Brewing Pumpkin Ale RIGHT NOW. Have a question

[Vismich]

Two questions actually...

1. I am baking the pumpkin, which I'm about to take out of the oven. I put a lot of Brown sugar on it, which made a pool of syrup (a lot) in the middle in the pumkin. Should I dump this in the wort? It will sweeten the beer and increase alcohol I assume?

2. I'm using whole nutmeg. Do I crack it open?

 

[unionrdr]

I'd just grate the nutmeg myself. You should at least give it a good crush. And you could add the syrup with the pumpkin,if you were going to add the brown sugar as part of the recipe.

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

Adding the syrup would be a personal preference, as it would just boost the abv.

I would get a grater and grate the nutmeg rather than just cracking it and adding it whole.

 

[Diaperload]

When I did my pumpkin ale I just used water. After it was done baking I used what little water the pumpkin didn't absorb and added it to my pot.

Take my actions with a grain of salt though. I'm new to brewing and it is the first time I've attempted a pumpkin ale.

 

[airving]

I wouldn't anticipate that brown sugar would add much sweetness. It should ferment pretty completely, and it will impart some flavor from the molasses (the brown part of brown sugar). Personally, I'd dump it in.

Regarding the nutmeg, I can't imagine that whole nutmeg would do much but searches do show folks using it that way. Flavor extraction will be significantly different between whole, cracked, and grated / ground. I think you'd get more repeatability from using a measured amount of ground nutmeg.

 

[JebCkr]

As people have said, it won't hurt to add the syrup. If it is dark brown sugar as opposed to light, you'll get more of a molasses taste than with the light brown sugar. When you say "a lot" how much are we talking? I'm envisioning like half a pound or something, which won't affect anything in a huge way. But yea, personal preference...no harm either way.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,I thought since the brown sugar melted & cooked with the pumpkin,it'd take on some of the pumpkins flavors/sweetness. I say dump it in. Being caramelized as well,that should give a little more flavor & color to boot.

 

[Vismich]

Thanks all. I dumped it in. Finished cooking the Wort, and now I wait.....

 

[jonmohno]

The idea is to try to carmalize the pumpkin with the brown sugar to impart some character that you wont get much of otherwise.Be carefull how much carmalization you get in the future though, because i scraped all of mine and over carmalized( a little longer than i should have) and got some harsh tastes that were gone after about 2 months in the bottle.
You wont get sweetness from the sugar just maybe a little carmel depth, i think your better off priming with it but i added it to my first and turned out good--after about 6 months.