sleepymonkey
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2013
- Messages
- 35
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Hi, all. I could use some help with my pumpkin beer. I was really pretty exited about it and it ended up with a good smell and taste up front but a huge alcohol bite at the finish when you swallow. I know a lot of people will jump right to the 'ferm temp must be too high' conclusion, and I'm not ruling that out, but I've fermented a LOT of other beers in this very same way with the same yeast without this problem- so I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction with my next batch. Well, without further ado- here is a link to the recipe I used : http://brewtoad.com/recipes/nicks-pumpkin-ale .
I put this together after looking through a bunch of recipes. Here is one thing I've been wondering- this beer had an FG well lower than predicted, and I've heard that having simple sugars in your beer can cause this 'alcohol bite' taste and I've had that problem anytime I tried putting sugar (like corn sugar) into a beer. Now when I was putting this together, it seemed everyone agreed that the best way to make a pumpkin ale was to put pumpkin in the mash. Some cooked it but most places seemed to agree that you could put canned pumpkin right in. Up to 6-8 pounds of it. So I did. More like 9 (which REALLY brought the mash temp down, had to boil and add a lot of water to get it back up, then sparge less). Now I know I could leave out the DME addition at the end, and I will in the future I really didn't think my OG was gonna be that high (1.077 - abv was 8.3%). But here's what I'm wondering- could the simple sugars from the canned pumpkin in the mash have caused this crazy FG and rocketfuel taste when swallowing the beer? If so, what's my workaround for the next batch? Would cooking the canned pumpkin first help somehow? Would it be better added to a secondary?
Also, how about adding milk to the boil with these beers? Anybody try this?
Lastly, does anybody have any suggestions for saving my 5 gallon keg of Pumpkin Rocketfuel? I hear you all saying "I'll help!". Trust me, if you were here I'd let you, but you might change your mind after a glass or two. Any ideas on how to make it drinkable? Can I boil some milk and add it in? Any help appreciated ya'll. Thanks.