Pumpkin Recipe Help

[billf2112]

I have never brewed a pumpkin brew before, but know many who have. I do know many commercial brewers do not even use pumpkin in thier brews. I will.

My questions
1) when and where do you add the pumpkin? I was thinking in the secondary or late addition to the boil.

2) Spices, most relate the spices to the taste of the actual pumpkin. Many brewers skip the pumpkin and go right to the spice. I will be doing a Pumpkin Spice Stout. How much spice in a 5 gallon batch. I am thinking, make it easy and just use McCormicks Pumpkin pie spice, it is what my family has used for years making pies. Please tell me if I am wrong here.

3) My goal is for the brew to be mild in flavor, I still want it to taste like stout.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Mojzis]

I have been reading into this also.

1) You could add to mash (all grain), or boil. Mashing would create a sticky mash and you would need a ton of rice hulls. Boiling would give them same flavor (mild) but would add like 10" of trub to the bottom. Bake the pumpkin first.

2) I have read between 1-2 tsp based on how strong you want them to come through. And yes, pumpkin pie spice.

3) You could add the spices before you bottle and add as much as you want to taste.

 

[rcsoccer]

I have never brewed a pumpkin brew before, but know many who have. I do know many commercial brewers do not even use pumpkin in thier brews. I will.

My questions
1) when and where do you add the pumpkin? I was thinking in the secondary or late addition to the boil.

2) Spices, most relate the spices to the taste of the actual pumpkin. Many brewers skip the pumpkin and go right to the spice. I will be doing a Pumpkin Spice Stout. How much spice in a 5 gallon batch. I am thinking, make it easy and just use McCormicks Pumpkin pie spice, it is what my family has used for years making pies. Please tell me if I am wrong here.

3) My goal is for the brew to be mild in flavor, I still want it to taste like stout.

Thanks for the help.

1) I make a pumpkin ale every year and I add about 7 lbs of pumpkin puree (canned) to the mash with about a pound of rice hulls to help with the sparge. If you add it to the end of the boil you will get TONS of starch in the the beer that will contribute to haze and, as previously mentioned, a TON of trub.

2) I add about 4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice to the secondary when I transfer off the yeast. You might need to add more to counteract the roasted grains in a stout.

3) Maybe try about 4 lbs of pumpkin in the mash and 4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice in secondary to start with. You can always add more after a week or two if it doesn't have the flavor you want, but you can never take it back out. I've also added a little vanilla to the secondary before and it came through pretty nicely. I think that would be great in a pumpkin stout.

Cheers!

 

[rcsoccer]

Here is my recipe. It's not a stout, but might give you some other ideas.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/sleepy-hollow-pumpkin-ale-2011-a-336964/

Good luck!