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  • Pumpkin Powder - Need Input!

    Anyone use pumpkin powder, that can provide their dosage rates per BBL? I am looking for a solid way to impart real pumpkin flavor. I do not want to simply use Allspice.

    I am thinking of using cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, brown sugar and pumpkin powder. I am thinking to add the pumpkin to the boil, and then make up a tea with the other spices by pasteurizing them in dilution water and adding that to secondary, by titration and finding the ratio that makes the flavor pop the best.

    Ideas?

    Cheers!
    Ryan
    Viridian Brewing Company
    [Brewery-In-Planning]

  • #2
    Originally posted by Viridian View Post
    Anyone use pumpkin powder, that can provide their dosage rates per BBL? I am looking for a solid way to impart real pumpkin flavor. I do not want to simply use Allspice.

    I am thinking of using cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, brown sugar and pumpkin powder. I am thinking to add the pumpkin to the boil, and then make up a tea with the other spices by pasteurizing them in dilution water and adding that to secondary, by titration and finding the ratio that makes the flavor pop the best.

    Ideas?

    Cheers!
    Pie spice blend: 1 part allspice, 1 part clove, 2 parts nutmeg, 2 parts ginger, 6 parts cinnamon. Pumpkin has effectively no flavor, use it in the mash if you want to be able to say that you actually used pumpkin, but it does absolutely nothing. Some people say it adds an earthy quality to the beer... those people are dumb. In 15BBL, we used to use about 0.5# at flameout in the boil and 0.5# as a "dry spice" addition after fermentation was done. Also 1# of vanilla in the fermenter with the second spice addition, the vanilla is a huge part of the "pie" flavor, though these days vanilla is going for about $300/# so... Make it sweet, err on the side of too much spice and lots of vanilla and thats what people want out the "style".

    I'll also add that we don't brew this beer anymore because pumpkin beer doesn't sell very well anymore, at least around here. Last year we switched from a "traditional" pumpkin beer to a "pumpkin pie spice latte porter" to try to stand out a little more and people still didn't really give a shit. People got excited about it and loved it initially, but didn't drink much after that, especially after Halloween. Some people still loose their minds over pie spice anything, but there are SOOOO many out there now that you can't really manage to move much of it so its just not worth the effort or the use of expensive ass vanilla...

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    • #3
      Thanks for the spice blend input - I appreciate it. Anyone else actually use pumpkin powder as opposed to puree or flesh?
      Ryan
      Viridian Brewing Company
      [Brewery-In-Planning]

      Comment


      • #4
        Pumpkin Powder

        I think your best bet is to make tea as well with the pumpkin powder (I would use a starter level wort to test this not just water). In a way that would be scalable. Like 1oz per quart and see if in fact it does impart a flavor. Add 2oz per quart and so on. Or like the other one said, if you just want to use it to say you used it. Add a dash or two at flameout. I think some of the reason people use puree or fresh is that is does have some fermentable sugars. There is one other problem I could see using powder and that is it would reduce the wort because it dry and would soak up some of the liquid. Just something else to think about.

        Brad

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Conversations View Post
          I think your best bet is to make tea as well with the pumpkin powder (I would use a starter level wort to test this not just water). In a way that would be scalable. Like 1oz per quart and see if in fact it does impart a flavor. Add 2oz per quart and so on. Or like the other one said, if you just want to use it to say you used it. Add a dash or two at flameout. I think some of the reason people use puree or fresh is that is does have some fermentable sugars. There is one other problem I could see using powder and that is it would reduce the wort because it dry and would soak up some of the liquid. Just something else to think about.

          Brad
          Yeah I agree on the wort consumption (or rather water consumption); when I used puree even, I was left with an appreciable amount of excess kettle trub @ KO.
          Ryan
          Viridian Brewing Company
          [Brewery-In-Planning]

          Comment


          • #6
            Wood fire roasting pumpkin in a pizza oven or wood grill

            The only interesting flavor that I was able to get out of an actual pumpkin beer was to slice the veg into 2" strips, sit them on baking sheets in a big wood fired pizza oven, and roast them until they got soft and caramelized. Then kind of beat them up in a sack and threw them into the mash. It was only a 10 bbl batch and had bout 100 or so pounds of pumpkin crap.

            From this, I got a bit of mild smoke and some sort of light roasted pumpkin flavor. Mild Ale base beer. I did add about 1 oz sifted McCormic Pumpkin Pie Spice directly into each 1/2 bbl bung sided keg prior to filling.

            It was alright. Customers will drink one because it is the seasonal and then cleanse their palate with Jagermeister before going back to their regular beer.
            Todd G Hicks
            BeerDenizen Brewing Services

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by nickfl View Post
              Pumpkin has effectively no flavor, use it in the mash if you want to be able to say that you actually used pumpkin, but it does absolutely nothing. Some people say it adds an earthy quality to the beer... those people are dumb.
              Or maybe they have a better palate than you do... who knows?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by blonberg View Post
                Or maybe they have a better palate than you do... who knows?
                Yeah - I have to say that I've talked to countless commercial brewers that use pumpkin pie pumpkin flesh, or puree, specifically for the earthy "gordy" flavor that is brought to the beer. I think some people do not realize that there are two kinds of pumpkin flavors - there are the spice based ones, and the earthy based.
                Ryan
                Viridian Brewing Company
                [Brewery-In-Planning]

                Comment

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