Pumpkin Stout

Classification: fruit beer, pumpkin, stout, extract

Source: Anthony Johnston (anthony@chemsun.chem.umn.edu), Homebrew Digest #1327, 01/18/94

Here is a recipe that I formulated as an experiment/modification of a previous recipe that I posted. I had intended it to be a stout, but wimped out on the larege amounts of roasted barley and other dark malts necessary for the style at the last minute

Ingredients:

2 cans (29 ounces each) of Libby's 100% Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
8 ounces Flaked Barley
4 ounces Belgian Special B
6 ounces 60 L Caramel (Briess)
3 ounces Chocolate Malt
2 ounces Roasted Barley
1 3.3 pound can DMS diastatic malt extract
1 ounce Northern brewers Plugs 7.5% 60 mins
1/2 ounce styrian goldings 5.3% 30 mins
1/2 ounce Hallertauer Hersbrucker 2.9% 10 mins
1 cinnamon stick (2 inches or so)
1/4 teaspoon coriander, ground
1/4 teaspoon cardamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon ginger, ground

Procedure:

"Mashed" malts, pumpkin, and extract at 150 F (65 C) for 30 mins, then sparged through grain bag. A real mess. Final volume = ca.3 gallons Added 3.3 lbs of Amber Briess Extract and commenced boiling.

Yeast was Red Star Ale Yeast, rehydrated in some cooled boiled wort. Beer was kegged/force carbonated and almost completely gone in one evening of Christmas partying.

Canned pumpkin dissolves into a horrendously fine mush that will settle to the bottom of your primary and cause you to lose up to 1 gallon or more (it does not firmly settle out.) Are the results worth it? I think so, but I will only do 2 or 3 pumpkin brews a year for the holidays, because it is messy. I would think that using fresh, cooked pumpkin cut into 1" cubes or so might strain out better, or they might break down in the mash to a consistency similar to the canned stuff. Anyone try this.

Specifics:

F.G.: 1.015