Pumpkin Pie Spice

[jonathanchapman1]

Hello! I have recently kegged my pumpkin beer. I spiced in the keg with a cinnamon plus (which has cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) and vanilla beans tincture. Tastes really good, not overspiced thank goodness. The issue is that I would say the flavor is more apple pie than pumpkin pie. Now, I am a TERRIBLE chef and really don't know what different flavors/spices taste like, so I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction as to what spice I should add to tip the balance back towards pumpkin pie rather than apple pie. Just to clarify, I don't taste actual apples/acetaldehyde. It is just that the spice blend is too strong on the cinnamon maybe? If anyone knows what a "typical apple pie spice" vs a "typical pumpkin pie spice" difference would be, maybe I can balance it out. More nutmeg? Ginger? Allspice? Ghost peppers haha? Thanks in advance!

 

[dobes]

The pumpkin pie spice I use contains cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, mace and cloves. If I were you I would make a couple of tinctures of each and experiment with a couple of small glasses of your beer to see what flavor/aroma you are looking for.
If you find what you are looking for I would either figure out how much to add to a pint and scale it up, or add in small graduations to your keg til its to your liking.
One tip I would give is to make sure you use a quality spice. Not saying you didn't but just that it makes a big difference. A lot of the spices sold in grocery stores have fillers in them, some even use wood for fillers.

 

[jonathanchapman1]

I tried putting a dash of cloves into a glass. Don't put a dash of cloves into a glass of beer. Yuck! But it actually had something there, maybe do a lot less than a dash. I will try the tincture route, thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Mad4sax]

My Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix:

2 tbsp Saigon Cinnamon
1 tbsp Mexican Cinnamon
3 pods Cardamon
Large pinch of Mace
1 tsp fresh ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Whole Clove
1 tsp Cassia Buds
1/2 tsp Ginger

My Apple Pie Spice Mix:

4 tbsp Cassia Cinnamon
1 tbsp Allspice
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ginger

So my Pumpkin has more types of spices for a more complex flavor. I feel pumpkin has less flavor than apples do.

My Chia tea spice mix is very similar to the pumpkin pie mix only it has more cardamom and some black pepper.

 

[Roadie]

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. I added a tsp of the Cinnamon Plus clone recipe to a french press added a cup of hot water and let it steep until cool. When I smell it I think Apple Pie not Pumpkin Pie. Regardless I pressed the spices out and added the tea to my keg of pumpkin beer with 1 oz. of vanilla and I got very little flavoring. I just added a second cup of tea but no vanilla to see if the spice comes through more. Maybe the weakness is a blessing in disguise. Thinking of adding in a little more nutmeg and not pressing the spice out next time, just dumping it into the keg with the cooled water to try and turn up the spice a little and move it more toward pumpkin.

 

[jonathanchapman1]

I ended up using some trader joes pumpkin pie spice - it contained cloves ginger and lemon peel on top of the normal cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. Due to the silly mistake of using London Dry rather than ESB yeast, I also needed to bump up the sweetness so I added a cup of brown sugar. Fingers crossed since it is cold and kegged it won't actually ferment the sugar! I have pulled off any residual yeast cake so there shouldn't be too many active yeasties... Will give it a few days to meld and give it a taste.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[CharlieM]

Mad4sax - your Pumpkin Pie mix. Is that in a all grain recipe of your own? I have a kit from Austin Homebrew I'm fixing to do. Made it last year and was good but could have used a little extra spices. Planning on upping my pumpkin by 25% but not sure on how much spices to add. Maybe your recipe for 5 gal? When did you add, during boil, ferment or bottling / kegging?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[jonathanchapman1]

In case anyone ever finds this thread - adding the brown sugar in the keg turned out great. Since it was cold it never fermented so it added the needed body and sweetness taste was amazing! One of my best pumpkin beers.

 

[ftlstrings]

In case anyone ever finds this thread - adding the brown sugar in the keg turned out great. Since it was cold it never fermented so it added the needed body and sweetness taste was amazing! One of my best pumpkin beers.

How much spice did you add (to how much beer?)