Pumpkin ale question

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DaveGerard

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I recently had a few pints of a pumpkin ale in a bar, did not get the brand, but it was fantastic, and you could definitely taste a pumpkinny flavor. Last nite I had a pumpkin ale by Dogfish Head, which listed on the label that they used real pumpkins, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon. It was good, but it was definitely thinner than the other beer, and there really wasn't any pumpkin flavor, you could only really taste the spices. I am going to try and nail a pumpkin brew for Thanksgiving, but I would much rather get the flavor of the 1st beer. I am using an extract recipe that I found on the BYO site, but is there anything that can be done to ensure some pumpkin flavor?
 
*CAUTION I'M A NOOB*

I am on the same qwest my friend. I picked out a recipe kit of midwest supplies that from what I understand is pumpkiny but not like what we want. What some people on their forum recommend was tripling the spices and pumpkin added to the boil. Then when you rack out of your primary take a bout 3 cups worth and set it aside for "experimentations". Taste it first and see if its to your liking and if it is then do nothing to it. But if you want to add more flavor think about how much spice you would have to add to make it like you want and then double that. take the spices and mix it with an alcohol like vodka (tasteless) and then mix it with the spices then add it to one of the cups. Once you find the "potion" that gives you the desired taste do a little math to scale it up to the size of your brew and add it to the secondary. Here is the link to the thread I am referring to so you can read it:

http://www.brew-wineforum.com/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=1&messageid=53112#bm53495

Hope this helps
 
I made one once and used the costco pumpkin in a can (comes in a three pack). I placed it on a cookie sheet, backed it till it was nice and brown then put it in the brew kettle. This was messy but it really came out good. I put the common spices in but i wish i had put 25 - 40% more spices in. I know this wont help you much but I used the costco all natural pumpkin in a can. If you look a the ingrediants youll see nothing but pumkin, as well as a label stating no preservatives etc. If you end up using pumpkin from scratch let me know what you did as i am tempted to make another pumpkin ale.

What we did with our pumpkin ale was drink 2.5 gallons of it and took the other 2.5 gallons marinated our thanksgiving turkey as well as injected the beer into the turkey. We then deep fried the turkey and it turned out awsome. The turkey tasted like the beer and was eaten entirely while the none pumpkin ale marinated turkey was left alone and only eaten after the pumpkin turkey was gone.
 
Nice, I will take both your advice, I feel like I want to be very subtle with the spice, because the dogfish one that I had definitely put it in the forefront, and it was a little overwhelming, and I couldn't see drinking more than 1 or 2 without getting like heartburn.
 
Check out Yuri or RichBrewers pumpkin ale recipes. They are both AG, but if you read through the posts there is alot of advice on how to add the pumpkin and spices. 2nd and 3rd thread in this recipe section.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

As far as commercial pumpkin beers, I've had both the Dogfish and Buffalo Bills varieties. Dogfish needed work, but mine had some pumpkin flavoring with the spice. The Buffalo bills was watery pumpkin pie spice flavored, with no pumpkin flavor at all.
 
I just got home from the brew shop with my grain for a pumkin ale. Im off of work friday so Ill have the whole day to brew. The recipe calls for 8 lbs of fresh pumkin so im going to double for 10 gallons. Im really looking forward to this batch. Ive never had a pumkin ale, but I like the flavor of pumkin. I plan on going by the recipe for the first one and if I like it alot I will mess with the ingredients on another batch.
 
I say this in all sincerety as a lover of beer and pumpkins: the two ought not be combined. It strikes me as part of the fruity cocktail trend -- a scam to get people who wouldn't know a proper whiskey if it hit them in the head to plop down $$$ on the bar. I've tried a lot of the pumpkin beers because it sounded like a good idea, but I have never found one that did either beer or the noble gourd proper justice. I'm sure a passable concoction is possible, but wouldn't you be better off making a La Fin du Monde clone and some really good pumpkin pies and eating them together?
 
loneoak said:
I say this in all sincerety as a lover of beer and pumpkins: the two ought not be combined.
Well, everyone's entitled to his/her opinion. I happen to really enjoy the pumpkin beer I've brewed twice annually now. I look forward to making it a bit of "house" tradition.

If this one turns out well (all signs point to a resounding YES), perhaps a beerswap will be in order.

EDIT:
To add some merit to this post (see Rich's comment below), I used a TON of canned pumpkin in my mash. A dozen 15 oz cans in a 15 gallon batch to be precise, and the flavor is distinctly pumpkin even at this green stage of the brew. With fresh pumpkin in an extract brew, I imagine roasting it, mashing it like mashed potatoes, and adding it to the boil at a rate of about 3/4 lb per gallon would work nicely.
 
loneoak said:
I say this in all sincerety as a lover of beer and pumpkins: the two ought not be combined. It strikes me as part of the fruity cocktail trend -- a scam to get people who wouldn't know a proper whiskey if it hit them in the head to plop down $$$ on the bar. I've tried a lot of the pumpkin beers because it sounded like a good idea, but I have never found one that did either beer or the noble gourd proper justice. I'm sure a passable concoction is possible, but wouldn't you be better off making a La Fin du Monde clone and some really good pumpkin pies and eating them together?
DaveGerard wasn't asking us if we like pumpkin beer. He was asking how to make one. I fail to see how your opinion on the style fits in this thread.:drunk:
 
I'm assuming the more pumpkin you add, the more wort you are losing to trub (and displacement) yes? I have read the Yuri thread, but I will go back and re-read it, I think I have a good plan to proceed.
 
Well, I'm using a recipe from BYO, which calls for honey and cinammon sticks. Just picked up a bunch of farm fresh honey and a bag of organic cinammon sticks from upstate NY, sweet. I was also thinking that maybe in addition to pumkin, chuckin in a can of sweet potato mush might fill out the flavor profile a little more. Any thoughts? If the sweet potato boils away as well I guss it isn't worth it, but I think that they are close enough in flavor that it would still make a good tasting beer.
 
I do mine AG and add some to the mash as well as the boil.

100% canned pumpkin spread on a cookie sheet and put in the oven @ 175 for about 45-1 hr.


Be careful with those spices though, you can easily overdo it with them
 
Mine is gonna be extract/grain, I'm pretty much following their recipe to a T, but I thought that I might chuck a little sweet potato in to bulk up the flavor. I want the spices to be really subtle, so I am gonna use very small amounts. I had a great pumkpin ale that was like that, didn't get the brand though, but the spices weren't overwhelming.
 
I had dogfish's pumpkin on tap last weekend, it tasted like they had a bit of vanilla that gave it a bit of a sweet aftertaste.



just a thought
 
My wife brought home a few bottles of that last week, but I wasn't too keen on it. To me it was overspiced, and I felt like if I drank 2 or 3 I was gonna get heartburn from all the spices.
 
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