Pumpkin Ale

[Twisster76]

I'm attempting my second batch of my home-brew career this weekend making a pumpkin ale. I'm using an ingredient kit as I'm still new to this, but I'm thinking of tweaking it a bit. My first home batch was a Brewers Best Amber Ale kit that I followed to the letter and it turned out well. The kit that I'm doing this weekend uses the following ingredients:

6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract
8 oz. Carapils
8 oz. caramel
10L specialty grains
1 oz. Mt. Hood
1 oz. Cascade
1 cup brown sugar
tsp. cinnamon
tsp. nutmeg
Pumpkin (not included), 15oz can pure pumpkin for subtle flavor, 30 oz can for more robust flavor. (No fresh pumpkins around yet unfortunately)

I'm planning on doing the 30oz pumpkin, and in doing so, I'm debating if I shouldn't up the the cinnamon and nutmeg to 2 tsp, and additionally I'm thinking of adding cloves and allspice to, hopefully, give it more of that pumpkin pie/pumpkin bread kind of flavor.

Does anybody have any input or tips for a pumpkin brew? I'm already prepared to lose up to a gallon of waste due to the pumpkin.

Thanks!

 

[MedicMang]

I have done two pumpkin ales in the past years. How are you adding the pumpkin? I am all grain, so I do it in the mash. Can't really tough on that subject. The pumpkin doesn't really add flavor. Its more a mouthfeel thing. Also, when you are using the pumpkin, make sure to roast it a bit first. Spread it on a cookie sheet and cook it in the oven first to caramelize the top a bit. Look into it a bit.

On to what I REALLY wanted to bring up. Be really careful about adding more spices, especially clove. It can go from barely noticeable to way overpowering super quick-like. This takes practice. I did a christmas ale that had clove in it. I used 4 of them little bastards. Guess how it ended up tasting. Like a clove beer. Same with ginger. Be wary about adding a whole lot. If it helps, look at the recipe part of the forum and see what others are adding, then go from there.

I'm sorry this doesn't really help. Adding spices to beer is not an exact science.

 

[TopFlatBrwr]

Agreed that it's not an exact science. I add 1 tsp of nutmeg and 1 tsp of cinnamon for every hop addition (I have 3) and include 1/2 tsp of vanilla at the end of the boil. Timing of your spice additions will affect how much spice ends up being in the beer because quite a bit of it will boil off.

One word of advice is to let this one age for at least 2 months to let the spices mellow out.

 

[Twisster76]

Thanks for the input, guys, it is valued. I was going through the spice cabinet and decided to hold off on the cloves, seemed to over powering. I think I am going to add just an additional half teaspoon of nutmeg and ginger. According to the recipe, the pumpkin goes in with 5 minutes left in the boil. Also I have seen a few references to vanilla now so I may add that at the end.

Definitely plan on letting this one sit for a little while, that's why I want to get it started now.

Thanks!

 

[Twisster76]

I brewed this afternoon and it went well, except at the end during cleanup when I realized I never added the vanilla. Oh well, original recipe didn't call for it anyway. I only modified the spices slightly. Instead of doing just more nutmeg and cinnamon I actually added about a half teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice) to the supplied nutmeg and cinnamon. I pre-baked the pumpkin as well. So the fermenting begins, will be moving to the carboy in a week. Hoping to be ready for a tasting event on September 7.

 

[MedicMang]

You can add the vanilla bean in secondary. Just soak it in vodka for a couple days before adding it all. Glad it went well. Did you taste it at all?

 

[Baileisdad]

Ever think about using a pumpkin for a fermentation vessel?? Maybe primary but maybe better as secondary?? That was my plan for this year. Just waiting on some pumpkins!!

 

[Twisster76]

I read about it, using the a pumpkin itself for fermentation, but as a bit of a novice I'm still trying to stick to the basics. I was under the gun with my DIY wort chiller having issues at first and having to clean the kitchen before the wife got home, I poured out my gravity sample before tasting it. I'll be sure to check the flavor when I transfer to the carboy.

If I enjoyed my job as much as this hobby, I'd be a rich man!

 

[Twisster76]

Meant to update earlier and I forgot. I transferred to the carboy this weekend, color looked good (as far as a color blind guy can tell), smelled good, tasted good. There was a good chunk of waste left in the primary but from what I understand that is to be expected, especially when using canned pumpkin without a nylon bag. I liked the flavor, but I may have overshot the traditional Pumpkin Ale taste and ended up with more of a Winter Holidays Seasonal, probably due to the Pumpkin Pie spice. If the worse that happens is I bottle it and store it till November/December, I'll take it.

 

[TopFlatBrwr]

Yeah, you definitely have to wait a bit for the spice to mellow out. It should be good by the end of October beginning of November.

 

[Shred]

As someone else said, you want to roast the pumpkin a bit to caramelize the sugars or you'll end up with a beer that tastes more like a squash ale. I have one in secondary now and the way I did it was I spread the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and baked it at 350 for about 25 minutes, misting it with water every 5-10 minutes.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it really makes any difference when you add the pumpkin to the boil.

No matter what you do to try to filter it you're going to end up with a deep blanket of trub at the bottom of your fermenter.