need some help developing my pumpkin ale recipe please

I'm getting started a bit late to make a pumpkin ale, but hey better late than never. After looking through a bunch of recipes, I came up with this one based on what i have around and I just wanted to get a second opinion on this to make sure it sounds sane... this would be my first partial mash, and i would really appreciate some help with the recipe so i don't screw it up

6 lbs Amber LME
2 lbs Pale 2-Row malt
1 lb Crystal 60-L
8 oz Biscuit
4 oz Wheat, flaked
60 oz Pumpkin (60 min)
1 oz Kent Golding (60 min)
0.5 oz Fuggles (10 mins)
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 mins)
1 tsp nutmeg (3 mins)
1 tsp all spice (3 mins)
0.5 tsp cinamon (3 mins)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Mash grain in 2 gals 150-155 F for 45 mins to 1 hour. Sparge w/ 2 gals of 175 F water, add wort back to brewpot. Add LME, pumpkin (which will be roasted in the oven at 350 for 45 mins or until carmelization is apparent), and hops. 50 mins into boil add 0.5 oz Fuggles, and Irish Moss. At ~57 mins add spices. Finish boiling, cool wort, transfer to carboy w/ aeration, fill to 5 gals, pitch yeast. it'll probably spend 2-3 weeks in primary, then off to secondary for a few, then into bottles (or TAD)... i will probably add spices, if necessary, to taste during secondary.

Does this sound like a pretty good plan?

Are you doing this as a partial mash? SInce you have 2-row?

I'd lose the wheat, it serves no real purpose, maybe add some brown, aromatic or munich instead.

And I'd add a flavor aroma hop addition, like fuggles.

Have you run this through a caclulator yet?

This recipe is much like mine. The wheat should help with head retention. I don't like flavor hops in pumpkin ale - tried it once...not good. Munich would be a nice addition.

Yes Yuri, this one is based heavily upon your recipe (thanks for that). I was just trying to adapt it to partial mash. Seeing as I have never done a PM, I would like to get this one right

I was thinking of fuggles (0.5 oz) for flavor hops, but I am leaning towards not using them b/c I would prefer to have a more pumpkin-like taste. I was also considering using some maple syrup as I noticed in some other recipes.. If used at the beginning of the boil, this will only contribute to the amount of fermentable sugars, correct? I don't have any munich at the moment either, and was planning on doing this tonight b/c of time constraints so munich really isn't a viable option for me. And no, I have not run this recipe through a calculator.. is the Tasty Brew one decent?

BeerSmith has a free trial. Keep the maple syrup out of the boil. Add it during fermentation (or use it as a tool to adjust the OG).

You need to cut the cinnamon in my opinion. The nutmeg is and allspice are the flavors that are the characteristic to pumpkin pie.

and there is some cinamon in the pumpkin pie spice.. so cutting it out makes sense i 'spose.

but otherwise everything else seems ok? i am most concerned about the grain bill and whether that seems reasonable for a partial mash. oh one more thing i just realize, the wheat i have is white wheat malt, not flaked.

I would cut the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp. and skip the pumpkin pie spice in the boil. If the spiciness isn't what you want after primary fermentation, you can always make a pumpkin-pie spice tea and add it to secondary to your taste.

I went with 1 oz Fuggles for 60 mins and then 1 oz for 10 mins on mine, which I just did Monday. Sample tasted wonderful.

Oh, and 90 oz is a lot of pumpkin. Be prepared for a mess. 60 oz per Yuri's recipe seemed to do the trick for me.

I wouldn't added the spices until 1 minute or even knockout.

Rudeboy said:

I wouldn't added the spices until 1 minute or even knockout.

Click to expand...

+1 on that. I went for 5 mins. Spices tend to be volatile and lose flavor quickly.

ok, i edited the first post as per some of the recommendations... thanks a lot guys! let me know if anything still looks off. and also which would be the better flavor/aroma hop for this one, kent goldings or fuggles? i know they're pretty similar, so would it even make much difference? it just seemed to me based on descriptions that kent goldings would be better for aroma.

just threw it into beersmith, here's what I got

Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 4.08 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 15.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 61.54 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 20.51 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 10.26 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 5.13 %
0.25 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2.56 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
0.50 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 3.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Allspice (Boil 3.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 3.0 min) Misc
60.00 oz Pumpkin (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 3.75 lb
----------------------------
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
50 min Step Add 8.00 qt of water at 162.1 F 155.0 F

not sure if i did the mash part right

I'd switch my hop additions, but that's just me. I prefer Fuggles for aroma over EKG. To each his own. No suggestions are meant to be edicts.

EDIT: Too fast for me. I see you did switch the hops around. Looks good to me, but remember I'm no expert.

just made this recipe last night, pitched the yeast about 10 hours ago and krausen is starting to develop pretty heavily.. the SG sample i tasted was delicious! this one could be a real winner, i'll let ya'll know how it turns out.

WOW, this one is a real winner, effing delicious!!!! :rockin: Definitely the best beer I have made yet (albeit i only have 7 batches under my belt). It has a great pumpkin flavor and spice character that's not at all overbearing, and the hops seem perfectly balanced with the pumpkin spices and the malts. Normally I get tired of drinking pumpkin/ seasonal ales, but this one has only grown on me over time. Thanks Yuri for the original recipe (Thunderstruck pumpkin ale) which was basically the template for this one. Cheers!

AWESOME JOB!!!!

Nice. I am going to brew this in the next few days. Couple of questions. Did you use a spice tea like the original recipe calls for or did you just add the spices at flameout? Also, whole hops or pellets? My LHBS only had hop plugs of the ekg and fuggles. And lastly, I could only find canned malt extract, which means I will be using 6.6 lb instead of the 6lb that the recipe calls for. Could I use brewsmith to scale all of the other ingredients and make like 5.5-5.75 gallons?
Thanks!

so how did this turn out? i have crystal 20 white wheat and LME with probably willamette hops and pumkin. this is basically my recipe oh and brown sugar to up the og alllittle and hopefully flavor atthe end of boil or maybe prime with brown sugar? anybody know about either of these?priming better for flavor or end of boil or both? gonna do it real soon.
That recipe looks awesome.I did a pumkin with carmel 20 white wheat vienna brown sugar pumpkin and some willamete.it looks perfect and smells good.looking forward to this.

Hello All,

I am brewing a similar pumpkin ale recipe. I know Irish Moss is used primarily for clearing, but has anybody ever done a pumpkin without Irish Moss? If so, could you please share your experience? Thanks!