Pumpkin Wee Heavy -- Too Many Ingredients?

Hi All,

I’m getting ready to make a spiced pumpkin beer for a friend’s Halloween party. I had the thought to make a wee heavy on the smaller end of that style and add pumpkin & spice to that. I’d take other feedback and advice, but the main thing I”m worried about with this recipe is that it might have too much going on – specifically that the flavor from the grain bill with fight the spices.

Batch: 3.5 Gallons, BIAB

Mash (155 F):
6.5 lb Golden Promise
2 lb Weyermann Munich 1
8 oz Victory
2 oz Simpsons Brown (Coffee) Malt
1 oz Special B
3 lb Roasted Sugar Pumpkin

Boil:
60 Minutes 8 g Magnum
10 Minutes 8 oz Light Brown Sugar
5 Minutes 1.5oz Fresh Ginger Root
5 Minutes 2 pc Cloves
5 Minutes 1 pc Cinnamon Stick
5 Minutes ¼ tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg
0 Minutes 14g EKG Hops

Yeast: Safale US-05

After Primary Fermentation: 1 lb Roasted Sugar Pumpkin

Notes:
*The reason the spices only steeped for 5 minutes is that my post-boil cooling process is not super fast, so they’ll definitely get extra steeping during that time.
*I’m hoping for 65-70 Fahrenheit for fermentation, but I”m more or less at the mercy of my basement’s ambient temperature.
*The brown sugar for is there in part for its toffee-eqsue flavor, and in part to dry out the beer slightly.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

For a great wee heavy you only need Goldenm Promise (I prefer Simpson) and maybe an oz. of roast barley for color.  Only one hop addition at the beginning of boil.

It’s too bad there’s no golden promise extract.

Yeah…

I wouldn’t say that recipe is terribly far from a lot of pumpkin beer recipes. You should be fine brewing it as it is but I’m not sure what you get out of that small amount of special B or coffee malt. The coffee malt might be color correction but I doubt you can taste the special B in that beer and not sure you want any of that raisin flavor in a pumpkin beer.

Maris otter extract with a golden promise/roast barley mini-mash?

Sounds like a plan.

What if my budget says use American pale ale malt extract?

Go for it.  Close enough.

Good. American pale ale extract is cheaper and easier to source.

Would it ruin it to sub a different roasted grain like pale chocolate for the roast barley?

Probably not.  You only use a tiny bit for color.  It has no flavor contribution

Good; I already have some pale chocolate on hand. And the Scottish in me loves to cut costs as much as possible.

I made the beer and it turned out pretty delicious.

I removed the Special B from the recipe and I used additional ginger, cinnamon, and mace in secondary.

At first the coffee malt came across too strong, and it was sweet for my taste, but it dried out to a point where I liked it a lot. FG a little under 1.020 from around 10.080.

I can definitely taste the brown sugar on the finish. The pumpkin and spices come through subtly, not so much that I could say “Ah, there’s the ginger,” etc.

It ended up fermenting around 75*F, but I’m not noticing any strong fermentation flavors that break through the pumpkin, spice, and malt.

I think I might increase the magnum for bittering the next time I make it, but other than that I don’t think I’d change anything.

At least there is no peat in it.

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