Yet another pumpkin beer question thread!

[PDevlin75]

Hopefully this will add some new questions to the mix! Or at the very least, spark a "why is everybody only interested in talking about pumpkin beers?" Thread

Anyway...

I'm new to formulating my own recipes, and I recently brewed my own pumpkin ale. So far, I'm happy with the results, but I'm leaving the recipe open to improvement. I'm going to take a second stab at it, and try some things differently. And with that, I have a few questions:

1) I want to improve the body of the beer, and sweeten it up a bit. It has, what in my mind, I equate to almost an orange soda feel to it (without the taste of orange). One thought I've had is to use milk sugar. Having never used it, (and willing to try it out) I've looked around here on the boards, and most of the info regarding brewing with lactose is that people tend to use about a pound, and incorporate it with the priming sugar. My recipe originally included 1/4 lb of honey malt which, before I added my spices, I could detect in samples, and it was a very nice amount! I have since lost it amidst the pumpkin pie spices. I'd like to get some of that honey flavor back, but I'm wondering if I'm running the risk of overdoing it. Do you think upping my honey malt to 1/2 lb, PLUS the lactose will make this TOO sweet? I realize that it's subjective, but I figured it was worth asking.

2) Regarding spices, I made separate tinctures with vodka while my beer was fermenting, and went through a process of mixing various combinations with a commercially available Amber ale (my base) to make something to my liking. What I wound up with, to my surprise, ended up being 1 cup of spice tincture added to my beer! I've read that everclear can be more efficient for tinctures. Do you think that will help reduce the amount that I add? I'm not complaining, but I feel like adding a cup of vodka to my beer is a bit much... Also:

3) I added my spice tincture to the beer after it was racked onto the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. Will adding it to the priming sugar while it's boiling help to remove the excess alcohol without affecting the spices? If I do go with everclear this time around, I'd like to avoid adding so much of it that I get hammered off of one beer. I'm hoping that boiling off the alcohol will help

Thanks!
Pete

 

[ColoHox]

1. Lactose can add an odd flavor if it is not well balanced with competing bitterness or body. Personally, I would increase the body of the beer as an initial adjustment. This may provide the countering sweetness you are looking for. Are you all-grain? If so, then increase you mash temp. If not, consider steeping dextrin malts. You could also increase the honey to 1/2lb while you are at it. My advice would be to try these things before tossing lactose in.

2. You don't need to use that much ethanol for your spices. The purpose of the ethanol is to sanitize mostly (unless you are adding a whisky flavor for example), but I realize that you are making an extract, more or less. Toss all your spice additions into a shot glass or something small, then add enough ethanol to soak everything. After a day, or ever a few hours, toss everything into your beer after primary fermentation.

3. Yes, you can boil off the excess alcohol, but you will also be boiling off some of the flavor and aroma compounds that are in your spice extract. Consider adding the spices+alcohol to your fermenter after fermentation is complete. Be careful not to overdo the spices when using this method.

Good luck!

 

[PDevlin75]

Thanks!

I was already mashing at 154… Perhaps I can go a smidge higher. I could also try your suggestion of adding in some dextrin. I have .75 lb of C40 in there, I could try bumping that up, as well as my honey malt.

So far, my grain bill is
10# 6 row
3/4# Victory
3/4# Crystal 40
1/4# Honey Malt
1/4# Chocolate Malt

I made the spice extracts separately using whole spices (1 jar of cinnamon, 1 nutmeg, etc…). I mixed each tincture in certain proportions by tsp. I might just try adding the whole spices in similar proportions to a single jar of everclear like how you're saying… Might just be easier that way. Pondering breaking it up into two separate additions - 2ndary and bottling.