Pumpkin Ale (Liquid Pumpkin Pie!)

My pumpkin ale, served from my garage keg!  It was actually a deep red, but I have trouble photographing liquids in glasses.

      I finally got some pictures of my pumpkin ale, which can best be described as intoxicating, liquid pumpkin pie.  This was a true pumpkin ale, as opposed to a pumpkin spice ale.  It had actual pumpkin in addition to spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  The first thing you will notice is the nice head on the beer.  It also had a very thick mouthfeel, almost like an oatmeal stout would have.  I suspect that both of these characteristics were the result of the starches in the pumpkin.  After the foamy, and slightly malty initial flavor, the spices came through.  Some brewers overdo the spices, but these spices balanced perfectly with the dark malt favors.  The beer finished with the bitterness of chinook hops, and to a lesser extent, the spices.  Since it is intended for cooler temperatures, I made the final alcohol content a little higher at 5.5%.  You may be wondering how I made this beer.  Well, I won't give you my exact recipe but, I will give you enough information to get you in the ballpark.  Fine tuning the recipe will be up to you.

      For starters, take some time to prepare the pumpkin.  As I said earlier, pumpkins are very starchy, so you will want to account for this.  Roasting and mashing the pumpkin will help.  First, chop the pumpkin up into small pieces to make roasting easier.  I baked mine for an hour and forty-five minutes at 350 degrees, with a small amount of water in the pan.  I hoped that roasting the pumpkin would help to gelatinize some starches, and caramelize the sugars, thus breaking them down into smaller molecules.  Both of these processes are influenced by many variables, so I just guessed but, it turned out well.  Caramelization of the pumpkin also added flavor and color to the final beer (much like caramel malts).  The second thing that can be done to help avoid excessive starches is adding the pumpkin to the mash.  This requires that you use an all-grain or partial mash recipe.  If you haven't tried either of these yet, it is not as hard as it seems.  Give it a try.
      Do not add too many spices.  I won't give you the exact amounts I used, but I'll give you some hints.  First, I added the spices at two different times, some early on in the boil (for flavor), and some near the end (for aroma).  Spices can be much more potent than people expect.  In total, I used no more than 1/2 an ounce of spices (for a 5 gallon batch).  I find it is best to start with a small amount of spices, and add more in successive batches.  Another option, which I did not do, is to add spices during fermentation and settling.  This can be especially interesting because different aromatic compounds will dissolve into the beer at different strengths depending on the alcohol content.  Also, spices will mellow out over time, so make your beer before the holiday season and take notes on how the flavor changes.  Then, the following year, you will know when to brew your beer so it reaches peak maturity during the holidays.
      Finally, go easy on the hops.  There is already a lot of flavor from the spices.  I just used some chinook hops for bittering.  You don't want to mask the pumpkin and spice flavors you worked so hard to create.  I hope this helps get you started.  Have some fun experimenting, and feel free to comment if you have any questions or ideas.