A note for your pumpkin ale brewers

[JayShaw91]

If you're adding pumpkin right to your mash, then you best have some rice hulls in there. My sparge was like trying to drain water through hardened cement. Not good times...

I'd honestly suggest two lbs of hulls. This was really, really bad.

Just a note for ya'll, since it is the season for pumpkin beers.

[brewwitch]

What do the rice hulls do to facilitate sparging?

[markaberrant]

They help set the grain bed (ie; creates a filter). Otherwise your manifold or braid will plug up with all the pumpkin goo.

[JayShaw91]

Mark just said it best :)

Brewwitch, if you do any wheat beers you'll want these, too. The wheat can make the sparge thicker, so your valve, though wide open, just trickles out the runnings.

It then becomes a pain. You need hot water to loosen things up, you stir it, then vorlauft AGAIN, drain, pray... lather, rinse, repeat.

[Mill Rat]

Brewwitch, since you said you liked English styles, you'll want those rice hulls for a oatmeal stout. Or any recipe with rye. If you want to do an oat stout and avoid the stick oatmeal mess, Fawcett make an oat malt that has hulls to put barley to shame. It sparges beautifully.

[psychodad]

How necessary is it to mash the pumpkin? I've been looking into a pumpkin ale and there seems to be little compelling reasons to add the pumpkin to the mash. In fact from what I'm reading in Designing Great Beers, I may not even put it in the boil and just add it to the secondary.

Has anyone tried mashing and not mashing and compared the results?

[brewwitch]

Hmmm Good question. I just brewed a pumpkin porter. (I am a newbie mind you... so this was my first) I first cooked the pumpkin then pureed it.
Then put the pumpkin broth, pumkin, some more water and malts and mashed them. The T was 150F. From what I understand that is to convert the starches in the pumpkin to sugars. (Also why a 6 row malt was used)

My sources for this are 1)Extreme Brewing &
2)
http://brewsupplies.com/mashing_temperatures.htm
Alpha & Beta-amylase equally active.. so starhces are broken down to
sugars and non fermentable dextrins

[beerking]

Rice hulls are also highly recommended for decoction mashing. The hulls create space in the mash, and keep it from compacting. Boiling the thick mash during decoction will boil off most of the air that is in the mash portion being boiled, compacting the whole thing.

[deafcone]

I cut the pumpkin into cubes and roast it on the oven til it gets soft, then steep it in water with grains. I don't boil it with wort, add it to secondary or leave it in primary. I've done all three and there was no difference. Pumpkin adds a little flavor but mostly just adds color. Thereal flavor comes from the spices you use. I add pumpkin pie spice with 5 min left in boil, then I add pumpkin pie spice to the priming sugar when I bottle. turns out great that way.
Here's a link to a pumpkin ale recipe on BYO site. It includes brown sugar and mollases and a mash for the pumpkin and grains. It's an extract recipe. I'll be making it next.

DC

[JayShaw91]

DC, ya left out the linky :)

[psychodad]

Adding the pumpkin pie spice at the end of the boil is what I was thinking I'd do. But how much?

I like the idea of adding it to the priming sugar as well. How much do you use then?

Here are links to two BYO recipes. The first recipe I've seen verbatim several other places. The second one is one I'm thinking of doing this year as all grain and maybe tweaking a bit. They have a third but it didn't look all that interesting. I don't know which one deafcone intended to post.

http://www.byo.com/recipe/191.html
http://www.byo.com/recipe/1337.html

[laneto]

An easy way to get pumpkin is to use Libby's pumpkin in a can. It's pure pumpkin, no additives. I usually use 1.81 lbs of it and put it into the boil and when you cool and transfer, it remains at the bottom of your kettle. This seems to add a nice pumpkin flavor for me.

[vw addict]

You could just make it easy and not make a pumpkin beer. I have NEVER had a pumpkin beer I could take more than a sip or two of, even the DFH and Brooklyn.

[Carl Spakler]

You could just make it easy and not make a pumpkin beer. I have NEVER had a pumpkin beer I could take more than a sip or two of, even the DFH and Brooklyn.

Perfect, one less person to worry about buying the stuff in the store we like while we wait for the homebrew to ferment. :D

[Mad Scientist]

You could just make it easy and not make a pumpkin beer. I have NEVER had a pumpkin beer I could take more than a sip or two of, even the DFH and Brooklyn.

I am in the same boat...I have no real appreciation for pumkin beers, but I can finish the bottle that I start.

I will say that I was juding at a competition this past weekend, and had a very fine pumpikin ale that was beautifiully balanced. We gave it good marks.

[beerking]

I recently had a bottle of New Holland's Icabod. Great stuff. Good, well balanced pumpkin character, and NO SPICES. It is actually a pumpkin ale, not a pumpkin pie ale.

[deafcone]

Adding the pumpkin pie spice at the end of the boil is what I was thinking I'd do. But how much?

I like the idea of adding it to the priming sugar as well. How much do you use then?

Here are links to two BYO recipes. The first recipe I've seen verbatim several other places. The second one is one I'm thinking of doing this year as all grain and maybe tweaking a bit. They have a third but it didn't look all that interesting. I don't know which one deafcone intended to post.

http://www.byo.com/recipe/191.html
http://www.byo.com/recipe/1337.html


LOL Sorry bout the brain fart. The 191.html link is the one I was referring to.


DC

[psychodad]

You could just make it easy and not make a pumpkin beer. I have NEVER had a pumpkin beer I could take more than a sip or two of, even the DFH and Brooklyn.
Sorry about that. I was brewing it for my wife who enjoys them. What should I brew this week?

[vw addict]

Sorry about that. I was brewing it for my wife who enjoys them. What should I brew this week?

You don't have to be sorry, I was merely stating my opinion. I would make up for it by brewing a crazy Imperial Stout, just not too crazy so you can drink it in a few months.;)

[psychodad]

My lhbs was out of rice hulls but I'm giving it a go right now. Fighting my first stuck sparge.

[JayShaw91]

Good times, huh psychodad? :D

[psychodad]

It never really stuck, but it was painfully slow. My OG was a few points lower than what I expected. But I think it will be a pretty good beer Thanksgiving day.

[JayShaw91]

Same thing happened to me. REALLY slow sparge and missed my gravity by quite a bit. Still got something that is adequate for a SG (I forget what it was!)