The BEST Pumpkin Beer is made WITHOUT SPICES [Fall Saison Recipe]

Pumpkin beers are the ultimate polarizing drink. You either love them or you despise them. But what is it that turns people off? Maybe it's the fact that companies are just shoving pumpkin spice flavor into the most unnecessary places, or maybe it's the pumpkin flavor itself. But what I think is the real reason for the hate is the overuse of pumpkin spice. That flurry of warming, seasonal spices has really become the defining flavor of pumpkin products. And when misused in But what if we could still make a pumpkin spice beer without pumpkin spice? That's exactly what I set out to do. And in the end, I was left with one of the best fall beers I've made to date. Most pumpkin spices are made up of five components. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. And I've used pumpkin spice and some of these other spices on their own to great success. And a light touch is all that's needed. But can we achieve any of these flavors without actually adding them? The most obvious one that stands out to me is clove, as clove is often a descriptive word for phenolic flavors found in beer. Phenols can also be described as a plasticky band-aid, smoky, or even a medicinal flavor. And those are more considered off flavors in beer. But maybe, just maybe, we can produce only the clove-like spice phenol with the right yeast selection and fermentation strategy. This recipe is taken straight from Drew Beauchamp, one of the great home brewers and author of many books. This is his Saison Autant, and I found I buried it in a pdf with a bunch of other great saison recipes. I'll leave a link to the full recipe if you want to brew it yourself. Drew is considered a master at saison, so I knew I could trust this recipe, and I loved that there was no actual spice additions, so it was perfect for this experiment. Some saison strains are more phenolic positive than others, so yeast choice will be important to hit our target. But more on that in a second, let's quickly brew this up. The recipe consisted of 87% mary's otter, 3% biscuit malt, 2% crystal 75, and 2% wheat malt. And since this was meant to be a pumpkin beer, I thought I'd add in some pumpkin. So early in the morning, I roasted a big can of pumpkin at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour, and then added that right into the mash. Shout out to my buddy Johnny for helping me on this brew day. And also thank you to Clymer, who's been a longtime partner of the channel. I'm brewing on their 120 volt 10 gallon system, and if you're interested in getting your own, I'll leave a link in the description. I mashed at 152 Fahrenheit for an hour. After the mash, I brought the wort to a boil for 90 minutes, and then added 1.6 ounces of styrian goldings at the 60 minute mark, and then 0.5 ounces of saws with 20 minutes remaining. Both of these hops have sort of a spice, woody, and herbal flavor, which should work perfectly to aid in our spiceless spice flavor. Finally at the end of the boil, I added the remaining six percent of fermentables in the form of brown sugar. Drew's recipe actually states to use dark English brown sugar, if you can find that. I then chilled down and transferred into a fermenter. Time for the yeast. Like I said, you can go many ways with this, but I decided to go with WLP 565 Belgian Saison 1, since according to their website, it produces earthy, peppery, and spicy flavors and aromas. But feel free to experiment. You might get different results, and if spice isn't your thing, you can totally go a different way. If you do use a spice forward yeast strain, and you really want it to shine, temp control is the key. The lower you ferment your saison yeast, the more the phenols will shine. But it's not because the yeast expresses more clove spice at that temp, it's that it's not producing esters or fruit-like flavors as much. So if you want to temper the phenols back, fermenting a little warmer will increase ester production, masking out the phenols. It's kind of like a lever you can pull to adjust these Belgian beers to your preference. But today, I'm bringing the spiceless spice, so I'll be fermenting on the cool side, around 63 degrees Fahrenheit. I'll let it ferment for about a week, then keg it up, and let it condition for another two weeks or so, until it's crisp and ready to drink. This beer was an absolute smash hit, and quite possibly one of my favorite fall beers that I've made on the channel. What I love so much about saisons is their ability to go dry. This one went from about 1.075 to 1.008, so it was crisp and refreshing, despite its relatively higher ABV of about 8.8%. But to me, this had the perfect amount of spice character. Not overly flavored or muddled with too much pumpkin spice, but the right amount to go up against the maltiness of this beer. And the best part is you can really dial this back with yeast choice or fermentation profile to your preference. But my favorite part of all was serving this to friends, and then telling them that I didn't use any pumpkin spice. They were blown away that yeast, of all things, it had such a defining flavor to beer. Another reason why yeast choice is one of the most powerful tools in a brewer's pocket. But if you actually do like pumpkin spice, then don't worry. I've done a few spice beers in the past, like this pumpkin spice latte stout. That was an absolute winner. Click here to check it out, and happy brewing!