My Imperial Pumpkin Extract Recipe Help Pleeease!

[BierMarz]

Hey everyone, I'm attempting my first pumpkin spice ale. Im keeping the spices mild in the boil because im planning on doing a spice tea right before bottling...I'm also still considering adding a few cans of baked pumpkin to the boil. My main concern however is the brown sugar, I'm not sure i want to dry it out THAT much. What do you guys think?


6.6 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 53.7%
3 lb Dry Malt Extract - Amber 24.4%
1 lb Brown Sugar. 9.8%
1 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L. 8.1% 0.5 lb American - Carapils 4.1%
1 oz Mount Hood Pellet 4.8 Boil 60 min 12.76
1 oz Domestic Hallertau Pellet 3.9 Boil 30 min 8.77

1 warflocc tab Boil 15 min
0.5 tsp yeast nutrient Boil 10 min
1/4 tsp allspice Spice Boil 5 min
1/4 tsp cinnimon Spice Boil 5 min
1/4 tsp nutmeg Spice Boil 5 min
1/4 tsp pumkin pie spice Boil 5 min
1/4 tsp whole cloves Spice Boil 5 min
1 tahitian vanilla bean Secondary

Wyeast 1728 scottish ale yeast (2 liter starter)

 

[Colorowdy]

Looks good to me. You can always scale back the brown sugar.

 

[BierMarz]

Thanks Colorowdy, I've just started this batch I've decided I'm going to leave the light brown sugar in....what's the worst that can happen..haha.

 

[FireHawk]

Homemade pumpkin pie spice contains allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I would use caution adding more of those ingredients. I have a pumpkin pie brew in the fermenter now and added 3 big cans of pumpkin puree during the mash and a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice at the end of boil. It smelled and tasted great. The pumpkin was a nightmare trying to drain/rinse the grains.

 

[Colorowdy]

Did you use pumpkin.

 

[FireHawk]

I used canned pumpkin rather than a real pumpkin, 100% preservative free pumpkin. Three 29 oz cans for extra pumpkin flavor. Just dumped it in with 6 lbs of grains as recommended by the home brew shop owner, mashed for an hour. The pumpkin plugged up the strainer bag so I scrapped the sides of the bag with my spoon the help it drain.

 

[nman1965]

What if we added pumpkin purée to the secindary

 

[nman1965]

Secondary

 

[alex_wilkosz]

i did this two years ago, i used real pumpkin, cooked in oven, and then put in primary, removed during the secondary stage so as to let the beer clear up. it tasted great.

 

[BierMarz]

I ended up not adding any pumpkin to my Imperial "pumpkin" ale. It's churning away smelling fantastic. The cinnamon and allspice is pouring out of the blowoff tube and all I can think about is thanksgiving. Yet still I didn't use real pumpkin. That being said I'm headed to the LHBS tomorrow and making another beer, this time with 3 lbs of pumpkin.

Fall is only once a year right? Lol

 

[MrSpaz]

I'm going to brew a pumpkin spiced ale as well. I bought 3 lbs of 6-row that will go with actual pumpkin in the mash. This was what was suggested by Northern Brewer. But I was emailing with a local craft brewery in town, and they said to never put pumpkin in your beer, which I found very surprising considering I've seen so many do it and love it.

 

[FireHawk]

I also used 3 lbs of 2 row along with some Crystal and special b. Just racked to secondary and couldn't taste the pumpkin and spice like I did right after the boil. If/when I do another pumpkin batch, I am going to add them both in the secondary to try and keep more of the flavors.