Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela recipe - straight from Ron J.

Ron Jeffries is really accomodating to homebrewers. I emailed him recently for some hints around a recipe for his sour "pumpkin" beer. Here is the info he gave me.

70% Pils
10% Munich
10% Vienna
Little C60 and a Little C-30
Touch of Black Malt
5% pumpkin flesh in the mash

Cacoe nibs and chocolate in at boil
Pie spicing at the end of boil

He also suggest "dry pumpkining" haha.
Age in oak with naturally occuring wild yeast and bacteria.

No mention of hops, but I would assume something mild/noble to not interfere with the spicing.


I'm going to brew this for fall, using JP dregs to sour.

Keep us posted on how this turns out!

Dude! Nice work!

Thanks for sharing! I love that beer. JP dregs are monsters.

Ron has always been super nice about any of my emails.. but I certainly don't want to hassle the guy.

Man I wish I lived in the USA so I could regularly buy his beers. The 3 that I have had, were just incredible!

elproducto said:

Ron has always been super nice about any of my emails.. but I certainly don't want to hassle the guy.

Man I wish I lived in the USA so I could regularly buy his beers. The 3 that I have had, were just incredible!

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Art in a glass!

I can't wait until my Bam Biere clone is done...

Thanks for sharing!

Sweet. I'm on a sour kick right now.

Are you going to add the dregs after normal sacc fermentation, or build a starter from the dregs and inocculate the wort right away?

Interesting, the last time I used cocoa nibs in the boil the wort was real bitter, maybe it was the vanilla beans.

passedpawn said:

Sweet. I'm on a sour kick right now.

Are you going to add the dregs after normal sacc fermentation, or build a starter from the dregs and inocculate the wort right away?

Click to expand...

I'll probably pitch dregs in secondary. They are real aggressive, and I don't want it TOO funky, because I'm still not even sure how nicely the pumpkin spice will play with sour.

Haven't decided what yeast I'll use for primary.

Ok Here is the recipe I've come up with:

5 gallon batch

6.5 lbs Ger. Pilsner
1 lb Munich 10
1 lb Vienna
.5 lb Special B
.25 lb C30
.25 lb C60
1 oz. Willamette (5.5%) at 60 min.
1 lb Canned Pumpkin (Toasted in oven 350 degrees for 15 min)
Cacoa Nibs/Chocolate last 5 min. of boil
1.5 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice at end of boil
S-04 English Ale Yeast in Primary

Once primary is done, rack into secondary on JP dregs and .75 oz. of American Oak Chips/Cubes


Changed a few things from what Ron told me. I used Special B for that raisiny note, and just omitted the Black Patent because it was for color.
I know he uses the Ardennes yeast for primary, but I can't help but wonder how that yeast would play with spices.

Anyone ever screw around with either of these recipes? I would love to find a nice Parcela clone

Anyone follow through with their recipes? Interested to see how things turned out.