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Most Sincere Pumpkin Ale

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Brewed:9/26/20 Kegged:10/10/20

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 45 min 11.4 IBUs 16.1339974 1.055 1.010 6.0 %
Actuals 1.059 1.009 6.6 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer 21 A 1.03 - 1.11 1.005 - 1.025 0 - 70 5 - 50 2 - 3 2.5 - 12 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Fresh Pumpkin 3 lbs 19.12
Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 10 lbs 63.73
Caramel Malt - 120L (Briess) 12.8 oz 5.1
Carapils 6-Row (Briess) 7.04 oz 2.8
Wheat, Flaked 6.88 oz 2.74
Biscuit Malt 2.72 oz 1.08
Chocolate Malt (Crisp) 1.6 oz 0.64
Brown Sugar, Light 8 oz 3.19
Molasses 4 oz 1.59

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 4

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
PH 5.2 Stabilizer 1.00 tbsp 60 min Mash Water Agent
White Labs Nutrients 1.00 Items 10 min Boil Other
Whirlfloc Tablet 1.20 Items 5 min Boil Fining
Pie Spice 0.50 oz 1 min Boil Spice

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Safale American (US-05) DCL/Fermentis 77% 59°F - 75°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Reddish orange in color, creamy tan head, sweet and spicy, rich and unique. Like a New England fall afternoon.

(5 gallons, grain and extract)
Ingredients:

2 to 3 lbs. pumpkin
0.5 lb. two-row pale malt
0.5 lb. malted wheat
0.5 lb. medium crystal malt, 40° Lovibond
5 lbs. unhopped amber malt extract (or 4 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
1 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 57 min.
0.5 oz. of pie spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, cardamom, ginger in cheesecloth bag
Ale yeast (such as Wyeast 1056, American Ale)
1 cup light dry malt for priming

Step by Step:

Cut in half, clean out, and bake one pumpkin at 300° F for one hour or until flesh becomes mushy. Crush two-row and crystal malts and malted wheat. Mash the malt and the pumpkin together in 5 qts. of water at 152° F for 55 minutes, then raise the temperature to 165° F for five minutes. Run off and sparge with 5 qts. of water at 170° F, gathering (hopefully) about 2 gals. of sweet wort.

To the kettle add malt extract (or dry malt), brown sugar, and molasses. Bring to a boil, then add Mt. Hood pellets. Boil 55 minutes. Add pie spices in a bag and boil just long enough to mix them in (two to three minutes). Remove the bag.

Remove the kettle from the heat, chill, and top off to 5.25 gals. in your primary fermenter. Ferment with a clean ale yeast, prime with light dry malt, and bottle condition cool (50° to 55° F) for a month. Serve at cellar temperature to allow the blend of flavors to truly express themselves.
Notes:

Pumpkin: Avoid using canned pumpkin pie filling. It is already spiced, often, and is laden with preservatives and artificial products (although if you can find organic, all-natural, no-preservative, unspiced canned pumpkin, by all means use it). It is important to use a partial mash with this recipe; I can't figure out any other good, efficient way to use the pumpkin and get anything out of it (I'm open to suggestions!).

Malts: All-grain brewers can adapt this recipe to a standard "amber ale" grain bill, but be sure to include a little malted wheat for better head retention. Extract brewers may have trouble using the pumpkin unless they do a partial mash as described above.

Spices: The biggest problem with this brew is the proper ratio of spice to beer. It is very easy to overdo, especially with strong-flavored spices such as ginger and clove. I have arrived at a dose of only 0.5 oz. total, which will not seem like enough as you brew but will be noticeable in the mature beer.

My personal blend is "heavy" on nutmeg and cinnamon and very light on ginger and clove, just enough to indicate their presence. IÕve found that leaving the spices in the fermenting beer tends to become overwhelming, hence the use of a bag or some other device to steep the spices in the boiling wort but then remove them.

The commercial "Pumpkin Pie Spice" mixtures available on the grocery store shelf seem to me a little too gingery/clovey, so I make my own blend. Also, I have better luck with larger pieces: crushed or shaved whole cinnamon stick, allspice berries and nutmegs, whole cloves, and small pieces of fresh ginger. rather than any finely ground forms.

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Brew Day – Pumpkin Ale PA-1

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Slicing pumpkins

Slicing pumpkins

Brewed on Sunday, Setpember 29, 3013…sorry for the lag on posting this.  It was a lot of fun.  Thanks to Larry, Dave, Zach & Josh for the input and special thanks to Josh for the pumpkins and Larry for the homegrown hops!

So here is the slicing…

 

Baking pumpkins

Baking pumpkins

 

 

and the baking.  I placed the halves flat-side down in about 1/2″ of water and baked at 375(?) for about 45 min.  They came out nice and soft, so It was easy to scoop out the meat.

 

 

Baked pumpkin ready for mash

Pumpkin and lots of rice hulls in the mash

Pumpkin and lots of rice hulls in the mash

Baked pumpkin ready for mash

I added 2 pounds of rice hulls because I was afraid the mash would be very sticky.  It seemed like a LOT of hulls, but the sparging went very well.
I took a gravity reading at the end of the mash and it was at the target gravity…but I knew the mash out/2nd sparge would dilute it down, so I added 1 pound of extra light DME to the boil.  Next time I’ll try to stretch the mash out further to get better gravity.

the Boil

the Boil

 

90 minute boil…

 

 

 

 

Larry's home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

Larry’s home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

 

Fresh (well, they’ve been frozen for a couple of weeks) homegrown Mt. Hood hops from Larry.

 

 

 

Larry's home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

Larry's home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

 

 

 

 

Larry's home-grown Mt. Hood fresh whole hops

_AMT4781 [1600x1200]Spices added to the boil.

 

 

 

 

Recipe as it was brewed (pretty much):

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
6 gal 90 min 18.0 IBUs 8.2 SRM 1.060 1.014 6.0 %
Actuals 1.041 1.01 4.1 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer 21 A 1.03 - 1.11 1.005 - 1.025 0 - 70 5 - 50 2 - 3 2.5 - 12 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Fresh Pumpkin 5.004 lbs 27.35
Rice Hulls 8.11 oz 2.77
Pale Malt (2 Row) US 9.37 lbs 51.21
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 8.75 oz 2.99
Wheat, Flaked 8.11 oz 2.77
Munich Malt 7.8 oz 2.66
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L 7.05 oz 2.41
Munich Malt - 20L 7.05 oz 2.41
Extra Light Dry Extract 15.87 oz 5.42

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Mt. Hood 0.49 oz 60 min Boil Leaf 6
Perle 0.49 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 8

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Whirlfloc Tablet 1.20 Items 5 min Boil Fining

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash In 152°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Reddish orange in color, creamy tan head, sweet and spicy, rich and unique. Like a New England fall afternoon.

(5 gallons, grain and extract)
Ingredients:

2 to 3 lbs. pumpkin
0.5 lb. two-row pale malt
0.5 lb. malted wheat
0.5 lb. medium crystal malt, 40° Lovibond
5 lbs. unhopped amber malt extract (or 4 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
1 oz. Mt. Hood hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 57 min.
0.5 oz. of pie spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, cardamom, ginger in cheesecloth bag
Ale yeast (such as Wyeast 1056, American Ale)
1 cup light dry malt for priming

Step by Step:

Cut in half, clean out, and bake one pumpkin at 300° F for one hour or until flesh becomes mushy. Crush two-row and crystal malts and malted wheat. Mash the malt and the pumpkin together in 5 qts. of water at 152° F for 55 minutes, then raise the temperature to 165° F for five minutes. Run off and sparge with 5 qts. of water at 170° F, gathering (hopefully) about 2 gals. of sweet wort.

To the kettle add malt extract (or dry malt), brown sugar, and molasses. Bring to a boil, then add Mt. Hood pellets. Boil 55 minutes. Add pie spices in a bag and boil just long enough to mix them in (two to three minutes). Remove the bag.

Remove the kettle from the heat, chill, and top off to 5.25 gals. in your primary fermenter. Ferment with a clean ale yeast, prime with light dry malt, and bottle condition cool (50° to 55° F) for a month. Serve at cellar temperature to allow the blend of flavors to truly express themselves.
Notes:

Pumpkin: Avoid using canned pumpkin pie filling. It is already spiced, often, and is laden with preservatives and artificial products (although if you can find organic, all-natural, no-preservative, unspiced canned pumpkin, by all means use it). It is important to use a partial mash with this recipe; I can't figure out any other good, efficient way to use the pumpkin and get anything out of it (I'm open to suggestions!).

Malts: All-grain brewers can adapt this recipe to a standard "amber ale" grain bill, but be sure to include a little malted wheat for better head retention. Extract brewers may have trouble using the pumpkin unless they do a partial mash as described above.

Spices: The biggest problem with this brew is the proper ratio of spice to beer. It is very easy to overdo, especially with strong-flavored spices such as ginger and clove. I have arrived at a dose of only 0.5 oz. total, which will not seem like enough as you brew but will be noticeable in the mature beer.

My personal blend is "heavy" on nutmeg and cinnamon and very light on ginger and clove, just enough to indicate their presence. IÕve found that leaving the spices in the fermenting beer tends to become overwhelming, hence the use of a bag or some other device to steep the spices in the boiling wort but then remove them.

The commercial "Pumpkin Pie Spice" mixtures available on the grocery store shelf seem to me a little too gingery/clovey, so I make my own blend. Also, I have better luck with larger pieces: crushed or shaved whole cinnamon stick, allspice berries and nutmegs, whole cloves, and small pieces of fresh ginger. rather than any finely ground forms.

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file