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Author Topic: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.  (Read 5978 times)

Offline majorvices

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #15 on: December 01, 2011, 10:43:34 am »


I would agree with you here, save for one exception. Good Gourd from Cigar City. I kept going back for that one at GABF.

I'll give ya that's a great name!  :D

Online denny

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #16 on: December 01, 2011, 11:06:51 am »
I agree, There are some good ones out there.

Like many things, I don't think it's so much "good or bad" as "it doesn't work for me".
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #17 on: December 01, 2011, 11:21:50 am »
I agree, There are some good ones out there.

Like many things, I don't think it's so much "good or bad" as "it doesn't work for me".

Exactly. If it works for you that's fine. I just have no respect for your palette.  :P j/k. ;)

Offline bo

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #18 on: December 01, 2011, 11:25:29 am »
I agree, There are some good ones out there.

Like many things, I don't think it's so much "good or bad" as "it doesn't work for me".

Exactly. If it works for you that's fine. I just have no respect for your palette.  :P j/k. ;)

That make 2 of us. I don't respect my palette either. :D

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #19 on: December 01, 2011, 12:11:47 pm »
I don't like a lot of pumpkin beers, but I have to brew one now for the homebrew club.  A buddy of mine has a family farm that grows the little sweet pumpkins that are meant for cooking (not the big Jack O' Lantern types, which taste like ____).  So he gave us all some of the pumpkin, asking us to brew a batch with it to see what works.  We can make whatever style we want, adding the pumpkin to the mash or in secondary or whenever, as long as it uses 2 pounds of pumpkin somewhere.  So I've decided to go for more of a sweet potato pie sort of a thing..... Scotch ale.... with big malt sweetness, and consideration of whether to add a little vanilla to mimic marshmallow topping.  No cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg or clove in this one at all.  I want to steer in a new direction.  I think a Scotch ale might work well with this.  I haven't brewed it yet but I'll be doing so this weekend.  Although not a typical fan of pumpkin type beers, I'm actually interested to see how it turns out.

I could get on board with that, dave. I have been thinking about butternut squash as an ingredient. Just no pumpkin pie spices.

we (and by 'we' I mean my wife) made our pumpkin pie this t-day with butternut squash and it was lovely. I would almost say it was more pumkiny than pumpkin. Deeper orange color and much richer flavour.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #20 on: December 01, 2011, 01:48:08 pm »
we (and by 'we' I mean my wife) made our pumpkin pie this t-day with butternut squash and it was lovely. I would almost say it was more pumkiny than pumpkin. Deeper orange color and much richer flavour.
I mentioned it in one of these pumpkin beer threads, but I believe that canned pumpkin might not be from what we consider a pumpkin, but can come form any number of squash that th FDA still considers to be pumpkin.  That includes butternut, which is what Libbey uses in the Western US.  They use something different in the Eastern US.

So my pumpkin beer this year is made with butternut (and spices), and I like it. :)
Tom Schmidlin

Offline bluesman

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #21 on: December 01, 2011, 02:02:55 pm »
So my pumpkin beer this year is made with butternut (and spices), and I like it. :)

I want to try butternut in a pumpkin beer...maybe harvest '12.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #22 on: December 01, 2011, 02:14:36 pm »
So my pumpkin beer this year is made with butternut (and spices), and I like it. :)

I want to try butternut in a pumpkin beer...maybe harvest '12.
Cans of Libbey's :)  I used two big cans in 5 gallons in the mash, it definitely carried through to the wort.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline bluesman

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #23 on: December 01, 2011, 02:16:23 pm »
So my pumpkin beer this year is made with butternut (and spices), and I like it. :)

I want to try butternut in a pumpkin beer...maybe harvest '12.
Cans of Libbey's :)  I used two big cans in 5 gallons in the mash, it definitely carried through to the wort.

NICE!

Thanks for the tip.
Ron Price

Offline alcaponejunior

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #24 on: December 01, 2011, 06:16:42 pm »
The ladies sure liked it.  One of them had three glasses of it.

Hmmm...  I might be changing my mind about pumpkin beer.    ;)

Pumpking is really good.  I try to get a few bombers of it each year.

I find Schlafly's pumpkin ale to be my favorite of the pumpkins.  Very tasty stuff, I personally like it even better than pumpking. 

I can easily see how pumpkin beers might not be preferable to some people.  It's kinda odd to combine pumpkin and beer, but I like fruit/vegetable beers a lot, so I happen to like them.  To each their own.

Offline alcaponejunior

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #25 on: December 01, 2011, 06:23:30 pm »
So my pumpkin beer this year is made with butternut (and spices), and I like it. :)

I want to try butternut in a pumpkin beer...maybe harvest '12.

Can you use fresh butternut squash?  I just love butternut squash.  I would love to make a butternut ale.

I'm learning homebrewing now, experimenting on small batches of mr beer, at the moment, about to start with a 6.5 gal kit (with some help from a friend), reading a lot of posts/books, but not talking much yet or claiming huge successes.  I've read that canned fruits tend to work well, can you please elaborate your thoughts if you don't mind!

al

Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #26 on: December 01, 2011, 06:36:07 pm »
You can.  Do some searches on here for pumpkin, there are many threads.  Any squash, or even sweet potatoes or yams, will work similarly.

Most often people peel them, chunk them, and roast them for awhile.  Then add them to the mash.

If you're doing all extract, you can add them to the boil (use a bag) and you should get color and flavor.

Spices can be added to the boil or the fermenter.  I prefer the boil, but I've personally grown weary of spiced ales.  I'm sure I'll come around again in a year or more.
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Offline bluesman

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #27 on: December 01, 2011, 07:31:16 pm »
You can.  Do some searches on here for pumpkin, there are many threads.  Any squash, or even sweet potatoes or yams, will work similarly.

Most often people peel them, chunk them, and roast them for awhile.  Then add them to the mash.


+1

Chunk it and roast it with some spices then mash it and boil. Use plenty of rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge.
Ron Price

Offline alcaponejunior

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #28 on: December 03, 2011, 09:11:09 am »
Thanks for the replies on that question! 

I'm ready to start with the bigger kit, but won't start off right away with a pumpkin ale, lol.  I should have the bigger kit at the end of the year and start my first batch in January.  Will be reading lots until then, and brewing a couple more small batches in the meantime!

Offline corkybstewart

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Re: Not Digging This Pumpkin Ale.
« Reply #29 on: December 03, 2011, 09:16:04 am »
The brewer at a nearby brewpub brewed a pumpkin beer a few years ago that somehow got infected and turned sour.  She couldn't sell it so she gave it to me.  My son and I both loved it, he got about 40 bombers of it and I kept a keg in my kegerator.  That's the only pumpkin beer I've ever tried that didn't make me gag.  Dogfish's Punkin was the worst, vilest stuff I've ever tasted. 
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