not very alcoholic

so for my 6th batch of beer i tryed a pumpkin ale. i dont remember my exact process, but the main problem is its not alcoholic at all. from gravity, it should be about 4% abv, but, my brain and girl friend tell me otherwise. what could this be a from? short boil? not giving the yeast enough time? I didnt take a hydro reading, but i know there were fermentables in it, and i gave it 2and ahalf weeks to do its thing.

the other problem, i steeped pumpkin for 30 minutes, and there is not a single taste of pumpkin at all. think i boiled it out, or the yeast used it?

there is also a yeasty flavor, cant tell if its the hops or not thou.

any help would be, a help, thanks.

throw the recipe up

mr_stimey said:

throw the recipe up

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I agree.

How much pumpkin did you use?

think it was 6 pounds of northwestern amber liquid extract, 6pounds of pumpkin extract(looks like what youd use in a pumpkin pie) maybe some honey(1 lb)
and a hop and cinnamon.
sorry for non spefics, it just came out of bottle conditioning, and i wont even start on about how i used way to much sugar to carbonate, i have to open them up in the sink.

i dont recall if i waiting for the head to disapate before i did a rolling boil, and then even then i dont think i did a full hour boil, think there werent enough sugars for the yeast to use? from now on i take hydrometer readings, but im worried that its the plastic fermenter im using, it needs a hammer hit in the clockwise direction to fasten, maybe im airating my wort to much with the strikes?

hylowa said:

so for my 6th batch of beer i tryed a pumpkin ale. i dont remember my exact process, but the main problem is its not alcoholic at all. from gravity, it should be about 4% abv, but, my brain and girl friend tell me otherwise. what could this be a from? short boil? not giving the yeast enough time? I didnt take a hydro reading, but i know there were fermentables in it, and i gave it 2and ahalf weeks to do its thing.

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And therein lies yet another reason why hydrometer readings are important.

Buy a hydrometer and use it. Otherwise, all answers to your questions are purely speculation.

yah, i actually have 2 but had just moved into my apartment and didnt use it at the time. think i used american ale wyeast strain for this batch also.

with this info, is it safe to say i prolly didnt boil long enough to get the needed sugars from the extract? and steeping the pumpkin prolly didnt give me much actual pumpkin did it?

If you used 6lbs of extract there were plenty of fermentables in there. Without hydrometer readings it's just speculation as BierMuncher mentioned. However if the beer doesn't taste sweet I would say you got some fermentation at least. However I would also guess that it wasn't complete since you say all your bottles are gushing.

I've never made a beer in that style before, so I can't give any specific advice, but I can tell you to start recording everything about your brews (ingredients, temperatures, times, etc) so you can learn from each brew session.

hylowa said:

...with this info, is it safe to say i prolly didnt boil long enough to get the needed sugars from the extract?

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You have to remember that extract is 100% sugar.

Boil time is irrelevant. You could dissolve the extract in cool water and have all the sugar that is available.

yah, i have started to keep records of ingredients, ogs, fgs, lag times, as much as i can think of starting in the brew after this one.

for the over carbonation, i think i just used way to much bottling sugar thou, since it acts like wine.

it seems to have a fruity taste thou, im wondering if since i used to much bottling sugar that the yeast may have over dominated all the other tastes in the bottles. maybe if i go with alot less and let it sit longer? i cant really control the temp that much, since i keep them all in extra large tupperware containers in the closet. i have been thinking about getting temp controllers for my fermenters thou, my lhbs owner says that my current temp of 65-68 is ok for fermenting an ale, but im having my doubts.

should i invest in heater belts to keep the ale at a constent 70-75degrees? how much would temperature effect the final alcohol content from the yeast? more time to ferment or higher temps?