Pumpkin - fermentable material?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by MrC on October 3, 2010 at 4:36pm

According to Radical Brewing it's 1.005 per pound.

That's pretty low so it may not be worth factoring it into calculations at all. My efficiency tends to move more than that at times for no apparent reason so I wouldn't bother personally.

Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on October 3, 2010 at 5:49pm

Hrm, I have Radical Brewing. Never thought to look there. I'm a slave to the tubes!

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Permalink Reply by Martin Bridges on October 3, 2010 at 5:33pm

Don't do it Greig! The only decent pumpkin ale I've ever tasted was the one Barbara made.

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on October 3, 2010 at 5:48pm

I really liked DFH Punkin. I'm just in the mood to clone it...
I'll leave out the fermentables.

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Joppa on October 4, 2010 at 1:39pm

Why thanks!
I was just going to reply here, too. My pumpkin was roasted first and added about 1kg to the mash (probably a mistake since I had horrible problems with it clogging up the grain bag (no fancy equipment for this poor girl).

Best of luck with it!
Barb

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Permalink Reply by MrC on October 3, 2010 at 6:03pm

Aren't these pumpkin beers all about the spices anyway?

I say go for it Greig! It's good to brew odd beers from time to time, they're always memorable.

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Permalink Reply by jt on October 3, 2010 at 6:13pm

I say go for it

My vote says save the pumpkin for next weekends soup, or maybe with the lamb roast

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Permalink Reply by MrC on October 3, 2010 at 8:43pm

I'd still add the pumpkin, even if it's just a token amount to "keep it real". Pumpkin-free Pumpkin Ale just doesn't seem right to me.

Imagine the the conversation with your friends.
"Here, try some of my pumpkin ale"
"Punkin ale? ", glug, glug, glug, "Wow, that tastes great, how much pumpkin did you add?"
"Umm", glug, glug, "Well, ahh", glug, glug "actually..."

I would however focus my attention on the spicing.

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Permalink Reply by Soren on October 3, 2010 at 7:28pm

Aren't these pumpkin beers all about the spices anyway?

Yep, as far as I know it is. The pumpkin apperantly brings very little to the party in terms of flavour.

As far as I can see from a qauick google search, pumpkin is about 10% carbohydrate. In theory that could all be converted to sugars given the right mashing conditions...?

No fat and 1% protein for the true geeks:)

If it's anything like brewing with kumara, be prepared for a very sticky mash...

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Permalink Reply by David Wood on October 4, 2010 at 12:23am

I've heard from Rob Owen that pumpkin turns your mash into a big winegum, and contributes little flavour. Read an article the other day which said most 'pumpkin ales' in the states don't actually contain pumpkin for that reason.

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on October 4, 2010 at 8:15am

I've read that too, but I tasted Rob's, and I said to him at the time (before I knew what it was) that I could taste "green" pumpkin in the beer, so it definitely brings something, and it's something I want to try. :) Punkin from DFH definitely has pumpkin in it, and as Mr Cherry says, I feel it needs some to be legit.

My plan is to oven roast it first, then scrape all the pulp out, and pre-heat to mash temp in a saucepan before adding it to the mash. I figured the roasting would assist in the conversion, and the heat would lessen the "starchy" mash-screwing issues.

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Permalink Reply by JoKing on October 4, 2010 at 8:57am

Id try to dissolve all the mashed up punkin pulp into the strike water before mashin in... it might make a slight difference to the consistency of the mash.

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