Pumpkin Spiced Ale

[Dynachrome]

Just a note. I did a pumpkin porter yesterday. I took an actual Jack-O-Lantern (It was refrigerated outside in my neck of the woods) and just hacked it up and baked it with the peel on. The peeling comes off easily after it is baked for a while.

Then I boiled it down mashed it with a potato masher and used one of these hand held food processors to get it broken up really fine.

I poured it on top of my grain bed at sparge and used that as a filter to keep the pumpkin mush from getting all the way to the wort kettle.

 

[Stardust]

WLP001 (California Ale Yeast)

Hey Craig, why did you use this yeast strain?

 

[craig_reed]

Curious if anyone has updates on this beer they brewed? I still have 4 or 5 22oz bottles remaining from my second batch. Now they have been aged for 9 months or so, and are amazing. The spices have died down a bit, but the creamy vanilla pumpkin flavor is still there.

Thick creamy head on it!

As soon as fresh pumpkin becomes available here, it will be time to brew again!

 

[DoctorB2B]

I actually do still have about 4 12oz bottles left .... I've had a few over the past few days ... still good surprisingly. I figured by this point that they would taste like cardboard, but nope ... delicious!!!

 

[Stardust]

There are a couple of bottles of this left at a friend's house. It has mellowed, but is still delicious. I was thinking that it will soon be time to brew this recipe again for the holidays...

 

[NCBeernut]

The guys I know that have made a pumpkin beer with real pumpkin, put it into the primary and some in the secondary. I think if you put some canned pumpkin into the secondary that would be a good thing for a couple reasons, the first being canned pumpkin is easier to use than real (but might not taste as good), the second and more important reason being that since it's canned it's serile so your risk of infection should be much lower. I wouldn't sweat the hops too much (i'm not big on the hop flavor though). Did you put in any pumpkin spice? For what it's worth, very rarely does a pumpkin beer come out bad, and if you haven't added the spice you could put it in when you drink it, might be a nice touch if serving at a party.

Why do you think that canned pumpkin is sterile?

Pumpkin is best added to the mash so that you are not adding a bunch of unconverted starch to your beer, and it will then go through the boil so that infection is not a factor. I honestly can't think of a worse spot to add pumpkin that secondary. Yeah, I am sure people have had their pumpkin ales turn out ok doing it in secondary, I am just saying that there is a better way to do it.

 

[brentt03]

Let's see some pics of the finished brew!

 

[pkananen]

Why do you think that canned pumpkin is sterile?

Pumpkin is best added to the mash so that you are not adding a bunch of unconverted starch to your beer, and it will then go through the boil so that infection is not a factor. I honestly can't think of a worse spot to add pumpkin that secondary. Yeah, I am sure people have had their pumpkin ales turn out ok doing it in secondary, I am just saying that there is a better way to do it.

canned food is cooked in the can...so anything living will be dead.

 

[NCBeernut]

canned food is cooked in the can...so anything living will be dead.

Is that true for all canned food? I'm definitely not arguing with you, I have just never heard of that. What about canned fruits or uncooked canned stuff?

 

[motleybrews]

man, i'm sure glad you guys bumped this back up to the top. i've been looking for a good pumpkin brew. i think i'm going to start this one once i bottle my current (first) brew.

hey Craig, after tasting the beer 9 months (and i'm sure at least a few more brews) later, is there anything you would change? i saw you mentioned the only complaint was people wanted more spices.

cheers

 

[Stardust]

Is that true for all canned food? I'm definitely not arguing with you, I have just never heard of that. What about canned fruits or uncooked canned stuff?

Uncooked canned stuff??? Sounds like an oxymoron...

 

[NCBeernut]

I dunno. I don't really know much about canned food I guess.

 

[sweaterman]

Here's a question about the vanilla addition. . .

I have made vanilla extract at home before and to do so all you do is soak the vanilla in vodka. A cheap one at that. So my thought would be that the vanilla flavor would be extracted best by the actual alcohol and not by the boil, which would mean to put it in the secondary.

I am brewing today and think I will try this method. I will report back.

 

[sweaterman]

Schedule:

Steeped at 152F to 156F for 45 minutes
- 8oz Carapils
- 8oz Caramel 10L

Brought water to 205F and added
-1lb Breiss Golden Light DME (had it around and wanted to bring up the gravity a bit without affecting the flavor too much)
- 6lbs Midwest Supplies Gold LME

Brought water to a boil and schedule for boil follows
- 60mins: Added 1oz Cascade 7.5% AAU
- 40mins: Added canned 1lb Butternut Squash and canned 1lb Pumpkin, both roasted for 1hr at 350F. Were placed in Muslin Bag and removed. Had a beautiful aroma, color, and taste (had to eat a bit of it).
- 30mins: Added 1oz Mt Hood at 5.5% AAU
- 15mins: Added ¾ tsp Irish Moss
- 02mins: Added 6oz Pumpkin Pie Mix (was going to be 15oz, but the spices in it smelled overbearing, so I cut it back), ½ tsp Cinnamon, ½ tsp Nutmeg, ¼ tsp Allspice
- Flameout: Added canned 1lb each Butternut Squash and Pumpkin, 1lb light brown sugar

While cooling with wort chiller added 2 quarts boiling water to top off what I lost on the boil. Also, while measuring the temperature, I dropped my thermometer into the cooled wort. Everything except the head of the thermometer was sanitized, so I am a little afraid of an infection here. Anyway, the wort cooled to 85F, I poured it back and forth from kettle to pale 5x to aerate. On the last pour I added 1 Tbsp of Yeast Nutrient to the bottom of the pale and poured to wort over this.

Finally, I pitched two activators of Wyeast American Ale. I didn’t need two, but I had them both sitting in the fridge for about a month, so I was skeptical they would properly activate.

When primary fermentation is complete, I will move this to secondary with 2 split vanilla beans. See my post above for reason for timing on the beans.

What do others think? Should I add more pumpkin at secondary as well? Can I get someone to tell me everything will be OK on the infection end with the thermometer dropping into the wort?

 

[Hefanatic]

Schedule:

Steeped at 152F to 156F for 45 minutes
- 8oz Carapils
- 8oz Caramel 10L

Brought water to 205F and added
-1lb Breiss Golden Light DME (had it around and wanted to bring up the gravity a bit without affecting the flavor too much)
- 6lbs Midwest Supplies Gold LME

Brought water to a boil and schedule for boil follows
- 60mins: Added 1oz Cascade 7.5% AAU
- 40mins: Added canned 1lb Butternut Squash and canned 1lb Pumpkin, both roasted for 1hr at 350F. Were placed in Muslin Bag and removed. Had a beautiful aroma, color, and taste (had to eat a bit of it).
- 30mins: Added 1oz Mt Hood at 5.5% AAU
- 15mins: Added ¾ tsp Irish Moss
- 02mins: Added 6oz Pumpkin Pie Mix (was going to be 15oz, but the spices in it smelled overbearing, so I cut it back), ½ tsp Cinnamon, ½ tsp Nutmeg, ¼ tsp Allspice
- Flameout: Added canned 1lb each Butternut Squash and Pumpkin, 1lb light brown sugar

While cooling with wort chiller added 2 quarts boiling water to top off what I lost on the boil. Also, while measuring the temperature, I dropped my thermometer into the cooled wort. Everything except the head of the thermometer was sanitized, so I am a little afraid of an infection here. Anyway, the wort cooled to 85F, I poured it back and forth from kettle to pale 5x to aerate. On the last pour I added 1 Tbsp of Yeast Nutrient to the bottom of the pale and poured to wort over this.

Finally, I pitched two activators of Wyeast American Ale. I didn’t need two, but I had them both sitting in the fridge for about a month, so I was skeptical they would properly activate.

When primary fermentation is complete, I will move this to secondary with 2 split vanilla beans. See my post above for reason for timing on the beans.

What do others think? Should I add more pumpkin at secondary as well? Can I get someone to tell me everything will be OK on the infection end with the thermometer dropping into the wort?

I think your batch is ruined. Go ahead and send me the batch, in the fermenter and just consider it a total loss. This recipe sounds great, I will be brewing this very soon! Unless of course...you send me yours...

Not sure if 2 vials of yeast was necessary or not. That one is beyond me. As far as overall flavor is concerned it is personal preference. Give it a taste after taking your hydrometer reading and determine what to add into the secondary from there. Good luck, and keep us updated.

 

[BarronVonCharron]

Yeah man, your brew is absolutely at risk of infection, the good news is that there is a very simple way to fix it. What you need to do is actually shake it around slightly and change the magnetic pull on it as this affects the glycoproteins and the fucoxanthins present in the beer.

Now I wouldn't tell you a problem without offering you a solution, so all you have to do is load the beer into your car and drive it to my house. This will fix the beer. Unfortunately, at this point any more movement will not only reverse the effects but magnify them so you will have to leave it here. We can still call it your beer, but I will have to charge you for renting the space. You can pay me in beer though.

Just kidding, your beer should be fine especially since the thermometer was in very close proximity to boiling water for a long time, you should be good. If I did that I wouldn't worry about it.

I agree with what Hefanatic says about the yeast, you shouldn't need it all at once. I just got done with a beer that I had to use two vials for but they were 2 months apart, primary and secondary.

I'm guessing that you will end up needing more pumpkin pie mix if you want the pumpkin flavor to really pop. If you're going for subtle it should be good though.

I'm really interested to see how your vanilla comes out too. I used some in a beer and found that if you add it too soon the yeast will eat the flavor of it

I am going to start a beer soon and I really like the way this one looks, if I give it a shot I'm going to try using more pie filling and I'll post what I find.

 

[sweaterman]

Barron, I was totally looking up glycoprotein magnetic pull . . . jk

Thanks for the reassurance guys. It is bubbling away vigorously.

 

[sweaterman]

Schedule:

Steeped at 152F to 156F for 45 minutes
- 8oz Carapils
- 8oz Caramel 10L

Brought water to 205F and added
-1lb Breiss Golden Light DME (had it around and wanted to bring up the gravity a bit without affecting the flavor too much)
- 6lbs Midwest Supplies Gold LME

Brought water to a boil and schedule for boil follows
- 60mins: Added 1oz Cascade 7.5% AAU
- 40mins: Added canned 1lb Butternut Squash and canned 1lb Pumpkin, both roasted for 1hr at 350F. Were placed in Muslin Bag and removed. Had a beautiful aroma, color, and taste (had to eat a bit of it).
- 30mins: Added 1oz Mt Hood at 5.5% AAU
- 15mins: Added ¾ tsp Irish Moss
- 02mins: Added 6oz Pumpkin Pie Mix (was going to be 15oz, but the spices in it smelled overbearing, so I cut it back), ½ tsp Cinnamon, ½ tsp Nutmeg, ¼ tsp Allspice
- Flameout: Added canned 1lb each Butternut Squash and Pumpkin, 1lb light brown sugar

While cooling with wort chiller added 2 quarts boiling water to top off what I lost on the boil. Also, while measuring the temperature, I dropped my thermometer into the cooled wort. Everything except the head of the thermometer was sanitized, so I am a little afraid of an infection here. Anyway, the wort cooled to 85F, I poured it back and forth from kettle to pale 5x to aerate. On the last pour I added 1 Tbsp of Yeast Nutrient to the bottom of the pale and poured to wort over this.

Finally, I pitched two activators of Wyeast American Ale. I didn’t need two, but I had them both sitting in the fridge for about a month, so I was skeptical they would properly activate.

When primary fermentation is complete, I will move this to secondary with 2 split vanilla beans. See my post above for reason for timing on the beans.

What do others think? Should I add more pumpkin at secondary as well? Can I get someone to tell me everything will be OK on the infection end with the thermometer dropping into the wort?

Look at me . . . quoting myself. That's just how awesome I think I am.

Anyway, I know it has been only 6 days, but I am getting way too excited for this. I moved it to a 5 gal glass carboy with two more 15oz cans of pumpkin, 1.5 more cans of butternut squash, a quarter teaspoon more nutmeg, and two split vanilla beans. Color is great, if quite hazy. SG: 1.008-1.010. I am sure it will ferment a bit more or increase the FG with the few more cans I added. I will try to hold off on bottling it for at least 2 weeks.

 

[coonz]

Damn - I did find some at my LHBS for $5 for one bean so I think my local grocery store is just trying to pull a fast one on us locals because I couldn't bring myself to do that! Here is the recipe I used:

7lb Pale Malt Extract
1lb 20 Lovibond crystal malt (to keep it as lighter color)
2 oz Willamette hops (60 min) 10 HBU
1/2 oz Cascade hops (60 min) 2.5 HBU
1 oz Mt. Hood hops (15 min)

10 lb Whole Pumpkin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract (substitute 1-2 vanilla beans) (10 min)
1/2 tsp freshy ground nutmeg (10 min)
1/4 tsp ground allspice (10 min)
1/2 tsp ground dried ginger (10 min)
1/2 tsp (1g) irish moss (15 min)

WLP001 (California Ale Yeast)

OG: 1.069
FG: 1.018

Gutted pumpkin as if I were carving a jack o lantern. removed skin from pumpkin and cubed up the entire pumpkin yielding about 5.5lbs of clean pumpkin meat. Put on a baking sheet with 1/2inch water and baked at 350degrees for an hour (or until tender to touch). Put into a straining bag (for easy removal) and put directly in the boil at the 40 min mark (40 minute remaining) and essentially let steep. Pumpkin was so soft that some of it would escape through the bag (desired) and the rest just emitted a beautiful burnt orange color and flavor.

After the boil I removed the pumpkin from the boil and let drain (like specialty grains) poured hot water through it and even mashed a little more out of it using my boil spoon. Discarded pumpkin.

It looks like it is going to be a wonderful brew. Looks beautiful in the carboy and would post pictures but am not a premier member. Great burnt orange color and like I mentioned the taste was great. Not overpowering pumpkin flavor, which is what I was going for, with a creamy but light finish due to the vanilla. The spices worked well to create a terrific overall profile, but nothing overly spicy. Excited to try this one at its prime -

Let me know if you have any questions!

Enjoy!

This sounds amazing!

 

[craig_reed]

This sounds amazing!

Thanks! Go for it! Brewing it again as soon as pumpkins come back around!

 

[coonz]

Do you think it would be great without the crystal malt? Or does it add a great taste that needs to be there.

 

[gurrback]

Is that 7lb of DME or LME? Looking to place an order for this recipe soon and would love to get this figured out.

 

[craig_reed]

Is that 7lb of DME or LME? Looking to place an order for this recipe soon and would love to get this figured out.

7lb LME, and also, don't put the vanilla in the primary, instead use Penzy's Vanilla Extract or any PURE vanilla extract either in the secondary or bottling (2 oz), but you could probably get away with 1 oz just for some nice background creaminess

 

[BarronVonCharron]

Look at me . . . quoting myself. That's just how awesome I think I am.

Anyway, I know it has been only 6 days, but I am getting way too excited for this. I moved it to a 5 gal glass carboy with two more 15oz cans of pumpkin, 1.5 more cans of butternut squash, a quarter teaspoon more nutmeg, and two split vanilla beans. Color is great, if quite hazy. SG: 1.008-1.010. I am sure it will ferment a bit more or increase the FG with the few more cans I added. I will try to hold off on bottling it for at least 2 weeks.

Hey man, I'm gonna give this one a whirl tomorrow using just pumpkin pie mix since I didn't have any fresh pumpkin available. When you made the later additions of the mix did you boil it or heat it up to liquefy it for better absorption or just dump it in? I don't know if any one way is better, just wondering what you did and if you recommend any other ways to add it. I was also looking at how much you have put in and I was wondering if you could tell how much of it just went to the bottom of the carboy. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to get the most pumpkin pie flavor out of this beer.

 

[zeoalex]

Craig, I think this is gonna be my next brew, once I arrive at school...thanks!

with that said, you had made some not that people wanted a bit more spiciness to it (I think i would be one of those people). Would you just do 1oz of vanilla? or do the standard 2oz, and just up all of the spices a bit?

 

[craig_reed]

Craig, I think this is gonna be my next brew, once I arrive at school...thanks!

with that said, you had made some not that people wanted a bit more spiciness to it (I think i would be one of those people). Would you just do 1oz of vanilla? or do the standard 2oz, and just up all of the spices a bit?

Just up the spices a bit - I got them all individually, so I could play with them a little more. But there is a standard "pumpkin pie spice" that is already combined together you could by.

The vanilla is probably good at 1oz.. just remember the vanilla will hide some of the spices, and make it more "creamy". So if you want it more spicy, leave the vanilla to 1oz at bottling.

 

[BrainBeerBrewer]

Damn - I did find some at my LHBS for $5 for one bean so I think my local grocery store is just trying to pull a fast one on us locals because I couldn't bring myself to do that! Here is the recipe I used:

7lb Pale Malt Extract
1lb 20 Lovibond crystal malt (to keep it as lighter color)
2 oz Willamette hops (60 min) 10 HBU
1/2 oz Cascade hops (60 min) 2.5 HBU
1 oz Mt. Hood hops (15 min)

10 lb Whole Pumpkin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract (substitute 1-2 vanilla beans) (10 min)
1/2 tsp freshy ground nutmeg (10 min)
1/4 tsp ground allspice (10 min)
1/2 tsp ground dried ginger (10 min)
1/2 tsp (1g) irish moss (15 min)

WLP001 (California Ale Yeast)

OG: 1.069
FG: 1.018

Gutted pumpkin as if I were carving a jack o lantern. removed skin from pumpkin and cubed up the entire pumpkin yielding about 5.5lbs of clean pumpkin meat. Put on a baking sheet with 1/2inch water and baked at 350degrees for an hour (or until tender to touch). Put into a straining bag (for easy removal) and put directly in the boil at the 40 min mark (40 minute remaining) and essentially let steep. Pumpkin was so soft that some of it would escape through the bag (desired) and the rest just emitted a beautiful burnt orange color and flavor.

After the boil I removed the pumpkin from the boil and let drain (like specialty grains) poured hot water through it and even mashed a little more out of it using my boil spoon. Discarded pumpkin.

It looks like it is going to be a wonderful brew. Looks beautiful in the carboy and would post pictures but am not a premier member. Great burnt orange color and like I mentioned the taste was great. Not overpowering pumpkin flavor, which is what I was going for, with a creamy but light finish due to the vanilla. The spices worked well to create a terrific overall profile, but nothing overly spicy. Excited to try this one at its prime -

Let me know if you have any questions!

Enjoy!

Any advice on this recipe if I were to substitute canned pumpkin for fresh? Not sure when pumpkins will start showing up in stores and really want to get one of these started.

 

[craig_reed]

Hmmm.. I'm not sure and have never really been a fan of the canned stuff.

I know people have used 3 or 4 of the canned pumpkin (10oz cans I think) before.

But be careful, they have plain pumpkin canned, and they also have "pumpkin pie" pumpkin canned. The latter already having the spices in the pumpkin.

Just be sure not to add additional spices if you are using the pre spiced canned stuff.

Pumpkins start coming around here in a few weeks I think. I still have a few bottles of my 2010 version laying around. Had one the other night and it was AMAZING, almost one year later.

If I knew the legalities of sending out bottles through the mail, I'd shoot you out one!

 

[dieselboy]

What does the brown sugar add as far as flavoring goes in the beer? If I am kegging and force carbing is there a way to get that favor profile in it? do I just add it to the boil? Also would the canned pumkin a 1:1 ratio to cooked pumpkin? We dont get pumkins here untill mid octoberish.. too late to make this for fall. Leaves are already changing....

 

[zeoalex]

I just went to the LHBS and picked up some supplies for this brew! I ended up with 40L crystal instead of 20L (all they had) and some golden light malt, which I figured was pretty close to a pale malt...I'm excited to do this this weekend!