Pumpkin Ale tastes bitter

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mrmitch

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Alright, I'll start this off saying my impatience is my bane of existence. I brewed Northern Brewers All Grain Smashing Pumpkin Ale kit. This was my first all grain kit, and I made a few mistakes. I didn't keep a close eye on the mash temp, and it took forever to cool down because this was my fist full volume boil, and I didn't have a wort chiller. I've had it in the primary 2 weeks and in bottles for 3 weeks, it still has a tart bitter taste. Thing is it smells like a nice pumpkin ale. I forgot to take OG, but it finished fine. I've read a lot about all-grain brewing and not sure what it is. Is this just green beer taste or do I suck at all grain beer?
 
Technically speaking, I'm pretty sure the only mistake you could make that would actually increase bitterness in your beer would be adding too many hops or adding them at the wrong time. That being said, I can think of a couple things offhand that could increase the perception of bitterness. The first is that, if your sparge water was too hot (or your mash was waaaaaay too hot), you could have leached tannins which will impart an astringency that could be perceived as bitterness. The second possibility, which I think is more likely, is that you came in low on your gravity. As you probably know, your IBU-to-GU ratio gives a better indication of perceived bitterness than simply IBU's. So if you were, say, 15 points low on your original gravity due to poor mashing procedures (something I encountered when first going all-grain) then the beer would seem way more bitter even if you did everything else right. If I had to bet, I would say that's the source of your bitterness.
 
If you post your recipe and procedure it would help diagnose the problem. My first thought is that its bitter because you added a bunch of hops. But you also mentioned it was tart, which is a different flavor and could just be those green flavors from new beer. Give us more info and we'll help you out.
 
strike water 170F
Mash at 154F sorta' as I said
Fly Sparge 170F, which passed iodine test
--7.5 lbs. Rahr 2-row pale
--2.5 lbs. German Munich Malt
--.5 lbs. Briess Caramel 80
--.25 lbs. Briess Caramel 60
1 oz. Cluster (60 min)
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (0 min)
6 lbs. pumpkin in cheesecloth sack last 25 mins of boil

I'm certain I'm not getting tannins as my temps were rock solid, but I think what Windigstadt said about a poor mashing technique sounds likely. And I suppose the best thing to compare it to as far as off-taste is how vinegar stings your tongue. Not the taste of vinegar just the sensation it causes. I've since wised up to these mistakes, but will the bad mashing condition out of the beer. Sorry for the lack of information, I'm a new poster.
 
I don't see any "bad" mashing technique here, but this is interesting to me since I have the same thing in our pumpkin wheat. Is the bitterness more of a finishing flavor or is it up front when you first taste it? Our "Phunkin wheat" is more of a humorous experimental extreme beer than anything, Phunkin Wheat thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-beer-infected-pic-199206/

I will say that some of the bitterness has subsided since I pulled all the muck out, it is still in the fermentor though.
 
The bitterness is right up front starting the show. I was hoping to have it ready for halloween at the very latest. Will a low OG and good yeast flocculation spell disaster for the flavor even if the FG is good?
 
How long did you mash for? It's possible that you might be tasting polyphenols - the longer the mash, the more you extract.

Also, you boiled pumpkin which is a huge no-no in my book. By boiling pumpkin and not mashing it, you are just adding starch to your beer - yeast can't digest starch but some bacteria can - that is not a good thing. That could definitely be a cause of tartness. Pumpkin should always be mashed.
 
I mashed for 60 mins, but i didn't check the temp so it started the hour at 154F and I don't know what it ended at before i started sparging.
 
Its the pumpkin pie spice. It takes a while to mellow out...mainly the cloves IMO.

Give it time. Like, a month.
 
Also, you boiled pumpkin which is a huge no-no in my book. By boiling pumpkin and not mashing it, you are just adding starch to your beer - yeast can't digest starch but some bacteria can - that is not a good thing. That could definitely be a cause of tartness. Pumpkin should always be mashed.

I used to believe the very same thing, until I tried baking it and then adding it to the boil. It turns out that you get much more flavor out of the boil addition than the mashing.
 
I hope boiling the pumpkin doesn't ruin it. just got done with a batch that I boiled as i was cooking the pumpkin during the mash.
 
For those of you that did the NB smashing pumpkin did you feel the spice addition was enough? Thanks.
 
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