First pumpkin all grain recipe

[zam216]

I plan on brewing my first all grain pumpkin batch this sunday. I just picked up my ingredients today.

8# pale malt
4# vienna malt
2# munch malt
1.2# 60L crystal
.8# caramunch
1# rice hulls
? Pumpkin meat

WLP013 london ale yeast
2oz of hallertauer but I plan on using less to keep the IBU low

I want to use nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and possibly cardamon


My question is how much pumpkin meat should I use and how much of the spices. I am shooting for a nice pumpkin flavor similar to imperial pumpkin ale from weyerbacher. I do want the spices to be evident in the taste so im assuming I should add them in at knockout.

 

[Bearclaw215]

Recipe looks good. Personally i wouldnt add pumpkin again and id do a spice tea from any pumpkin pie spice recipe from google and see how it tastes and go from there. Spices are easy to overdo but mellow in time and its easy to just add to taste with a tea one beer at a time instead of the whole batch at once.
I did pumpkin beer last year. It was a 5 gal batch. I used roasted libbys pumpkin pie in the mash, i wanna say 72oz and McCormick pumpkin pie spice in a spice tea to add to taste at serving, it wasn't bad but i felt it could be improved.
What i learned was that the pumpkin itself doesn't add really anything as far as taste goes, i suspect i'd have to use fresh pumpkin and add much much more to get a discernible pumpkin taste. Its really for going yes this beer really does has pumpkin in it.
What really made the difference was the spice tea, thats where all the pumpkin pie flavor in these beers comes from imo. I'll be making my own spice mix this year using the ceylon cinnamon to replace the cassia cinnamon in a regular pie spice recipe. Hopefully this will replace the spicy, sharp and cinnamon domination I didn't care for with a more sweet, delicate and complex flavors. Or possibly a third tea with the cassia in a lesser amount. But i plan to try a side by side over a few weeks to see if that idea holds up.

Sorry for being to long winded and hope this helps!

 

[zam216]

Recipe looks good. Personally i wouldnt add pumpkin again and id do a spice tea from any pumpkin pie spice recipe from google and see how it tastes and go from there. Spices are easy to overdo but mellow in time and its easy to just add to taste with a tea one beer at a time instead of the whole batch at once.
I did pumpkin beer last year. It was a 5 gal batch. I used roasted libbys pumpkin pie in the mash, i wanna say 72oz and McCormick pumpkin pie spice in a spice tea to add to taste at serving, it wasn't bad but i felt it could be improved.
What i learned was that the pumpkin itself doesn't add really anything as far as taste goes, i suspect i'd have to use fresh pumpkin and add much much more to get a discernible pumpkin taste. Its really for going yes this beer really does has pumpkin in it.
What really made the difference was the spice tea, thats where all the pumpkin pie flavor in these beers comes from imo. I'll be making my own spice mix this year using the ceylon cinnamon to replace the cassia cinnamon in a regular pie spice recipe. Hopefully this will replace the spicy, sharp and cinnamon domination I didn't care for with a more sweet, delicate and complex flavors. Or possibly a third tea with the cassia in a lesser amount. But i plan to try a side by side over a few weeks to see if that idea holds up.

Sorry for being to long winded and hope this helps!

Do you think the lack of pumpkin flavor from the pumpkin was from not baking it to release the sugars assuming you didn't do that? Or do you think it was because you didn't use fresh pumpkin because I read fresh pumpkin is harder to get the sugars and taste to release. Also what did you mean by the spice tea? Like a hot water and the spices tea to taste how they will come out in the beer or a tea of spices to actually add to the beer? In any case when should I add the spices at 10 minutes before knockout, at knockout, in the fermentor or in the bottles?

 

[Bearclaw215]

I baked my libbys. I don't think pumpkin tastes like much of anything so id imagine you'd need quite a bit to make it a real flavor. I've yet to use fresh pumpkin so if that'd true libbys was prolly the better choice then. A spice tea is some liquor, like a cheap vodka, with some spices to soak in. The liquor will draw off the flavors and the tea can be added at any point. I keg so I just pour a beer add a few drops and see where my flavors at. And if I want to bottle I'll just add my drops to the bottle. Just remember that the fresher the addition to the beer the more prominent it will be.

 

[Piratwolf]

I've seen a lot of brewers say that butternut squash is a better choice to get "pumpkin flavor" (whatever that may be) than pumpkin itself.


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[zam216]

What's a good amount for the spices a tbsp? And what spices are more dominant that I should put less of to not over power

 

[Bearclaw215]

I used a small McCormick container of the pie spice in something like 2 cups of vodka in a tea bag made from a coffee filter to keep it clean.
i googled and stole this from betty crocker so it should be pretty good
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice
1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves

I'll be using something close to this but ill use the ceylon cinnamon this time in a tea. If you're pretty set on throwing them in the boil i'd do it in the last few minutes and not more than 1oz of the mix. Id try to keep it out of the primary it might get heavy on the spices if a bunch gets in there, but if a little gets in its not really a big deal.

 

[Poobah58]

This will give you an idea on the pumpkin and spices.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/mead-lane-pumpkin-ale-204012/

 

[seckert]

The flavor in a Pumpkin ale comes more from spices than the actual pumpkin, however i find that if you dont use the right amount of pumpkin then your beer doesn have the right mouthfeel to it, just something is off. this is what i do with mine.

Bake Pumpkin in a shallow baking sheet on 350* for 30-45 minutes or until slightly brown on the top.
Stir 40 oz baked pumpkin into into mash and 20 oz into the boil at 10 minutes ( the 20 oz pumpkin is baked with 8oz of brown sugar covering the top of it so it all carmelizes together)
Use at least 1/4 lbs Rice hulls if not 1/2 lbs to help prevent stuck sparge.