Pumkin Ale

Hey gents, havent brewed in a while, just ordered a pumpkin kit from northern brewer. If i want to add some canned pumpkin to the brew, how do i go about doing that. The instructions say to mash some fresh pumpkin with like 3 pounds of 6 row, i dont want to break out the mash tun for an extract kit, im trying to keep things fairly simple. Is there a way to use canned pumpkin without mashing?
Thanks for any help!

I am in the same boat. But I am thinking bake 2 15oz cans of pumpkin puree and steep it with the grains or boil it with the hops. Really I don't know... So I'm curious to hear the responses you get.

janson745 said:

I am in the same boat. But I am thinking bake 2 15oz cans of pumpkin puree and steep it with the grains or boil it with the hops. Really I don't know... So I'm curious to hear the responses you get.

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I have done something similar to this with fresh pumpkin before. I just caramelized the pumpkin and added it with the steeping grains. Not sure how much sugar I got from the pumpkin, but it was a good beer.

Just open the can and stir it into the mash after you mashed in all your grains. It contributes starches to give your beer body and mouthfeel.

I also used 60 oz worth of organic canned pumpkin purée in the one I just made.

I just did a pumpkin beer last weekend. I did all grain, but when I used to do extracts I would use the 2 15 oz cans of Libby's pumpkin. Spread pumpkin out on cookie sheet with parchment paper. I like to sprinkle a little brown sugar on top and bake at 350 F for 60 minutes to carmalize pumpkin. If your doing extract and don't want to mash, I would just steep the pumpkin with the specialty grains for 20 minutes or so.

Just use a grain bag (or any large fine mesh bag) and do a partial mash with the 2-row, specialty grains and baked pumpkin. I've done this twice before switching to all grain and they both came out great.

First off, in the pumpkin's I've made before, I have mashed the pumpkin (after baking until caramelized). But.... as I understand it, you don't really have to mash it. You can bake canned pumpkin and add it to the boil. Pumpkin is mainly going to add some flavor and body, much like a specialty grain would, so it's not crucial to mash it, per se. I'll be brewing this year's pumpkin ale next week, and the plan is to not mash any pumpkin and just add all of it to the kettle.

Use fresh pumpkin if possible, canned pumpkin creates more of a mess and is difficult to contain in grain bags. I just brewed the Midwest pumpkin kit and the canned pumpkin left about 2 inches of trub at the bottom and soaked up almost a gallon of beer. I added mine to the boil for the last 30 minutes and got some decent flavor- I only used 30 oz (what the recipe called for), but I'd recommend using at least 60 oz. If you use canned pumpkin, I would recommend racking to a secondary to help clear it out. Also, check around the forum, there are a few other topics on this that you may find helpful.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, I have nowhere near the level of expertise of others on this board.

Last year I added it late to the boil as suggested by several members of the forum; 2 cans baked at 350 for an hour. Beer did not turn out stellar as I had hoped with lots of gunk in the fermentor that later ended up in the bottle.
For the effort I didn't get as much pumpkin flavor that I would have liked. So this years version I will plan on splitting the difference, one can in the mash and the other in the boil. I would advise to start out with a good base recipe for encase the pumpkin flavor does not come through. My last years recipe was a boring 2-row smash with pumpkin and spices added; the result was a boring beer.

I think one of the keys to big pumpkin flavor is the spicing. Some 'pumpkin' ales are made with no pumpkin at all, just spices. The pumpkin ale I made last fall was big on pumpkin pie flavors, I used ~2 lbs of canned (baked) pumpkin in the mash, and one in the boil, along with some spices for the last five mins of the boil. I also added a tea made from pumpkin pie spices to the secondary vessel.
I did get a lot of trub in the primary, but it was pretty settled and compact after 2-3 weeks and the beer cleared up quite nicely in secondary after the spice tea settled.
Here's a couple videos of tastings and comparisons of the pumpkin ale that I brewed last year and the one brewed by another member who created the recipe.
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iqztjFdZs[/ame]
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=GocGcSpqTIw&feature=plcp[/ame]

Thanks! Ill try baking it and steeping in a bag.