No spice flavor in my pumpkin beer

[Cdbrew]

So

I used a pumpkin ale extract kit, 5 gallons, 60 oz of pumpkin. I put in like 1 tsp cinnammon, 1tsp allspice, .75 tsp cloves, a little nutmeg...which is supposedly a decent amount. I also put in a cinnamon stick in the bucket during fermentation. I also dumped in the spice packet that came with the extract kit which may have been another teaspon total of pumpkin spices.

It has fermented in 5 days to the estimated final gravity. I did a taste test and really had a alcohol smell/taste, and i could not taste any spice/pumpkin. I realize most flavors really can be fermented out during fermentation.

The bittering hops may also be hiding some flavors - they were pellets and fell out of the cheesecloth but thats ok, my last extract beers weren't bitter AT ALL.

I noticed a lot of people saying it really should age a few months before all the flavors settle but a lot of people mention how they could tastes spices/pumpkin straight out of the bucket. Do you think I should just add more spices at bottling to help give it a pronounced flavor or is it just too close to fermentation for me to taste them?

 

[breez7]

At what point did you add your spices?

 

[david_42]

Way too early.You'll smell the spices in the head once the beer is carbonated.

 

[Cdbrew]

Yeh I just figured it would affect the flavor already instead of just the general aroma.

I put it in for the last 2minutes of the boil.

 

[Legin]

Yup. Age will bring them out. You used a good amount of spices too, about double the amount I would use. Should be pretty spicy.