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Recipe Spotlight: Pumpkin Ale

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Recipes

I’m a huge fan of Summer but there’s only one season I love more than summer, Autumn. I mean, just take a few moments and think about all the products you can pick up around autumn; Pumpkin pies, pumpkin spiced lattes and I can’t forget the versatile Pumpkin beer.

There’s very little information about when the first pumpkin beer was brewed, but the first record we have of it is when it was mentioned in a song which is dated as far back as the 16th century. Originally, pumpkin was added to a beer due to a shortage of grains and so it reduced the cost of production whilst ensuring enough fermentable sugars were present to allow for a strong fermentation to take place. 

Over time the whole concept of a pumpkin ale has really moved on from it’s original conception. Today, you’ll find a variety of different styles of beers that add pumpkin into the beer, not with the intention of reducing costs but to enhance the flavour.  Buffalo Bills Brewery was the first brewery to produce pumpkin beers on a large commercial scale in the late 1980’s and they changed things up my using the traditional pumpkin pie spices. Just as the ‘pumpkin spiced’ craze increased so did the number of pumpkin beers. It’s estimated that there’s somewhere in the region of 400+ that you can get your hands on commercially but we decided to embrace the season and brew our own pumpkin ale based on the famous Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale

Give it a go and let us know what you think. 

Pumpkin Ale Recipe

General Information

Beer Style

Fruit and Spice Beer

ABV:

6.9%

OG:

1.064

FG:

1.012

Final Volume

5 Gallons

Fermentation Temp

18˚C / 64˚F

Ingredient List

Fermentables

Pale Malt (2 Row) US

5.78kg

Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

0.56kg

Special Roast

0.56kg

Brown Sugar, Light

500 grams

Hops

Hallertauer

60 mins

50 grams

Hallertauer

5 mins

35 grams

Yeast

US-05 Safale American

1 pkg

Other

Pumpkin Puree

33oz

Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

2 tb spoons