Logic behind mashing, boiling or racking onto pumpkin.

[Hovercar]

I have been reading up on pumpkin ales and there seems to be a divide between people who feel that the fruit should go in the mash, those who think it should go in boil, and those that feel it should go in the secondary. From what I have read, there seem to be different reasons for or against each method. In each case I'm referring to pumpkin either from a can or chunks of fresh pumpkin, roasted in an oven.

For mashing the pumpkin:
-eliminates the occurance of massive amounts of trub in the primary/secondary

For boiling the pumpkin:
-There are few starches in the pumpkin, so there is no need to mash it
-The sparge is prone to getting stuck/often takes a LONG time

For adding it to the secondary:
-No dealing with stuck/lengthy sparges
-Not really sure, maybe because there's no fermentation, so it's entirely a flavour infusion?

I can understand some of these differences and it seems to be a matter of preference on which method to use. However, I'm curious as to how the flavour profile of the pumpkin is affected in each case. Does boiling the fruit extract more flavour than mashing does? Or rather, does the boil cook off a significant portion of the flavour thus necessitating the addition of fruit to a secondary? I'm still rather in the dark concerning fruit beers.

Just curious about what everyone thinks; I understand that each technique has its merits, but I'd like to get a litte more input before I get elbows-deep in orange slop

 

[Oldsock]

If you like the flavor of a fruit raw, adding it to the secondary that way is a good idea (my usual strategy for the "classic" fruits, cherry, raspberry etc...).

For pumpkin I like to roast it first (I don't want my beer to smell like the inside of a jack-o-lantern) and then add it to the boil (since it is already cooked) to extract those flavors as quickly as possible and keep the gunk out of the fermenter. You could certainly add more pumpkin to the beer post-boil if you wanted a boost (but honestly I think most people don't want too much squash flavor in their beer).

Good luck.

 

[Hovercar]

In the case of racking onto pumpkin, I was referring to roasted pumpkin, as with the other options. I'll adjust the OP to reflect that!

But I hear what you're saying - it makes sense that the best flavour extraction would come from boiling - but then does fermentation not eliminate some of that?

 

[Oldsock]

In the case of racking onto pumpkin, I was referring to roasted pumpkin, as with the other options. I'll adjust the OP to reflect that!

But I hear what you're saying - it makes sense that the best flavour extraction would come from boiling - but then does fermentation not eliminate some of that?

The CO2 produced during fermentation will scrub out some of the aromatics, but you still get malt/hop/spice aromatics from mash/boil additions.

 

[rycov]

i boiled mine last year and still got plenty of pumpkin flavor.