In the month of October, pumpkin beer is on many drinker's minds, as well as pumpkin cocktails and pumpkin desserts.  However, it appears that many pumpkin beers are actually spiced beers using some amount of clove, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sometimes ginger; essentially the spices that are used when making pumpkin pie, but no pumpkin. 

In fact, pumpkin in the batch appears to do little, except to add fermentables.  In colonial times, when pumpkin beer was first being brewed, it seems that people took the juice of pumpkins and fermented it, perhaps more like a wine than a beer, or it's quite possible that conversion took place using a small amount of malted grain.  Even a more recent producer found the same.  Bill's Pumpkin Ale says they originally tried using pumpkin but found nothing unique from it, and then added a tea of spices.  

With these in mind, and knowing that I did not have the grain (or the enzymes) in which to convert pumpkin, I decided that that I would juice a sugar pumpkin (The tiny "baby" pumpkins, or "pie pumpkins" often found in the grocery.  Not the larger carving pumpkins which are grown purely for display ie: carving).  It's possible to juice a pumpkin, (and not just for the Harry Potter crowd) and had read good things about this, that there was a touch of sweetness and earthiness.  I thought it would go well with what I was attempting.  I also decided to use a small amount of each spice, including ginger, at then end of the boil.

Recipe:

10 pounds sorghum extract

1 oz ? Hops (I'll be honest, I can't recall which I used)

1 gram each cinnamon, allspice, powdered ginger.

1/2 gram cloves

a small amount of grated nutmeg.

irish moss

I boiled 1/2 oz of hops in one gallon of water for 30 minutes, then added the remaining 1/2 oz for another 20 minutes then added irish moss for a total boiling time of an hour.  I then added the spices into the still hot liquid for about 10 minutes and then stuck the pot into a sink of cold water to cool.

Since I was using extract, I didn't wish to boil it, and instead like a mead, I added all 10 pounds to a brewing bucket, into which I added some heated water (approx 1 gallon).  This allowed me to dissolve the sugar.  I then added the hopped & spiced water which gave me 2 gallons of water added.  Where I made a mistake was that I was using a 6 gallon bucket, so like my wine kits, where I top it off to 6 gallons.  I gave it a good aeration and added safale's english ale yeast and let it sit in the unused bathtub where I normally ferment, just in case of blow outs or leaks (bathtub beer anyone?).

I let it ferment for a week or two, and because I didn't have a spare keg, I stuck the entire 6 gallon bucket into a refrigerator to sit for a while.  

A week or two later, I decided that my first lager in a keg was empty enough to give away, so I bottled the remaining 2 gallons.  I gave it away to coworkers and some people at my local coffee shop.  These are also the people who had received some sake before.  I think the best comment I received was that it tasted like a normal lager, and that most homebrew he's been given is some odd combination.  Given that this is gluten free, made with sorgum (and honey), it's a far cry from a traditional lager, and for it to be called normal is an honor.

I was finally ready to keg the pumpkin ale.  I started to juice a raw pumpkin, and realized that I wasn't getting much liquid out of the quarter that I did, and that I was probably taxing my inexpensive juicer.  I looked into the bucket and then saw my mistake.

The mistake of course was adding 6 gallons of water, when I originally planned for 5 gallons.  Knowing that I had overdone the liquid, I decided to scrap the idea of juicing the pumpkin (at least this time around) and instead cooked the pumpkin, let it cool, mashed it, and added some vodka for sterilization, then added this to the beer.

A week later, I put this into the keg.  I left one gallon of the liquid behind and taste tested it.  It looked, smelled and tasted a little watery, but I figured this could potentially get better once carbonated and left to sit for a while.  So, I hooked it up to the CO2 tank, and left to go to a conference for a week.

What I came back to find, was that the air inlet post was loose and with a slow leak, I had lost all my co2.  I was a bit annoyed, especially since it was nearly a full 10 pound take ($20 to fill).  I had my spare 2.5 pound tank however, so I used that to do a carbonation and then tested it out.  It wasn't too bad, though a bit on the light beer side.  I'd prefer a maltier (or rather, it's gluten free equivalent) style for a pumpkin ale, but it was light, spicy and at least I could say there was pumpkin in it.  

Next up, to decide if I want to do one more pumpkin ale, or a holiday spiced ale.