Pumpkin Beer, "Hot" Alcohol Taste?

[themanc84]

Just transferred my pumpkin strong ale to secondary after two weeks in primary.

OG was 1.076. Gravity when transferred was 1.014.

The beer has a nice mouthfeel and pumpkin aroma, yet there's a lot of "hot" alcohol tastes. Will this settle during secondary fermentation?

The beer fermented around 69-70 degrees with Safale US-05. Sanitization/Cleaning methods were thorough.

I'm thinking about dry hopping with an ounce of Cascade to mask some of the alcohol taste (I'm a hop head)

Any insight?

 

[jekeane]

Is 69-70 the ambient temperature or is your fermentation chamber or swamp cooler set in that range.

If that is ambient temperature then a vigorous fermentation would put you up to possibly 80 which would produce lots of hot alcohol.
Takes along time to fade if it will...

 

[themanc84]

Damn, ambient temperature was around 68-71 degrees throughout, maybe just a little bit cooler.

 

[GHawk]

US05 is forgiving to a point. I live in Florida and at mercy of temps on the higher side.
I would look toward the OG of 1.076. That's approaching barley wine and dubbel OG.
This will require some time to settle and blend into a good beer. You're sitting at about 8.22% ABV (Huge)
A pumpkin is meant to showcase the spices and not the hops.
Give it time. Thanksgiving will show improvement. Christmas even better.

 

[RM-MN]

Just transferred my pumpkin strong ale to secondary after two weeks in primary.

OG was 1.076. Gravity when transferred was 1.014.

The beer has a nice mouthfeel and pumpkin aroma, yet there's a lot of "hot" alcohol tastes. Will this settle during secondary fermentation?

The beer fermented around 69-70 degrees with Safale US-05. Sanitization/Cleaning methods were thorough.

I'm thinking about dry hopping with an ounce of Cascade to mask some of the alcohol taste (I'm a hop head)

Any insight?

You won't get rid of the hot alcohol taste in the secondary unless you plan to leave it for a long time. The dark, high gravity ale I made last winter had some even with temperature control and it is finally settling out after 10 months in the bottle. Yours may take that long or even longer if it ever settles.

 

[Brew_Meister_General]

Just transferred my pumpkin strong ale to secondary after two weeks in primary.

OG was 1.076. Gravity when transferred was 1.014.

The beer has a nice mouthfeel and pumpkin aroma, yet there's a lot of "hot" alcohol tastes. Will this settle during secondary fermentation?

Any insight?

I agree with the quote above, being such a strong beer it will take weeks, even months for the yeast to clear up the 'hot' tasting fusel alcohols. Beers such as imperial stouts and barley wines can take up to 6 months before being ready to be consumed.

 

[unionrdr]

When I've noticed that " hot" fusel alcohol taste, I leave it in primary another week after FG is reached to help clean it up. Maybe more. It'll also finish cleaning up in the bottles to a much smaller extent. So it depends on how prevalent it is.