use real pumpkin. But I think that experimenting and tasting things for yourself is always a good idea.

smokinghole said:

My question to those who say "no pumpkin is needed" is this. Have you brewed the same recipe with just pumpkin and no spices, and then with out the pumpkin for comparison? I only ask because I figure if the pros still use pumpkin there has to be a reason. Otherwise they could just spice it make their lives easier and still call it pumpkin beer or at least "pumpkin-style".

I figure I'll do a controlled experiment for my own piece of mind as a BIAB 1gal batch this year.

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I've done exactly that but I honestly can't say that anything really stands out to make them so different to me. I don't think that the fact that mine were gluten-free really makes a difference, but maybe it does...

here's a link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/gluten-free-pumpkin-spice-ale-147707/

And I plan to brew the next one (hopefully mid-August) with pumpkin if I can ever find it- just so I can say brewed with pumpkin. Oh- and both beers were identical in the glass after about a month and a half, the one brewed with pumpkin just had more sediment in the end- obviously

Sweet potatos? I knew an old lady who used to make both pumpkin & sweet potato pies; sometimes hard to tell the difference...

tallybrewer said:

Sweet potatos? I knew an old lady who used to make both pumpkin & sweet potato pies; sometimes hard to tell the difference...

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I thought I was the only person who wasn't able to tell!

I just finished up a sweet potato Belgian Dubble w/ 6 lbs of roasted and mashed sweet potato. Its damn tasty, although the sweet potato (like the pumpkin flavor) is extremely subtle.

wyzazz said:

Use butternut squash if you can find it, canned pumpkin is actually a dickinson "pumpkin", a hybrid of butternut squash.

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Agreed, I have made pumpkin pie in the past with acorn squash and could not tell the difference.

devilishprune said:

I thought I was the only person who wasn't able to tell!

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I can't tell the difference either.

wonderbread23 said:

I just finished up a sweet potato Belgian Dubble w/ 6 lbs of roasted and mashed sweet potato. Its damn tasty, although the sweet potato (like the pumpkin flavor) is extremely subtle.

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I'd like that recipe if you have it. Pumpkin beer doesn't interest me as much, since the last time I tried to eat a pumpkin that I roasted I was extremely disappointed.

devilishprune said:

I'd like that recipe if you have it. Pumpkin beer doesn't interest me as much, since the last time I tried to eat a pumpkin that I roasted I was extremely disappointed.

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No prob. The spices are very muted, but I'm not a huge fan of beers that hit you over the head with spices. It's still carbing, but quite tasty. I overshot my gravity a bit (OG 1.074) which was a result of overboiling a bit and underestimating the sugars I'd get from the sweet potato. It attenuated down to 1.010 (86% AA) using a 1200ml 1.040 starter that was stepped up once (3787 is a beastly yeast).

[size=+2]Sweet Potato Dubble[/size]
[size=+1]18-B Belgian Dubbel[/size]
Author: Wonderbread23


Size: 6.52 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 82.0%
Calories: 214.56 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.065 (1.062 - 1.075)
|===========#====================|
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.008 - 1.018)
|=============#==================|
Color: 19.08 (10.0 - 17.0)
|============================#===|
Alcohol: 7.01% (6.0% - 7.6%)
|==================#=============|
Bitterness: 18.0 (15.0 - 25.0)
|============#===================|

[size=+1]Ingredients:[/size]
9 lb Belgian Pils
5 lb Sweet Potato (Actually used 6# which cooked down to 4#'s)
1 lb German Dark Munich (Gambrinus)
.75 lb White Wheat Malt (Briess)
.5 lb Aromatic Barley Malt
.5 lb Caramel Munich 60L
.25 lb Belgian Special B
0.0 lb Rice Hulls
1.5 lb Candi Sugar Dark
.25 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
1.5 oz Tettnanger (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient - added during boil, boiled 10 min
.5 tsp Cinnamon (ground) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
.125 tsp Ginger (ground) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
.125 tsp Nutmeg (ground) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
.125 tsp Clove - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1 ea WYeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity

[size=+1]Schedule:[/size]
Ambient Air: 72 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 104 Infusion - Hydration - Liquor: 2.25 gal; Strike: 117.82 °F; Target: 104 °F
00:33:00 104 Rest - Hydration - Rest: 30 min; Final: 102.4 °F
00:36:00 140 Infusion - Beta - Water: 2.0 gal; Temperature: 200.5 °F; Target: 140.0 °F
01:36:00 140 Rest - Beta - Rest: 60 min; Final: 135.9 °F
01:39:00 158 Infustion - Alpha - Water: 2.25 gal; Temperature: 209.4 °F; Target: 158 °F
01:59:00 158 Rest - Alpha - Rest: 20 min; Final: 156.8 °F
02:19:00 Mash Out Decoction - Volume: 1.7 gal; Boil: 17.0 min; Target: 168 °F
02:39:00 Batch Sparge - First Sparge: 2.25 gal sparge @ 168 °F, 10 min; Second Sparge: 2.25 gal sparge @ 168 °F, 10 min; Total Runoff: 7.92 gal

[size=+1]Notes[/size]
- Use 1200ml 1.040 starter
- Cube sweet potato and bake on cookie sheet 350*F until soft and well caramelized. (actually went up to 450*F at end)

- Preheat MLT with 1 gallon boiling water for 5 minutes before adding grains.
- Start timer once hot breaks occurs.
- Add 0 minute hops and then take off heat and rest 5 minutes before chilling wort.
- Afer cooling wort, whirlpool, let settle 90 minutes, and drain off sides.
- Aerate 2 minutes once in fermenter, pitch yeast and aerate an additional 2 minutes.

- Ferment primary 2 weeks. Start at 64*F and let ramp up on its own to 70*F+.

When did you add the sweet potato? To the boil or to the secondary?

devilishprune said:

When did you add the sweet potato? To the boil or to the secondary?

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I roasted it in the oven and then mashed it with my grains to convert the sugars.

+1 to bad pumpkin crop in 2009 and so the shortage. We add pumpkin to our senior dog's diet to help with fiber and um... well.... constipation. We have switched to sweet potatoes. BTW - dogs love pumpkin and sweet potatoes

I asked one of the people at Libby's and they said we could expect to see the canned pumpkin on the shelves in early September. Guess my pumpkin ale will be a few weeks behind schedule, but it's all good!

The only pumpkin I could find for my Southern Tier Pumpking clone was organic. I found it at a local whole foods store for $2.99 per 15 oz. can. More than I wanted to pay but I am too impatient to wait till September to brew it.