Brewing pumpkin beer?

[Singleinfusion208]

Hello I have a question would adding a 1/2 Tablespoon of mcCormick’s pumpkin spice to a 5gal pumpkin ale recipe be too much spice?

 

[Chris Grubb]

When were you thinking of adding it?
I don’t think that would be too much at all.
When I brewed my pumpkin ale a month or so ago I added
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
Mixed it all together and heated it slightly on the stove and added with 5 minutes left in the boil.
Personally I think it is just about right. Good smell, especially in the head of the beer and a subtle but noticeable flavor on the front end.
As it ages, it is almost too faint, but all in all, I think it is about right, but it is all about personal preference

 

[BrewMan13]

I don't think so...I use 3 spices at half a tsp each, which is exactly 1/2 a tablespoon, and it's definitely on the subtler side as i didn't want to have a spice bomb. So no, not too much, just right actually.

 

[enkamania]

I do a tsp at flameout and add a tsp at kegging.

 

[BrewingAroundtheRrealm]

I did a pumpkin beer two weeks ago. Added the following:

5 TSP. Cinnamon.
1 TSP. Powered Ginger
.5 TSP. All Spice.
.5 TSP. Nutmeg.

Most of that will get blown out in fermentation.

At kegging this morning the sample only had low flavor profile of any of the spices.

I made a spice tea with 1 cup of boiling water and the following:

1.5 TSP. Cinnamon.
.25 TSP. Powered Ginger.
.25 TSP. All Spice.
.25 TSP. Nutmeg.

I put the beer in a bottling bucket and added the spice tea. Let that sit for about 15 minutes and made sure it was mixed in well before sampling. That brought the flavor up to where I wanted it.

So, no .5 tablespoons is not too much. You could probably put in 2 full tablespoons and still find that within acceptable limits.

 

[Leapsandbounds]

I added 1.5 tablespoons of McCormick’s pumpkin pie spice to the boil 5 minutes before flameout. I think the beer turned out great. That being said, I don’t think half a tablespoon would be too much.