Autumn Seasonal Beer DrBuzz's Pumpkin Ale II

6.8% ABV
12 SRM

12.00 LB Premium 2-Row Pale Malt
2.00 LB Caramel Malt 10L
0.50 LB Carapils/Dextrin Malt
0.50 LB Munich Malt
0.50 LB Victory Malt
0.50 LB Amber Malt (or Brown Malt)
0.25 LB What Malt

Mash at 155F for 60 minutes. Strike at 168F using 20L of water and sparge again with 20L of water at 170F.

3.75 (60oz) Pumpkin (Libby's Pure 100% Pumpkin) cooked for 60 minutes in dish or pan at 375F. Add to Boil.

1.5 oz Goldings Hop (US) 5.7% AA @ 60 Min
1.5 oz Goldings Hop (US) 5.7% AA @ 5 Min

1 PKG Nottingham Ale Yeast

1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Min

1 tsp Cinnamon (ground) @ 1 Min
1/2 tsp Nutmeg (ground) @ 1 Min
1/4 tsp Ginger (ground) @ 1 Min
1/8 tsp Cloves (ground) @ 1 Min

12 tbsp Brown Sugar for priming

So I just brewed this second Pumpkin Ale and I thought I would share the recipe along with some of the research that went along with it to answer any questions that people may be having this fall season.

First of all, I used canned pumkpin as it was easy to obtain (anytime of year) and easy to deal with. In this case I had started the mash and realized I hadn't started cooking the pumpkin. That wasn't a big deal because the mash takes 60 minutes. Cooking the pumpkin @ 375F for 60 minutes caramelizes the sugars in the pumpkin and will lend a sweeter caramel taste. It smells great when cooking. I have used less time, 30 minutes @ 350F, but you only get a little caramelization.

I add the pumpkin to the boil (as the pot fills while lautering). Last time I mashed with it (the advantage is that a lot of pumpkin gets filtered out). It tends to clog things up and there really isn't much sugars from the pumpkin anyway. I read a really good article that convinced me to add it to the boil here: http://www.brewcookpairjoy.com/2009/12/the-great-pumpkin-ale-experiment/

One thing you will notice when boiling this recipe is that there is a lot of foam from the pumpkin and it has a lot of orange colour highlights. The orange tends to darken to brown as it ferments but it's still present.

The Irish Moss will help clarify the beer, especially with all that pumpkin in there.

The Goldings hops are quite clean and really only impart a bitterness. I didn't want any other flavours coming in over the pumpkin and spices.

I add the spices to the end of the boil so that a lot of smell and flavour isn't boiled away. It's a common practice in cooking as well.

The right spice mix took me a while to develop and was bang on when I finally tested it out. I looked through a ton of old cook books (and the interweb) and got Mom's help. You can use pumpkin pie spice but usually the default is allspice which claims to have all the flavours you need. I like making it up from scratch and came up with the 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 mix. It doesn't over power the beer and is something you would use in a pumpkin pie.

Thought this may answer a couple questions as we get into fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween...

Adam

See the original Partial Mash recipe here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/drbuzzs-pumpkin-ale-431233/#post5497820