Racking Pumpkin to Secondary- Question on Adding More Spices

Hi All,

First post, longtime lurker. You all are very helpful and I appreciate all of the great info I've gotten from here! That said, here is my current situation-

I just took a hydrometer reading of my pumpkin ale (midwest kit) and it's reading right at 1.01 (see image) after 5 days in primary, the recipe's FG. I am planning to rack to secondary soon (this weekend) to get rid of a lot of the pumpkin gunk and help clear it up. I took a taste of my hydrometer sample and I definitely want to add more spices, as the flavor does not really come through a whole lot, but I'm not sure what the best way to do this is.

Should I add spices to secondary or wait and add to bottling bucket? Also, how should I go about adding the spices? I've read on a few different threads to soak in vodka for a few hours first, but I wasn't sure if that was the best method. So far everything else is great, and I don't want to screw it up now! It's got a good orange color and subtle and no signs of trouble, so I'd love any input you guys can offer on throwing in more spices!
Thanks!

I boiled a cup of water, took it off the stove, added 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, cooled it down until it was reasonably cool, and racked beer onto it. Came out great. Since you've already added spices in I wouldn't add a whole teaspoon. Start smaller, you can always add more.

BainbridgeBrewer said:

I boiled a cup of water, took it off the stove, added 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, cooled it down until it was reasonably cool, and racked beer onto it. Came out great. Since you've already added spices in I wouldn't add a whole teaspoon. Start smaller, you can always add more.

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This, you could add it at any point really. I'd boil water for a whole tsp, but dont pour the whole thing in at once...pour 1/4th in, swirl it around and taste...another 1/4th, repeat until its at a level you like.

Awesome, thanks for the quick help! Will try this and update with results.

On an (un)related note, I brewed a pumpkin spice porter kit tonight. Everything seemed to go smoothly. Got it in the fermenter and grabbed some wort to test OG. It came in at 1.047 but the kit said 1.057 was target. Any thoughts on what happened?

I am planning on brewing that midwest kit this weekend.

I think I am going to use canned pumpkin in the boil but am concerned about running that wort through my counterflow chiller. Considering methods of filtering but not sure if it is necessary. I doubt putting canned pumpkin in a boil bag would help to contain the mess very much. May have to consider alternate methods of cooling the wort.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

A-Juice said:

I am planning on brewing that midwest kit this weekend.

I think I am going to use canned pumpkin in the boil but am concerned about running that wort through my counterflow chiller. Considering methods of filtering but not sure if it is necessary. I doubt putting canned pumpkin in a boil bag would help to contain the mess very much. May have to consider alternate methods of cooling the wort.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Canned pumpkin is messy. I did a mini mash last year with it and used the runnings to add to the boil. (I'm an extract brewer) This made the boil part a little easier, but I don't know how much flavor I really extracted.

Canned pumpkin in the boil smelled sooooo good, but my filter on my ball valve on my brew kettle kept clogging up. It was a long process to get the wort though my counterflow chiller.

My batches this year are not using pumpkin puree. So far they are just a good. YMMV.

Edit to add, I definitely needed a secondary when using pumpkin puree. The primary had a lot of pumpkin in the trub and beer. Trub was about 3 inches up the carboy.

k2zr2 said:

Canned pumpkin is messy. I did a mini mash last year with it and used the runnings to add to the boil. (I'm an extract brewer) This made the boil part a little easier, but I don't know how much flavor I really extracted.

Canned pumpkin in the boil smelled sooooo good, but my filter on my ball valve on my brew kettle kept clogging up. It was a long process to get the wort though my counterflow chiller.

My batches this year are not using pumpkin puree. So far they are just a good. YMMV.

Edit to add, I definitely needed a secondary when using pumpkin puree. The primary had a lot of pumpkin in the trub and beer. Trub was about 3 inches up the carboy.

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If your going to be putting the pumpkin in your brew kettle and not a tun, you probably want to try mesh bagging it if you werent already. I hear it still leaks out, but i cant imagine it all gets out and is as bad.
I wonder if you can add rice hulls to the brew kettle after its chilled, and stir it up a bit to help prevent clogs? Works for mashing, dont see why it wouldnt work coming out of a boil kettle

I would boil them and add them now or the vodka method.

Write down how much you added so when comes bottling time you can boost it even higher if needed. (knowing the change will help you estimate the last addition)

I have been reading about pumpkin puree in the mash and then a little near the end of the boil.... to make sure you get that Pumpkin taste.

DPB

FuzzeWuzze said:

If your going to be putting the pumpkin in your brew kettle and not a tun, you probably want to try mesh bagging it if you werent already. I hear it still leaks out, but i cant imagine it all gets out and is as bad.
I wonder if you can add rice hulls to the brew kettle after its chilled, and stir it up a bit to help prevent clogs? Works for mashing, dont see why it wouldnt work coming out of a boil kettle

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I can't speak for the rice hulls, but the mesh bag might work for pumpkin chunks.... You have me thinking again.

I have a pumpkin porter that is in the secondary at the moment. On boil day I used fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves in a spice infuser and left it in the pot until it reached first boil and removed it (to ensure I didn't over-spice it.) When I was ready to rack to the secondary I boiled about a cup of water with more fresh ginger, cinnamon stick and whole clove and let it cool. Then I tasted the sample I used for my SG reading and definitely needed more spice, so i added a bit, stirred and sampled again. I did it about four times before i felt it was getting there. When I'm ready to bottle in a few days I'll probably boil another batch of tea in case it needs any final adjustment (plus I'm planning on adding some vanilla bean infused vodka.)

A-Juice said:

I am planning on brewing that midwest kit this weekend.

I think I am going to use canned pumpkin in the boil but am concerned about running that wort through my counterflow chiller. Considering methods of filtering but not sure if it is necessary. I doubt putting canned pumpkin in a boil bag would help to contain the mess very much. May have to consider alternate methods of cooling the wort.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

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A few words of advice from a novice brewer, so take this with a grain of salt. Having just done the midwest kit, the amount of pumpkin they recommend is not enough. I recommend checking the reviews for the kit on their site, as a lot of people offer up recipe tweaks that I wish I saw prior to brewing my batch.

Second, if using canned pumpkin, be ready for several inches of muck at the bottom of your primary, it's really not easy to filter out since it more or less dissolves into the boil, but it will settle eventually. I racked to secondary after a week to try to clear it out a little bit and lost about 2/3 gallon of beer due to the pumpkin mess at the bottom (see pictures).

I'm not sure if a mesh bag would contain the pumpkin, as I've read another post where someone tried this and the pumpkin just dissolved through the bag, leaving him with an empty bag at the end of the boil. I'd recommend trying to find some real pumpkin if possible, otherwise just be prepared to lose some beer if you only top up to 5 gallons.

Another word of advice- double the spices they give you, a taste of my sample from my hydrometer gave really subtle hints, but not nearly enough.

TL;DR- use fresh pumpkin if possible, double the spices they give you, and be ready to lose a good amount of beer to the pumpkin soaking it up. Racking to secondary shows good signs of the ale clearing out, since most of the pumpkin mess was left behind.

slystarnes said:

On an (un)related note, I brewed a pumpkin spice porter kit tonight. Everything seemed to go smoothly. Got it in the fermenter and grabbed some wort to test OG. It came in at 1.047 but the kit said 1.057 was target. Any thoughts on what happened?

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A) It wasn't stirred well enough after you added your top off water,

or

B) It was an all grain kit and you got lower efficiency then it called for

or

C) you left out something...brown sugar maybe?

or

D) none of the above...but those are my first guesses. ;-)

Well I hope it is A, which could very well be. It was an extract kit and I put all the ingredients in so that eliminates b and c. Fermentation is going well so hopefully it is all good. Thanks for the response!

slystarnes said:

Well I hope it is A, which could very well be. It was an extract kit and I put all the ingredients in so that eliminates b and c. Fermentation is going well so hopefully it is all good. Thanks for the response!

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No prob. 90% of the time, when asked by an extract brewer, A is indeed the answer. When determining your ABV, supposing you got the right volume and added all the ingredients, start with the OG given by the kit rather then the one you took. You're golden.