First 5 gallon batch and question on adding pumpkin to extract recipe

[rjolin01]

My birthday is tomorrow, September 1st and I plan on buying a 5gal pumpkin extract kit with some my birthday money. Up until now I have only done one gallon kits and have only one gallon fermentor. I am in no way setup to do all-grain. What I am planning on doing is using the 5gallon water jug the water comes in as fermentor. Will only need to get a bung. Main thin I am afraid of is the blow off I read most ppl having. I know not ideal but with a new baby on the way in December SWMBO has tightened the wallet on me.

My question is that I see a lot ppl adding pie pumpkins or canned pumpkins to their recipe to make it better. I am wondering since I am doing an extract with specialty grains, how do I go about adding the pumpkin. Most the reviews are all-grains and they add during the mash but doing an extract there is obviously no mashing. Should I also still add the same amount of pumpkin as the all grain?

 

[ColoHox]

You can add the same amount of pumpkin. My recommendation would be to add it to the fermenter. You will have to account for the displacement of all that puree, but it is a good way to add the pumpkin flavor without mashing it.

 

[eadavis80]

If you go to Northernbrewer.com and click on their Smashing Pumpkin extract kit, they have a 5-minute video which will walk you through the process. The vast majority of the pumpkin flavor comes from the spices, not the pumpkin.

 

[Brian77095]

Happy Birthday!

Part of the fun of brewing is figuring out stuff like this. You can add it to just about any part of your brew process. You could try one way this time or try them all. Here is what I did to a brew I have in the fermenter right now.

I added 1lb to the boil. You can cook/bake the pumpkin or go from can to boil pot.

On Brew day take another 1lb and place it in a jar or food safe container with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rum. Place in the fridge and stir this mixture everyday for two weeks while your wort is fermenting away in the primary. After two weeks rack to secondary and add the pumpkin in. Here some people take a hop bag or something and strain the juice out and only put the juice in. I just put it all in. At this time start tasting it and add spice as needed. You can always add more but you can not take any way so be careful to not over due it. I over did it my first time and put way to much....

Hope that helps!

 

[NarrowsBrewCo]

Hey congrats on moving up to 5 Gallons! I actually just brewed up a pumpkin ale and have a post in this section of the forum for the Midwest Supplies pumpkin ale. It is a learning experience for me as well, I took the advice of a number of reviews and just kinda ran with it!

For my batch I took organic canned pumpkin puree and laid it on a sheet tray, heated the oven up to 300, sprinkled about 8 oz of brown sugar all over it and cooked it off to give a roasted flavor and to let that brown sugar set in.

The instructions say to drop the pumpkin into the boil, I did with about 5 or 8 minutes remaining of the boil. I just transferred to the secondary, beer smells awesome but like others have said you may get a lot of extra at the bottom of the carboy due to all the pumpkin. Good luck! And read my thread in here if you're looking for more details! The best part of homebrew is to just try things out and see what happens!

 

[ibanezgfx]

Happy Birthday!

Part of the fun of brewing is figuring out stuff like this. You can add it to just about any part of your brew process. You could try one way this time or try them all. Here is what I did to a brew I have in the fermenter right now.

I added 1lb to the boil. You can cook/bake the pumpkin or go from can to boil pot.

On Brew day take another 1lb and place it in a jar or food safe container with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rum. Place in the fridge and stir this mixture everyday for two weeks while your wort is fermenting away in the primary. After two weeks rack to secondary and add the pumpkin in. Here some people take a hop bag or something and strain the juice out and only put the juice in. I just put it all in. At this time start tasting it and add spice as needed. You can always add more but you can not take any way so be careful to not over due it. I over did it my first time and put way to much....

Hope that helps!

This is a good idea, does the rum add a rummy flavor or do anything specific to the pumpkin? I'm about to brew an AHS Partial Mash with some added pumpkin and was thinking of adding a vanilla bean or 2 (soaked in vodka) but am now intrigued by soaking pumpkin in rum.

 

[wysiwyg]

Happy Birthday!
KISS. Not to blow you a birthday kiss, but to say keep it simple. I've made pumpkin ale several times, and have just added a 30oz can of pumpkin with 10 minutes left to the boil. Spices (usually come with the kit) come at the end too. I dislike many of the commercial pumpkin ales because they tend to be spice bombs, and mine ends up mildly spicy with a hint of actual pumpkin flavor. I wouldn't over-complicate your first big batch with extra flavors - just pumpkin and spice.
Make sure you get a blow off hose along with that bung and stick the other hose end into a 1 gallon bucket of starsan. Fermenting 5 gallons in a 5 gallon jug is asking for overflow, and I'd recommend getting a 6.5 plastic big mount bubbler for your primary. I understand the money issue, but I also want to see you happy with your birthday beer.
Good luck!

 

[Brian77095]

This is a good idea, does the rum add a rummy flavor or do anything specific to the pumpkin? I'm about to brew an AHS Partial Mash with some added pumpkin and was thinking of adding a vanilla bean or 2 (soaked in vodka) but am now intrigued by soaking pumpkin in rum.

Heh I'll let you know...my first attempt is in primary right now.

I think the main reason for mixing in the alcohol to the pumpkin is to extract pumpkin flavor just like you are thinking of doing with the vanilla bean. I think both are good idea's for sure!

I think if you add a lot it could certainly influence the flavor but I have not finished it yet.