Eventually managed to find a decent size pumpkin (4.8Kgs).
Cut it into eight pieces, scraped out all the seedy stuff and baked in the oven for 2 hours at 350 degrees to caramalise it a bit and drive out some of the water.
After the baking:-
Then scraped out all the flesh and chopped into pieces. These were put in the mash with a fairly regular grain bill (pale, munich, brown and roasted malts, with a little wheat malt for head).
Mashed for nearly 2 hours to give those enzymes from the malt time to get into the pumpkin:-
Lifted the bag, which was quite a strain as the pumpkin/grain mix seemed to be very good at retaining the water,it was damn heavy, not sure if my ceiling hook was going to take it. Hung the bag over the boiler for nearly an hour to drain, even squeezed it at the end to get the most out of it.
After that 90 minute boil with some fuggles and then at 15 minutes added chiller, half a protoflock, 2 cinnamon sticks, some nutmeg, some cloves and a vanilla pod. Ended up with 22Litres in the FV at 1.053. Pitched with US-5 and now waiting for the bubbling to start. Hopefully this will be a nice drink for Christmas.
