Brewed pumpkin ale extract kit from midwest supplies. Now i read the reviews and if following the directions, beer has water downed taste and no pumpkin or spice flavor. I tasting the hydrometer sample from the secondary. Idea is to get more canned pumpkin, add a little water and boil to sanitize. Add to secondary for a week or so. Good plan? Or any better ideas?
Pumpkin Ale
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bobeer
Fermentation Specalist
I just brewed a pumpkin porter last weekend. I read that a lot of folks don't even really use pumpkin. They just use the pumpkin spices or simply the pumpkin pie spice you can buy. There was some talk about when to add the spice and it turns out brewers add it during the boil, or make a tea with the spices and add it to a secondary, or even in the bottling bucket. It's really up to you and what you think tastes best.
If mine comes out with less pumpkin flavor than I wanted I'm just going to add some the tea spice when I bottle it since I don't really secondary.
If mine comes out with less pumpkin flavor than I wanted I'm just going to add some the tea spice when I bottle it since I don't really secondary.
mcwilcr
Well-Known Member
The pumplin itself mostly contributes to texture and the spices to taste. You could boil the pumpkin puree as you said but if it were me I would bake it in the oven in a thin layer on a cookie sheet. That is what I do. If all you are worried about is sanitation you could just dump it in your fermenter straight from the can since the puree is sanitized during the canning process. As for spices, use the recipe on the libbies pumpkin can and use fresh ingredients if possible.
TopherM
Well-Known Member
I have brewed this same recipe in the past, and it is a good beer if done correctly. The review that stated their beer was watered down with no pumpkin or spice flavor likely brewed it incorrectly. They likely added too much top-off water following cool down, a common newbie error.
There is not a SINGLE Midwest Supplies brew kit recipe that isn't well balanced, well calculated, and proven. Any problems with any of their kits is going to be brewer error 99% of the time.
There's no reason to add extra pumpkin to the brew. The pumpkin doesn't contribute much of the pumpkin taste, it's mostly the spices.
I'd leave the beer alone if I were you, but if you must, boil 1 tbs of pumkin pie spice in about a cup of water and GENTLY swirl that into the beer.
There is not a SINGLE Midwest Supplies brew kit recipe that isn't well balanced, well calculated, and proven. Any problems with any of their kits is going to be brewer error 99% of the time.
There's no reason to add extra pumpkin to the brew. The pumpkin doesn't contribute much of the pumpkin taste, it's mostly the spices.
I'd leave the beer alone if I were you, but if you must, boil 1 tbs of pumkin pie spice in about a cup of water and GENTLY swirl that into the beer.
