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Pumpkin in the mash or the boil?

Steampunk

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Reading extreme brewing and there was a recipe for pumpkin beer with pumpkin in the mash not the boil. How do you guys do it, do you toss it in the mash tun?

I always thought additions like this went in the boil.  Wouldn't this sort of thing effect the pH of the mash?
 
When i brewed my Apple ale they were crushed and put in after the boil. 15 min at 180-200deg. Boiling fruit can cloud the beer not sure about pumpkin.
 
You can do either or both.

You can use a can of pumpkin pie filling (or a portion thereof) in the mash with some roasted pumpkin in the boil. Not sure about clouding the beer but I think that comes from pectin haze which is primarily from berry-type fruits, not pumpkins. Not 100% sure about that one, though.
 
Pumpkin ale is a low hopped pale ale with pumpkin pie spices.  Pumpkin is not a necessary ingredient.

I made a pumpkin ale using a can or two in the mash.  Iodine test was never satisfactory (starches were left behind) and the brew was cloudy. 

The spices make it taste like pumpkin, not the pumpkin.
 
Maybe I missed it but you need to bake your pumpkin/squash at 350F until tender and then run it thru blender/food processor until pureed and then mash. This is necessary to release fermentables during mash. It's like any other adjunct that needs to be precooked. Remember, you can't taste the pumpkin/squash, just the spices!
 
I disagree.  I roast two pie pumpkins (around 10 lbs for a 8 gallon batch) for 1 - 1.5 hours then add to the beginning of the mash (1 pumpkin cubed, the other cubed & smashed, skin & pulp).  I spice it very lightly.  The pumpkin is very detectable in the resultant beer (both flavor and aroma).
 
As far as I know commercial pumpkin ales get their flavor from spices, not pumpkin.
In my experiment I used canned pumpkin (a can with a one item ingredient list). Perhaps that was the problem.

A friend of mine makes a shot he calls 'carrot cake'.  He layers Buttershots, some cinnamon liquor, and Baily's Irish cream in a shot glass.  It tastes just like carrot cake.
 
I'm just wondering if it's a matter of semantics. I just quickly checked a few breweries that make pumpkin ales and they all have pumpkin somewhere in the process, either boil or mash. Check Southern Tier Pumking, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale and Great Lakes Brewery (Canada) Pumpkin Ale. All list pumpkin as an ingredient. Grand River Brewing, where I brew, has pumpkin in their beer as well.

I'm just wondering if you're talking about the flavour only portion of the beer and the fact that it doesn't come from pumpkin but comes from spices. The breweries ARE using pumpkin in the beer. Whether or not it's contributing anything may be open for discussion but it is in there.
 
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