Pumpkin Beer: Removing Matter

I recently brewed a Pumpkin Spiced Ale. I let it primary for 10 days and racked to secondary. It is so viscous that I could not even get an accurate hydrometer reading and lost lots of brew in the matter at the bottom. I need to clear it so I am trying some Super Kleer finning, but I doubt this will come close and I need to remove a lot of matter. I have a filter on my funnel but it gets clogged with hops sometimes so this is waaay too much for it to handle. Does anyone have any tips for filtering this out?

Also, since I'm losing so much liquid racking, can I top it off with another gallon of water without issues?

Did you dump a bunch of pumpkin solids directly into the fermenter? Usually all the useless, sticky stuff is left behind in the mash or in a grain bag (if you use it in the boil or fermenter).

My suggestion would be cold crashing (to consolidate the sediment) and racking to another fermenter, being careful to leave the trub behind (place the tip of the auto siphon as low as possible while still drawing clear beer. If the liquid in the hose turns hazy, you are going too deep).

I think the original matter (puree) was too thin and is being suspended too well. Most of the thick matter was left when I racked, but the brew itself seems very cloudy and thick. I think cold crashing would help, but don't have any place that would hold it that is cold enough.

HiGravShawn said:

Also, since I'm losing so much liquid racking, can I top it off with another gallon of water without issues?

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You could add more water, but another gallon of water will drastically change the taste and ABV of the beer. I would take the smaller batch of beer rather than a weaker beer.

I've brewed a few pumpkin ales and have ended up loosing a lot of beer due to the thick sludge at the bottom. Heres a five gallon batch (split into two) with almost a third of the beer being sludge This is even after trying to filter it with a strainer and cheesecloth during transfer from the boil kettle to fermenter.

I think cold crashing would probably work best. Maybe you can find a college fridge at the last minute on craigslist? Something like this? http://neworleans.craigslist.org/app/1423197804.html

Many folks I know who make pumpkin beers rack it to a tertiary for a couple more weeks to clear it further.

sea2summit3: Yep the one on the right looks like what I'm getting. I wish I had known I would get such massive losses. I making this for gifts and need to fill 60 bottles and I'm already down to slightly over five gallons and wanted to rack again with a finning.

i failed to clear my pumpkin. each bottle has 1/2" of pumpkin on bottom of bottle...it's chunky, but with the 7%abv it seems to work. it's like sweet alcoholic pie.

you can only do so much, that pumpkin gets messy.