Midwest Pumpkin Ale

Well as fall approaches I decided to give this kit a shot. I'm a sucker for reviews so I almost got lost in all of them, but took the valuable tips and moved along. I think when people see 'Pumpkin', they're actually thinking Pumpkin Pie.

A number of reviews talked about lack of Pumpkin Flavor, but Pumpkin itself doesn't have much flavor in my opinion. Its the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar that really gives you that great taste.

I brewed last night, took 45 oz of raw pumpkin, laid it on a sheet tray and sprinkled about 8 oz of the included 16 oz of brown sugar on top and threw it in the over @ 300 degrees for about 45 minutes to roast it a bit.

From there I followed the directions, and with about 5 mins left in the boil I dumped the baked pumpkin in. With 2 minutes left I tripled the pumpkin spice (3 tsp instead of 1 tsp that was included). My grocery store had Pumpkin Pie spice in the spice aisle so I used that. I also dumped the other 8 oz of brown suger, as well as 2 Tablespoons of vanilla extract. OG measured around 1.050. I had a taste of the wort from hydrometer tube, and it smelt and tasted amazing, hopefully it'll be great in a few weeks.

Since I'm in Texas I have a small chest freezer with programmable thermostat so I can ferment through the summer. I dropped the carboy in last night, woke up this morning..very little fermenting activity (used dry yeast that i rehydrated). Now 24 hours later things are rolling!

I'll send an update as things go on. I'm keeping an eye on if I need to move to a blow off hose as fermentation has really taken off. I'll keep ya'll posted.

I attached a pic of the wort, as well as what it looked like after 24 hours in the chamber.

I loath Pumpkin beers because of how fake they taste (artificial flavors). HOWEVER, roasting a real pumpkin for flavor leaves me inspired! I don't know if I could drink more than a few bottles unless it was amazing... I think I'll give it a try this year . Thank you for the share.

That's interesting @Cannman, I only looked at 2 or 3 recipes but didn't come across ones with artificial flavoring..that would turn me off as well.

The pumpkin pie spice I found at the grocery store was basically a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove I think.

I bought canned organic raw pumpkin. The recipe called for 30 oz, I upped it a little bit per some comments I read. We'll see how she turns out.

NarrowsBrewCo said:

That's interesting @Cannman, I only looked at 2 or 3 recipes but didn't come across ones with artificial flavoring..that would turn me off as well.

The pumpkin pie spice I found at the grocery store was basically a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove I think.

I bought canned organic raw pumpkin. The recipe called for 30 oz, I upped it a little bit per some comments I read. We'll see how she turns out.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking of the commercial varieties. That artificial sticks out like aspertane in Diet Coke to me.

But you're right, the RECIPES you'll find on here and other great beer sites are calling for REAL pumpkin, and this I am thankful for!

I did NB's Spiced Pumpkin ale extract kit last year and really enjoyed it. I did their suggested mini mash of adding some 6-row and canned pumpkin. Turned out to be one of the best beers I've ever done. Yours sounds great. I'm sure it'll be nice by the time mid-October swings around! I'm still looking for either NB or AIH to run a sale on their pumpkin ale.

So after about 10 days in the primary, (a bit longer than planned) I just moved things to the secondary. I was considering just keeping it in the primary as it had already been in there for 10 days, but there is just a lot gunk at the bottom due to all the pumpkin that was added along with everything else. By far my messiest cleanup, but I could get a faint smell of the spices as I moved it to the secondary. I'm going to let it sit there at least 4 more days and see where it's at. I'll post some pics of the mess soon once I get everything put away. For now though so far so good. I've got a gingerbread stout I'm going to brew this weekend as well so I had to free up the primary for that big guy.

Here's some pics from the primary ...not sure why they're being attached sideways but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

View attachment 1441214914001.jpg

View attachment 1441214932629.jpg

View attachment 1441214943826.jpg

eadavis80 said:

I did NB's Spiced Pumpkin ale extract kit last year and really enjoyed it. I did their suggested mini mash of adding some 6-row and canned pumpkin. Turned out to be one of the best beers I've ever done. Yours sounds great. I'm sure it'll be nice by the time mid-October swings around! I'm still looking for either NB or AIH to run a sale on their pumpkin ale.

Click to expand...

http://www.homebrewing.org/The-Grea...184417089&mc_cid=0fbad1a967&mc_eid=a1562cedde

It's coming tomorrow - will brew Friday

Sounds great @eadavis80 I'm brewing a Gingerbread Stout this weekend to complete my holiday brew set. Then I can get back to some more simple IPAs and Ales for daily drinking

Bottled this one last night...I'm curious to see how the flavor comes together. One thing I didn't do was top off water to make up for the pumpkin. I ended up with only 40 bottles worth. Oh well it looks good I'll post some pics when its carbed up. For now I'll attach some of the move to secondary pics

View attachment 1441934183955.jpg

View attachment 1441934198827.jpg

Going to a secondary was a good idea...really cleared things up from this

Sorry I meant to post but I finally cracked a bottle after 2 weeks in the bottle with a week after that in the fridge this beer turned out amazing!

Great color, light taste of pumpkin but a good aroma which I like better. I'd rather not drink Pumpkin Pie.

View attachment 1443579510309.jpg