BadBeagleBrew

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Benedetto

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i made an extract. 6 lbs of DME, steeped the grains and flaked wheat at 155 - 160 degrees for half an hour. didn't take a gravity reading (I never do, until today when I ran into this problem.) I rehydrated and used Safale US-05. I don't have a temperature strip on the fermenter but it's in the basement so i figure it was at a pretty steady 65ish degrees.

but 1.008 is REALLY low, right? And I put in a TON of pumpkin. I figured that would have driven up the gravity like mad. If it remains the same gravity tomorrow I'll just rack it and add the vanilla and another round of spice tea. It tastes good! Just never seen the "krausen" linger for this long before. I'm starting to think that it was only the pumpkin floating on the surface.

BadBeagleBrew

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Sounds good to me although the pumpkin will not really add any gravity points (not much for fermentables there). Start taking initial readings so you have a starting point for comparison. My sg was 1.068 fg was 1.018, so an attenuation of about 70% which is average /low for s-04. I've heard of people getting 90-100% attenuation with it so yeah yeast will surprise you. Cheers

Benedetto

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OK, I think I need help with my pumpkin ale. That stuff I thought was Krasuen was clearly only pumpkin matter. As you can see, there is no typical "krausen stain" on the walls of my fermenting bucket. gravity is reading 1.008. did I even get a fermentation???? maybe the yeasts were not viable. Although, it was bubbling away happily for about 3 or 4 days after a slow start. (began bubbling on the 2nd day) should I re-pitch yeast?

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moscoeb

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I had very little krausen stain on my carboy too. Does it smell like beer/fermentation? You should be able to smell the alcohol. Also, what was your OG? If it dropped, I would assume you had fermentation.

Benedetto

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didn't check an OG. Yes, it definitely smells like a normal fermentation. I got a whiff of that offensive sharp smell as soon as I took the lid off.

moscoeb

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I'd say you are good to go. Take a sample and taste it.

mesa4234

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I just brewed up an extract today. I threw in the spices with 5 minutes to go in the boil, so we will see how that turns out. The OG was a little lower than expected at 1.050, but everything seems fine. I am looking forward to watching this thing brew!

Benedetto

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oh, it tastes wonderful! i added two vanilla beans in secondary. thanks for the reassurance i am less worried than i was this morning.

Brewskier

Recipes 

A couple of questions.... please forgive me if this has already been asked, I don't want to go through all 116 pages....

Is there a partial mash version, or can someone attempt to convert it to partial mash? I have a new 3 gallon mini mash tun I've been dying to try out.

I was considering adding 2 vanilla beans to primary and letting it sit for the last week before kegging. I'm also considering throwing a half pound of lactose into the keg just to give it a little bit of sweetness and mouthfeel. Anybody have experience adding these two ingredients to this recipe? I definitely want it to be noticeably sweet, but not cloyingly so. Just a subtle sweetness to give it that "pumpkin pie in a glass" taste that I've found lacking in my previous recipes for pumpkin ale.

Thanks.