Recent Pumpkin Ale Brew

Recently I brewed a Pumpkin Ale Kit

Here's the link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=11789

Anyway, in one of my last posts I stated this:

BrewProject said:

anyway, the taste was not quite what I was expecting, but still nice. a mild pumpkin taste, with a little added bitterness

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my question is; if when racking to the secondary, i decide on a little more pumpkin taste, can i add another can of pumpkin to the secondary?

Thanks much...

anybody?

plus one more question; how would adding pumpkin affect my ABV? Would it increase?

I looked at your picture and saw one can of pumpkin. I know for most brewers here that brewed their pumpkin beers, they used two cans of pumpkin and it's generally considered best to bake the pumpkin at 350 for an hour on cookie sheets.

I'm still deciding how I'm going to formulate my pumpkin ale, but I'm aiming for the taste of delicious, spicy, pumpkin pie.

Orpheus said:

I looked at your picture and saw one can of pumpkin. I know for most brewers here that brewed their pumpkin beers, they used two cans of pumpkin and it's generally considered best to bake the pumpkin at 350 for an hour on cookie sheets.

I'm still deciding how I'm going to formulate my pumpkin ale, but I'm aiming for the taste of delicious, spicy, pumpkin pie.

Click to expand...

well my can was a 29 oz can. not sure about others, but i thought it was quite a large can.

i added mine to the boil without baking. the instructions on my kit did not call for baking (only if you were using fresh pumpkin).

so can i another can to the secondary, if my taste at racking tells me i want more pumpkin flavor?

btw, while boiling the wort, the smell of the grains, pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamin were wonderful

i just saw RichBrewer's pumpkin ale thread and saw that he used 2 cans of pumpkin.

my kit only called for one

I wouldn't sweat it. I don't know if anyone wants to tell you to toss another can in for fear of ruining your beer.

You *could* buy another can, bake it at 350 to carmelize it, add a little water and give it a quick boil or 180deg. pasturization then add to your secondary. I believe that canned pumkin should be pretty darn sanitary though...

You may come up with a new recipe doing this and have complex pumkin flavor and aroma throughout the taste. Dry-hopping pumpkin!!

Hot damn you guys are making me jealous. There was a brewpub in Vancouver, BC I went to right down on the waterfront called Steamworks Brewpub. They brewed a special pumpkin ale for the fall. They served it in wine glasses and it was utterly fantastic. It was like biting into a piece of pumpkin pie.

I can't wait to hear how some of these taste and I'm anxious to start mine!

Exo said:

I wouldn't sweat it. I don't know if anyone wants to tell you to toss another can in for fear of ruining your beer.

You *could* buy another can, bake it at 350 to carmelize it, add a little water and give it a quick boil or 180deg. pasturization then add to your secondary. I believe that canned pumkin should be pretty darn sanitary though...

You may come up with a new recipe doing this and have complex pumkin flavor and aroma throughout the taste. Dry-hopping pumpkin!!

Click to expand...

it is nothing but pumpkin, no additives/preservatives, etc... should be fine to dump into the secondary without boiling/pasteurizing. guess i will wait to taste when racking to decide.

and you are correct, i may come up with a new recipe...

i'll be tasting it this upcoming weekend when racking.

Orpheus said:

It was like biting into a piece of pumpkin pie.

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that's kinda the taste i was looking for, only carbonated and full of alcohol

ok, when i got ready to rack to the secondary, there were not much pumpkin or spice flavors...

so for the last hour, i have baked another can of pumpkin @ 350...

in the next few mins, i will add everything to the secondary (after the pumpkin cools down a bit).

btw, the ABV was 4.2%, i was hoping for a little more, but that will do...

here's some pics from the baking/racking procedure:

more:





2" of trub...

Looking good BrewProject!

thanks man... i'm trying.

Bro- are you secondary-ing in a bottling bucket? How's that treating you? I would love to have an excuse to use my bottler as an additional vessel (increase my efficiency, yeah?)

P funky said:

Bro- are you secondary-ing in a bottling bucket? How's that treating you? I would love to have an excuse to use my bottler as an additional vessel (increase my efficiency, yeah?)

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yea, just depends on what i have available at the moment... i own two bottling buckets and two primaries.

i just always make sure one bottling bucket is available and not being used on bottling day.

i have used the bottling bucket as a primary as well, although people have warned me about the spigot getting dirty from the trub. thus far i have had no problems. others including my LHBS guy said go for it, no problems... i do however, take my spigots out and clean them after using them.

if you only have two buckets, then a secondary can be done by using your bottling bucket as a primary, then racking to your primary, freeing up the bottling bucket for bottling day...

i know some will disagree with me on this, but hey, it's working so far for me.