Pumpkin Ale

[pilgrimhudd]

Where can I find a flippin Pumpkin?

Hi all, quite fancy brewing a pumpkin ale for halloween (and my birthday) how does this recipe sound?

7 lb (3.18 kg) Maris Otter
3 lb (1.36 kg) Light Munich
2 lb (907 g) Aromatic malt
14 oz (400 g) Caramunich malt

8 oz (230 g) dark brown sugar at 90 minutes
5 lb (2.27 kg) pumpkin or butternut squash)at 90 minutes
0.55 oz (16 g) Northern Brewer hops (pellet) at 60 minutes
5 tsp ground Saigon cinnamon at 5 minutes
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg at 5 minutes
1 tsp fresh ground ginger (or 1 tsp dry) at 5 minutes

3 tsp vanilla extract at secondary

White Labs WLP002 English Ale yeast ( I will probably use Windsor or something similiar)

If i use butternut squash how much difference in taste will there be?

Cheers!

 

[JonathanMSE]

You might be able to get canned pumpkin at a store that sells American food (possibly a big Tesco or even an Asian food store)

Failing that Amazon will have it

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Amazon! Never thought of them!

 

[foxy]

I would just use the butternut squash, very little difference in taste to a pumpkin, in fact we call them butternut pumpkin here. I lifted some swede the other day and they are so sweet I thought of using some in a beer, but I prefer to eat them.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Well the pumpkin was bleddy expensive even on Amazon.....

 

[Cwrw666]

I don't imagine fresh pumpkin would be available here until September as that's when they're ready to be picked!
Use butternut squash instead, recipes I've seen say you can use either.

Or just wait til september to brew it.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I don't imagine fresh pumpkin would be available here until September as that's when they're ready to be picked!
Use butternut squash instead, recipes I've seen say you can use either.

Or just wait til september to brew it.

I just assumed that as we can send people to space we could get a year round pumpkin.

 

[Crappyfish]

Where can I find a flippin Pumpkin?

Hi all, quite fancy brewing a pumpkin ale for halloween (and my birthday) how does this recipe sound?

7 lb (3.18 kg) Maris Otter
3 lb (1.36 kg) Light Munich
2 lb (907 g) Aromatic malt
14 oz (400 g) Caramunich malt

8 oz (230 g) dark brown sugar at 90 minutes
5 lb (2.27 kg) pumpkin or butternut squash)at 90 minutes
0.55 oz (16 g) Northern Brewer hops (pellet) at 60 minutes
5 tsp ground Saigon cinnamon at 5 minutes
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg at 5 minutes
1 tsp fresh ground ginger (or 1 tsp dry) at 5 minutes

3 tsp vanilla extract at secondary

White Labs WLP002 English Ale yeast ( I will probably use Windsor or something similiar)

If i use butternut squash how much difference in taste will there be?

Cheers!

Sainsburys sell canned pumpkin it's unsweetened I had a couple to make pies with I binned em. It's OK but don't really taste of pumpkin.

 

[user 18729]

I’d chuck your pumpkin in for the last 10 or even 5 minutes to preserve some flavour. I love a pumpkin beer, tried one at the Falmouth beer festival a few years ago and it was fantastic, not made one myself though

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I’d chuck your pumpkin in for the last 10 or even 5 minutes to preserve some flavour. I love a pumpkin beer, tried one at the Falmouth beer festival a few years ago and it was fantastic, not made one myself though

Yes I wasnt going to boil it for 90, I saw another recipe which pre roasted the pumpkin with some brown sugar which sounded nice.

 

[BeerCat]

Sainsburys sell tinned pumpkin. I have brewed two pumpkin beers which were both awful. Mashing it was a nightmare as well even with loads of oat husks.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Sainsburys sell tinned pumpkin. I have brewed two pumpkin beers which were both awful. Mashing it was a nightmare as well even with loads of oat husks.

Sounds like I'm on to a winner here!

 

[Cwrw666]

Recipes I've seen want the pumpkin to be roasted which totally changes the flavour - so tinned pumpkin would be pretty useless.

 

[Clint]

I chopped the pumpkin into big slices,dusted with brown sugar and cinnamon and I think ginger..then roasted. I scooped the flesh from the skin,bunged the log into the fv with a kg of malt extract and a Cooper's English bitter kit. It was kegged in a plastic pb. It wasn't brilliant but it was definitely drinkable.

 

[BeerCat]

Sounds like I'm on to a winner here!

The tinned pumpkin was roasted and i have used butternut squash as well. Both yielded very little ppg, So little i wondered why its even added. Have read its best to make a spice tea and add to taste rather than throwing spices in but opinion as always varies greatly. It is correct the tinned stuff is pretty tasteless but i found the real thing to be similar. Perhaps the wrong type of pumpkin. The spices definitely did not blend in mine in the boil. The beer tasted insipid but i have had lovely commercial pumpkin beer. David Heath has a recipe.

 

[Rmr9]

When it comes to pumpkin beers the pumpkin itself doesn’t contribute a lot in terms of flavors. If you have a good spice regimen, you can forego the pumpkin altogether and end up with a really great “pumpkin” beer. Maybe add a pound or a half pound of your base malt to make up for any fermentables that would’ve come from the pumpkin.

 

[krispn]

I’d agree it’s the spices which add the flavour, all that pumpkin does is make the whole mash laborious! I brewed a
brown ale recipe a few years back for the good lady and didn’t bother with the gourd and just did a spice addition... Another alternative is make a spice ‘tea’ and add that to the finished beer you can add more to taste to get the right balance. As @Rmr9 says the additional base malt would be wiser unless you really wanna add pumpkin/squash.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I believe the pumpkins to use are not the normal Halloween ones but more like a butternut squash, so just use butternut squash.
I have done one and roasted the cubed squash (2kg) with some brown sugar and then put in a muslin bag in the boiler.

 

[yrhendystu]

I believe the pumpkins to use are not the normal Halloween ones but more like a butternut squash, so just use butternut squash.
I have done one and roasted the cubed squash (2kg) with some brown sugar and then put in a muslin bag in the boiler.

This, Halloween ones are grown for their size not for their taste, the eating ones are a lot smaller and often green or white.

Also to echo others we buy canned pumpkin from Amazon. We freeze it in ice cube trays for the dog.
Mrs Stu says it's about 3 cans for £8 as they are imported from the US.

Incidentally, I carve a load of pumpkins every year. Last year I dumped all the "guts" in the garden and a month or so it finally started to grow. Wont be ready for Halloween but the leaves are apparently edible so I wonder if they could be brewed?

 

[krispn]

I’ve taken the plunge after saying no pumpkin needed in a pumpkin beer and brewed up an amber ale with ‘pumpkin‘ today. Just transferred it into the fv - I added 1.5kg of roasted butternut squash during the boil and some cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger 5 minutes from the end. Based off a Beer and Brewing pumpkin ale article/recipe and fermenting with wlp002. I‘ll make a spice tea and adjust to tase post fermentation if needed!