Pumpkin brew advice

[azterik]

Pumpkin Brew

14 Lbs Maris Otter
1 Lb Crystal 60L
.5 Lb Vienna
1 Lb Rice Hulls
4.5 Lbs Pumpkin
.5 Lb Acorn Squash

1 Ounce Perle hops - Bit
1 Ounce Hallertau - Flav/Aroma

1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ginger
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Tsp Allspice
1/2 Tsp Cloves
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1.060 - OG(bb) (1.068 temp corrected)
1.086 - OG

1.018 - FG after 4 days!

So i'm just checking to see what you guys think about what I should do now with this. Its definitely done and has some harsh alcohol smell/taste so i'm going to either let it sit in the primary a bit longer and then go to secondary after a week has gone by or just throw it in now, what do you think?

Also it has lost a lot of the spice notes as I was afraid of overspicing it. What do you guys recommend for adding the spices, a tea? boil then add after it stops boiling? Prob will add vanilla straight either way.

Also thinking about adding some oak chips near the end of the secondary. Would that hurt/help the spices? The oak chips gave my barleywine some slight vanilla/ flavor, so thats the only reason I thought of adding some.

I appreciate any advice

 

[SD-SLIM]

Did you add your spices during the last 5 minutes of the boil? If you did then with the amounts you used, the flavor should come out...additionally, as I read your post...Dont expect your beer to taste good at 4 days, its still in it's vigorous fermentation process.

What I would do...wait for 2 weeks of primary fermentation, at this point take your readings and sample...if the beer is where you need it to be but still needs more flavor, then place the ingredients in a secondary (that are missing from the flavor profile) and rack the beer to the secondary for a week or two...finally, I would use brown sugar for your priming sugar or to prime a keg...adds a great flavor to pumpkin beer!
Hope it turns out...Happy Brewing!

 

[azterik]

Yep, well actually I added half at 5 and the other half right at flame out so.... If I don't taste them now I doubt carbonation will help bring it back later on:cross:

But yeah i've decided to let it go at least a week and a half total primary, i've just never had a brew finish this fast! Prob some good yeast this time and i've always done starters.

I wasn't expecting it to taste good but I was wondering if the total time before keg/bottle was the same in both cases, would a proportion of more primary vs more secondary be better or vice versa. While obviously excluding the primary extremes.

 

[SD-SLIM]

In the primary phase, you have the most active fermentation between 2-6 days with a total fermentation in 14 days (this is a general number, yeast are unpredictable)...after the primary fermentation, the yeast are still working cleaning up byproducts and other heavy sugars...so in general, I leave all of my ales in the primary for three weeks and never use a secondary, unless I add fruit or plan to age my beer.
So my recommendation would be to leave it in the primary for three weeks...kegging/bottling makes no difference at this point.

 

[azterik]

I had followed this method before with most of my brews until my last. I had a 1.092-1.022 barleywine that was in the primary for 3 weeks and secondary for 1 week for dry hopping and oak chipping. Unfortunately I followed someones advice to use gelatin unbeknownst that I was bottling and not kegging. So for the longest time I had thought all the yeast were out of solution from fermenting for too long. They were actually pulled down to the bottom in a nice jelly cake! Shaking every bottle ended up carbonating my brew in the long run and besides some mild oxidation from the agitation it ended up being a great brew.

Needless to say I don't want that to happen again and even though I know it was from the gelatin, I would hate that feeling of maybe losing a batch.

I appreciate the advice and let me know if you find out anything about the spices. I'll prob go with two weeks primary and test it when I transfer to the secondary to see if they come back or develop somehow.