Pursuing Pumpkin Perfection.

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Schnitzengiggle

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I have decided to brewa pumpkin beer for the holodays. I am fairly confident as my first fruit beer (blackberry) was a hit with friends and family, I wish I would have made more.

Having said that, I am still extract brewing and from what I understand pumpkin contains a high amount of starch which requires mashing for conversion.

My idea would be to make some maple or jaggery sugar pumpkin butter and add that to the brew.

However this is where the questions begin.

1. The "butter" will obviously have all of the spices cooked into it, so when sould I add the "butter"? (most of the recipes that I have seen call for adding pumpkin either to the boil or the mash.)

2. Do I add to the boil or the secondary?

3. How much "butter" should I use?
(most of the recipes I have seen call for about 3-5 lbs of pumpkin.)

4. Since the "butter" will have all of the spices in it, will these flavors be driven off during fermentation, if so, should I reserve some of the "butter" for secondary, or extended primary?

5. Or should I just add spice "tea" to adjust the flavor.

My first thoughts were to add the "butter" to the boil for 60 minutes, and add additional "butter" to adjust the flavor.

I want to take some of this to Boston at Christmas/New Year's for family and friends there, and I would like it to be decent if not great!

Any advice and suggestions are greatly appreciated.:mug:
 
Thank's for starting this thread, I too am thinking of making a pumpkin ale. I have 4 good sized sweet pumpkins in my garden and want to use them in an ale.

I have not decided if i will cook the pumpkin as if I was going in to a pie, then add that to the primary, or to add the pumpkin in to the boil, and the spiced in to the fermenter? or add the cooked pumpkin to the mash?

I'm leaning to adding the pumpkin to the boil, about 30min in, then use a bag to add the spices to the fermenter.


I'm thinking I'll modify a Wit recipe, because they handle spices well.

When you say, butter, do you mean actual butter? I guess you can do a cold break after the boil, and skim the wort before you pitch the yeast, to mitigate the loss of head from added lipids in the beer.
 
The pumpkin in a can works pretty well, I've done it before. I think I used the Thunderstruck one mentioned to help me formulate a recipe.
 
Having done a couple pumpkin beers this seems like an interesting idea. Don't worry about the starch conversion. Just toast the pumpkin on a cooking sheet at 350 for about 30 minutes, to caramelize and get rid of any vegetable flavors, and toss it into the boil. Come to think of it I think I threw it in at the last 15 minutes and transferred everything over to primary. If you do end up going the pumpkin "butter" route I'd keep everything but the raw sugar, unless you're trying to give it an extra boost for that Halloween party. Let us know how it turns out.
 
I did some research before posting, and The Thunderstuck recipe did catch my eye.

I think I really want to go the "butter" route just to see how it works out, and not that it hasn't been done, but I haven't been able to find any recipes that call for it.

Jamil mentioned it as an alternative to canned pumpkin stuff on his show, but really didn't elaborate, and didn't discuss of anyone he knew that tried it.

It seems like it would be a pretty simple addition too, since all of the spices and pumpkin will be rolled into one.

When I make my final decision on specialty grains (give me a day or two longer to put some thought into it) I will post the recipe and procedure I will use.

Thanks for all the ideas.:mug:
 
I just bottled my pumpkin ale and I used the "spice tea" method, 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. After one week I tried a bottle and its simply brilliant.

One problem that I am trying to diagnose, however, is that the "spice tea" addition during clearing creates a weird coagulation with the leftover pumpkin bits (i think). Its a bit shocking and almost seems as if its infected but it could not be further from the truth.

Just a fair warning (but who knows it may not happen to you)
 
I'm starting to wonder about the addition of the "butter" to the boil. It will have all the spices in it, so maybe I should use the "butter" in the secondary so I don't drive off all of the spice flavor in the boil.

Crap, I don't know what I want to do now!
 
Just like hops, think of spices in the same way. Late hop additions add flavor aroma, so do spices. Add them late, always.

The only thing that happened with my pumpkin ale is that I think it lost it's pumpkin flavor or the spices ended up over powering it while it was aging. Fresh, the beer was one of the best beers I thought I had made...The only other thing I can think of is the fact that I only made a 4 gallon batch and the spice measurements that I gathered from other recipes would have been used for a 5-6 gallon batch. Because the levels of spice are comprable to other recipes that I have seen. The recipe is in my drop down menu for some comparisons if you like.
 
If you plan on moving the pumpkin over to the primary, which IMO you should because you get a lot more pumpkin flavor that way, make sure to scale the recipe up anywhere from 5.5 gallons to 6. I lost a lot of beer to pumpkin trub, and was very disappointed when I ran out.
 
UPDATE:

I brewed up my pumpkin ale, and bottled it on 8/29. I sampled one last weekend, it was calling out to me...drink me...drink me. I wanted to so where the carbonation was and check the flavor. It has a slight funk, yet it is still very green, so I'm thinking the funk will subside, the spicing is a bit overpowering especially the clove, however, the cinnamon has a nice spicy warmth to it. I wasn't planning on cracking these open until Thanksgiving, amd I want to take a case to Boston when SWMBO and I visit family for Christmas. It is my beleif that by then they'll be damn near ripe.

Carbonation is wonderful, I think with some minor spicing tweaks this one will be a winner. I'm brewing AG now, so I may very well brew a pumkin beer in October and sit on it until next year (if I can) :D
 
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