All-grain · 20 L (5.3 gal)
Pumpkin Ale Recipe
BJCP 30B · Autumn Seasonal Beer
The Halloween pumpkin beer: an orange-amber ale with biscuit and caramel malt, roasted pumpkin in the mash and pumpkin pie spices, just enough to notice them without burying the beer.
Pumpkin Ale recipe by the numbers
- Batch size
- 20 L (5.3 gal)
- Original gravity
- 1.059
- Final gravity
- 1.014
- ABV
- 5.9%
- Bitterness
- 17 IBU
- Color
- 10 SRM (19 EBC)
- Mash
- 67 °C (153 °F) for 60 minutes
- Boil
- 60 minutes
- Fermentation
- 19 °C (66 °F) for 14 days
- Bottling
- 5.8 g of sugar per liter (0.8 oz/gal)
About 180 kcal per 330 ml (11 oz) bottle, worked out from its original and final gravity.
Pumpkin Ale recipe: ingredients and steps
Batch size
Recipe for 20 liters (5.3 US gallons) into the fermenter.
Malts
| Malt | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Pale ale malt6 EBC (3 °L) | 4.30 kg (9.48 lb) | 79.6% |
| Munich malt15 EBC (6 °L) | 0.50 kg (1.10 lb) | 9.3% |
| Biscuit malt50 EBC (19 °L) | 0.25 kg (0.55 lb) | 4.6% |
| Crystal (caramel) malt120 EBC (46 °L) | 0.35 kg (0.77 lb) | 6.5% |
Hops
| Hop | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| East Kent Goldings5.5% alpha acids | 30 g (1.06 oz) | 60 minBittering |
You will also need
Yeast: Dry English ale yeast, such as S-04: one 11.5 g (0.4 oz) packet.
Pumpkin: 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of butternut squash or red kuri, peeled, diced and roasted for 1 hour at 200 °C (392 °F) until the edges caramelize. It goes in the mash, with the grain.
Rice hulls: 500 g (1.1 lb), also in the mash: without them the pumpkin packs the grain bed and the sparge gets stuck.
Spices: 1 cinnamon stick of about 3 g (0.1 oz), broken up, with 5 minutes left in the boil.
Spices: 1 g of freshly grated nutmeg (half a small nutmeg), with 5 minutes left in the boil.
Spices: 1 g of ground ginger, with 5 minutes left in the boil.
Spices: 2 whole cloves, with 5 minutes left in the boil.
Water: About 30 L (7.9 gal): 16 L (4.2 gal) for the mash and 14 L (3.7 gal) for the sparge. That's half a liter more than usual, because the pumpkin soaks up some water too.
Priming sugar: 5.8 g of white sugar per liter bottled (0.8 oz/gal): about 110 g (3.9 oz) for 19 L (5.0 gal). Medium carbonation, like an amber ale.
Hops: pellets, kept in the freezer until brew day.
Step by step
- Roast the pumpkin the day before or that same morning: diced, skin off, 1 hour at 200 °C (392 °F), until it browns at the edges. That roasting is where the flavor comes from; raw pumpkin tastes of almost nothing in beer.
- Heat 16 L (4.2 gal) of water to 73 °C (163 °F) and add the crushed malt, the rice hulls and the roasted pumpkin, mashed with a fork. Stir well: it should settle at about 67 °C (153 °F). Hold that temperature for 60 minutes, covered.
- Lift out the grain (if you brew BIAB, in the bag, letting it drain slowly) and sparge it with 14 L (3.7 gal) of water at 76 °C (169 °F). You should collect about 24 L (6.3 gal) of wort at 1.048-1.049.
- Bring to a boil and boil for 60 minutes, uncovered. At the start, add the 30 g (1.1 oz) of East Kent Goldings.
- With 5 minutes left, add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, ideally in a mesh bag so you can pull them out at flameout.
- Chill to 19 °C (66 °F), let it settle for 15 minutes so the pumpkin bits sink to the bottom, and transfer about 20 L (5.3 gal) to the sanitized fermenter, leaving behind as much of the sludge as you can. Take a gravity reading: it should be around 1.059. Aerate well.
- Pitch the yeast and ferment at 19 °C (66 °F) for about two weeks. Once the gravity sits at 1.014 for three days in a row, bottle with the priming sugar and let it carbonate for two weeks. To have it ready for October 31, brew it by early October at the latest.
The pumpkin adds little sugar and some body and color; the recipe numbers don't count it, so your gravity may come out a point or two higher. The "pumpkin pie" flavor comes mostly from the spices and from the biscuit and crystal malts.
The spices are kept light on purpose: nutmeg and clove get out of hand fast. If you want it spicier, don't add more in the boil: at bottling, add a tincture (the same spices soaked for 3-4 days in 50 ml (1.7 oz) of vodka, strained) a teaspoon at a time, testing first in a glass with a measured amount of beer and scaling the dose to the batch. If your Goldings isn't 5.5% alpha acids, use 30 × 5.5 ÷ your percentage, in grams.
The style: Autumn Seasonal Beer (BJCP 30B), with its history, its numbers and other ways to brew it.
Different setup? Recalculate with the water calculator, the IBU calculator and the priming sugar calculator.
Rating recipes and keeping a brew log need an account, which is only available in Spanish for now. English accounts are coming soon.
Frequently asked questions
How strong will this Pumpkin Ale be?
About 5.9% ABV: it starts at 1.059 and finishes at 1.014, and (OG − FG) × 131.25 gives that percentage.
How long until it is ready?
One brew day, fermentation at 19 °C (66 °F) for 14 days and about two weeks in the bottle: give it a little over a month.
Can I use a different bittering hop?
Yes. What matters is keeping the bitterness: if you use another hop instead of East Kent Goldings at 5.5% alpha acids, work out the grams from its alpha acids (or with the IBU calculator) to stay at about 17 IBUs.
What if my system does not get 72% efficiency?
Your gravity will come out different. Scale the base malt up or down (or add a little dry malt extract to the boil if you fall short) and recalculate the water with the calculator.
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Reference style: Autumn Seasonal Beer in the BJCP guidelines, 2021 edition. Original recipe by Hacer Cerveza Casera, designed for a homebrew setup.