Pumpkin Ale Additions

[SyrettHomebrew]

I'm a fairly new home brewer with 5 extract kits under my belt. I'm looking to start tweaking the kit recipes before moving away from kits. Several of my friends have also recently gotten into home brewing and we are going to all brew up some pumpkin beers and have a taste test.

I bought this kit http://www.midwestsupplies.com/pumpkin-ale.html. I am planning on roasting and doubling the amount of pumpkin and spices as people called for in the comments on the product page. I was also thinking of adding vanilla during primary/secondary fermentation. I also was thinking of adding wood soaked in rum to mimic barrel aging. Would this product be good to use? http://www.midwestsupplies.com/american-oak-infusion-spirals-medium-toast.html

I would love any feedback on my ideas on what to add to the beer to make it my own, or any additional advice you have. Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Ruckusz28]

Id just say careful with the spices. A little goes a long way. You can always add more later, but you cant take them out! I've had good results with adding pumpkin to the secondary.

 

[rwinzing]

Just an FYI Pumpkin doesn't add any real flavor. So doubling the actual pumpkin may not be needed.

 

[jlvgolf]

Id just say careful with the spices. A little goes a long way. You can always add more later, but you cant take them out...

Totally agreed here. I brew a pumpkin beer every year and don't use more than 1 tsp of pumpkin spice (1/2 cinnamon, 1/4 ginger, 1/8 allspice, 1/8 nutmeg). I wouldn't double what's in that recipe or else it will be very strong. And as for pumpkin additions, it doesn't matter, you can't really taste it in my opinion. Maybe adds a bit more orange color but it's very slight.

 

[Roadie]

For the spices I have had good luck with putting them into a french press in a cup or so of hot water, let it soak for a while, then pressing out the spices and adding the cooled "tea" to the keg or bottling bucket. It can also take a while for the spices to blend well and personally if I wanted a pumpkin beer with spices for Halloween/Thanksgiving I'd brew it 4 - 6 months ahead of time for everything to meld. Go easy on the vanilla if you decide to use it.

 

[SyrettHomebrew]

Thanks for the advice, any thoughts on using the oak spirals?

 

[Venari]

Let me tell you now, that after 11 months, I can't taste pumpkin at all in the Pumpkin Spice IPA I had made.

 

[brewpool]

I also would recommend no more than 1 tsp total spice to start. Taste it before bottling and if you need to add more you could always boil a small amount of water, kill the flame, add additional spice, cool, then add to your fermenter or bottling bucket.

 

[Roadie]

Thanks for the advice, any thoughts on using the oak spirals?

I've only oaked one beer and that was an RIS (Kate the Great from this site) so I don't have experience with it. I used Hungarian Oak - Medium Toast cubes in my RIS. It started at 1.101 so a big beer. I aged it at 55 for 4 months then added 2 oz. of oak cubes (soaked in port wine for 4 months) and those remained in the keg for a month before I removed them and continued to age. A couple months ago, right before I moved I bottled it in bombers and gave it away. Samples from it were very good.

 

[Brewernaut51]

Like others have said it's really easy to over spice. If you do happen to over spice it don't panic and try to correct it. Those spices will mellow out with aging. It might take a month longer to taste good is all.

I overdid it a bit with the spices on my second pumpkin ale because I didn't feel like the first one had enough flavor. I just had to enjoy it at Christmas and New Year's rather than Halloween and Thanksgiving. The sad part is I kept "sampling" and had drank half the bottles before it really started to taste good. I didn't realize the flavor would improve that much.