The Elusive Pumpkin Porter

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some feedback on this pumpkin porter recipe that i've been working on. I've read just about every pumpkin porter recipe that I can find in addition to a number of pumpkin ales, but I'm still new to designing recipes. Thoughts?

Style:Baltic Porter
Type: Extract
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.70 gal

Ingredients
7 lbs 2.8 oz Light DME
2 lbs 4.7 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
2 lbs 3.9 oz Biscuit Malt
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt
3.7 oz Wheat, Flaked
60.00 oz Pumpkin, Canned (Boil 60.0 min)

1.00 oz Goldings, B.C. [5.00% Boil 60min]
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 % Boil 30.0 min]
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)

Yeast - English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml]

Est Original Gravity: 1.068 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.022 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %
Bitterness: 29.3 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 37.4 SRM

Following Yuri's Thunderstruck:

Spread the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees F before adding to the brew.

Steep the grains for 20-30 minutes at about 155°F.

During clearing stage, add a spice tea of 1 tsp "Pumpkin Pie Spice" or Pampered Chef "Cinnamon Plus." Steep spices in 1 cup hot water for 10-15 minutes, cool then add. Consider adding the spice tea a little at a time to achieve the desired flavor profile.

I can't really help with the recipe but I'd like to know how this turns out.

Looks great, I think your plans will work just fine. I may do this too. I've done a pumpkin amber and dunkel, both done with real pumpkin roasted in the oven. They turned out great.

note that you don't need to cook the pumkin in an oven unless it's fresh pumpkin. canned pumpkin should be able to be boiled directly from the can.

Just a note on the categorization. Isn't a baltic porter fermented with lager yeast? Since you're using an Ale strain wouldn't it be just a porter? or I guess you can cold ferment it with an ale yeast from BJCP site:

Ingredients: Generally lager yeast (cold fermented if using ale yeast). Debittered chocolate or black malt. Munich or Vienna base malt. Continental hops. May contain crystal malts and/or adjuncts. Brown or amber malt common in historical recipes.

So otherwise things look good. Let us know how it turns out, it's a good idea!

DrBergeron said:

note that you don't need to cook the pumkin in an oven unless it's fresh pumpkin. canned pumpkin should be able to be boiled directly from the can.

Click to expand...

People do it with canned as well to roast the pumpkin a bit, it changes the flavor some and brings it out a bit more.


Rev.

Thanks for all the helpful replies! I was calling it a Baltic based on the SRM, Bitterness and ABV; I didn't realize about the the lager yeast. Though I reckon I will be cold fermenting it as its already pretty cold up here in Toronto.

Do you all have any thoughts on whether I should decrease the amount of Caramel/Crystal malt? And whether I should reverse the chocolate and black patent numbers? I've seen them both ways, but this seemed right too me (not too dark or too smokey covering up the pumpkin that is).

i think you've got the right idea with respect to the chocolate/black patent ratio. black patent is pretty powerful stuff. if you increase it, you'll be closer to making a stout.

I just recently did a pumpkin porter but I took the easy route... opted to try my first BB recipe. Its not bad but im sure some fresh pumpkin would have really added some flavor to it. It ended up tasting like a normal porter with a hint of pumpkin and had a pumpkin pie aroma from the spice pack im sure.

Although it was good, I'm not sure BB kits are the way for me after using Defalcos for all my other brews.

while the recipe looks great, the question remains: what is elusive about this porter? perhaps we'll never know...

I was calling it "elusive" because after a week of searching for all the posts that I found mentioning pumpkin porters I had yet to find a recipe anywhere.

Now that it is well bottled carbonated I am pleased to say that it turned out well. I didn't rack a second time, and bottled too soon, and as a result have some pumpkin residue in the bottom of the bottles, but it doesn't seem to affect the flavor at all. Next time I might add a bit more spice mix as it is present, but more in the nose than the flavor. All in all a well balanced porter though, imho.