Brown sugar

[Jag75]

Made a pumpkin ale . Was supposed to be 1.053 OG and finish off at 1.012 using WLP001. That was at projected 80% efficiency. I hit OG @ 1.058/9 and 1 week in the FV I have 1.003. How is this even possible ? If anything I would think getting a higher OG would have resulted in a higher FG. Does a program not take in consideration the brown sugar ?Am I missing something here? The brown sugar was added last min of the boil.

 

[TurnipGreen]

Simple sugars will drop the gravity quite a bit.

What did your recipe look like and what were you’re mash temperatures? You also could have had super low mash temps?

 

[Jag75]

7# 2row
1# victory malt
1# dark brown sugar
.5 # crystal 60
58 oz pumpkin puree cooked @350 for 45 min and used in the mash
Mash 152f for 60min

1.5 oz pumpkin pie spice last 5 min boil

 

[RPh_Guy]

With what device are you measuring the specific gravity?

Have you recently used a diastaticus variant yeast in your fermenter or system?

Are there any off-flavors?

Did you add any kind of enzyme?

 

[Jag75]

Hydrometer

The only yeast I've used was for a Belgian wit and WLP001 a few times

It has high alcohol taste

No enzymes


I did have it set 10 degrees too high for 12 hrs before I realized I set it for 76 instead of 67

 

[ehk089]

I know regular table sugar will dry the fudge out of a beer if you add enough, and I'm not entirely sure whether beer smith accounts for that. I believe brown sugar is a simple sugar so it would also increase attentuation and lead to lower FG if I am not mistaken. Or some wild bacteria or yeast got hold of it as I assume @RPh_Guy is alluding to above ^

 

[RPh_Guy]

Could be a wild yeast contamination.

I'm also wondering if the pumpkin converted really well in the mash. Very fermentable sugar from the 3.6 lbs of pumpkin would explain the low FG.

 

[Franktalk]

Hydrometer

The only yeast I've used was for a Belgian wit and WLP001 a few times

It has high alcohol taste

No enzymes


I did have it set 10 degrees too high for 12 hrs before I realized I set it for 76 instead of 67

Some Belgian wit yeasts are known to be diastaticus variants. I think WB 06 is, and I'm not sure if others are.

 

[Jag75]

I didnt input the pumpkin on the app in the fermentable section I just put it in my note section. I use the Gf app. Odd thing is I wasnt a great deal higher then projected OG. I also clean my fermenter after every use then I fill with starsan before I transfer the wort. Do you think pitching and fermenting at 76 could be the issue? The Belgian yeast I used was WLP dont remember the #

 

[RPh_Guy]

Do you think pitching and fermenting at 76 could be the issue?

No.

My money is on the pumpkin.

 

[Jag75]

Thanks guys for the responses. Looks like I got a real dry pumpkin ale

 

[WBB]

How does it taste? You said high alcohol, like boozy?

 

[Jag75]

How does it taste? You said high alcohol, like boozy?

Yes , it's only been a week . Hopefully it tames down a bit

 

[Jag75]

@RPh_Guy - I've been spinning my wheels on this beer. The Brown sugar was inputed on the recipe program . I had a projected 1.053 . You had me thinking about the pumpkin being the culprit. However heres the problem with it being the pumpkin. I cooked the pumpkin first. The OG wasnt much higher then projected . So I'm not sure the pumpkin added a whole lot of sugars. Even so WLP001 is around 75% attenuation. The only yeast I've used in my new cf5 has been WLP400 and 001. Those to my knowledge aren't diastaticus yeast strands . The Belgian wit turned out perfect. I'm just at a lost with this . Is there any other thing that I'm just not thinking about?

 

[bleme]

I know sweet potato releases a lot of amylase enzyme when cooked. Pumpkin seems to get sweeter when cooked also. I wonder if cooking produced enough amylase to make a difference?

 

[Jag75]

I know sweet potato releases a lot of amylase enzyme when cooked. Pumpkin seems to get sweeter when cooked also. I wonder if cooking produced enough amylase to make a difference?

Wouldn't that show up on the gravity check or is that not detected on a gravity reading? I'm not 100% sure but I think cooking something that contains amylase gets rid of it . That's why they say eating raw fruits and veggies is better . I'm no where even close to a biologist or chemist so I'm not sure . Someone here will have that info no doubt. The Amylase is a good question thank you @ bleme

 

[bleme]

The gravity reading would tells you how much sugar is in there, not how fermentable it is.

There is a thread on here about how you can cook sweet potato and use it's amylase to drop gravity in a stuck fermentation, so evidently some amylase can withstand some heat. It's kind of a moot point though because a search of the internet says that the only amylase in pumpkin is in the seeds. Something else has to be at work here.

 

[RPh_Guy]

The OG wasnt much higher then projected .

I know, and that's a good point. My thinking was that it's possible that the large amount of pumpkin in the mash also drastically reduced your extraction efficiency. What's your sparging technique?
Maybe it's a stretch but besides the pumpkin nothing about your recipe is unusual. So if it's not that or a random contamination I'm not really sure what caused the high attenuation.

Personally I don't mash pumpkin. I want the flavor from it, not sugar or enzymes.... So I add it toward the end of the boil.
Lots of pumpkin settles in the fermenter, but the resulting beer has great pumpkin flavor. Bonus that I don't have to deal with obnoxious mashing issues associated with pumpkin.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I'm not 100% sure but I think cooking something that contains amylase gets rid of it .

It's kind of a moot point though because a search of the internet says that the only amylase in pumpkin is in the seeds.

Whether or not the pumpkin has amylase is irrelevant here - the cooked pumpkin went into the mash, so the enzymes from the grains went to work on the starches and longer chain sugars in the pumpkin. 58oz of pumpkin puree has about 130g of carbohydrate, which would nearly all convert to highly fermentable sugars. Add that to the brown sugar in the recipe (about 10% of fermentables) and you have a very fermentable wort. For this recipe at 74% efficiency, Beersmith gives an OG of 1.058 and FG of 1.007, which is based on 74% to 80% attenuation. IME the Chico strain (US05, WY1056) can ferment a bit past 80%, so while 1.003 is lower than expected, it's not completely surprising.

 

[Jag75]

Thanks guys . As long as it looks good and doesnt smell off I will bottle it up. Hopefully the Alcoholy taste subsides . I cant use the clear lid to my cf5 because I'm using the temp control . I'm really curious to see what it looks like in there. I really do appreciate you all for the wise info .