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Who's gonna brew a Pumpkin Ale this year?

philm63

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Canned or fresh/baked pumpkin?

Store-bought spice mix or home-spun mixture?

Honey and/or Maple Syrup?

Brown Sugar?

What's the best one you've ever made or had, and why?
 
http://blueribbonbrews.com/photos/ingredients/

I grew the neck pumpkin for the Zymurgy cover article for a 'liquid pumpkin pie' recipe.  It was fun to own the entire process.  Five pounds pumpkin in the boil and spices in at under five minutes. 
 
I'm going to do a Pumpking clone using canned pumpkin roasted with brown sugar prior to mash (don't want to have to wait for real pumpkins to come in to season) want this to age and be ready for Halloween.
 
I was actually thinking about it.
I'm not a fan of pumpkin or other unusual styles of beer but what the heck, it's for the holidays.
I want to get going on it soon so that it can age a bit before Thanksgiving.

Now all I need to do is pick a recipe.
 
      When you mash pumpkins you will not get much flavor from it. Its not my thing but the best I tasted was 75% frozen squash & 25% canned pumpkin with spices added.

I attached a instruction sheet from Stove Toppers Flying Dog Clone to get your recipie moving in the right direction. There are no weights mentioned, but you should be able to come up with something good! This sheet is on the web. At least you can get an idea of how to handle the spices.
 

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I've tried mashing in varying amounts of canned or baked pumpkin to raise the gravity above that predicted from the grain, and to my surprise the starchy gourd didn't appear to have much of an effect. Then again my efficiency is all over the place with my Corona mill, so it's hard to tell.  I wanted to see what effect the pumpkin had without spices, and my conclusion was not much.  I make a few with baked pumpkin, and the more I used the cloudier it got.  Canned pumpkin came out clear if I remember correctly. That's not to say that it didn't add to the flavor. It did. But not as much as the spices.

I wonder what would happen if you made two otherwise identical batches of spiced ale, one with pumpkin and one without.  I just might try it. Then again I probably won't. I've no use for ten gallons of spiced ale. One batch is enough.

That baked pumpkin ended up in the freezer in 1# bags, and many of those bags ended up in brews. Just adding a pound into the mash for the hey of it. Some came out quite yummy, though I doubt the pumpkin had much to do with it. One was super good.  It was a dark ale. 8.5# pale malt, 8oz crystal, 1oz each black patent, chocolate malt and roasted barley, and of course one pound of baked pumpkin, all mashed at 150.  Tettenanger hops 1oz for 60, .25 oz 10 min and dry hop. Safeale US-05. SG 1.046 F.G 1.007.  I bet that one would taste pretty good with a bit of clove and nutmeg, and maybe a bit more pumpkin. Canned has more flavor.
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
I've no use for ten gallons of spiced ale. One batch is enough.
You have done more experimenting than I have with pumpkins. I got disappointed quickly when realized that mashing pumpkins wasn't going to produce a quality tasting beer without pie spices. I have natural reaction to spice beers...spitting it back into the glass and dumping it out. Maybe for the halloween season I will brew a Black Cat Ale.
I think a Black Cat Ale would market as well as a pumpkin beer!
 
Alright folks; what is your secret spice mix and how much do you use?

When do you add it? 5 minutes left in the boil? Knockout? Primary? Secondary? Bottling Bucket/Keg?

Pre-made pumpkin pie spice mix or your own blend? Do you make a tincture for the secondary? Something like a vodka or other neutral spirit with some spices mixed in and aged for a while?

My present spice recipe looks something like this:

I make a tincture consisting of an once of aged rum (the good stuff, not one of those dime-store phonies...) and a mixture of freshly ground nutmeg, crushed cinnamon stick, freshly ground allspice berries, and powdered ginger - (about a teaspoon-full of the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and a half teaspoon of the allspice) - mix it in a small container that you can seal (I use an old White Labs yeast vile) and let it sit for a week of so. I then do the following:

With 10 minutes left in the boil, toss two cinnamon sticks into the kettle.
With 5 minutes left in the boil, toss in the following:
½ tsp powdered ginger
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
¼ tsp freshly ground allspice
In the secondary, add 1 Tbsp “Pumpkin Spice Tincture” (liquid only) and ½ tsp vanilla extract to secondary vessel then rack beer on top and place in fridge for 7 days at 65°F, then package as usual.

I've presently got a tincture I made last year (made too much on my first batch so just put the rest away...) Got to be 2 or 3 tablespoons of 1-year-old goodness in there. Thinking of adding some to the secondary as a final adjustment.

Just looking for ideas on custom spice blends - what're you folks doing these days for the pumpkin spice?
 
We make a great pumpkin cheese cake a couple times each fall/winter, and I copied that medley of spices, in reduced amounts, and pitched in final five minutes. 

Googling up various pie and desert recipes may give you some ideas, and some norms to go by.

Some of those spices can go bitter and astringent if boiled too long. 
 
I know I am late with this info. McCormick Spice make a Pumpkin Pie spice that is available at Walmart Super stores
 
I just made a pumpkin ale where I added a liquid mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger to the secondary.  This is my first time making it so I hope it comes out good.
 
Have done 2
One was done with an old ale recipe. Made it in 2012 and am just cracking it open now.
DAMN FINE!!!!!
I attached the recipe in case anyone wants to stash some bottles for a year...
 

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I made a non spiced pumpkin ESB. The color is nice, the flavor is nothing crazy, and if served with a sugar rimmed glass, it's a pretty good spiced beer for those looking for that.

I used a variety of winter squashes for it, acorn, delicatata, butternut, sugar pumpkin, all roasted, and then steeped in runnings while the kettle heated to boil. It added a nice color, but not much flavor to note.
Full recipe here:
http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/271687/extra-special-bitter-pumpkin-sb
AO
 
We did one this year that turned out nicely.  Used an American Amber as a base with store bought pumpkin and a mix of store and additional home spun spices in the primary.  Also had 5 lbs of honey in the fermenter as well.  ABV was around 8.5%.  Lots of spice and honey aromas and flavors in the final product.  We'll probably do this twice next year.
 
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