Pumpkin Ale help!

[brewingbro12]

So I'm new to brewing and have done four batches since starting a little over a month ago, my first two batches have finished (since i started them the same time) and they taste amazing but I'd like to do a pumkin ale for Pumkin Fest (a festival in the town i go to college) and I have no issues following a recipe but most I have found tell me to make my own spices up and I havn't the slightest idea what to put it. Or when to put them in.
Also I've heard both that, putting roasted pumkin in your primary as well as your secondary is, better and worse so i'm not sure which I would aim for. I'm thinking nothing in the secondary just so it becomes a more clear and welcoming brew.

In other words, guide me please.

 

[Knoxgoalie]

I'm relatively to the obsession but I did the NB smashing pumpkin ale which used no pumpkin, just pumpkin pie spice. I amped up the spices...instead of 1 tsp at flameout I added .5 tsp at 45 .5 tsp at 15 and 1 tsp at flameout. It tastes incredible, can't tell that there's no pumpkin at all. Just my .02

Btw, you don't go to SUNY Cortland by any chance do you?

 

[Willum]

I added the pumpkin to my mash. I am not really sure how extract brewers would accomplish this. Maybe a partial mash? There are a of brewers smarter then me on this forum, so maybe one of them knows, but I think boiling pumpkin or adding pumpkin to a fermentor would not do much for the beer other then make it a mess to rack.

 

[lumpher]

you can do the thunderstruck pumpkin ale recipe. for that recipe, you boil the pumpkin for 60 minutes. if you need help converting to extract, speak up

 

[brewingbro12]

Yeah i havn't gotten into mashing yet i'd rather stick with extract. I didn't think putting pumpkin in the primary would do much thats why i was confused, i'll just go with the 60 min. boil. but what spices should i use? i'd rather go with fresh instead of getting a pumpkin spice packet or what ever.

and no I go to Keene State in NH

 

[cimirie]

Spices: 2 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp nutmeg, .5 tsp allspice (or clove but my wife isn't a fan).

These spices act like hops in the boil. If you add them early (60 min) you get zero flavor or aroma, just bittering qualities. Since cinnamon really isn't all that bitter, IMO it makes little difference to add spices before 20 min (the traditional "flavor" addition). I'd split the spices evenly and add half at 20 and half at 5. That has worked very well for me.

As far as the pumpkin... I've done pumpkin ales a lot. It is perhaps my favorite variety of beer. I have to say, I am always disappointed with pumpkin in the boil. It makes an absolute mess in the boil and absorbs an absolute on of wort. Since pumpkin flavor is subtle, I feel the boil doesn't pick that flavor up at all (color yes). Plus, there is a starch-y mouthfeel that flows with a good pumpkin ale that is missed when you boil the pumpkin.

My suggestion (and this is what I did for my first pumpkin ale, which was my first beer ever) would be to buy 2 pounds of 2 row pale malt.

Purchase 2 large cans of pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling - no sugar, spices, milk, or salt added), spread the contents on a cookie sheet, and roast in the oven for an hour. This will caramelize the pumpkin, adding complexity of flavors and a great color.

Place the malt and pumpkin in a grain bag (you can get them at any LHBS) and combine with 3-4 quarts water in a pot on the stove. Keep this mixture around 152 for an hour. Squeeze gently the bag to get excess liquid and collect all liquid. Rinse grain bag with 1 gallon 170* water and collect that runoff.

Use this liquid wort as the beginning of your water for the boil of your extract. It sounds like more work, but it'll make a difference. Plus, consider this your first mini-mash!

 

[Paulgs3]

I second everything cimirie said.

I got my spice pack from AHS: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10890 I bought two, I added one with 5 minutes left in my boil, and the second I added 5 days into the primary as a "dry hop".

The original spices wore off quickly, as at about four weeks all I could taste was pumpkin and ale (I had to take readings!!). It was great, but I wanted the spices which is why I 'dry hopped' in the primary for 5 days before transferring to cold crash.

I'm excited about it. The orange color is really really cool!

 

[xjmox14x]

I second everything cimirie said.

I got my spice pack from AHS: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10890 I bought two, I added one with 5 minutes left in my boil, and the second I added 5 days into the primary as a "dry hop".

The original spices wore off quickly, as at about four weeks all I could taste was pumpkin and ale (I had to take readings!!). It was great, but I wanted the spices which is why I 'dry hopped' in the primary for 5 days before transferring to cold crash.

I'm excited about it. The orange color is really really cool!

This is kind of the route I'm taking. In the Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale thread, they say that the spices wear off quite a bit just from the conditioning, let alone anything added to the boil. I'm thinking about giving her a taste after 2 weeks in the primary, then adding a spice tea and some vanilla to taste when I rack to secondary for a couple weeks before bottling.

 

[smalliewader]

I did mine just like cimirie, except roasted fresh cut before mashing. It's FANTASTIC.

Spices were cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove (go real light with this) and vanilla extract. I added spices to secondary like dry hopping rather than boil. Mini mash is the way to go, real easy to do, but a little time intensive, but oh so worth it.

 

[birds40]

I'm going to make a pumpkin ale this fall and was thinking about putting some cocoa nibs in the secondary to give it a little chocolate aroma, does anyone have an exp with a pumpkin/chocolate brew?

 

[brewingbro12]

So Cimirie, what i'm getting from this is caramelize pureed pumkin, then put that in a grain bag (arent grain bags massive?) with the malt extract? then steep it or just run water through it like a mash?

and if i were going to do the mashing process how would i go about doing that? would an igloo cooler work? or somthing of that nature.

 

[cimirie]

So Cimirie, what i'm getting from this is caramelize pureed pumkin, then put that in a grain bag (arent grain bags massive?) with the malt extract? then steep it or just run water through it like a mash?

and if i were going to do the mashing process how would i go about doing that? would an igloo cooler work? or somthing of that nature.

Grain bags can be massive, but the size I'm talking about looks to be the size of a large sock. It will stretch much bigger, but in the LHBS it will just look like Andre the Giant's sock.

You want to put the pumpkin in with REAL 2-row malt, not extract. We use this method with pumpkin here because the enzymes in the 2-row will help to convert some of the pumpkin starch to sugar. Plus, giving the pumpkin an hour to slow baste in a mash really brings out the subtle pumpkin flavor and leach out many of the unfermentable starches for a great mouthfeel.

Yes you could do this in an igloo cooler, but I was thinking for this, you could do it stovetop in a kitchen stockpot. It won't need to be very big, and as long as you stay and watch it with a thermometer, you should be able to get it to stay around 152.

Now, many LHBS will sell mini-mash mash tuns. They are made with igloo lunch coolers and will hold almost 8 lbs of grain. It's a great way to start to add specialty grains to your extract brews. I loved mine (I'll still whip it out for half batches. It works great). I might look in to that. But for this exercise, you don't need it, but it will make things a little easier.

 

[h22lude]

Grain bags can be massive, but the size I'm talking about looks to be the size of a large sock. It will stretch much bigger, but in the LHBS it will just look like Andre the Giant's sock.

You want to put the pumpkin in with REAL 2-row malt, not extract. We use this method with pumpkin here because the enzymes in the 2-row will help to convert some of the pumpkin starch to sugar. Plus, giving the pumpkin an hour to slow baste in a mash really brings out the subtle pumpkin flavor and leach out many of the unfermentable starches for a great mouthfeel.

Yes you could do this in an igloo cooler, but I was thinking for this, you could do it stovetop in a kitchen stockpot. It won't need to be very big, and as long as you stay and watch it with a thermometer, you should be able to get it to stay around 152.

Now, many LHBS will sell mini-mash mash tuns. They are made with igloo lunch coolers and will hold almost 8 lbs of grain. It's a great way to start to add specialty grains to your extract brews. I loved mine (I'll still whip it out for half batches. It works great). I might look in to that. But for this exercise, you don't need it, but it will make things a little easier.

Is there a recipe you like to follow with this...or maybe a premade kit? I might try this method within the next week.

 

[birds40]

Grain bags can be massive, but the size I'm talking about looks to be the size of a large sock. It will stretch much bigger, but in the LHBS it will just look like Andre the Giant's sock.

You want to put the pumpkin in with REAL 2-row malt, not extract. We use this method with pumpkin here because the enzymes in the 2-row will help to convert some of the pumpkin starch to sugar. Plus, giving the pumpkin an hour to slow baste in a mash really brings out the subtle pumpkin flavor and leach out many of the unfermentable starches for a great mouthfeel.

Yes you could do this in an igloo cooler, but I was thinking for this, you could do it stovetop in a kitchen stockpot. It won't need to be very big, and as long as you stay and watch it with a thermometer, you should be able to get it to stay around 152.

Now, many LHBS will sell mini-mash mash tuns. They are made with igloo lunch coolers and will hold almost 8 lbs of grain. It's a great way to start to add specialty grains to your extract brews. I loved mine (I'll still whip it out for half batches. It works great). I might look in to that. But for this exercise, you don't need it, but it will make things a little easier.

Do you have to crack the 2 row malt?? Sorry if its a dumb question but I've never done anything but extracts

 

[cimirie]

Is there a recipe you like to follow with this...or maybe a premade kit? I might try this method within the next week.

I've got a recipe I like, but it's all grain. It's a variation of Northern Brewers Smashing Pumpkin. You could convert to partial mash, and mini mash the pumpkin, specialty, and some 2 row. Search for threads here to convert extract to AG and vice versa. I'll help see what I can do when I reach an actual computer (as opposed to my iPhone).

Do you have to crack the 2 row malt?? Sorry if its a dumb question but I've never done anything but extracts

Yes, any grain you use should be cracked in any recipe. Your LHBS should be able to easily do it for you. Doing it at home without a grain mill is possible with a rolling pin, it'll just take a bit of time, depending on grainbill.