Pumpkin Whiskey

[topNoEvil0420]

I have been seeing an enormous demand for Pumpkin beer in my neck of the woods and it got me thinking, so I did a google search and sure enough I found a few places that so pumpkin whiskey, its my last mash of the season so I decided why not try it out, I searched the net for Various pumpkin beer recipies compared them and worked out my own mash recipie, it was the most demanding mash I have done to date (and its not even all grain). I did 2 batches each a little different I did one 54L demijohn with the recipie as follows

1 small pumpkin cut peeled and cut into chunks
1 can pumpkin puree spead out on a tin foil sheet
3.9 kgs Amber (LME)
1 Kg Light (DME)
500 grams crystal Malt
500 grams Wheat malt
1 Kg 2 row malt
1 Can of Coopers Daught malt ( or equivalent needs to be lightly hopped)
5 1 inch long 1/4 inch wide ginger peels
3 cloves
1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 4 inch long piece of cinnamon

I roasted both the pumkin pieces and the pumkpin puree for about an hour at 425F, I did add a dash of cinnamon to the puree.
I then put the puree in the primary
put the chunks in my 10L pot and added 6.5 L of water and brought it up to 155F steeped the grains for 60 mins then removed the grains added 1 KG of light DME stirred and once dissovled brought it up to a light boil for 10 mins and then added to primary fermenter
Added can of Coopers to primary
boiled another 6.5 L of water then turned the heat off and added the liquid malt once dissolved brought back up to a boil for 10 mins then added to primary

I stired everything in the primary pretty vigourously then waited till the was 70F and added my yeast let ferment 2 days then racked it ( I had to use a strainer for all the pumpkin chunks )
then once in the secondary I left that sit for another 7 days ( it would have been 5 but bad weather put me off from stillin)

Ran it once then let it sit for 24 hrs with the ginger peels, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, then ran again
I put that aside.



I then did another batch with 2, 23L carboys

I did the same recipie as before only I subsittuted one of the Liquid amber malts ( 1.3KGs ) for a Dark malt and also added 500G of Chocolate malt to the recipie. and instead of adding the spices to the low wines I added them to the first boil with the pumpkin chunks.

fermented for 3 days and then strained and racked to 2nd fermentor after 5 days I ran it.

then ran the low wines then added both batches together and ran once more,


The result wasnt what I had expected, the low wines had alot of pumkin smell and flavour but by the 3rd run I could barley detect the pumpkin, but the spices made up for it , I had a bit for tasting that was smooth and the rest was split up to age on american white oak and the other french white oak,

I'll post in a couple of months with tasting info

[GhostfaceStillah]

I did something similar last year, although I used molasses & brown sugar instead of additional malts. I used 4 medium pumpkins for a 15 gallon mash, and I boiled the pumpkin instead of roasting, using pectic enzyme and amylase to invert the carbs and sugars in the pumpkins.

I pot stilled it twice, one quick stripping run and one where I collected in increments. My experience was that the bulk of the pumpkin flavors/smells came off pretty early in the heads, making them pretty unusable. Some of that was probably acetaldehyde, but it was much stronger than I ever get in normal rum recipes.

The fractions I used to blend into the final product had very little pumpkin flavor. Basically ended up with a labor-intensive rum, but it was still very tasty after a few months on oak. Wish I had been able to isolate the pumpkininess that came out early.

I'm interested to hear how yours turns out. I meant to do another batch this fall, but didn't get around to it. If you can, try to take very small increments early and see if you can find that pumpkin.

Good luck!

[topNoEvil0420]

A rum based spirit would have been alot easier to do,
I got alot of pumpkin smell and flavour in the white spirit but as soon as I put it on wood i lost the majority of the flavour and some of the smell, I did put aside 1 mason jar of white that I added pumpkin spice to , changed the colour to an orange and complemented the pumpkin without being to overwhelming. When I do it again I am going to try boiling the pumpkin and add enzymes instead of roasting them to see if it changes flavor. I did my stripping run and on my first spirit run I took everythig between 70 - 55% and took all the rest down to 20% and put it aside then did my final spirit run and again took everything from 70% - 55%. I still have a bunch of the stuff again on wood, we'll see how more time mellows it/ affects flavors

[mass37]

When trying to get any flavor from pumpkin, it's important to use the tiny pumpkins. THe large, hollow pumpkins dont have the flavor.

[topNoEvil0420]

So it's been awhile I took my aged stuff off wood and its been sitting with a small piece of vanilla in each bottle , wow, there is this sweet smell that mingles pumpkin with vanilla its quite nice.
I am finally getting around to doing another batch although I wont be using fresh pumpkins this time pumpkin puree only I am also ajusting the grains, switching out the crystal malt for maris otter we'll see how it changes ( if it changes) anything in the final product. I also upgraded and built a 45L SS brew kettle with drainage so I am eager to try it out. I'll post my tweaked recipie and some pictures in a few days

[Halfbaked]

You can buy what they call pumpkin pie spice. Its a mixture of all the spices used in pumpkin pie. I hear that works great. Let us know if you like it

[topNoEvil0420]

Halfbaked- I was thinking of getting all the pumpkin spice ingredients whole, instead of ground and putting them in the gin basket of my new still, I am cheating and doing my recipe without fresh roasted pumpkin on my day off tomorrow ( I was supposed to do it a few weeks ago but I ended up doing rum instead), I'll have to update after I still, I also picked up the new book ALT whiskey from corsair distillery distiller Darek Bell, he has a pumpkin spice moonshine recipe as well...Iall have to try it out and compare

[Halfbaked]

ALL I got to say about that topNoEvil0420 is dang it tell me what happens. Never thought of that. What kinda wash you gonna do with that. That's cheating I bet you put some of that pumpkin coloring in for effect also. If it don't work you can always put it directly in your finished product. I guess it is a win win for you huh.

I found another post on this site that might interest you http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... it=pumpkin It interested me. I like it when you got lots of heads going in the same direction shootn for the same results

[mealstrom]

ALL I got to say about that topNoEvil0420 is dang it tell me what happens. Never thought of that. What kinda wash you gonna do with that. That's cheating I bet you put some of that pumpkin coloring in for effect also. If it don't work you can always put it directly in your finished product. I guess it is a win win for you huh.

I found another post on this site that might interest you http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... it=pumpkin It interested me. I like it when you got lots of heads going in the same direction shootn for the same results

Yep, this one worked great for me. Like other people have said, the pumpkin taste is kinda light, but it helps to run it low and slow and add some pumpkin spice to the final product. I didn't put it on oak, and I'm glad I didn't now that the tastes have married a bit.

[Halfbaked]

I agree oak might overpower the pumpkin and the orange color is def a plus that you would loose with oak.

[topNoEvil0420]

So I started a new batch of pumpkin whiskey recipie is as follow's however I didnt get to check my SG as my roommate knocked over the glass and the hydrometer....

I also am using a different yeast i used Safale 05 I did 2 52 L demi johns however I used pumpking puree only instead of some puree and some whole pumpkin, also added 2 tbs of pumpkin spice to the fermenter and will also add some in the distill,

stay posted I will post picvture when I have some time later

[Halfbaked]

If I was gonna do it (when I do it), I would get a truck load of pumpkins and a 55 gal drum and fill it up with pumpkin and get a drill and put a paint mixer and grind them babies up. Not sure about the yeast. I guess it depends on temp and what a particular person would tell me. I know it would be low on abv but no sugar. Pinkin brandy. I like your gin basket idea but I think I would spice it after it turned white. Maybe low wines then use the gin basket or maybe after it was finished or maybe try both. As low ABV I might suspect 3x dist. I bet it would be nasty hard to get racked.

[GhostfaceStillah]

Def going to be low ABV if you don't add sugar or do something to invert the carbs. Only about 3% of total weight of pumpkin are naturally fermentable sugars.

Also would worry about adding the spices to the ferment. Cinammon, allspice, et al have antimicrobial properties; and are among the earliest preservatives used by mankind. Not sure if/what levels are required for yeast toxicity, but I would think it has to slow them down some.

[Halfbaked]

Ghost yes I agree. If I was talked into sugar it would be brown sugar. I was figuring 4% but at that point what is 1%. I bet at 3% a truck load of punkins make lots of good likkkker. If the punkins were free that would make it taste even better wouldn't it. If you did spice in mash that would mean that 97% of the spice would probly be wasted. I def would flavor after it is in the white. That would be enough punkins to try a no sugar process and a few others. I am not a rum drinker but with pumpkins maybe molasses would be a good idea. I would have to cut up and freeze some to keep from going bad. I bet pumpkin keeps better in the bottle.

[topNoEvil0420]

So it has been quite awhile since i have posted on here. Fall is pretty much here and it's time to do another batch. Didnt have alot of time during the summer to work on my hobby but now that fall is here everyone has been asking me to make some more Pumpkin Whiskey....
This year I am changing it up a bit I want to try and get more pumpkin flavour so in addition to adding the pumpkin during the ferment I am going to put some in a vapour basket along with some other fresh spices( I spent a little money and got a 50L pot still that has a 1FT colum). Essentially I want to get as much pumpkin flavour coming off as possible. I will also be taking out the Light DME and using 1.5 KG of wheat malt instead. Hopefully this time I can remember to take some pictures!!

[Halfbaked]

I like the idea of vapor path. You have to be sure and not get that column clogged up and create a bomb. I don't think there are many pumpkin fans out there. I think they like the spices that go into and make the pie taste. Earlier in the post someone posted that they were afraid to put oak to their brandy cause afraid of loosing or changing flavor and I get that. If I like it the way it is why risk it. I have some peach that is absolutely perfect the way it is. Oak would mess it up. I also like the grain mixture with pumpkin on the first post but I think it is way to involved. I also think chunked smoked pumpkin would be excellent. I can't speak for size of pumpkin and flavor but there are pumpkin variety that will have more flavor and some have more sugar. I have not done pumpkin brandy but Jimbo says he likes a good variety of apples in his brandy and possibly this would be a good way to do pumpkin brandy also.

[GhostfaceStillah]

Good Luck! I definitely like the vapor path idea. It should give you a subtler version of the spice flavors. Please let us know how it goes.

I planted a pumpkin patch this year with brandy in mind, but it did not survive the heat of texas summer. So I'll have to wait until the post-Halloween pumpkin price plummet to get this year's batch going.