Pumpkin Ale Filtering/Straining

[BMan1029]

I currently have a pumpkin ale in secondary fermentation. During primary, I had my trub at the bottom and about a 3" thick layer of pumpkin on the top. Racking to secondary, I used two strainers to remove the pumpkin. Now in secondary, I clearly didnt get it all out, there is about a 1" thick layer of pumpkin on the top again. Anyone have any suggestions on how to remove the pumpkin? The straining is painfully slow and not the most effective.

 

[Revvy]

I know a few pumpkin ale brewers who rack to a tetiary, and let it settle. You could do it and cold crash.

 

[funkswing]

How about putting a sanitized grain bag over your siphon and siphon into to another container to cold crash in (like Revvy said). Make sure to siphon under the pumpkin (I can't believe it floats!).

This is why I mash my pumpkin!

 

[tsb22]

Cold crashing worked pretty well for my Pumpkin Ale and I had about as much trub as you.

Also I was really considering using gelatin, dunno if it would have helped clear out the pumpkin or not.

 

[BMan1029]

I used a grain bag over the siphon during transfer from primary....only saw negliable improvement. I have never cold crashed before, (my brew buddy and I are currently piece mailing together what we need to do a chest freezer conversion) but from some readings I have done on the subject, it needs to be below 40 degrees?

 

[funkswing]

If you have the chest freezer already, all it takes is the temperature control unit to set it at whatever temp you want. The easiest route is to buy a pre-wired one (Like from Johnson Controls), and just plug your fridge into it. If you want to hard wire it to the freezer itself there a plethora of options there too, but requires a bit more work.

If you have a spare fridge, that would work great even w/o a temp. control unit. Just set the fridge on the highest setting and put the fermenter in there to crash cool.

Crash cooling is just chilling the beer for 24-48+ hours to help sedimentate out things like yeast & chill haze. I highly recommend it.