Pumpkin ale question

[ryan655]

well I just got done making my 4th all grain beer. I made 10 gallons of a scottish ale, I batch sparged it and didnt get very good effeciancy. I ended up with a 5.5 abv beer when I was shooting for 7 abv. Well anyways I have one half still fermenting and I just added some hops to it since the other half is very sweet and mild after a taste. I was thinking of throwing in a can of pumpkin into the fermentor to change it to a pumpkin style ale. I was also thinking of throwing in a bag of brown sugar to maybe start another fermentation. Anyone have any thoughts on this?? Is it a good idea or should I just drink it as is?? Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[ArcaneXor]

Sounds like a yummy idea to me. Go easy on the brown sugar though, or you'll dry it out too much.

 

[flabyboy]

I believe the common practive for pumpkin ales is to use the pumpkin during mashin and add some brown sugar and spices towards the end of the boil. try it out and let us know how it works out. I am planning on doing my first pumpkin ale this summer or fall so its ready for the holidays

 

[kegtoe]

i dont think you want to put pumpkin in to the fermentor. pumpkin beers do in fact include pumpkin in the mash as flayboy states. I'm not sure about using brown sugar either. Id just keep your beer as-is.

 

[ArcaneXor]

A friend makes an awesome pumpkin beer, and he adds roasted pumpkin late in the boil (which I have done before with good results) and in secondary. As with all pumpkin beers, it relies on a balanced mix of spices to achieve that "pumpkin pie" flavor.

 

[ryan655]

Well I added 1 can of pumpkin with 1 1/4 cup brown sugar, with 1 tsp cinammon and 1/5 tsp of clove. I boiled it all together with some water, cooled it down and added it to the secondary. The other half of the batch turned out to be a very malty sweet easy to drink scottish ale so we will see how this half turns out.