Help!!!

I brewed my first pumpkin.

It primared for two weeks, secondaried for a month, cold crashed/ conditioned for two weeks and keged it.

Smooth at the beginning but:
It has a real bitter after taste in the back of my throat. I spent alot of time on this

Any ideas?

I used the following recipe:

9 lbs 2 row
2 lbs Munich malt
.5 lbs car pills
.5 lbs Carmel/crystal malt
6 cans of pumpkin
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
.75 northern brewer for 60 min and 1ounce east kent goldings


I mashed at 156 for 1 hour
Boiled for 90 min


I

here's a reply for you to let you know that we're reading your post, but it won't be very useful since i have no insights for you. your description of the flaw, "a real bitter after taste in the back of my throat", unfortunately doesn't mean much to me so i have no idea what could be causing it.

a 90 min boil is a bit of overkill, you can save yourself some propane/natural gas/electricity by limiting yourself to 60 mins (unless you needed to boil off some excess water, or were looking for caramelization). pils requires 90 mins but you didn't use any.

It's harsh at the end. Almost a lingering alcohol taste.

Thermometer off, and actually mashed at a much lower temp?
Did you bake the pumpkin? Maybe burned it?

I was wondering about the thermometer. I mash in a cooler vs. pot and wonder if I'd get better results in a pot.


The pumpkin was out of a can ( purée)

There are lots of causes for that astringent flavor. It could be sparge temperature (too hot extracts bitter tannins from the grain hulls). It could be the cinnamon (too much is quite unpleasant) or another spice. The hop schedule looks fine, but with the addition of the pumpkin it could have changed the balance (ie fewer dextrines to balance the alcohol, giving a thinner flavor that brings out the hop bitterness). Higher, harsher alcohol due to extra sugars from the pumpkins or a warmer than usual fermentation with an unhappy yeast is another possibility. Unhappy yeast in general, particularly if your cleaning & sanitizing regimen includes chlorine or another chemical they don't feel like getting along with. Infection.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific, but this is a really hard one to diagnose without tasting it. I always recommend bringing it to a club meeting or your LHBS.

I really appreciate the feedback.

I use star San as my sanitizer.

What temp should sparge water be?

I also should state that I have now built a ferm chamber to regulate heat. It will cool and heat to a degree.

Were there any additives to the cans of pumpkins that could cause it? I don't see anything on your grain bill that should cause such a finish.

did you sparge over 170 degrees?
high sparge temps can cause exactly what you are describing...

one other idea.... does the taste go away if you let the beer sit in the glass for 10 min?

this is a complete shot in the dark but I once had an over carbed pale ale that had a very bitter aftertaste and believe it or not I decarbed it and the beer got much much better...

CBelli said:

did you sparge over 170 degrees?
high sparge temps can cause exactly what you are describing...

one other idea.... does the taste go away if you let the beer sit in the glass for 10 min?

this is a complete shot in the dark but I once had an over carbed pale ale that had a very bitter aftertaste and believe it or not I decarbed it and the beer got much much better...

Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen before.