Pumpkin Porter Recipe Questions

[DerNaschkatze]

Hey all! We're trying our hands at creating a pumpkin porter and wanted some advice on recipe creation. We're also doing it as a sort of "clean up the leftover malts" kind of beer, so some things like black patent malt are getting replaced with midnight wheat and such to just use up the leftovers. Thoughts on the recipe, and spices?

Pumpkin Porter (5 gal, 1.059 OG, ~6.4 percent)
5 lb pale malt
5 lb maris otter
1 lb crystal 80L
0.25 lb chocolate malt
0.125 lb Blackprinz
0.125 lb Midnight Wheat
0.5 lb brown sugar
some undecided amount of canned pumpkin

Hops (38 IBU)
- 1 oz northern brewer (60 min)
- 1 oz northern brewer (10 min)

Spices (added at 5 min boil)
- 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
- 1 clove
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 3 tsp vanilla extract added at bottling

Wyeast 1968

 

[RCope]

I think your recipe is fine. I've used McCormick pumpkin pie spice (3/4 Tbsp) and 2 oz of homemade vanilla extract (vanilla beans and vodka). And 3.6 lbs of canned pumpkin in the mash. Turned out well. I BIAB and even with 1/2 lbs of rice hulls, had a tough time draining the bag.

I don't know about your spice additions. I googled a homemade pumpkin pie spice recipe and it included 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, and 1/8 tsp ground clove. Your fresh spices may be better .

I've also heard that the pumpkin in the mash is not necessary. The spices alone are what gives the beer the characteristic flavor...Cheers!

 

[madscientist451]

Put the canned pumpkin in your primary fermenter and dump your wort on to it.

 

[GoodTruble]

Put the canned pumpkin in your primary fermenter and dump your wort on to it.

Does that actually work? Has anyone actually done successfully?

 

[grampamark]

Just add the spices and forget the pumpkin. Nobody will know the difference.

 

[TheMadKing]

I had good luck using candied pumpkin in my mash, but as grampamark says, people don't taste the pumpkin they taste the spice.

 

[GoodTruble]

Just add the spices and forget the pumpkin. Nobody will know the difference.

But I will know. =c). -I'm throwing in 2 tbls of roasted pumpkin just so i can say "there's actual pumpkin in there."

 

[grampamark]

Two tablespoons is more than enough.

 

[Dgallo]

I would suggest making a tincture for your spices with some rum. This way you can add it to taste. Spices can quickly over power a beer and once you add too much, it’s over... or you’ll have to wait a very long time for it to mellow out.

once you make the tincture you can by a commercial Porter and added measured amount to the glass until you find what amount you like in the beer. Once you do scale it up to your recipe volume and then add that to the keg or bottling bucket

 

[GoodTruble]

I would suggest making a tincture for your spices with some rum. This way you can add it to taste. Spices can quickly over power a beer and once you add too much, it’s over... or you’ll have to wait a very long time for it to mellow out.

once you make the tincture you can by a commercial Porter and added measured amount to the glass until you find what amount you like in the beer. Once you do scale it up to your recipe volume and then add that to the keg or bottling bucket

But then I have to drink more beer to conduct the tests. =c)

This suggestion presumes you are adding the spices during secondary rather than to the boil, right?

 

[Dgallo]

But then I have to drink more beer to conduct the tests. =c)

This suggestion presumes you are adding the spices during secondary rather than to the boil, right?

technically, you only need to use an oz of beer at a time. That will make it incredibly easy to scale up.

I’m actually suggesting Adding it at packaging. I will never again put spices in the boil. Astringency seems to increase and freshness of the actual spice seems to decrease.

 

[GoodTruble]

@Dgallo - Even better.

 

[DerNaschkatze]

Just as an update: we brewed this last weekend and ended up hitting OG 1.055. Never again will I add pumpkin to the mash. That stuff CLOGGED even our brew in a bag system. For an otherwise uneventful and efficient brew day, the mash and sparge easily took 2.5 hrs.

We also went ahead with adding an unmeasured pinch of allspice to the boil. She's currently fermenting away at 64F with Yeast Scottish Ale. Excited to try this once its aged out! Fresh spice pumpkin porter.

 

[TheMadKing]

Just as an update: we brewed this last weekend and ended up hitting OG 1.055. Never again will I add pumpkin to the mash. That stuff CLOGGED even our brew in a bag system. For an otherwise uneventful and efficient brew day, the mash and sparge easily took 2.5 hrs.

We also went ahead with adding an unmeasured pinch of allspice to the boil. She's currently fermenting away at 64F with Yeast Scottish Ale. Excited to try this once its aged out! Fresh spice pumpkin porter.

Just a note, and forgive me if this isn't useful, but allspice is the bark of the pimento tree and is the spice you put in jerk chicken.. It's not the same as pumpkin pie spice which is a mixture of cinnamon clove and nutmeg....

 

[GoodTruble]

Never again will I add pumpkin to the mash. That stuff CLOGGED even our brew in a bag system.

How much pumpkin did you use? (....despite warnings from EVERYONE who posted here =c) ).

-I too am planning to use Scottish Ale yeast. I'll post more info here when I get closer to brewing (hopefully next week). I'm planning to do 2 tbls of roasted pumpkin and then do the spice tincture recommended above.

I'm basically just doing this all grain kit as a reiterated mash and then adding the pumpkin and spices ......

https://www.morebeer.com/products/smoked-scotch-ale-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html

 

[DerNaschkatze]

We used 2 cans of pumpkin (16 oz?). We weighed the pros and cons of how much and when to add, and decided we didnt want to lose beer to the pumpkin trub left in the carboy. Guess we lost a little to the stuck sparge. Oh well.

Allspice is a berry and is used in jerk spice, but also its flavor is slightly reminiscent of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. hence the name. I actually use allspice a ton in cooking, especially during the holidays. We just added a tiny amount. We'll see how it turns out anyway.

 

[GoodTruble]

We used 2 cans of pumpkin (16 oz?). We weighed the pros and cons of how much and when to add, and decided we didnt want to lose beer to the pumpkin trub left in the carboy. Guess we lost a little to the stuck sparge. Oh well.

Allspice is a berry and is used in jerk spice, but also its flavor is slightly reminiscent of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. hence the name. I actually use allspice a ton in cooking, especially during the holidays. We just added a tiny amount. We'll see how it turns out anyway.

Curious to see how it turns out.

 

[BalloonGuy]

I have used canned pumpkin several times. The last 2 times I have roasted it on the oven for a couple of hours. I LOVE the flavor it adds to my pumpkin brown all that I never brewed this year...

 

[GoodTruble]

I have used canned pumpkin several times. The last 2 times I have roasted it on the oven for a couple of hours. I LOVE the flavor it adds to my pumpkin brown all that I never brewed this year...

How much roasted pumpkin do you use? And when do you add? -I'm doing my yeast starter now. Plan to brew tomorrow. Still on the fence about how much pumpkin and when to add. But planning to roast it first.

 

[BalloonGuy]

I used 3 of the smaller cans. I am 99% sure they are 15.9 oz. I roasted them for about 3 hours mixing every 20 -30 minutes. I was just looking for that caramelized sugar crystal texture to form. It was a GREAT flavor addition.
Good luck with the brew.

 

[GoodTruble]

I used 3 of the smaller cans. I am 99% sure they are 15.9 oz. I roasted them for about 3 hours mixing every 20 -30 minutes. I was just looking for that caramelized sugar crystal texture to form. It was a GREAT flavor addition.
Good luck with the brew.

Thanks! Do you add to mash, secondary or packaging?

 

[BalloonGuy]

Added to mash at flame out.

 

[GoodTruble]

Whew. Long brew day. I did the above kit, subbed in 2 lbs of golden promise and added half pounds of carapils, oats, & honey. I had unrelated equipment problems right off the bat, and so I decided to forgo pumpkin in the mash. I just didn't have the time, energy or patience for any additional setbacks. I plan to roast 8 oz of pumpkin and add to secondary later along with spices.

I tested out some tinctures using vodka and rum in a previous smoked scottish homebrew I already had onhand. None of my results were even close to good though. So I'm considering just mixing a small amount of spice into the 8 oz pumpkin to then roast in the oven. The oven temps should sanitize it all, and I can then transfer to sterile container to cool it down to fermenter temp (-and yes, I'm basically baking a small pumpkin pie and then pitching it into the fermenter =c) ).

.....I have a sneaking suspicion this may wind up being my first "bad" beer.

 

[BalloonGuy]

You can always cook with "bad beers". I have only had 1 beer that I made that I did not want to drink. It was peanut butter stout. I hated it and was going to dump it all. My neighbor's wife loved it! It si all about personal taste.

 

[GoodTruble]

Alright, took my shot. I roasted 1 can of pumpkin for 2 hours at 300 degrees (stirring a few times), and mixed about half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg and allspice into 5 oz of peanut butter whiskey (oddly, this was by far the best tasting combo after testing many options from my liquor cabinet) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. I then mixed the pumpkin straight from the oven into the whisky concoction to make a kind of roasted pumpkin puree and dumped the whole thing into the secondary.

I'll update if it works out. (If it doesn't, I'll just quietly abandon the thread in shame =c) ).

Here are pics of the roasted pumpkin and puree......

 

[GoodTruble]

After 11 days, closed transfered today and took first sample. Attenuated a bit further than expected and sitting at 9% abv. But still tastes a little sweet at 1.020.

Hints of pumpkin-ish, but I think the peanutbutter whiskey is more prevalent than expected, at least if you know it's there. I'm thinking most people will confuse it for pumpkin flavor. Will see.

-And sorry for the thread hijack. I will post again if anything notable happens that may be of interest to others brewing a pumpkin beer, but I will otherwise butt out.

 

[GoodTruble]

Quick update - This beer took a long time to carb, but that may have just been the high abv. But I think my pumpkin slurry also killed head retention. I think it was the vanilla extract, but maybe the pumpkin or whiskey. It's still very good, even when fully (and perhaps over) carbed, it still has little to no head.