Pumpkin Spice Ale

Published On: Friday, October 24, 2008

1 of 3 Fall Beer Recipes for Keg Conditioning in Your Kegerator

• Pumpkin Spice Ale
• Fortified Fennel Porter
• Mulled Spice Apple Beer

Pumpkin Spiced Ale can be a tricky recipe to pull off, but delicious if done right. This ale is an excellent addition to Fall and Winter gatherings. Here is a recipe that is a delicate balance of strong flavors! A good ale for keg conditioning as well, as this gives the ale time to mellow appropriately. This ale takes about 2 months to properly come to age, so plan accordingly. The time can be reduced a bit by the removal of molasses from the recipe. The thick sugars of the molasses require more time for yeast to dissolve –We would recommend adding ½ Cup of Amber malt extract if you decide to remove the molasses.

Ingredients for 5 Gallon Batch:

• 3 lb. freshly baked pumpkin
• 1 lb. of Caramunich Malt
• ¼ lb. Briess Organic caramel 120L malt
• 1 lb. American Pale 2-row malt
• 6 lb. Amber malt extract
• ½ Cup molasses
• ½ oz. Organic New Zealand Pacific Gem hop pellets- bittering
• 1 oz. Fuggle hops- finishing
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cloves
• 4 ¾ G. purified or spring water
• 1 pack Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast

Directions:

The first step to prepare your pumpkin by roasting it in the oven. This may take 2-4 hours. You need to chop up the rind of the pumpkin into manageable chunks. Put the chunks into your baking pan with an inch of water in the bottom and cook it at 350 °F until it becomes soft. Check it every hour to make sure there is still some water in the bottom of the pan.

Next, to sweeten and prepare the pumpkin for the beer, you must mash the American Pale 2-row malt and the pumpkin together. Gather the pumpkin and the American Pale 2 row malt in 5 qts. of water. Cook the mash at 152 °F for 55 minutes. Next, heat it up 165°F, but just for five minutes. Now drain this and sparge the mash with 5 q. of water at 170 Degrees and you will have about 2 gallons of slightly sweet pumpkin and malt flavored wort!

When preparing the Boiling pot, add to your 2 G of wort 2 ¾ Gallons of water, and place your grains along with the softened, baked pumpkin into the pot. When the wort comes to a boil, remove the pumpkin along with the grains and bittering hops and add in your malt and molasses. Cook this for about 55 minutes and then add your spices and finishing hops for the last 5 minutes. Next, cool the wort, add to your primary fermenter, and add your yeast.

This ale should be transferred to a secondary fermenter in two weeks, and then, after an additional two to three weeks, it is ready for keg conditioning. When priming the keg for what should be about 5 gallons of pumpkin spiced ale, you should add either ¾ cup of corn sugar or dry malt extract. Now, the beer should taste ideal with keg conditioning after 2-3 more weeks.

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