CaraAroma

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Cinnamon is a bugger and clove has a strong flavor. When following american recipes in general, baking/bbqing/cooking etc, always use less (especially sugar) you can always add later, but never remove.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Yes I did add less sugar and only topped up a bit to hit my target SG in the fermenter. I aimed for 1.058, and hit 1.050 without any added sugars except for what I roasted the pumpkin in. I then added a little bit more treacle sugar to make up some gravity points and got to 1.056 in the fermenter, which I'm happy with.

I'm REALLY glad I didn't add more cinnamon. I know from experience how incredibly strong cloves are, so I just added literally 5 whole cloves. That number was spot in. It's just-just detectable, if you look for it, which is nice.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Yes I did add less sugar and only topped up a bit to hit my target SG in the fermenter. I aimed for 1.058, and hit 1.050 without any added sugars except for what I roasted the pumpkin in. I then added a little bit more treacle sugar to make up some gravity points and got to 1.056 in the fermenter, which I'm happy with.

I'm REALLY glad I didn't add more cinnamon. I know from experience how incredibly strong cloves are, so I just added literally 5 whole cloves. That number was spot in. It's just-just detectable, if you look for it, which is nice.

check out ballast points pumpkin ale recipe - note the additions, batch size and "tricks of the trade"
https://ballastpoint.com/beer-recipes/
https://ballastpoint.com/wp-content/...ain-Recipe.pdf

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

check out ballast points pumpkin ale recipe - note the additions, batch size and "tricks of the trade"
https://ballastpoint.com/beer-recipes/
https://ballastpoint.com/wp-content/...ain-Recipe.pdf

Yeah see they're totally the other way. The ABV is similar to what I'm aiming for, but their FG is significantly lower, resulting in a significantly drier beer. Recipes are two totally different types, that's for sure.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Yeah, saw that, but when they do their additions and the amounts used was more what I wanted you to look at. Do share your recipe too, I'm still keen to do a pumpkin beer, what pumpkin did you use?

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Yeah, saw that, but when they do their additions and the amounts used was more what I wanted you to look at. Do share your recipe too, I'm still keen to do a pumpkin beer, what pumpkin did you use?

I made this recipe, loosely: https://beerandbrewing.com/perfect-pumpkin-ale-recipe/

I used:

1.6kg pale ale
700g Munich malt (light Munich)
200g CaraMunich I
150g CaraAroma

Process was as follows:

I used about 1.4kg of regular blue skin pumpkin. I cut the pumpkin into wedges, made a bunch of incisions along the pieces and rubbed it in with treacle sugar. I then stuck it in the oven at 190°C for 2 hours to roast. The recipe said "leave for 2 to 3 hours" but I had to keep turning the pumpkin around and even added boiling water to the roasting pan as it kept wanting to burn. More on this later in my tips.

After this the pumpkin was removed from the oven and placed in the fridge to cool. I deglazed the roasting pan and saved the juice that came off.

Brew day I mashed at 68°C for an hour, and then sparged with boiling water. I cut up the pumpkin (skin removed) into large blocks, stuck it in a fine mesh grain bag and added it to the kettle at 90 minutes.

At 60 minutes I added 9g of Admiral hops, for a calculated IBU of 21. Recipe calls for 19 IBUs, but my Admiral is a bit old so I added 9g instead of 8g. Was a good call, it's well balanced in there now.

At 15 minutes I added:
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger
5 x whole cloves
1 x teaspoon Irish Moss

At 0 minutes I removed the bag from the kettle, and then the fun started. The pumpkin turned to mush so it clogged up the grain bag. It took me 10 minutes to properly drain the bag into a different pot. After this I brought the wort to a boil again and pitched into no-chill cube.

Next morning I poured into fermenter and added yeast (English ale yeast). It's fermenting away nicely at 18.5°C. I'm using NFP's "house brand" English Ale yeast. Was R20 for a packet and it smells great.

Now, my tips:

1. I won't roast the pumpkin raw again. I'll cut it up, boil it in a little water (more like steam) until tender and then arrange it on a baking tray, sprinkle with sugar and then roast for a few minutes. That's it. Post roast I'll drain it (and save the juices with the boiling juices) and then crush the cubes. Not mash, just crush them a bit. I found the big pieces had tons of pumpkin "hidden" that wasn't exposed to the boil. The roast also took a lot of time and I had to turn the pieces all the time to keep them from burning. The sugar didn't "melt into" the pumpkin like the recipe said, but instead "melted off" and onto the baking tray, which is why I had to use water to keep the sugar from burning.

2. I'll use a larger hole mesh bag and not worry about sediment. The fine mesh bag completely clogged up and refused to let wort out of it apart from a tiny little trickle.

3. I'll use a separate bag for the hops and spices if I ever make it again. Because of the hop addition I wasn't able to use the pumpkin mush post boil, and I think it would have made great pumpkin pie or pumpkin fritters. The sweet cinnamon with the tiny bitterness was great in the wort, but because the hops and spices were added to the pumpkin, it was a complete bitter bomb when I tasted it.