[linenoiz]

I had been planning on brewing one this year. I had never had one and the idea sounded appealing as I loves me some pumpkin pie. Last week I saw a local brewery put out their seasonal pumpkin beer, so I picked up a six pack. I took one sip and said "Oh. So that's what that tastes like..."

I will not be brewing one now.

Don't decide based on what may have been a poorly done version of the beer.  Try a few different ones and you may find that you like them after all.  I recommend Southern Tier Pumking, Elysian Great Pumpkin, and Dogfish Head Punkin.

Really, my problem is that I have a poor "taste imagination" for things I've never tried before. Pumpkin pie beer sounded good until I got a taste of one. Now that I have a metric, I can't imagine any level of pumpkin pie spices that would be good. Except maybe zero. I imagine zero would be good.

I will make an effort to try other pumpkin beers, but until I find one that isn't gross, I don't think I want to waste my efforts making one.

[denny]

I imagine zero would be good.

That was my conclusion, too.

[roguenationpatriot]

Have had Dogfish Head Punkin and thought it was Ok.  So I had to check "might" buy some.

I just had my first Dogfish Punkin this weekend, I liked the spices and the body of it.  Looking forward to making my own this season.

[tschmidlin]

I had been planning on brewing one this year. I had never had one and the idea sounded appealing as I loves me some pumpkin pie. Last week I saw a local brewery put out their seasonal pumpkin beer, so I picked up a six pack. I took one sip and said "Oh. So that's what that tastes like..."

I will not be brewing one now.

Don't decide based on what may have been a poorly done version of the beer.  Try a few different ones and you may find that you like them after all.  I recommend Southern Tier Pumking, Elysian Great Pumpkin, and Dogfish Head Punkin.

Really, my problem is that I have a poor "taste imagination" for things I've never tried before. Pumpkin pie beer sounded good until I got a taste of one. Now that I have a metric, I can't imagine any level of pumpkin pie spices that would be good. Except maybe zero. I imagine zero would be good.

I will make an effort to try other pumpkin beers, but until I find one that isn't gross, I don't think I want to waste my efforts making one.

It's entirely possible you don't like the style, but I'm glad you'll try some other ones, you may be surprised.  Or you may be Denny.

[denny]

Or you may be Denny.

I may not be interested in brewing one, but I'll keep tryin' 'em.  No way to know otherwise....

[bluesman]

I probably won't brew one, but I will be drinking some of Dogfish's Punkin Ale at our next homebrew club meeting at the DFH pub. I look forward to it's release on draft every fall. Great brew! 

[cheba420]

I probably won't brew one, but I will be drinking some of Dogfish's Punkin Ale at our next homebrew club meeting at the DFH pub. I look forward to it's release on draft every fall. Great brew! 

That's my favorite commercial Pumpkin release. It really is a good beer. If you're not sure about pumpkin beers, this is the one to try. If you dont like it, THEN you can say you dont like pumpkin beers.

[majorvices]

Pumpkin pie is delicious. Pumpkin beer is interesting until about 1/2 the glass. No matter who's it is. Then I need something else.

[tschmidlin]

Or you may be Denny.

I may not be interested in brewing one, but I'll keep tryin' 'em.  No way to know otherwise....

Exactly.

(When I said "Or you may be Denny", by that I meant "you may NOT be surprised to not like them".  Yes, it's convoluted. )

[roguenationpatriot]

How much of the actually pumpkin, do you need to put in a five gallon batch?

[ynotbrusum]

I just brewed one as a kit from my LHBS - he took 2nd place at an NHA competition a few years back with it and it has absolutely no pumpkin in it - just a very small ziplock bag of spices that are added to 2 ozs of vodka and put into the secondary.  I tried what he had and it was great - very subtle with the spices.

YMMV

[a10t2]

How much of the actually pumpkin, do you need to put in a five gallon batch?

Anywhere from zero ("the flavor comes from spices and the pumpkin adds nothing") to several pounds. There have been quite a few threads with recipes recently. If you look back through the archives of any brewing forum, there will be dozens posted every year around this time.

[phillamb168]

Pumpkin in Boil, Not In Mash.

[tschmidlin]

For those of you using canned pumpkin for your brew, I learned something interesting at my club meeting tonight.  There are MANY squashes that are considered to be "pumpkins" by the USDA.  In the western US, canned Libbey pumpkin is generally made out of butternut squash.  In the eastern US, it is made from either Hubbard or banana squash.  I don't know about other brands.

[darkmorford]

I've had some friends tell me that they've had some good pumpkin beers. I've never tasted one myself, but I did notice that Midwest sells a kit for a pumpkin ale. I'm thinking about brewing a batch; if I don't like it I've got people I can give it away to.