Sour Pumpkin in a Pumpkin

[Hayden123982]

Looking for any feedback from anyone who may have done this or something similar.

I will be making a sour soon with some pumpkin and placing this into a 50lb pumpkin I just picked up. I plan to prep the brewed pumpkin by roasting in over and adding at the end of the boil. The vessel pumpkin will be topped, gutted, and then given a dose of something to sanitize (either boiled water or iodine). Any tips here would be great.

As far as the beer... 5.5 gallon batch
Grist:
2-Row 9#
F. Oats 1#
Vienne 1#
CaraVienne 0.25#

Hops:
EKG for ~5 IBU

Yeast:
Imperial Sour Batch Kidz

Pumpkin:
1 sugar pumpkin, split, gutted, and roasted in oven

Any wort that does not fit into the big pumpkin, will go into a smaller fermentation vessel (glass) and serve as a control to see if the pumpkin adds anything at all to the soured beer

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'd use zero hops. Sour Batch Kidz doesn't have a Pedio strain.

A blend like this with Brett will need to age at least 6-9 months. Probably going to need a secondary vessel.

There are a bunch of threads and stuff about fermenting in pumpkins but I have no personal experience.

Have fun!

 

[Hayden123982]

Brewed this a week ago. Smelled great going in and checked on it last night and smells even better. I'll be transferring into a glass carboy within the next 1-7 days depending on any mold growth now that I have broken the wax barrier.

 

[Hayden123982]

Update: Transferred into a glass carboy after about 7-10 days in the primary pumpkin. Now a month out of brew day and getting some nice sour smells off the carboy. No heavy reformation of a pellicle yet, but some definite funk on top

 

[Rob2010SS]

Update: Transferred into a glass carboy after about 7-10 days in the primary pumpkin. Now a month out of brew day and getting some nice sour smells off the carboy. No heavy reformation of a pellicle yet, but some definite funk on top

This is cool as ****! Can't wait to hear how it comes out

Edit: didn't know forum automatically corrected swearing lol

 

[Hayden123982]

Kegged up and waiting for carbonation for tasting

 

[Hayden123982]

This beer has been very enjoyable. As far as a pumpkin flesh or meat flavor, not much to speak of but I could imagine that the Brett enjoyed getting its hands on some of the components the pumpkin likely contributed to the beer early on.

What myself and others have picked up on is some "pumpkin spice" like flavors... no spices were added to the beer so potentially its just reaching for some sort of pumpkin-associated flavors, or maybe it is from the Brett.

Acidity is low-moderate for a sour. I find its actually great for what I wanted. Plan was to just have this on tap, so too much acid would have made this a slow drinker. Probably wont do this one again this year (because I want to try a imp stout in a pumpkin this year) but definitely will want to do this recipe again.

 

[mashpaddled]

I'm not sure you would get anything out of the pumpkin flesh especially over such a short period of time. You probably got a little squash flavor extracted from it and maybe a little soluble starch but for brett to get in and start fermenting out a lot of starch from the pumpkin you would need far longer contact time.

 

[Hayden123982]

I've had some beer w/ very short contact time w/ pumpkin flesh that gets some of that character which isnt very pleasant. This brew also had a roasted pumpkin in the mash.

Unfortunately, I dont know how much longer contact time you could get out of sitting in the pumpkin d/t the risk for rot/mold