cklages
Well-Known Member
Okay I'm not a complete noob, only a partial noob, however after todays brew session, i realize that I don't know as much as I thought I did. I look forward to any and all suggestions
I tried to make my first pumpkin beer (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/samhain-pumpkin-ale-140674/). After sparging, I took a gravity reading, then converted for temperature, and it came out to 1.055 preboil. I ran that through a calulator and realized that I would be looking at 1.070 or so postboil, and figured that I just overshot my gravity by getting better efficiency than I had expected. I ran this through a calculator, and figured that I had better add some more hops to balance the alcohol and sweetness. I added 2 oz of willamette at 60 min (I didn't have any high alpha hops), but otherwise followed the recipe (although I used cinnamon sticks instead of powder and whole allspice instead of ground).
It never occurred to me that pumpkin might have worked its way through the mash tun and thown off the gravity readings. I took a gravity reading prior to putting it into primary after the cold break had settled, and I ended up with 1.054 after the boil(just like the recipe said I should). Now according to my calulations, I only boosted the IBU's by 30% but I tasted the wort prior to adding the yeast (notty from the suspect lot, yikes), oh my good crap is it ever bitter. I don't normally taste wort post boil, so I don't know if this is normal, but the bitterness was really suprising.
I'm going to let it run its course in primary, but if this doesn't fade, should I boil up a little water and a pound of DME and boost the alcohol to balance this? Would I be better off mail-ordering some lactose to try to balance it with sweetness? I'm not really looking for a sweet or a high alcohol beer, but I would really prefer that it was drinkable.
I know that I should just relax, worst case scenario is that this was a good learning experience, but I'm kind of curious what I should expect, and how one should deal with a bitter beer.
Thanks for reading
I tried to make my first pumpkin beer (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/samhain-pumpkin-ale-140674/). After sparging, I took a gravity reading, then converted for temperature, and it came out to 1.055 preboil. I ran that through a calulator and realized that I would be looking at 1.070 or so postboil, and figured that I just overshot my gravity by getting better efficiency than I had expected. I ran this through a calculator, and figured that I had better add some more hops to balance the alcohol and sweetness. I added 2 oz of willamette at 60 min (I didn't have any high alpha hops), but otherwise followed the recipe (although I used cinnamon sticks instead of powder and whole allspice instead of ground).
It never occurred to me that pumpkin might have worked its way through the mash tun and thown off the gravity readings. I took a gravity reading prior to putting it into primary after the cold break had settled, and I ended up with 1.054 after the boil(just like the recipe said I should). Now according to my calulations, I only boosted the IBU's by 30% but I tasted the wort prior to adding the yeast (notty from the suspect lot, yikes), oh my good crap is it ever bitter. I don't normally taste wort post boil, so I don't know if this is normal, but the bitterness was really suprising.
I'm going to let it run its course in primary, but if this doesn't fade, should I boil up a little water and a pound of DME and boost the alcohol to balance this? Would I be better off mail-ordering some lactose to try to balance it with sweetness? I'm not really looking for a sweet or a high alcohol beer, but I would really prefer that it was drinkable.
I know that I should just relax, worst case scenario is that this was a good learning experience, but I'm kind of curious what I should expect, and how one should deal with a bitter beer.
Thanks for reading