So You Want to Brew a Pumpkin Ale

Not exactly how it works

They are everywhere, from the grocery store shelves to the taps in your favorite local brewery’s tap room. Everyone’s got pumpkin beer on the brain! I’m sure by now, you've began scouring your community, looking for as many different pumpkin ales as you can get your hands on. You may have even decided you’re going to try your hand at making your own. After all, a wiser fella than myself once said, “there is no nobler cause in life than to make your own beer.”

… and 90% of all internet quotes are completely made up. Just like internet statistics.

Anywho, if brewing your very own pumpkin beer for the holiday season is on your list of things to do, I've got a few suggestions for you. Obviously, these thoughts are my own and not intended to represent any kind of sanctioned industry standards. They are also intended for those home brewers who have graduated to all grain brewing. If you’re an extract or a partial mash guy, read on for general situational awareness… but obviously, these ideas will have to be modified before being applicable for your use.

See them standing, in a row...

The first thing you must decide is whether you will use real pumpkins or not. Many if not most pumpkin ales are not made with real pumpkins – they use canned pumpkin like you would find at your grocery store. Of course, I've also seen it done where pumpkin ales are made with just pumpkin spices… but that sort of thing is generally regarded as loserish.

Soon, you will all be turned into
delicious pumpkin beer...

The reason why many brewers don’t use real pumpkins is because it’s not worth it. Pumpkins are quite irritating to work with, and don’t make or break the beer. First of all, they have to be in season. Not to mention that you have to roast the pumpkins in order to get anything out of them, and then, they gum up the mash and make sparging a mess when you are mashing them in. Everything you need from a pumpkin in order to make pumpkin ale can be gained from canned pumpkin. Plus, since canned pumpkin is concentrated, you need less of it than you would real pumpkins. But hey, it’s your show.

The correct way to add pumpkin is to mash it. Some people pre-boil the canned pumpkin before mashing, but that’s not necessary. Add the pumpkin to the rest of your grain in the mash tun and mash for full time. The color of your eventual beer will not come from the pumpkin… it will come from the barley, so design your base malt accordingly. I recommend a pale ale or amber lager for a typical pumpkin ale recipe… something in the pale to amber/red range. If you’re brewing a pumpkin porter or pumpkin saison (I just saw one of those the other day… really interesting), you’ll obviously need to adjust your grain bill accordingly.

You’re going to have to rake the top of your grain bed when you start sparging because the pumpkin will form a gelatinous layer on top that the sparge water cannot penetrate. Also, pumpkin gets extremely sticky throughout and is a pain to run off. Adding rice hulls will help a little bit, but you should expect 2-3 times as much time to lauter. I warned you pumpkin can be a pain in the butt.

You can also add pumpkin to the boil instead of the mush tun which is much easier – but you’ll miss out on some of the flavor, body and fermentables you would've gotten by mashing it.

Deliciousness

Once you have successfully lautered out the necessary volume of wort, the rest is pretty straight forward. Hop additions should be early and modest, aiming for a lower bitterness of below 20 IBU, just enough to balance the sweetness from the malt. Mt Hood and Hallertau hops are good varieties to use. You are not hopping for flavor or aroma as those departments will be addressed later.

Towards the end of your boil, like in the 5 minute range or so, you’re going to add spices. This is where the bulk of your flavor and aroma will come from, which is why you add it so late. The spices you add will vary depending on what exactly you are going for, but typically, they are some combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves. The total amount of spices for a 5 gallon batch should be around .5 oz (as in not very much). It’s important not to over spice or you’ll be left with a perfumy disaster. You could also put your spices into the fermenter, sort of like dry-hopping them.

If you want to get fancy, or you are trying to clone Southern Tier’s Pumking, throw some vanilla beans into the boil to simulate the whip cream dollop on your pumpkin pie.

The yeast is up to you as well, depending on what you want your finished product to be. If you want your beer to be clear and crisp, use a German lager yeast and ferment cold. If you want more body and a bolder flavor profile, American ale yeast is the way to go.

A typical 7-10 day primary/secondary fermentation followed by 2-3 weeks of conditioning will be sufficient to finish this beer off. Expect the total soup to nuts to be 5 weeks or so.

Everybody loves the great pumpkin!

After that, there’s nothing left to do but give your beer a name and enjoy on a cool autumn evening with friends. Everyone loves pumpkin ales, and if you make one, everyone will love you too. Now this blog is giving out life lessons. Free of charge.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!