Canned Pumpkin and Spices or Pumpkin Pie Filling???

SWMBO has requested a pumpkin ale for my next brew, and I've been checking out a handful of recipes on this site for ideas.

Not having checked the local grocery stores yet, I'm not sure how good my chances are going to be to find canned pumpkin or canned pumpkin pie filling - I know finding pumpkin around this time last summer when my buddy brewed up a batch was a PITA.

Anyway, if I come across only pumpkin pie filling or I come across both, can anyone tell me from experience if it's better to use canned pumpkin and adding spices or simply using pumpkin pie filling (which I'm assuming already has the spices mixed in)?

I just went and got some today at the local grocery store. They had Libby's. I'm doing raw pumpkin, baking it with molasses, and adding it during boil (extract batch). Then spices at 5 minutes left and a bit more spice in secondary as a tea. I think you'd have much more control over flavor by adding spice and pumpkin separately compared to the pie filling.

also the pie filling could have milk products or cream and crap like that. i've heard not to use it for this reason. i used plain pumpkin and added "pumkin pie spice" (which they sell already mixed) and it came out great.

The difficulty in finding pumpkin last year was due to a crop shortage. Excessive rained spoiled the crop(if memory serves). It's everywhere this year. And you want pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.

The question I have is do you use neck pumpkin ( used for making pumpkin pies) or just plain old holloween pumpkins?

+1 to using pure pumpkin, not pie filling. My yearly pumpkin porter is starting to show up on the radar, and I'll be using 1 big can of libby's pure pumpkin per 5 gallons.

I used pumpkin pie filling. I also added spices at the end of the boil and some brown sugar to up the alcohol content. I may later regret all the spice additions but this is my 5th brew and the only one that I drank the entire OG sample and wanted more. Cannot wait until October!

shadows69 said:

The question I have is do you use neck pumpkin ( used for making pumpkin pies) or just plain old holloween pumpkins?

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i'm not sure what a neck pumpkin is. but for what its worth anywhere i've seen pictures of people using whole pumpkin chunks it looked like regular halloween pumpkin. either way would work. if you like the flavor of the neck pumpkin and its safe to eat then it should be fine for brewing. also if you use the libby's canned pumpkin you don't have to worry about it, it already is what it is.

I brewed a pumpkin ale last September using only pumpkin pie spice since pumpkin was unobtainable due ot the previously mentioned shortage. It ended up being one of the best poumpkin ales I have ever had and all my frineds liked it, beer snobs and BMC drinkers. The base beer was Northern Brewer's cream ale extract kit. I added pumpkin pie spice to the secondary. I can't recall how much and unfortunately the computer that I have my recipes saved on is dead at the moment.

good point. i will say that most of the flavor came from the spices. the pumkin it self added a thicker mouth feel (which i liked). but it could be just as good done with just the spices.

Thanks for all the advice - lots of good info to go on here. Now I just need to get busy brewing it up!