A quick question

i am still a newbie when it comes to brewing, i have brewed 3 beers, 2 being in the last week. my question is, i am making a pumpkin spice ale and it has...

1 lb of 2-row pale malt
1 lb of Carapils malt in it

well this was the first time i used grains of any kind and in the directions i was following it just said to steep 6 lbs of pumpkin and grains for 30-40 minutes, then bring to a boil and continue adding the rest of the ingrediants....

5 lbs Pale LME
1 OZ Cascade hops
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

well after talking to my buddy he told me that i was suppose to take the grains and pumpkin out of the wort. i knew it didnt make sense to leave it but the recipe i was following didnt say ANYTHING about taking them out. i have it in my primary right now and when i took my reading everything was close...

these are mine from the first reading:
SP. GV =1.056
BALLING=1.5
Potential Alcohol=7.1


i am just nervous if its going to really throw the taste off. i called the local brew shop and they said it "could" make it taste "off" but i "should be fine." i now know to fallow my better judgment about this than to follow an exact recipe. please help beer gods!

First off (as the old sages on here will tell you), RDWHAHB. :fro:

As for the grains, yes. Grains are supposed to be steeped (though 30-40 minutes would run the risk of extracting tannins) and removed from the final wort. As for pumpkin, I can't say since I've never done any sort of gourd-related ale, but there's a lot of pumpkin ale threads popping up lately. Check the search function!

I have read a few books about home brewing and how grains are suppose to be removed but I made the rookie mistake of not reading between the lines. So is my pumpkin brew screwed?

You may have an excruciatingly dry brew, but who knows...you may be the pioneer of a new style!

In all seriousness, and in the last few months I've been brewing, I've learned that it's hard to completely screw over a beer. Granted, the taste/head/aroma might not be what you were looking for, but you still have that pride knowing it was a brew that you made.

I'd say let it play out and see what you have after a few weeks. I take it fermentation is going along?

Yea it's fermenting right now. Made it last Tuesday and was going to switch to secondary next Friday

Did you boil the grains and pour everything in the primary?

Had the grains in a sack I removed them and rackt into the primary

You are just supposed to steep the grains at 151 for maybe thirty minutes or an hour then remove the grain sack.

Then you boil the liquid only for an hour, adding hops. Boiling the grains is not good. ooops! It releases tannins from the grain husks.

I know I was suppose to to remove them it just didn't say to!

Don't mean to seem like a d**k (honestly!), but at what point in the brew process did you remove the grain bag? Like mrk305 said, grains are meant to be steeped like a tea bag for no more than 30 minutes to an hour. If you leave it longer (or boil the grains), the tannins will give your beer a dry residual texture, similar to drinking a good Zinfandel.

I removed the grain bag when I was done boiling. I know your not being a dick, no biggie. It was a rookie mistake that I should have used my better judgement on. I herd that if I leave it sitting in the fermentor for awhile longer, it will reduce the tannins?? Any truth to this? Thanks for the help BTW

I would just taste it and see. My guess is that the spices will help balance out any astringency anyway.

well, i cant sleep so i just went an checked my readings to see what they said (been in primary for since tuesday).

First reading:
SP. GV:1.056
BALLING:1.5
Potential Al: 7.1

Second reading:
SP. GV:1.010
BALLING:1.3
Potential AL:1%

I ran these numbers through a calculator and it says my alcohol by volume is 6.3%. but in the recipe i followed it said the alcohol by vol. was 4.6.


As far as the taste.... it tastes nothing like a pumpkin pie... at all! haha, but i think i am still going to bottle it and see what happens.

According to what's on the Midwest home brewer site they sell gelatin finnings (Look around the Irish Moss) that makes the claim it reduces tannins, but that seems a bit like snake oil to me. But give it a shot. It is cheap so why not. If you need a link let me know and I'll pm it to you, but their site has a good search function.

There is no reason to buy gelatin finings from a homebrew store. Just go to the grocery store and buy unflavored gelatin. Then, do a search on gelatin finings here on HBT and follow the instructions you find.