Fall is here and Marjorie has requested a pumpkin beer. A very polarizing ingredient in the beer world but I’ve been known to pimp some pumpkin beers in the Fall. I have enjoyed Southern Tier’s Pumpking in the past but always liked Cambridge Brewing’s version, too. Horseheads in upstate New York has a pretty good take on the style, as well. There are definitely a lot more bad ones out there than good ones. Overly spiced or worse yet, sickly sweet. Pumpking at least has some high-ABV heat to take the edge off the sweetness.
I started by considering the question, “which Belgian style might match up with some real pumpkin added?”
A dubbel might work but I’d like to go lighter than that since I plan to use a small amount of real pumpkin and little or no spicing. I have never attempted one before so I plan to “informed wing it” as I do with many homebrew projects. Tomorrow after fetching the jars from the Observatory, I will crank out a simple partial mash Belgian blonde and use fresh roasted sugar pumpkins in the mash for about 30-40 minutes. Below is the recipe I plan to use:
The Blonde Pumpkin
Min OG: 1.062 Max OG: 1.075
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 30
6.50 lbs. DME – Light
1.00 lbs. Pale Malt (2-row)
1.00 lbs. Vienna
1.00 lbs. Cara-Pils
1.00 oz. Styrian Goldings 60 min.
1.00 oz. Goldings – E.K. 10 min.
1.00 oz. Styrian Goldings 5 min.
White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale
Mash at 155 for 30-40 minutes with 4-5lb fresh roasted sugar pumpkins
