Is it a complete failure if I learned a lot of lessons from the experience? I brewed a partial-mash pumpkin ale tonight and it was a complete mess. First I made the mistake of adding one pound of flaked wheat to the MLT. That resulted in a sparge so stuck it was like trying to get water out of cooked oatmeal. I had roasted the pumpkin, stuffed it in a cheese cloth and boiled it in my kettle. Towards the end of the boil I could smell it scorching. After cooling it off I transferred to my primary and it was the consistency of tomato soup and stank like burnt toast. After running it through my sieve twice I could still smell the scorched pumpkin and ended up tossing the whole batch down the drain.
After reading some other posts stating that the pumpkin doesn't really add much to the flavor I might try another batch this week sans pumpkin.
Sorry to hear that. I haven't made one yet, but I've drank a few. You're correct: pumpkin doesn't have much flavour of its own. What you might want to do is add some pumpkin for the 'reality' and deal mainly with 'pumpkin pie spice' additions to a nice ale with a decent malt base.
As for stuck sparge: try finding some rice hulls; they act like a natural husk on a grain and works like 'filler' so you don't get oatmeal...
Good luck.
__________________ Primary: Dunkelweizen Secondary: BrewHouse IPA Forgotten about: Samichlaus Keg: Special Bitter Keg 2: American Barleywine
I would've pitched the yeast and tried it out. keep some nottingham or us05/04 and when you messup a batch like that, pitch anyway, beer tends to be very tricky. something that you think is aweful may turn out great.
unless you're tight on carboy time. then I would say buy another
Hate to see anyone lose a batch.
I have been itching to make a pumpkin ale too, but some of the post I have have seen lately have me rethinking my plan. I still want to make one, but think I will put more emphasis on the spice and use less actual pumpkin.
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On Tap: Backporch IPA, Rosemary Pale Ale
Pumpkin Ale - Lessons Learned
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