This delicious spiced amber ale beer is an all time fall favorite. This pumpkin spice beer home brew is laced with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger. It’s a breeze to make this easy pumpkin spice craft beer brew kit . It really tastes like a little slice of autumn pumpkin pie.
To make this easy brew kit pumpkin spice craft beer, I used the Smashing Pumpkin home-brew recipe kit from Northern Brewer (the 2 gallon). I order this kit every fall from them but I usually just make the 1 gallon kit. This year I ordered the 2 gallon kit and it came out delicious and consistent in flavor as it has for me in the past.
A couple for reasons why I really like working with the Northern Brewer kits: a) I don’t know how to put together my own recipes (yet), so I like that everything comes together in a neat pack that I can open up and make myself. b) The instructions are clear and easy to follow. c) The results are always consistent and tasty!
Steep Your Grain To Make Easy Pumpkin Spice Homebrew
If you’re a more advanced/experienced home brewer, they have an all grain version of the recipe to try as well. Once the kit arrives for me, I basically just dive right in. The first few steps walk you through the equipment needed and the initial boil that will make up the beer itself. Here, I’ve loosely summarized the instructions that you’ll get. Remember to sanitize all of your equipment before anything else! With this kit you’ll add your crushed grain to a 60 minute boil.
Add Your Malt
Once you’re done steeping the crushed grain, you’ll remove it and stir in the amber malt syrup that is also included in the kit.
Add Hops & Boil To Easy Pumpkin Spice Craft Beer
Once you’ve steeped your grains and added the malt, you’ll add in the cluster hops provided and… this is right about when it starts to smell amazing. The hops will boil for about an hour. (Note: close to the end of the 60 minute boil, when there’s about 5 or 10 minutes left on the clock, set up your sink with an ice bath so you’re ready to cool your wort!)
Add Pumpkin Spice
With about 5 minutes or so left to the boil, you’ll add in the packs of pumpkin spice and then begin the cooling process. (Note: In addition to what they provide, I add in about a tablespoon or so more of pumpkin spice just to give it a little extra punch of flavor. I simply use McCormick’s pumpkin spice mix.)
Cool Your Wort
Once you finish boiling the wort, everything kinda comes together quickly from here on out. I usually have an icy bath ready to go in the sink with frozen cold packs to help along the cooling process. You’ll want to cover your wort and bring the temperature of the wort down in as little time as possible.
Pour Wort into Fermenter/Add Yeast
In a sanitizing solution (using a sanitizer or your choice such as Star San), sanitize your yeast packet and any other fermenting equipment. You’ll then pour your cooled wort into your sanitized fermenter.
Begin Fermentation
I used a Brew Demon fermenter (pictured above) for this process which made everything a little easier for me when it came time for bottling which happens a little later on. You’ll want to take your cooled wort and pour it into your fermenter being careful to leave behind any thick sludge (gooey brown stuff at the bottom of the pot pictured above). Add water as needed to bring up the volume to 2 gallons. Rock the fermenter gently back and forth to aerate a bit and add your sanitized yeast packet (make sure the wort is not hot to the touch before adding yeast).
Optionally, you can take the specific gravity of the wort with a hydrometer before you add your yeast and record it. You can use this information later on to help calculate the final abv (alcohol by volume) of your beer later on when closer to the end of fermentation. Here is a helpful video I use to help walk me through this process when I need a little refresher…
Bottle Your Pumpkin Spice Craft Beer
Once you’ve finished with adding your yeast and sealing your fermenter, you’ll want to hook it up with an airlock that’s been filled with a little sanitizer and place it in cool dark area where the temps stay constant anywhere between 60 and 70 degrees. Around 2 weeks later, when fermentation begins to wrap up, it’s time to bottle your beer!
You’ll sanitize your bottles before you begin bottling your beer using a sanitizing solution such as Star San. You’ll want to sanitize bottles and caps. This is where the ease of the Brew Demon comes in. You’ll basically use the little faucet or spigot to fill each bottle. Make sure you have your bottle capper nearby so you can seal your bottles once you’ve dropped in your fizz drops, per the instructions included.
Once you’ve bottled your pumpkin spice craft beer, you’ll want to let it bottle condition so that the fizz drops (which is basically sugar) can do their magic and help carbonate the beer as it sits in the bottle. Allow another couple of weeks for this process and then transfer your bottles to the fridge to chill for a few days before drinking.
Pour Pumpkin Spice Beer Home Brew
The final beer comes out a beautiful deep amber tone with delicious notes of pumpkin spice and cinnamon and nutmeg. It has a nice orange pumpkin-like color to it. This 2 gallon kit yielded about 18 bottles for me. I used a combination of 12 oz longneck bottles and some 16 oz flip top bottles.
I like to rim my glass with a little dusting of cinnamon and then pour the pumpkin spice home brew. Northern Brewer’s Smashing Pumpkin spiced ale truly tastes like a little sip of spiced pumpkin pie.
I will comment on the fact that I actually don’t like this beer ice cold. As the pumpkin spice beer sits in the glass for a few minutes, you will notice the spice notes bloom a bit and notice the flavors unravel even more.
I truly hope you try this easy to follow and tasty Smashing Pumpkin recipe kit by Northern Brewer that I so enjoy making every year.
Eeasy Brew Kit Pumpkin Spice Craft Beer
Notes:
- This is just a loose walk through of the instructions/steps/experience. For full accurate steps on how to prepare this kit properly, refer to the original instructions provided with your kit.
- I add a little extra pumpkin spice from my own pantry. This pulls the spice flavors through more. I did this for my own personal taste as I enjoy tasting more spice notes in my beer.
- Per recommended in the instructions, I used a 2 gallon Brew Demon fermenter that I purchased separately. This really helped… especially closer to bottling time as it has a conical shape that holds the sludge behind. The little spout also made it easier for me to bottle my beer after fermentation.
- I was not paid or asked to advertise this product in any way. I wrote this just to share my own personal experience with this product. I’ve made it many times over now and always enjoy it. I hope this helps anyone else interested in trying this out! Cheers!
Helpful Links:
- Beginner’s Guide To Home Brew – video
- Using A Hydrometer – video
- Home-brew 101/How to make beer – website
- Brewdemon Conical Fermenters – website
Products I Used
- Smashing Pumpkin 2 Gallon Recipe Kit
- Beer Bottle Capper
- 12 oz Beer Bottles / Flip Top Bottles
- Brew Demon Fermenter
- Sanitizer
- Bottle Caps
- McCormick Pumpkin Spice blend – from my local grocery store
Keep the autumn spice going with this simple fireside warmer: Rum Spiked Spiced Tea!