As fall is getting closer and closer. I keep looking into brewing my own pumpkin beer. It will be my first and I wanna try and All Grain, though not opposed to an extract. Wanna get some ideas and maybe some tips on brewing one.
Which do you prefer? Actual Pumpkin or Canned?
What spices have you used?
Any malt extracts/AG recipes you prefer?
Just trying to get some info from actual home-brewers.
I’m a complete novice but I’ve used canned pumpkin 2 years in a row and had excellent beer, First year was Extract, 2nd year All Grain.
Used a 28 (??) Oz can in with the mash, then half another can at boil and the rest in the last 15 mins.
For spice, I had the spice pack with the kit and then added the same amount of pumpkin pie spice.
Didn’t really know what I was doing but turned out with good beer each time 
Brian
The problem with pumpkin beers, in my opinion, is that if you want to use actual pumpkins in it you need to wait until late September/early October for them to be ripe, and by then the commercial market has been flooded with spiced pumpkin-flavored beers and I’m already sick of them before even brewing one. :mrgreen:
But I like using real pie pumpkins in them. Chop them into pieces, remove the seeds, and roast them in the oven until they’re nice and brown and a lot of the water is evaporated from them. Some of the sugars will get nicely caramelized, which adds to the flavor. Add them to the mash if you’re doing all-grain. Maybe I’m a pumpkin beer snob, but if you’re going to go through the effort of making one, all-grain is the way to go so you can let the enzymes go to work on the starches. The pumpkin adds a really subtle flavor, which is very easily over-powered by spices. A light touch is important, maybe through a tincture at bottling so you can dial in the perfect amount. As these things age, the hop flavor will diminish but the spices seem to hold on, leaving the beer sweeter and sweeter as it ages. Not necessarily a good thing.
[quote=“porkchop”]The problem with pumpkin beers, in my opinion, is that if you want to use actual pumpkins in it you need to wait until late September/early October for them to be ripe, and by then the commercial market has been flooded with spiced pumpkin-flavored beers and I’m already sick of them before even brewing one. :mrgreen:
But I like using real pie pumpkins in them. Chop them into pieces, remove the seeds, and roast them in the oven until they’re nice and brown and a lot of the water is evaporated from them. Some of the sugars will get nicely caramelized, which adds to the flavor. Add them to the mash if you’re doing all-grain. Maybe I’m a pumpkin beer snob, but if you’re going to go through the effort of making one, all-grain is the way to go so you can let the enzymes go to work on the starches. The pumpkin adds a really subtle flavor, which is very easily over-powered by spices. A light touch is important, maybe through a tincture at bottling so you can dial in the perfect amount. As these things age, the hop flavor will diminish but the spices seem to hold on, leaving the beer sweeter and sweeter as it ages. Not necessarily a good thing.[/quote]
Yeah I’ve never brewed a pumpkin beer because, even though I do enjoy having a pint or two every fall, I also get sick of them very fast. And all my drinking buddies are the same way, so I would end up with a keg of pumpkin ale sitting around for half the winter.
Funny you should mention that, as I still have a case of last year’s pumpkin beer. It hasn’t aged well, and I see it destined for the drain.
I think this year I’m going to make a pumpkin beer to be consumed early in the season for NEXT year. Something along the lines of a sour pumpkin saison. Still mulling over this one.
Alot of good info so far. I think you guys are right though after a 12 pack of pumpkin beer I’m done for the season. But was thinking about making 5 gallon batch and splitting it with 2 other guys. So will have just over a case each. Just enough for the holidays. Thanks for the info so far, keep it coming. I will be doing an all grain for sure. And from what I read and heard from other brewers, most go the canned route.
Sure, the canned route is fine if you want to make a squash beer… because it’s mostly butternut squash. I’m sure it works fine, but for the one time a year I want to make pumpkin beer, my personal preference is to make it from the real thing. To each their own, though, and there’s really nothing wrong with canned squash. But it’s not pumpkin.
One of the big complaints is the lack of flavor from real pumpkin. The two things that can help this are getting real pie pumpkins, not the big jack-o-lantern types that are mostly water, and roasting it to caramelize the sugars and extract as much water as possible. They all are mostly water, so the more you can do to get rid of the water, the more flavor you will get. But real pie pumpkins, the little hard ones that have a lot more meat on the rind, will have more sugar and flavor in general.
If you want to go ahead and brew earlier, just use some pumpkin pie spice at flameout and use a little in the fermenter after it’s done.
I did the NB Smashing Pumpkin Ale extract as my second ever brew. I probably got lucky, but had some people tell me it was my best even with all the other All Grain brews I’ve done since. If I do it again, I probably still won’t bother with using actual pumpkin. Just seems like a lot more effort for something that isn’t guaranteed to me and probably won’t give me the flavor I want. This is just based on my personal experience though.
Most of the brewery made stuff is made with pumpkin pie spice anyway I think, isn’t it? I know I’ve seen some bottles that say “made with real pumpkin” but some don’t specify so I don’t know.
I’m not an expert by any means, as I’ve only been brewing for just over one year now…but I brewed NB’s Smashing Pumpkin Ale extract kit last fall and I think it was one of the best that I’ve brewed. I used canned organic pumpkin when I brewed mine, that way I was sure it was 100% pumpkin with nothing else added to it. The body and flavor was great, and I’m not a big fan of pumpkin to begin with - so I think that’s saying something. In fact I will be ordering the Smashing Pumpkin Ale recipe again in the next day or two, but this time I’m going to go all grain. What ever you decide, good luck!
I brewed a pumpkin stout a few weeks ago so it could have some time to age before fall. Since actual pumpkins weren’t available, I used canned pumpkin (unspiced). The canned stuff is easier to work with anyway because, well, somebody already did the work for you.
I spread mine on a baking sheet, sprinkled some brown sugar on it and baked it for about an hour, stirring every once in awhile, until it started to caramelize a little bit. Then I dumped it in with the grains when I mashed in (I do BIAB, so no worries about a stuck sparge). I threw some pumpkin pie spice in at flameout…well, like 5 minutes after flameout because I forgot to do it at flameout. I also made a tincture with a vanilla bean, more pumpkin pie spice and vodka that I’ll use to boost the flavor at bottling, if necessary.
I don’t like spiced beer to taste tool sharp or spicy. I find typical pumpkin pie spice mixes a little too heavy on the ginger and cinnamon for my taste. I like to smooth out the profile by adding extra nutmeg or mace. I also like what a little vanilla brings to a pumpkin beer.
I like to brew a neutral base beer, then add a pumpkin spice tincture to a few a bottling (I bottle off a keg). That way I don’t have a keg of some spice bomb. I know its not ‘authentic’ and some may disagree, but I haven’t found actual pumpkin to add much to a beer other than some dextrins.
I’ve had it work well with porter, English Brown, Dunkel, Dunkelweizen (clove anyone?), Weizenbock just to name a few.
Each year I make my pumpkin beer as follows: cube up butternut squash (or small pumpkins) and sprinkle them with brown sugar, broil until they are caramelized and then add them to the boil for the last 20 minutes. Then I take a half bottle of vodka and add my spices to it and let it soak for 3-4 weeks. Add that to the kegs (90ml per keg) and you have the best pumpkin beer ever.
For the beer recipe, I just brew a blonde ale so everybody likes it.
One of my worst nightmares is someone shows up with yet another pumpkin beer and I am forced to try it because " no no this one is really good " I’ll take an octoberfest thank you very much.
I do use pumpkin just to say I do, very small amount. (1 lb in the mash, 1 lb in the boil). Below is my spice mix, I add at the end of the boil and to the fermenter after one week.
Spice mix
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 ginger
1/8 nutmeg
1/8 allspice
