Pumpkin Ale query

[Professor Frink]

I already made my first stab at this, but every recipe I've seen has different suggestions on when to add the pumpkin. I actually got a an extract kit, and the directions said to add pumpkin when you first steep the grains, and lacked a suggested volume. I did some research, and no two recipes agreed. The guy who put the kit together said that more flavor would come out of adding the pumkin in the last ten minutes of the boil. He also said that although you would lose some flavor, the longer you boil pumpkin, the more pumpkin starches would convert to sugar for the yeast.

After all this contradictory information, I decided to use two 1.5 lb cans of organic (pure) pumpkin. I added 1 into a nylon bag at the beginning of the boil, and the second during the last 10 minutes of the boil. I just transferred from my primary to my secondary last Sunday, and it tasted ok despite a strong smell like Flinstones Vitamins.

Anyway, has anyone had any experience with this, any suggestions on when to add the pumpkin and how much???
Thanks.

The Professor

Just in time for Thanksgiving, with the garvy, and the turkey, and the gobble, gobble

Glaven glaven

[fuji6100]

The only real fruit I've used is strawberries, and adding them in at shutdown of my boil and letting them pasteurize for 10 minutes was the way I went.

I had an EXTREMELY violent fermentation due to the fruit, blew the blowoff tube right off the fermenter and I had to let it ferment in the bathtub with the lid cracked. I cried as 1 1/2 gallons of beer foamed out and down the drain over the first 48 hours.

Since then, most of the reasearch (that I should have done before hand) suggests adding fruit after primary fermentation is done, or when racking to secondary (rack onto the fruit).

The strawberry flavor I was expecting was largely scrubbed away during primary fermentation, leaving only the fruity tartness. It was like drinking sour-patch-kids wine coolers instead of beer.

Pumpkin may be different than strawberries, since it is firmer, thicker, and less "dissolvable" into the wort, but that's my 2 cents on fruit.

[Brownbeard]

I am interested in an extract recipe for pumpkin as well. I would like to use canned pumpkin if possible.

[Professor Frink]

The recipe is as follows:

6 lbs Briess Light Malt Extract
2 lbs fresh or canned pumpkin (no preservatives in canned pumpkin, this will inhibit yeast)
8 oz Crystal 10 malt and 8 oz Carapils
1 oz Mount Hood bittering hops (at start of boil)
1 cup brown sugar (at start of boil)
1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon & nutmeg (last 3 minutes of boil)
Recommended liquid yeasts (Wyeast American Ale #1056 or White Lab California Ale)

I went with the White lab because they were out of the Wyeast.

I also know I said earlier that had no volume of pumpkin, this recipe was on the side of the box. The instructions in the box had nothing, I hadn't checked the kit box till I just typed this. I will definitely follow up on how this turned out.

[sullydavid]

I just started a pumpkin ale this past weekend. Been waiting months for fresh pumpkins to come out.

I used about 9 pounds of fresh pumpkin. Cut it up into 1 1/2 inch cubes and baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Then steeped the pumpkin at 150 degrees in about 2 1/2 gallons of water for an hour. After that, brought it to a boil, added extract and everything else was like any other beer.

The credit for these ideas comes from a guy that has been modifying a pumpkin ale recipe every year for several years now. His website is http://www.arachnyd.com/david/pump2002.html

He has now gone on to all-grain, but if you look at the bottom of the page you will see some links to recipes he used when he was still doing extract. I am also an extract brewer. I mainly used the recipe from 1999, however did make some small changes. Probably the biggest change I did to his procedure was to add the spices to recently boiled water (still about 200 degrees I would guess) and then add that whole thing to the primary, he did his in the kettle but I didn't want to lose them.

Hopefully everything works out well, should at least have a good idea of how the flavor worked out by early October.

David did use canned pumpkin for his first few recipes, but reported much better flavor from fresh pumpkin.

Good luck

[sallad]

i finally got around to making my pumpkin ale over the weekend... the process went well, but took long- about 6hrs. here is my recipe:

* 4 lb - Alexanders pale extract syrup
* 1.5 lbs pale DME
* approx 9 lbs of fresh cooking pumpkin (partial mash)
* 3/4 lbs - Crystal malt 40L (partial mash)
* 1/4 lbs - Roasted barley (partial mash)
* 1 oz - Bullion hops (60 min) 9% AA
* 1/4 oz - Willamette hops (20 min) 4.6% AA
* pinch irish moss (20 min)
* spices from 1 of Mom's pumpkin pies (10min)
* spices from 1 of Mom's pumpkin pies (dry hop)
* Repitched yeast from an IPA

i started with an 11lb pumpkin, cut it into about 5 or 6 large chunks, and scraped out the seeds and stringy junk. then, i lightly covered it with cinamon, ginger, ground cloves, nutmeg, and a little honey. baked it in the oven at 350F in a covered turkey pan for 1.5 hrs. at this point, it was very tender and i easily scraped off the skin. i added the pumpkin and grains to 1 gallon of water and heated to about 160 on an electric stove (by the way, i'm getting good at controlling mash temps on an electric stove!) let it sit for about an hour, temp had dropped to about 150F, heated back up to 160F for 20 more min. sparged with 1.5gal at 170F. i strained everything out, so not much pumpkin got into the boil. added my hops and spices as scheduled, now its chugging along nicely!

by the way, Mom's pumpkin pie calls for about 3/4tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp cloves, 1/4tsp nutmeg, and 1/8tsp ginger. depending on how it tastes at transfer, i may add these same quantities of spices to secondary as a dry "hop"

OG was 1045 for 5.5gal. i was hoping for more in the 1050-1055 range, so i guess i should have used another pound or so of DME. this will be a nice amber (hopefully, with more than a tinge of orange...) ale that should come in at about 4.5%ABV.

[Brownbeard]

OK, I am doing mine a week from today. This is what I am thinking.

6 lbs Northern Brewer Golden LME
1 lb Munton's wheat DME
1 oz Tattenger or Saaz 60 min
1 oz Tattenger or Saaz 5 min
4 lb canned pumpkin 10 min (no preservatives)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (primary)
Wyeast American Ale

pretty simple recipe, let me know what you think. I am not sure on the hops, I want a low IBU. I really want pumpkin pie to be the predominant flavor here. I thought about adding spices to the boil too. I have noticed that they get washed out pretty quickly in the bottle. Pardon me if I spell the hops names wrong.

[sullydavid]

My only thought on that recipe is that the spices appear to be on the light side. Of course mine just got transfered to the secondary and I don't really have a personnal experience with how well these spices transfer. I should know in about 2 weeks though :)

[Brownbeard]

On another board, I am being told I need to mini-mash the pumpkin with a pound of 2-row. Any ideas on that?

[sallad]

i was told by several members on this board to mini-mash my pumpkin, so i did. never made a pumpkin ale either way before, so all i can do is let you know how it worked in a few weeks.

[Brownbeard]

Well, never one to argue with experience, I am gonna mini-mash. I was told I could put the water grains and pumpkin in a deep pan and let it sit in the oven at 160 degrees for an hour, then drain and sparge and that would suffice as a mini-mash. Is there any reason I could not just steep in a pot on the stove at 160 for an hour? What would be the difference? As long as I maintain the temp and drain and sparge.

[YamahaXS]

Oven temperatures usually vary about -/+ 15 degrees. Granted, once your water gets up to temp then your mash should vary considerably less. There is the issue of calibration too. Many ovens are not very accurate. No doubt you could calibrate and figure out a way to get your oven to do this, but I think it will be easier to just use more traditional stove top procedures.

[Brownbeard]

OK, this is the recipe I have decided to go with.


1lb American 2-row
30oz Canned pumpkin, no preservatives or spices
4lb Light DME
1lb Wheat DME
1oz Tettnanger 60 mins
2 tblsp Pumpkin Pie Spices
Wyeast American Ale 1056

I am going to mash the 2-row and pumpkin for an hour at 170 degrees. Sparge.
add water to 6 gal
bring to boil
add DME and hops
at 55 minutes, add spices
cool and pitch

[YamahaXS]

I think i will just eat the pumpkin pie and wash it down with beer. :D

[sullydavid]

I transferred my Pumpkin from the primary to the secondary and was able to get a good bottle or so extra to taste. Very good and the spices were strong but tasty.

[Brownbeard]

So, are you going with the dry hop?

[sullydavid]

I didn't dry hop.....just went with the ones in the boil....about the lightest about of hops I have ever used. Didn't want them to overwhelm the pumpkin flavor.

[Brownbeard]

I meant are you going to "dry hop" the spices. I suppose that is not the proper term, but...

[kevin]

I brewed a pumpkin ale yesterday and I added my spices at 2 minutes before the end of the boil. It tasted good in the tester but I might have squeeze out to much flavor from the bag holding the pumpkins. I used a fresh 9lb pumpkin, bake at 350 for 1.5 hours.

Do you think you could serve it with a squirt of whipcream on top?

[sullydavid]

With my spices I boiled them in a seperate pan while I was cooling down my wort. Only boiled them a couple minutes and then added them to the primary.

[Brownbeard]

Yeah, I thought I would add at the end of the boil, maybe 5 minutes tops. I was just wondering about adding to the secondary as well. I know when I used corriander and orange in another brew, they washed out in the bottle pretty quickly. This pumpkin ale is not going to last long though, and I don't want to over spice it.

[sullydavid]

The reason I didn't add mine in the boil was that I didn't want them to get stuck in with all the gunk from the cold-break. I figured straight to the primary (or secondary for that matter) was the best way to get an exact measurement.

If only I hadn't been drinking so many IPA's while brewing :)

[sallad]

tasted my pumpkin at transfer on saturday... slight pumpkin taste, spices are a little more noticable. the overwhelming flavor was of the roasted barley- very coffee-like. not much hop flavor, but a bit bitter.

overall, a very good beer. not a good pumpkin ale though. i'd use much less, or even none, of the roasted barely next time. (i only used about 4oz this time). i think i'm going to leave it as is- no dry hopped spices.

[Professor Frink]

Finally bottled last Saturday, it tasted quite good, with a very subtle pumpkin pie flavor. The spices were a little low, but did not dry hop. I'll check again in two weeks, but I think it's gonna be a winner....

[mortong]

nm

[Brownbeard]

Just brewed mine tonight. It smelled great going into the primary. I used the turkey fryer for the first time tonight, I really need to get a wort chiller, it took me an hour to get it to 70. After running out of ice, I put the lid on and set it in the deep freeze for 20 minutes, that got it to 73, I pitched there.

[ray m]

Brownbeard....I have a spare 20' copper wort chiller to sell. It's pretty much ready to roll...you just have to reshape it a little to fit your kettle to your liking. $15 + shipping. Innerested?

[Brownbeard]

I am already working on building one, need to find some time. Thanks for the offer.

[mortong]

Here's my batch - bubbling away happily for the past two days. I'll let you know how it turns out when it's done.

7# Alexanders Pale Malt Extract
1/2# English Crystal Malt
1/2# Maltodextrin
1/2oz Perle Hops (30 min)
1oz Cascade Hops (45min)
3# Libby's canned pumpkin
4 tbs Pumpkin spice (mixture of Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, mace and cloves)
Wyeast 1056

Calculated IBU = 12.3%

I added the crystal malt and 1.5# of pumpkin, to about 3gallons of water, then heated to a boil. Added Maltodextrin and Malt Extract when it hit boil.

30 minutes into the boil, I added Perle. At 45 minutes I added the Cascade. At 50 minutes, I added the pumpkin spices in a tea bag.

At the end of the boil I added the remaining 1.5# of pumpkin.

Cooled, added it to fermenter and topped to 5 gallons. Pitched yeast and that's that.

OG = (arg, I just realized I forgot to write it down. I think it was about 1.060). Note to self - always write it down immediately.

I figure I probably didn't need the maltodextrin, but we'll see how it turns out with the extra mouthfeel.

I also left the the teabag with the spices in the primary fermenter. Was this a bad idea?

Geoff

[mortong]

BTW Ray M. I'm interested in the wort chiller if you've still got it. I've been thinking about making that investment soon. =)

Geoff

[ray m]

Thanks Mortong...I was having correspondance with MCarlson74 a couple months or so ago because he was gonna buy it. I jumped the gun and offered it to Brownbeard (after not hearing from MC in a few weeks), before PM'ing MC to see if he still wanted it. It sounds like he's still interested. If, however, the plan falls through for some reason, you're next on the list. Sorry.:( I can, however, give you instructions on making your own if you don't have that available to you.

[kevin]

I moved my pumpkin into the 2dary yesterday, SG was 1.050 yesterday I had a gravity of 1.011.
The taste was a bit dry but a very tasty ale with little hints of pumpkin blended very nicely with cinnamon. "almost like pie"
I was worried it might be too pumpkiny because I squeeze the bag the pumkin was in. I had 1/2 tsp each of cinn and ginger, I added 1 whole clove and 1 tsp pure vanilla extract at the last 5 minutes of the boil.

[mortong]

Originally posted by ray m
Thanks Mortong...I was having correspondance with MCarlson74 a couple months or so ago because he was gonna buy it. I jumped the gun and offered it to Brownbeard (after not hearing from MC in a few weeks), before PM'ing MC to see if he still wanted it. It sounds like he's still interested. If, however, the plan falls through for some reason, you're next on the list. Sorry.:( I can, however, give you instructions on making your own if you don't have that available to you.

I'm sure I can come up with some instructions somewhere. I'll let you know if I have trouble though. Thanks!

Geoff

[sallad]

bottled my pumpkin a couple days ago.. finished up about 4.8%ABV. fairly dark, with a nice spice taste to it. pumpkin is showing through more, and the "coffee" flavors from the roasted barley has mellowed. maybe not the perfect pumpkin ale, but a very good beer for a first try!

[KMalt]

I'm considering adding pumpkin to my next batch of English pale ale. Ingredients for this recipe include 3.3 pounds of Gold malt extract, 3.3 pounds of Amber malt extract, 1/ lb. Crystal 20L, 1oz. Willamette bittering hops, 1 oz. Fuggle aroma hops. Any thoughts on whether pumpkin will work with this recipe?

[Professor Frink]

Well, my 1st pumpkin ale is ready, and turned out much better than expected. It has an extremely sweet fruity character unlike any other batch I've already made. There is definitely a pumpkin flavor, less mellow than I'd like, but not offensive in any way. I'm not getting much from the spices, I added those to my grain bag that had all the pumpkin in there already, so I'm wondering if I should have just chucked them in the boil. I'm going to try this recipe 1 more time this fall with fresh instead of canned pumpkin, but I'm very happy with my 1st try.

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm going to review this thread, compare other recipes before my next attempt, I'm not ruling out radical changes.

[Brownbeard]

Here is a link to my Pumpkin Ale recipe. It was really good going into bottles, we will see how it is when carbonated.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?item=3877

[mortong]

I just bottled mine last night. The spices are pretty strong, but not mouth-puckeringly so. I'm sure they'll mellow out a bit more with aging (to T-day at the latest).

I left the spices in a tea bag during the last ten minutes of the boil, then dumped it into the primary fermenter. We'll see if it mellows out enough, otherwise I'll adjust my addition of spices.

Otherwise, it's pretty good though. I can't wait to crack a carbonated, cooled bottle - not just a hydrometer sample.

Geoff

[sullydavid]

I just had my first pumpkin a couple of days ago. The spices in mine were strong.....overpowered the pumpkin for now. It has only been in the bottle for about 12 days (ended up with 49 bottles, I gave into temptation when I saw the one sitting there all alone) so the carbonation was still a little low. Overall I am happy with the results, now if I can just be patient and wait until Thanksgiving (or at least close).