Pumpkin - fermentable material?

[Greig McGill]

Anybody know what the potential extract is per 100g of raw pumpkin? (Yes, I googled. Much speculation, nothing definitive.)

[MrC]

According to Radical Brewing it's 1.005 per pound.

That's pretty low so it may not be worth factoring it into calculations at all. My efficiency tends to move more than that at times for no apparent reason so I wouldn't bother personally.

Hope that helps.

[Greig McGill]

Hrm, I have Radical Brewing. Never thought to look there. I'm a slave to the tubes!

[Martin Bridges]

Don't do it Greig! The only decent pumpkin ale I've ever tasted was the one Barbara made.

[Greig McGill]

I really liked DFH Punkin. I'm just in the mood to clone it...
I'll leave out the fermentables.

[Barbara Joppa]

Why thanks!
I was just going to reply here, too. My pumpkin was roasted first and added about 1kg to the mash (probably a mistake since I had horrible problems with it clogging up the grain bag (no fancy equipment for this poor girl).

Best of luck with it!
Barb

[MrC]

Aren't these pumpkin beers all about the spices anyway?

I say go for it Greig! It's good to brew odd beers from time to time, they're always memorable.

[jt]

I say go for it

My vote says save the pumpkin for next weekends soup, or maybe with the lamb roast

[MrC]

I'd still add the pumpkin, even if it's just a token amount to "keep it real". Pumpkin-free Pumpkin Ale just doesn't seem right to me.

Imagine the the conversation with your friends.
"Here, try some of my pumpkin ale"
"Punkin ale? ", glug, glug, glug, "Wow, that tastes great, how much pumpkin did you add?"
"Umm", glug, glug, "Well, ahh", glug, glug "actually..."

I would however focus my attention on the spicing.

[Soren]

Aren't these pumpkin beers all about the spices anyway?

Yep, as far as I know it is. The pumpkin apperantly brings very little to the party in terms of flavour.

As far as I can see from a qauick google search, pumpkin is about 10% carbohydrate. In theory that could all be converted to sugars given the right mashing conditions...?

No fat and 1% protein for the true geeks:)

If it's anything like brewing with kumara, be prepared for a very sticky mash...

[David Wood]

I've heard from Rob Owen that pumpkin turns your mash into a big winegum, and contributes little flavour. Read an article the other day which said most 'pumpkin ales' in the states don't actually contain pumpkin for that reason.

[Greig McGill]

I've read that too, but I tasted Rob's, and I said to him at the time (before I knew what it was) that I could taste "green" pumpkin in the beer, so it definitely brings something, and it's something I want to try. :) Punkin from DFH definitely has pumpkin in it, and as Mr Cherry says, I feel it needs some to be legit.

My plan is to oven roast it first, then scrape all the pulp out, and pre-heat to mash temp in a saucepan before adding it to the mash. I figured the roasting would assist in the conversion, and the heat would lessen the "starchy" mash-screwing issues.

[JoKing]

Id try to dissolve all the mashed up punkin pulp into the strike water before mashin in... it might make a slight difference to the consistency of the mash.