Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:45 am
Late reply, but for those that may read this next summer/fall...
I brewed Jamil's recipe this year, and used fresh pumpkin. It turned out great. I roasted two small winter luxury pumpkins (both in the 5 lb range), and ended up with more than enough pulp (need 5 lbs for the beer).
As far as the debate about whether pumpkin really adds anything to the beer, I will say that it does. I think it really depends on the spice level though. Do you want your beer to taste like pumpkin, or pumpkin pie spices? Big difference. If you just like the spices, then no need to use pumpkin. If the spice level is strong, it will probably mute the pumpkin flavor. But the pumpkin would still add to the body, and would give it a sort of silky mouthfeel (I believe Jamil mentions this in his book, and I agree).
If you want to keep the spice flavors lower, or don't want it spiced at all, and like the squashy flavor of pumpkin, then you definitely want to use pumpkin. The flavor will come through. I cut Jamil's spice recommendation in half, because I didn't want the pumpkin flavor to be lost. It worked out great, as the squashy pumpkin flavor really comes through. To each their own, but I find that most of the commercial varieties that I've tried just taste like pumpkin pie spices, and the body is sometimes lacking.
My pumpkin was mashed. I added some rice hulls. The sparge may have been slightly slower, but it really didn't cause any big problems. It smelled wonderful. That's almost reason enough to use pumpkin.
As far as pumpkin variety, I guess the only hard and fast rule is to use some sort of pie variety (or sweet potatos or squash for that matter, as others mentioned). The winter luxury variety worked really well because it has lot's of sweet flavored pulp, and a very small cavity for seeds compared to the typical jack-o-lantern varieties. Plus it's an heirloom pumpkin, so that might give your beer that little extra something to be pround of if that sort of think interests you.
