After over a year of debating whether to give pumpkin soda a shot, I finally kegged a pretty good first batch. I learned in initial testing to use real, cooked sugar pumpkins instead of canned pumpkin (the canned pumpkin had a funky smell), and to lean a little on the spices and apple juice to give it a well rounded taste. The below recipe met with favorable reviews:   Pumpkin Soda (5 gallons)
  1. First carbonate 4 gallons of water in a clean and sanitized keg. Carbonate for 2-3 days.
  2. Cut one 4-5 lb sugar pumpkin in half. Preheat the oven to 350F and start a teakettle full of water boiling. Clean out the pumpkin of seeds and loose flesh and place face down on a baking sheet in the oven. Save the seeds to roast. Add 1/2 inch of boiling water to the baking sheet, around the cut pumpkin, and let bake for 1 - 1.5 hours.
  3. Let the cooked pumpkin cool in the oven overnight. All future steps should be performed with sterilized equipment only.
  4. The next day, scoop out the pumpkin into a food processor. Process thoroughly, scraping with a spatula to make sure there are no lumps. Add 4-5 ground cinnamon sticks and ~20 cloves (use a spice grinder). You can add fresh nutmeg at this time as well.
  5. Add 12 ounces of frozen apple juice concentrate. Continue to mix.
  6. Strain mixture through a metal strainer into a pitcher, using the spatula to push the mixture through. If desired, strain a second time through a cheesecloth lined metal strainer (there may be grit from the spices or a little pulp from the pumpkin without the second step).
  7. Add 900-950 grams of brown sugar to the pitcher and mix with the spatula.
  8. Add the thick mixture to the 4 gallons of carbonated water in the keg. Add an additional 18 ounces of apple juice concentrate and mix by inverting the full keg.
  9. Let carbonate one full day and serve.
  10. (Optional: spike with rum or cinnamon schnapps.)