Pumpkin Numbers?

I was getting ready to brew my first pumpkin ale. I searched for an established recipe but that seemed a lot like looking for a piece of hay in a haystack. Basically take any of the billions of beer recipes out there . . . and add pumpkin... somewhere... cooked, baked, canned, fried, boiled... add it to the mash, or boil, or primary, or secondary, or in the bottle... or just fill a pumpkin with beer, stick a straw in it and suck.

In my research I read where some "pumpkin" beers don't actually have any "pumpkin" in them. Surfing around further I ran across this article which I found interesting.

I originally started this post because I was trying to put a recipe together in BeerSmith II and couldn't find a decent "pumpkin" addition for the ingredients that actually had any numbers to show how it might affect the beer. The pumpkin recipes I found that actually listed pumpkin in the ingredients usually had it listed under Misc as a flavor, so it had no affect whatsoever on any other aspect of the beer, (i.e. bitterness, color, OG, FG, abv, body, ...)

As it turns out, "pumpkin" is not even the "flavor" one is shooting for when brewing a "pumpkin" beer anyway. The objective is the pumpkin pie spice flavor.

So now that I've researched it, (to the extent that I have), I guess it really doesn't matter how much "pumpkin" one adds, or when they add it, or how they add it... As long as there's the right amount of allspice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, how much pumpkin, (or squash) you throw in is seemingly insignificant . . . at least where flavor is concerned.

I always had a mental block about pumpkin beer so I never even considered brewing one. I guess the idea of beer that tastes like pumpkin pie just sounded gross to me. This year I decided to put aside my unsubstantiated speculations and give it a try. And after doing a minimal amount of research to see what the best course of action should be . . . I believe my next beer will be a stout or a pale ale - something that doesn't taste like pumpkin pie. If I really get desperate and decide I just have to have the flavor of pumpkin pie . . . I'll eat a piece of pumpkin pie.

Cheers

 

Yeah I really don't think the pumpkin does much. I roasted two pie pumpkins and ate a little when making my pumpkin ale and it tasted like nothing at all. It might be better to throw in some sweeter squash if one really wanted but the spice is all you need.

 

Sweet potatoes also yield a nice pumpkin flavor

 

Agree, it would be far better to omit the pumpkin and just go with pumpkin pie spice.

 

I won't be a non-pumpkin pumpkin beer hater but I have found that using pumpkin in the mash adds to mouthfeel, color, and a little gravity (very little). Here is a link to my recipe from an article I wrote for Zymurgy a few years ago: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/saison-dpotiron-pocahontas-pumpkin-ale/

It also has a link to the article but you need to be a member to access it.

 

I agree. Pumpkin adds no flavor. If I ever brew one again, I’ll do a pumpkin spiced chocolate porter, or maybe something Belgian

 

For my pumpkin ale, I caramelized 2 cans of pumpkin puree for a 5 gallon batch. I used half in the mash the other half at the end of boil in a steep bag. The flavors and aroma were present, so I can safely say this method worked for me.

 

I wonder if vodka would help extract any pumpkin flavor

 

I did an oktoberfest which was spiced with pumpkin spices. Turned out really good. Probably went a little strong on the cinnamon sticks, but otherwise the beer had a good dark golden brown color and a good mixture of flavor.

I wasn't that sold on "pumpkin" beer but it actually turned out nicely drinkable.

10 gallon brew.

13 lbs Vienna
13 lbs Munich
1.25lb special B
.75 lb 60L
90 min mash

60 min boil

2 oz tettananger 60 min
2 oz hersbrucker 30 min

OG -1.082
FG - 1.021
ABV - 8.7ish

Lagered at 44 degrees for about 6 weeks.

I forget the lager yeast but it was designed for this style. It was a slap bag and I couldn't get the little pouch to bust by slapping the bag. Lol. It was my first experience with the Wyeast liquid yeast. Ended up just pitching the yeast into the beer without the starter packet then learned that there's nothing accomplished by slapping the bag.

Vodka tincture was 1 cup of vodka, 2tbsp nutmeg, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1 vanilla bean (whole), sat for 3 weeks. Going back, I would have only done one cinnamon stick. Less is more there. But it's aging nicely.

 

I used vodka twice to make coffee tinctures. The second time was just to make sure I didn't do something wrong the first time. In both cases it produced a faint medicinal astringent off flavor. It wasn't an in-your-face flavor, except that once you detected it it was impossible to ignore it. It seemed like the harder I tried to ignore it, the more prevalent it became. They seemed like they could have been decent stouts, but by the time I got to the last few bottles it was like drinking pure coffee extract. And it's not because that flavor was that forward - I just got to the point where my pallet went straight to that and I couldn't taste anything else.

Every time I'm tempted to use vodka for anything in a beer my brain immediately goes there.

 

I did my first pumpkin this year, added two cans of pumpkin to the mash, just so I can say it's truly a pumpkin beer. As for flavor the spices come through, but the pumpkin doesn't really add any flavor

If you add enough you'll get thicker consistency?

Next year I'll call it my spiced amber ale, omit pumpkin