First Pumpkin Ale!

[SDBreWs0624]

Hello new to the forum and the art of home brewing. Just did my first pumpkin ale on Thursday night, also did a yeast starter with dry yeast and it worked well. Back to the brew i used fresh pumpkin with a kit with malt extract from Midwest, and had a SG of 1.052 the instructions called of 1.042-1.046. Racked to the primary fermenter had good pressure on Thursday and Friday bubbles every some many seconds, but not on Saturday i don't even have enough patients to wait and count. So my question is the pumpkin a slow or really really fast fermentation? As of right not the temp is 74 degrees, and the other beers in the room are 69 degrees.

 

[rancidcrabtree]

My best guess would be that it is still fermenting, if the temp in the bucket is 74 and the rest of your beers are sitting at 69. I'd give it at least a week and then take a hydrometer reading. Cheers!

 

[kcross13]

The temp difference is a good sign of continual fermentation. Wait a week and take a gravity reading, wait three days, check again. If it hasnt changed you can boil but I have been finding a lot of advice here and find it works well myself if you let the beer go for two to three weeks in primary and only go to secondary if you are dry hopping or flavor infusing. With 74 degrees you are on the high point of most yeasts, so you definitely want it to sit on the yeast a bit longer to help clean up the flavors.

 

[SDBreWs0624]

Thanks,
That's what i will do. Just the other beers we have brewed had much more activity with then the first few days.

 

[TipsyDragon]

The high OG could be caused by drawing your hydrometer sample from the bottom of the pot. The extract tends to settle to the bottom and makes it more "thick". As far as fermentation speed that depends on a lot of things. The temp of 74 will definitely speed up things. The only way to actually tell if the brew is done fermenting is to take a hydrometer sample. An airlock is not a fermentation indicator its a pressure release valve. if your brewing in a bucket the CO2 can be escaping around the lid and not through the airlock.

 

[tehgreedo]

Amazing coincidence... I'm brewing my first pumpkin ale (has been sitting in the primary since Sunday) and noticed a dramatic drop in activity after the first few days. I was trying to decide if I was going to rack to the secondary to clarify and came to ask pretty much the same question... after reading kcross' post about racking to secondary, I think I'll just wait a bit and wait for things to settle down in the primary.

Glad I searched instead of starting a new post!

 

[collinsDPT]

Im getting ready to brew this kit next week... any tips would be welcomed.

Good luck SDBrews

 

[SDBreWs0624]

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