Pumpkin ale Q

For my second brew I want to make a pumpkin ale, using a blonde ale kit I have as a base. I brew 1 gallon using all grain, and I was going to add the pumpkin to the mash, and maybe add spices like cinnamon and nutmeg either at the end of the boil or into the primary after fermentation. The problem is that I don't know how much to use. Does anybody have any advice or suggestions for me? I want a medium body, maybe light-medium, and a decent amount of pumpkin/spice flavor, but not overpowering. And also, how I can calculate estimated OG of this brew

I am going by instructions on Northern Brewer's Smashing Pumpkin I have roasted a 12 lb pumpkin and scooped out the "meat". I am also going to add about 1 teaspoon of a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon and a touch of allspice. I read about ginger but I am out so I substituted allspice.

I have no idea how it is going to turn out though. I would go with mostly the OG of everything else. Maybe a point or 3 from the pumpkin.

USAFSooner gave me this for Beersmith: I added it as an adjunct. 3.0 SRM, 1.005 SG potential, 120 diastatic power, Protien 11.7

Would I need to add more hops to this if I add pumpkin? Or should I just add spices to it? The closest brew shop is an hour away so it's not easy for me to get supplies

I don't remember exactly where I read it but somewhere they said that the pumpkin gives minimal boost in the form of fermentables to the Pumpkin Ale. My guess is that it acts more like steeping grains........flavor and color but not much in the form of alcohol potential fermentables. And many complain that they don't get the flavor that they desire from the pumpkin. But if you taste canned pumpkin, there is not a lot of flavor so to speak. You get the expected pumpkin pie flavors from the spices and sweetness from the added sugar sugar probably in a pumpkin pie recipe. The pumpkin provides color, substance but the spices give you more of the taste than the pumpkin itself.........at least that is my take.

I did a partial mash pumpkin ale, 5 gallon batch, and I used a total of 1 teaspoon of spices (0.5 tsp cinnamon, 0.25 fresh ginger, 0.125 allspice, 0.125 nutmeg) and it's a little weak. You can sorta taste the spices, but that's about it. I would say going to about 2 total teaspoons would be good for a 5 gallon batch. So if you're doing 1 gallon, 1/2 teaspoon probably wouldn't be too bad.

As far as the pumpkin itself goes, make sure you caramelize it in the oven before mashing, I did mine for about 1 hour at 350*.

I just bottled my pumpkin ale. I added an additional 1/2 tsp cinn, 1/2 tsp cloves., and 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice to the 1 tsp they included. In addition, I used two cans of Libby's pumpkin. From tasting it uncarbed, it's not bad. Will be interesting to see how it changes in a few weeks. All I read on was that there is a danger of over slicing and running it, so I hope I didn't go too far

ElJefeBrews said:

For my second brew I want to make a pumpkin ale, using a blonde ale kit I have as a base. I brew 1 gallon using all grain, and I was going to add the pumpkin to the mash, and maybe add spices like cinnamon and nutmeg either at the end of the boil or into the primary after fermentation. The problem is that I don't know how much to use. Does anybody have any advice or suggestions for me? I want a medium body, maybe light-medium, and a decent amount of pumpkin/spice flavor, but not overpowering. And also, how I can calculate estimated OG of this brew

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I cooked a can of pumpkin on 350 for an hour and added about a heaping tsp of pumpkin pie spice in the last 5 minutes of the boil and about tsp of the same pumpkin pie spice to my priming solution and it came out perfect. It was a 3 gallon batch.

I added a tad bit more hops to each drop in the boil. Idk why, I had about 1/4 oz left over so I just figured I'd add a little more to each addition. I dig the additional bitterness but I think it would have been just as good if I didn't add it. So, you could go either way. All the pumpkin does is give it a nice smooth mouth feel. You wont get much flavor or sweetness from it. All that will come from your spices. I suggest just using pumpkin and the pie spice so you're sure to get the pumpkin flavor you're looking for.

Best way to calculate the OG is to use a homebrew calculator or download the 30 day trial of beersmith. Plug in your recipe, batch size, etc and it'll give you all the info you need.

The starch in pumpkin is not fermentable. Most all-grain recipes call for 6-row malt, which has diastatic power to convert itself and the starches in the pumpkin during the mash.

If you want to convert the pumpkin starches to fermentable sugars without 6-row, you can add amylaze enzyme.

Thanks for the info everyone. I read that adding pumpkin will more change the mouthfeel and that's what I'm looking for. I've had 2 or 3 pumpkin ales so far this season and they were rather light bodied and I'd rather have a medium body. Do you think it would be better to add the pumpkin straight into the mash, or steep it in the wort post-sparge?

ElJefeBrews said:

Thanks for the info everyone. I read that adding pumpkin will more change the mouthfeel and that's what I'm looking for. I've had 2 or 3 pumpkin ales so far this season and they were rather light bodied and I'd rather have a medium body. Do you think it would be better to add the pumpkin straight into the mash, or steep it in the wort post-sparge?

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If you want the mouth feel i'd but it in the mash but I think you'd the get mouth feel out of either way. I put it in the boil last year with a porter I did. Turned out good but I dig it in the mash better this year. I was also playing around with adding some rolled oats to get an even smoother mouth-feel. Maybe next year I'll make a pumpkin oatmeal stout. mmmm.....

also, as a side note, if you want a bigger bodied brew check your mash temp. You can get more complex sugars or less complex sugars based on your mash temp which will determine the FG of your beer. Less attenuating yeast will help too.

I would also suggest you read the seminal pumpkin recipe thread through, it is Yuri's Thunderstruck Pumpkin in the recipe database (spice/herb etc section).

good luck!

Kozzer said:

I did a partial mash pumpkin ale, 5 gallon batch, and I used a total of 1 teaspoon of spices (0.5 tsp cinnamon, 0.25 fresh ginger, 0.125 allspice, 0.125 nutmeg) and it's a little weak. You can sorta taste the spices, but that's about it. I would say going to about 2 total teaspoons would be good for a 5 gallon batch. So if you're doing 1 gallon, 1/2 teaspoon probably wouldn't be too bad.

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Wanted to update - after bottle conditioning the spices really came out and (in my opinion) are the perfect level: you can taste them, the complexity and interplay between them, but it's not so overpowering that you can't have a few in a row and not enjoy each and every one just as much as the first one.

I'm kind of surprised that 1 total teaspoon of spices would have such an effect over ~5 gallons of beer, but I'm glad it worked out this way.