Pumpkin Help

[Saxmk6]

Hi all,

I have a great recipie for a pumpkin ale. I have brewed this several times. However, the recipie uses canned pumpkin. I cannot find canned pumpkin because of a shortage. I have several pumpkin farms near my house, so my thought is fresh pumpkin. Can you please give me your thoughts on brewing with fresh pumpkin? Any comments would be appreciated. Happy brewing!

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Pumpkin shortage? I was not aware of this... I'm going to need to buy enough for 2-3 batches this season (I also have an amazing recipe) so I'm not caught in the same kerfuffle.

Here's what you can do to alleviate your situation is buy a couple pumpkins. Seed them as normal and cut the meat into 1" cubes. Put that in a baking pan/tray/whatever and cook for about an hour at 325*F or until soft. Then toss that business into the mash.

 

[upperNY01brewer]

Just beware, all pumpkins are not for cooking purposes. The pumpkins used for holloween and such are not for eating . There are cooking pumpkin and these are what should be used. I also just brewed aPumpkin Ale but I wasnt able to find pumpkins to use either, it is still abit early actually in the season for them and yes there is again a shortage. I used canned organic pumpkin which I found at my local supermarket. Your best best would be to check in the organic food section at your store if they have one. Or if there is a natural food store in town check there, they are sure to carry canned pumpkin.

I used 4 lbs at boil. I filtered it out when I transferred to my primary but there was quite alot they still got in. I moved it over to my secondary yesterday and filtered again and now its looking good.

 

[upperNY01brewer]

You can also use Yams or Butternut Squash if your still unable to find canned pumpkin. Has basically the same flavor

 

[wildwest450]

You can actually just use a good spice mix and forget the pumpkin altogether. I know it's blasphemy, but you end up with less mess, more beer, and tastes the same.

 

[adamjab19]

I too came across this pumpkin shortage (what the hell??) and used 3lbs of sweet potatoe in my mash. I roasted them at 350 degrees for 1 hour and then took off the skins and threw them in the mash. No noticeable taste difference. Then again I never tasted the pumpkin either. I just call it a fall ale now.

 

[NiteOwlBrewing]

I grow my own Fortna White pumpkins. I quarter, then roast them at 350 for about 90 minutes. I then bring them to mash temp with about 1lb of my base malt/water to cover seperately then dump in the mash. I added 1lb of rice hulls this year as I got a stuck mash last year on one batch.

 

[jturie]

I found canned pumpkin on my sixth supermarket---everybody else had zero. It is the 15oz organic stuff, not the 29oz Libby. The store was Wegmans, which is fairly new to the Philadelphia area (also the only supermarket in PA that sells beer!) and kind of high end. My advice would be to look for the natural food sellers if your supermarkets don't have any. Good luck--it's a real pain.

 

[AlTheGud1sRtaken]

^ i also had a REALLY hard time finding pumpkin, but finally found some at a place called Ellwood Thompson's, it's like a locally owned and really small version of wholefoods. i ended up paying almost $40 for just the pumpkin though.

if i had known about this shortage before buying all the other ingredients i'd be making a brown ale right now.