Stomach Pumpkin

We seem to end up with a lot of pumpkins.  We never plant them, they just pop up in the veg patch and surrounding area normally as a result of our seed ridden compost.  Our Italian friends also know that we will attempt to brew anything and drop off some massive ones just for a laugh.  We try to use them all. 

Stomach Pumpkin has a lovely fruity/caramel aftertaste and good head retention.  If you are expecting a crystal clear beer then this isn't the one for you but don't let that put you off, we love this one.  It takes a couple of days to get into the keg but it's worth it.

Ingredients for a 14Ltr batch

2kgs of pumpkin chopped into 1-2 inch square and deseeded
5 bay leaves (optional but does impart a nice tang)
1kg spray malt
700g sugar
30g hops (fuggles pellets)
Ale yeast (half an 11g pack S-04 Ale Yeast)

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 200C.  Hack the pumpkin into chunks and drop into baking trays then roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.  They should be just starting to crisp but be not too soggy.  Let them cool then cut off the skin and feed it to your pigs.  We normally time this brew for when we have the oven going anyway, roast the pumpkin then make the beer the next day.

In the biggest pan you can fit on your hob, boil 6ltrs of water and get yourself mentally prepared to add the malt.  We consider it to be very bad luck not to have a beer in your hand when making beer but that's just us, you can drink wine if you want.  Adding malt can be a tad tricky, when the water is boiling get K standing by with the bag of malt while you stand vigilant with your long stirrer.  To start, turn the heat right down and add a fraction of malt then stir to dissolve.  Believe me, the first time we did this we added too much malt at once and scared the absolute crap out of ourselves as it exploded out of the pan and redecorated the cooker in a sticky, very difficult to remove mess.  How we chuckled, well Jarvo did, K is still a tad bitter and twisted.  After the initial excitement you can speed up the process of dissolving the rest of the malt.  When complete, take K to ER to have the sticky malt bag surgically removed from her hands and immediately proceed with the rest of the ingredients.  Drop in the bay leaves and the pumpkin, raise the heat and get it to a low boil for 20 minutes stirring frequently then drop the hops. 

After a further 10 minutes still stirring away and after a couple more beers, pour in the sugar and dissolve whilst stirring then turn off heat and warn K what's coming next. This is a good time to get the keg cleaned and sterilised with your Chemipro OXI. Position the sieve and muslin over the keg and carefully pour the skin meltingly boiling liquid over K's hands while the steam removes your eyelids and the floor gets stickier and stickier. Resist the temptation to squeeze the liquid out. Instead be patient, have a sip and let it drip til you're bored. Put the slops to one side for the chickens, heave the keg onto a suitable counter top and top up to 14ltrs with cold water. Check the temperature, if you can comfortably stick your finger in the liquid without blubbering like a Frenchman, then it's ok to pitch the yeast. We use S-04 Ale Yeast which is great, all you have to do is stir the hooch, sprinkle it on top in a pretty pattern, seal the top and fit the airlock. Remember to label the keg with what's inside and the date. After a week or so depending on the room temperature it should either have stopped bubbling or indicate as being ready when you test with the Hydroponica or whatever it's called (see Beers Ales and Ciders home page). Then you can proceed to the bottling phase.