Not the same pumpkin question again

I'm working for a recipe for a pumpkin beer. I want to end up with something that has a pumpkiny color to go along with the pumpkin flavor. I've started with my belgian blond recipe and tweaked the malt bill for color. Having never brewed with pumpkin before, I do not know how much color it will add. I have read through pages and pages of pumpkin threads, but haven't seen much about going for a pumpkin color. I also searched for "pumpkin color" and didn't come up with anything.

My main question is that, will I get a pumpkiny color on this thing. But I would also appreciate any other feedback or recommendations you may have on the recipe.

One constraint is that this batch is intended for a party on the 30th of October. My plan would be brew on the 10th, keg from primary on the 24th, chill the keg then force carb a couple days before the party. I wouldn't be too worried about this schedule with a pale ale or similar smaller beer with fresh hop character, but am a little concerned about this one. I wanted to push the gravity/ABV up on this.

Cabeza Calabaza Recipe

Batch size (to fermenter) 5.5 gal
Volume to boil 6.5 gal
Target O.G. 1.068
Target F.G. 1.012 (82% AA)
27 IBU
WL550 Trappist Ale yeast (harvested/rinsed)

8 lbs belgian pils
5 lbs vienna
0.75 lbs caravienne
0.125 lbs special B
1 lb cane sugar

Mash 151
2 lbs canned pumpkin in mash, 2 lbs in boil at 30 min

0.25 oz magnum (14.5 AA%) 60 min 10.6 IBU
1.5 oz saaz (3.5 AA%) 60 min 15.4 IBU
0.5 oz saaz (3.5 AA%) 5 min 1.0 IBU

I may add some traditional pumpkin pie spices with the 5 min hop addition, but am tempted to forgo this and just let the yeast bring what it will.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

I might be blind, but how much pumpkin are you adding? Canned or fresh?

I used canned pumpkin in an attempt to make a Pumpkin Dunkelweizen, and while I can't tell you how it turned out (6th day in primary), it did have a slight orange tint...of course as we all learned in 1st grade art class - Orange + Brown = Brown (hope my mom didn't throw that painting away...)

To semi-hijack the thread...food coloring to beer? Has anyone done this? It works for St. Patty's day if that's what you're looking for...

Matthoc116 said:

I might be blind, but how much pumpkin are you adding? Canned or fresh?

I used canned pumpkin in an attempt to make a Pumpkin Dunkelweizen, and while I can't tell you how it turned out (6th day in primary), it did have a slight orange tint...of course as we all learned in 1st grade art class - Orange + Brown = Brown (hope my mom didn't throw that painting away...)

To semi-hijack the thread...food coloring to beer? Has anyone done this? It works for St. Patty's day if that's what you're looking for...

Click to expand...

Oops, thanks for pointing that out. Based on all I've read in the forums, I've decided to split my pumpkin between my mash and boil. I was going to go with 1 large (24 oz?) can in each, but was just at the supermarket and they only had 15 oz cans. I want significant pumpkin flavor so I bought 4 cans. I may only use 3.

Edited recipe in original post to show the pumpkin