Scottish Pumpkin Ale Recipe Help

Here is what I'm thinking for a Scottish Pumpkin Ale I plan on brewing this weekend. The base beer is a 60 -/ Scottish ale. This is partial mash.

Grain bill:
3 lbs 6-Row Malt
1/2 lbs Crystal 120L
1/2 lbs Crystal 40L
1/4 lbs Chocolate malt
4 oz flaked wheat
2.75 lbs extra light DME

1.5 oz Fuggle hops at 60 mins

3 15 oz cans pumpkin
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 vanilla bean

Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast


I'm shooting for an original gravity of 1.035, and a FG of 1.011

The plan:
Bake the canned pumpkin at 350* for 45 minutes to caramelize it.
Put 2/3 of the pumpkin in the mash with my grains; mash at 155* for an hour
After mashing and sparging, bring wort to boil, add DME and hops, boil for 1 hour
Add final 1/3 pumpkin and ground spices at 5 minutes left in boil

Ferment in primary for 1 week, transfer to secondary on top of vanilla bean

Secondary for 2 weeks, then bottle with 5 oz corn sugar

Let age until Halloween weekend


Alright, that's the plan. Let the suggestions/critiques begin!

I think that seems pretty tasty! What does flaked wheat do, extra body/head formation?

I'm struggling between going for a 70/- very similar to your recipe or going balls-out for a Wee Heavy and including maple syrup, canned sweet potato, and a tiny bit of smoked malt. Might be a coin flip.

The flaked wheat is supposed to provide a nice creamy head. I just used it for the first time in a pecan brown ale, which I will bottle this weekend and won't get to taste until Thanksgiving, so I'm going on faith with the flaked wheat.

SWMBO thinks this needs more spices. Need to do more research.

Why are you using the 6 row, if you don't mind me asking? I've only ever used it when I had an extremely high percentage of undermodified malts that wouldn't convert themselves. For this recipe, I think subbing the 6 row for 2 row or better still some Maris Otter or Golden Promise would be the way to go. I think there may be too much hops in there as well. I'm thinking about using my Wee Heavy recipe as a base for a pumpkin beer this year. The current batch is malty and rich without being cloying, and has a real depth of flavor for such a simple grain bill. I'm planning to add a few lbs of roasted pumpkin to the mash, and make a liquor with pumpkin pie spices and vodka or aquavit. For reference:
OG 1.070
FG 1.010
IBU: 35

12# Golden Promise
.5# C80
6oz Victory
2oz Roasted Barley
1 oz Galena@ 60
Wyeast 1728

I was planning on using the 6 Row instead of 2 Row because I read somewhere that Scottish ales should have some 6 Row in them. But of course now I don't remember where I read this. I've never used 6 Row before, but I understand it can can beer a rougher taste. I was hoping that using the extra light DME would help to offset this.

I would go for this,let us know how it turns out,sounds great.

If anyone is interested, here's my final recipe that I went with:

1 lb 6 Row
2 lb Golden Promise
1 lb Crystal 40L
4 oz Chocolate malt
3 oz flaked wheat
2.75 lbs extra light DME

3 15 oz cans organic pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg
1 vanilla bean

1 oz fuggle hop pellets

Wyeast 1278 Scottish Ale yeast

Roasted the pumpkin at 350* for half an hour, mashed all of it with my grains at ~160*.

It will be in primary for 7 days, then I'll rack into secondary on top of a split vanilla bean for 14 days. I'll let it bottle condition for 4-5 weeks.

My OG ended up being 1.043 (forgot about the pumpkin when I calculated my recipe, but I'm okay with a stronger beer). Target FG is 1.01, for an ABV of about 4.5%

Just opened a bottle of this this past Friday. Next time, I would increase my grain bill a little to make it more malty and cut down the cinnamon to either 1/2 or 3/4 tsp. But it was still pretty tasty.