Hops Whoops

[tonypertplusplus]

Hi everyone,
I was making a batch of pumpkin ale last night that called for 2oz of Kent Goldings (1oz beginning, 1oz at the end). Well... brew day combined with football opening weekend led to having a few home brews and when it came time to add oz number 2 of hops at the end of the boil... I forgot . About 10 minutes into chilling the wort I realized my mistake, which was a bit too late to think about adding it in. So my question is... can I fix it? It's not going to ruin the batch, but the recipe called for the second ounce for a reason. Would dry hopping for two or three days give me a similar result or is that not really a good idea?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Owly055]

I would consider that a golden opportunity to try a technique I want to try anyway..... That is to simply put the hops in a quart mason jar, reheat a quart of wort to a boil, and pour it over the hops. Let it sit for a suitable period of time, then chill and add to the brew, which presumably is already fermenting.........

It's the sort of experiment we don't do on purpose, but that opens up a great opportunity for ingenuity. Dry hopping isn't going to give the same result.

I'd love to hear the results.


H.W.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I'm in the camp that says don't dry hop a pumpkin ale. Let the spices fulfill your aroma desires, not the hops.

I'm also one to only have a 60 min hop addition in my pumpkin ales.

 

[tonypertplusplus]

Owly, that is a very interesting idea. I'm going to give that a go and see how it works. I won't be able to tell you how it affects the flavor because I haven't made this recipe before, but I will certainly post back my impression and then when I make it again (correctly) I'll compare. Thanks for the idea!
HarborTownBrewing - do you typically use just a single type of hops, or multiple when making a pumpkin ale? Is the "60 min only" rule to keep the hop aroma to a minimum?

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I've been using 2 oz, same hops, at 60 mins to keep any hop aroma/flavoring to a minimum to highlight the beer as a pumpkin beer. I use the hops solely as a bittering addition, and don't want any hop flavors to get in the way of the pumpkin.

At the end of the day, it's obviously what ever one wants it to be, but I'll usually pass on the grapefruit cascade-pumpkin ale Call me a purist haha.

 

[Owly055]

I've been using 2 oz, same hops, at 60 mins to keep any hop aroma/flavoring to a minimum to highlight the beer as a pumpkin beer. I use the hops solely as a bittering addition, and don't want any hop flavors to get in the way of the pumpkin.

At the end of the day, it's obviously what ever one wants it to be, but I'll usually pass on the grapefruit cascade-pumpkin ale Call me a purist haha.

If bittering only is the object.......... Use Magnum, or Summit... It's the cheapest way to go. A small amount goes a long way, and doing a FWH should mellow things a tad.

H.W.

 

[Ladd]

I'm in the camp that says don't dry hop a pumpkin ale. Let the spices fulfill your aroma desires, not the hops.

I'm also one to only have a 60 min hop addition in my pumpkin ales.

I agree with this completely. You want your pumpkin and spices to shine. Dry hopping it will mask those flavors and aromas. I also only use a 60 minute addition to bitter and tend to use something clean like Magnum (as previously suggested).

 

[tonypertplusplus]

Wanted to provide an update to anyone anxiously watching this thread. The first one came out pretty good. I was quite happy with the result although as expected, there was a bit more of a hoppy aroma than would typically be desired in a pumpkin. so.. I made it again and altered the recipe a little. I stuck with the Kent Goldings for my hops, but put all of it (2 oz) in at the beginning of the boil. This was a fantastic idea, thanks to everyone who suggested it. I also added more brown sugar and more pumpkin spice. I was a little worried that the extra pumpkin spice might be too much, but it's barely noticeable. The extra brown sugar was noticeable, but not bad (I like brown sugar). I assume the extra brown sugar also accounts for the higher OG. The original recipe called for 1/2 lb of brown sugar and the second one i made had 3/4 lb of brown sugar. The first one's OG was 1.050 but the second time around I ended up with 1.062.

Anyway, to bring this ramble to a close, I'm sticking with the second recipe.

3.15# Pilsen LME
2# Extra Light DME
2oz Kent Goldings
3/4# Light Brown Sugar
1/2# Crystal 40
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
30oz canned pumpkin
Wyeast 1056

all hops, pumpkin and Brown sugar at the beginning of the boil. Pumpkin spice at 2 mins remaining.

5.5 gallons. yum

 

[thaworm69]

Wheres the pumpkin?!

 

[tonypertplusplus]

Oh. right. the pumkin. that's kind of important... been one of those days Updated...

 

[kh54s10]

My Pumpkin ale had only .75 oz. Galena for bitterness. I used no spices, only 8 pounds of cooked pumpkin. It had a slight pumpkin flavor. I didn't want anything strong. If I do it again I will use 10+ pounds and cook a little more for a caramelized flavor.

This fall I did something a bit different. I used the "meat" from 2 spaghetti squashes. It has a great "peppery" flavor. In the keg, not quite carbonated yet. A squash is a squash, isn't it?

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Edit.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

My Pumpkin ale had only .75 oz. Galena for bitterness. I used no spices, only 8 pounds of cooked pumpkin. It had a slight pumpkin flavor. I didn't want anything strong. If I do it again I will use 10+ pounds and cook a little more for a caramelized flavor.

The thing is though, the "pumpkin" flavor everyone has come to love in anything from their pies to their lattes is a flavor which comes from the spices which are added; pumpkin itself has very little flavor.

Constructively speaking, instead of adding 8lbs or 10lbs of canned pumpkin ($$$$???!?!?!), you can add a couple teaspoons of a pumpkin spice and boom - you can have a fantastic pumpkin ale.

I agree with the caramelized flavor: I bake my canned pumpkin (30 oz) above 362 F to accomplish that, and I think it contributes a nice flavor and mouthfeel. But you can save some time and effort by using pumpkin spice in proportion to the pumpkin flavor level you are looking for.

 

[kh54s10]

The thing is though, the "pumpkin" flavor everyone has come to love in anything from their pies to their lattes is a flavor which comes from the spices which are added; pumpkin itself has very little flavor.

Constructively speaking, instead of adding 8lbs or 10lbs of canned pumpkin ($$$$???!?!?!), you can add a couple teaspoons of a pumpkin spice and boom - you can have a fantastic pumpkin ale.

I agree with the caramelized flavor: I bake my canned pumpkin (30 oz) above 362 F to accomplish that, and I think it contributes a nice flavor and mouthfeel. But you can save some time and effort by using pumpkin spice in proportion to the pumpkin flavor level you are looking for.

As I stated: I did not want the spice flavor I wanted the pumpkin flavor. I got what I wanted, just a little less than what I would like to see in v.2

And it wasn't 8-10 pounds of canned pumpkin. It was fresh and baked. I was also not interested in saving time or effort.

I might try what I am told is Sugar Pumpkins not the ones for Jack-o-Lanterns.

 

[tonypertplusplus]

I've heard really good things about using sugar pumpkins for cooking in general. From what I've been told, that's what bakers use so I think it's likely that you'd get a lot more flavor out of those. I also get a lot of wrong information though, so that may not be correct.