So my wife’s aunt brought some crazy pumpkins over to the family carving fest the other night, we made a vw bus with the one and my god the aromas and flavor of melons it was straight amazing, so my mind started ticking and I think I want to brew a pumpkin IPA with this pumpkin. Figured roast as usual scrape boil half for 20mins in half gallon of water add to mash the. Add other half to boil with 20 mins left in boil. Now my question is what hops would be best to help with the melon like flavors prolly could add some citrus to it as well. Any advice on a grain bill, was thinking about a simple regular IPA recipe where the pumpkin will add a slight orange tone in
No advice on the grain bill, but that’s a cool pumpkin.
I also thought this year’s pumpkin smelled great while carving it.
The general consensus is that pumpkin doesn’t add much, if any, flavor to a beer. It may be that the flavors are driven off during the boil or simply not strong enough to compete with the hops and grain. But I don’t think that you should let that stop you.
I think, though, that the amount of hops in an IPA might mask any pumpkin flavors you get.
Yea I was thinking that but figured hey I got a free 10lb pumpkin that smells amazing night as well give it a whirl lol,
Grain bill I’m doing
10lb 2-row
.5lb carapils
1.5lb red wheat
Just brewed a comet IPA with this recipe and it’s killer so will reuse that hops are where I’m sorta stuck never went after melon flavors in my iPas lol
Was thinking a mixture of el dorado and huell melon, with some late additions of citra and Amarillo
Fermenting with Conan at 63 for some peachyness to the mix
You just have to use the pumpkin at some point in the process for it to technically be called a pumkin beer. So I suggest you use the pumpkin as a place to let your yeast sit while you wait for the smackpack to swell. The trouble is what if you dont use Wyeast? Well, I guess you could just lie and say you did…
Lol nope Vermont ale yeast from giga on the stir plate as we speak we will see I do have an event coming up in December so might just skip the pumpkin and brew a good melon citrus IPA tomorrow using el dorado citra and huell Melon in this one the two with melon flavors I have never used any advice on el dorado or huell Mellon hops
Haven’t used Hüll Melon yet, but I’d go easy on the El Dorado. You could compare it to a watermelon Jolly Rancher, but it’s more about the candy part than the melon, if that makes sense. It can give a sweet impression even in a dry beer. But in low doses it certainly would work in a supporting role.
Brewed it today and said what the hell why not toss it in gave it a beautiful color and think the hops are going to play well from what I was picking out with a sample during chilling
Color sorta a golden glow from it pretty sweet and as I figured no pumpkin coming thru in the beer where doesn’t bother me helped with a color and can still call it a pumpkin IPA like I told the aunt lol
I wonder if you could use pumpkin puree (homemade) in a secondary like you would fruit. That might punch up the pumpkin flavor. It would obviously have to be cooked up at home. I don’t know maybe a thought to kick around.
Eh I sorta blurted out pumpkin IPA at the carving event so I just threw it all in the boil, the color from the pumpkin made it nice a vivid golden because the pumpkin was more golden then the usual orange Vermont ale is chugging away like a champ at 64 and smells amazing, pretty excited since it was my first time working with two of the hop varieties
