smoked pumpkin ale

[Bearclaw215]

So im thinking about making a smoked pumpkin ale. Gonna try for a light smoke, just enough to remind you of a wood fire in the fall.

- 7.5 lbs. Rahr 2-row pale
- 2.5 lbs. German Munich Malt
- .5 lbs. Briess Caramel 80
- .25 lbs. Briess Caramel 60
~ 8 lbs roasted pumpkin
mash @153 for 1 hour

1 oz cluster @60 min
1 tsp pie spices @ flame out

wyeast 1056, 2-3 weeks primary, 2-3 weeks secondary, then keg

now im pretty confident on the beer, not how the smoke flavor will meld with pumpkin pie flavor as this will be my first smoked beer. So anyone who has experience or ideas on how it might go id like appreciate any advice. if anyone has done this and it turned out this is a horrible combo id def like to know!
Thanks!

 

[bethebrew]

Here's what you do instead. Take 1 lb. of quaker oats, and toast them along with your pumpkin at 350 for an hour. Spread the oats on a cookie sheet, preheat your oven. Turn once at 30 mins.

I think you want a toasted type flavor, not smoky. And oats add that, and would compliment the caramel, give you better head retention and body.

Cheers.

If you really want the smoke, maybe get cherry chips and smoke a couple pounds of pale in your weber. Get a little fire going, put wet chips on top.

 

[Bearclaw215]

Id had just thought of trying smoke on a whim, somthing different from all the pumpkin ales of the season. I just couldn't think of how it'd taste. It sounds like fun in my head, but I'm just hesitant since making burnt pumpkin pie doesn't sound too great. Just on the fence for the new brew.
Thanks for the advice! I have a smoker I've been meaning to try with grains for some time now just never seem to get around to it

 

[greyghost]

I have made a couple batches of smoked pumpkin. 1 cooking the pumpkin in the smoker and 1 smoking 2# of base malt both very good. I think smoking the grain and cooking the pumpkin in the oven was a little easier.

 

[dpittard]

Learn from my mistakes, go VERY light on the smoke. I'm an avid BBQ'er and can turn out some delicious pulled pork, so I've got the proper equipment to smoke things. I attempted to smoke some grains on a beer about 2 years ago and went way to far with it. The problem is, you can't really taste the smoke on the grains until you mash them. So I would smoke the grains for just a bit, then taste them, not taste any smoke, and then smoke longer. Bad idea.

I encourage you to smoke your grains or pumpkin. Funny thing is, I thought about actually smoking a pumpkin for a beer on Saturday. I'd recommend absolutely no more than about 20 minutes of smoke, and make sure you're using the thinnest, blue smoke you can get out of your smoker. If you see heavy white smoke, you're going to produce a very acrid, sickening flavor.

 

[Bearclaw215]

Grey- which batch did you ended up preferring? i had considered smoking the pumpkin but didn't know how to approach it with how long it would take to get some smoke in.

dpittard- good call on the smoke quality. i hadnt considered thick vs thin smoke.

any tips on time/temp/wood to smoke at to get a nice mild flavor?

Thanks for the advice guys! I'm feeling less apprehensive about my burnt pumpkin

 

[dpittard]

dpittard- good call on the smoke quality. i hadnt considered thick vs thin smoke.

any tips on time/temp/wood to smoke at to get a nice mild flavor?

I'd use something that gives off a light smoke flavor like cherry wood or other fruit woods (don't worry, you won't get cherry flavor from cherry wood). Heavier woods like oak, mesquite, or hickory produce a stronger smoke flavor, which, IMO, would be too strong for a beer.

As far as smoking temps go, I'd probably smoke around 300° to 325°. This will give your pumpkin a slight roasted flavor too. Or, I would maybe bake the pumpkin at 375° in the oven first, and then smoke it. This would probably give you better results as you want to be really careful with the smoke flavor. And I wouldn't smoke the pumpkin for long at all. Probably 10 or 20 minutes MAX. Err on the side of caution this batch and go light on the smoke. This way, if you end up with not enough smoke, you still have good beer and you know what to change for the next batch. If you smoke too much, you'll end up with undrinkable beer, like I did. Seriously, there was so much smoke that I couldn't even stand to drink it. Don't do this!

 

[greyghost]

Both batches were good prefer the smoked grain because it was easier to do. I smoke 2# of base malt For a 5 gal. batch about 4 hours with apple or cherry. I use a very cold smoke. Wet the grain with bottled or distilled water. Never tap water. Drain off any excess water. If you are not going to to use it right away then put the smoked grain in the oven @ 200 for 1 to 2 hours this will dry it out so it won't mildew.

 

[Bearclaw215]

not sure which route im gonna go yet, but i got enough to get a much better plan than i had. Maybe i can get to it next weekend and try both. hmm 10 gal of pumpkin beer sound pretty good to me!

thanks a lot for the info guys! you're awesome!

 

[Bearclaw215]

Just racked to secondary today and the brew is mighty tasty. Thanks again for the advice on the smoke. Great stuff guys!