Pumpkin Ale suggestions

I’m looking at making a Pumpkin Beer this weekend to have ready for fall. I wasn’t overly impressed with the one from last year so I going to try something different and I’m looking for feedback.

Stats
OG 1.055
FG 1.012
IBU 25
ABV 5.5 %
SRM 10

Specifics
Boil Volume 7 gallons
Batch Size 5.5 gallons

Fermentables
% Weight Weight (lbs)
71.1 % 8.00 American Two-row Pale
11.1 % 1.25 American Vienna
6.7 % 0.75 American Crystal 60L
4.4 % 0.50 Flaked Wheat
6.7 % 0.75 Belgian Biscuit

Hops
% Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time
50.0 % 1.00 Goldings Whole/Plug 5.0 5.0 60
50.0 % 1.00 Goldings Whole/Plug 5.0 5.0 15 2.00 25.0
I’m going to use a English style yeast and 3-4 cans of Libby’s pure pumpkin (mashed). I’m going to mash at 154 for 60min. Any suggestions?

If you want to mash it, consider mashing it on its own with amylase powder. Depending on your system, pumpkin overwhelms even the most generous rice hull additions and makes for a long, slow sparge. Stand-alone mashing eliminates that problem. Of course, mashing changes its flavor - if you want to stay close to the "pumpkin pie beer" paradigm, adding it to the boil or secondary may be a better idea than mashing it.

Either way, working with pumpkins is messy. But it's so worth the pain when drinking the final results!

If you're using 4 cans, try this : 1 can in the mash, 2 cans in the brewpot, 1 can in secondary.
I did this laat year, and was happy with the results.

Have you tasted raw pumpkin? It's a squash. There's not much flavor there (I love a bunch of butter and brown sugar on my squash).

The flavor most people associate with pumpkin comes from the spices added to a Pumpkin Pie - cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, allspice, etc.

If you want to avoid those spices, more power to you, good luck, but I don't think you will get a traditional pumpkin beer. Might be good though, so please don't take my comments as criticism.

I meant to add the spices, but I forgot to throw them on the thread. Last year I used US-05 yeast, so I figured I go with an English style yeast to produce a more traditional flavor.

passedpawn said:

Have you tasted raw pumpkin? It's a squash. There's not much flavor there (I love a bunch of butter and brown sugar on my squash).

The flavor most people associate with pumpkin comes from the spices added to a Pumpkin Pie - cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, allspice, etc.

If you want to avoid those spices, more power to you, good luck, but I don't think you will get a traditional pumpkin beer. Might be good though, so please don't take my comments as criticism.

Click to expand...

While I do agree with this, I baked my pumpkin at 350 degrees for 1 hours to caramelize it. Smelled AMAZING. Hopefully that aroma/taste transfers over a bit..

xjmox14x said:

While I do agree with this, I baked my pumpkin at 350 degrees for 1 hours to caramelize it. Smelled AMAZING. Hopefully that aroma/taste transfers over a bit..

Click to expand...

+1 on baking the pumpkin puree. this is what I did last year and the flavor does in fact come through. the only difference is I used a whole halloween pumpkin and baked it covered in the oven with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on the halves and then pureed it. going to try all canned pumpkin this year though since the pumpkins they use for that are by nature more flavorful.

Did a pumpkin ale last weekend. Baked 58oz of Libby's pure pumpkin at 350F for 45min. Cooled to room temp, and added to the top of my mash with 1lb of rice hulls mixed in. Run-off and sparge were no problem...not slow at all. I use a 10gal round cooler with an SS braid.

The pumpkin did not add any gravity points, but more in the color/aroma department. Hopefully in the taste/mouthfeel department, but that remains to be seen.

g-star said:

Did a pumpkin ale last weekend. Baked 58oz of Libby's pure pumpkin at 350F for 45min. Cooled to room temp, and added to the top of my mash with 1lb of rice hulls mixed in. Run-off and sparge were no problem...not slow at all. I use a 10gal round cooler with an SS braid.

The pumpkin did not add any gravity points, but more in the color/aroma department. Hopefully in the taste/mouthfeel department, but that remains to be seen.

Click to expand...

Did you taste your hydro?

I'm looking at starting to use my tap water with campden tablet and was wondering if there was really anything else I needed to worry about or add with tap water. I've got a report from my CPW but it doesn't have a whole lot of information.

they only list:
Alkalinity = 14.42
pH=7.14
Sodium = 7.2
Potassium = .3
Hardness = 7.78
Ammonia = .97
Phosphate = .18
all in mg/l
I use a water filter for drinking water, but I figured the campden tablets will basically do the same thing with the chloramine. I might just breakdown and have the water tested

what would you all describ as the 'base' for a pumpkin ale? is it basically a spiced brown? or something else?