Partial Mash Pumpkin Ale

I have been brewing extracts for almost a year and just recently got interested in the Partial Mash side of things. I built a 3 gallon mash/Lauter tun using info on this forum.

I want to make a pumpkin ale for the fall and figure this will be a good time to use my new Partial Mash equipment now that I have made the mods to the cooler.

I am looking to do something pretty similar to RichBrewers Pumpkin Ale recipe at this link https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23489 . Please provide any constructive criticism you might have.

Here's the recipe that I am currently imagining (using the tastybrew.com recipe calculator):

Stats
OG 1.059
FG 1.015
IBU 25
ABV 5.7 %
SRM 10

Specifics
Boil Volume 3.0 gallons
Batch Size 5.0 gallons
Yeast 75% AA

Fermentables
3.50 lbs American Two-row Pale
2.00 lbs Munich Light
0.50 lbs Crystal 40L
3.00 lbs Amber Dry Malt Extract

Hops
0.50 oz Northern Brewer Pellet 60 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Pellet 15 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Pellet 5 min

Extras (added to boil)
3 lbs Canned Pumpkin 60 min
2.5 Tsp Cinnamon 10 min
1.5 Tsp Nutmeg 10 min
1.5 Tsp Allspice 10 min
1 Tsp Irish Moss 15 min

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

My preference would be to do 1 week in primary. 2 weeks in secondary. 3 weeks in bottle.

What do you guys think?

Thanks!

I have a suggestion, cut the aroma hops and maybe the flavor hops too. The aroma, especially, might interfere with the spices and the flavor addition might take away from the subtle spice flavor. Also, you might want to age the beer a little longer because it will give time for all the malt and spice flavors to blend.

That recipe sounds pretty tasty.

You might want to consider either eliminating (as the poster above mentioned) or changing the late addition hops though. Amarillo are pretty potent buggers and you don't want that to bleed through (unless thats your intention) in a specialty beer like that.

Thanks for your input guys. I haven't experimented with many hop styles so I'm not real familiar with which ones are more potent than others. I've been looking at the numbers on the Wiki trying to get an idea of which might be a good choice.

Would Willamette be a good choice for adding at 15 minutes and skipping the 5 minute addition? Say, .5 oz with 15 min remaining.... I would like to have a slight hop aroma, but I definitely want the spices and pumpkin to be evident.

I have only used Willimette once and its probably a better choice than amarillo, but american hops tend to be on the citrousy side which may not blend with the pumkin. You may want to try styrian goldings, east kent goldings, or fuggles which are more subtle european hops. Just my 2 cents im certainly not an expert on this though.

Skip the hops additions after 60 minutes. Period. I made one last year with some Cascade as flavoring and aroma hops, and the only problem was the fact that I used aroma and flavor hops. IMHO, pumpkin beers should be malty with little hop flavor. Some hop bitterness is definitely required, but that can be achieved with a single 60 minute addition.

I don't use any aroma or flavor hops in my pumpkin ale, I like to let the spices come through.

Thanks for the input guys. I think I am going to do fuggles at 60 min and skip the rest. I would like a little bit of hop bitterness in the brew, but I don't want it to overpower the pumpkin flavor and aroma.

Most pumpkin ale recipes seem to target 13-14 IBUs of only-bittering hops.