sivdrinks
Well-Known Member
Mine is ready to bottle/keg. It's good but I would skip the extract next year, leaves a coating on the roof of my mouth.
cracked my first one after 12 days in the bottle. there was almost no carbonation, 2 weeks til the party. i hope it carbs up by then. otherwise it was pretty decent. a little forward on some of the flavor and alcohol taste but that should mellow with time.
skeezerpleezer said:I went with the recipe on pg20 with a couple little modifications. My advice is dont use a whole tsp or graham cracker extract at once, maybe .25 then add to taste.
sivdrinks said:This.
i would reduce the vanilla, i cracked another one this weekend and it was still not carbed up but the vanilla was too overpowering. it tasted better before i added the vanilla and graham cracker extract. i think those 2 flavors are too forward and harsh and take away from the other spices. i would go very light on the vanilla and graham cracker. im hoping those 2 flavors mellow with time, and then when it carbs up, that should help out too, right now a flat, high gravity, sweet beer isnt to tastey.Which of the 3 secondary additions would you reduce if any? Racking to secondary on Monday...
After a bit of experimentation today, I'm pretty sure I've found the secret to Pumking. The graham cracker flavor many attribute to the beer has always sounded a bit off to me. While I can see how people could describe it that way, a much better descriptor for me would be cap'n crunch cereal, as I've mentioned before. But what flavor extract do you use to get that cap'n crunch flavor? That was the big question. I'd spotted a butter and nut flavoring on a website last year and thought that might be somewhat close, but I didn't want to order up a bottle just on that hunch. But that flavoring is exactly what I saw when walking around the grocery store today. It's called "Vanilla butter and nut" flavoring, so I picked up a bottle to experiment with since it was only a few bucks. Undiluted, it smells just like buttercream frosting. Like cupcakes or something, basically. But when diluted in a beer, it has that exact same aroma as pumking. And it does the same thing to the flavor.
This stuff is STRONG, though. Like 1 drop in 12 oz is too much, strong. I recommend some of you do what I did and pick up a bottle to experiment with. I added it to my cream ale at about a drop per 12 oz and it was too strong. When I had drunk that mostly down I topped it off again with cream ale and that's when it seemed just right. You basically want to dip the tip of a toothpick in the stuff and swirl that around in your glass to get the right amount. But when you hit the right amount, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. I think this will get you closer to that Pumking flavor than anything else you can do.
Why are you guys still screwing around with the graham cracker extract? That's not the stuff. I'm telling you, someone just try what I mentioned previously in the below quoted post and you will be there. Just remember to GO LIGHT"!
KingBrianI said:Why are you guys still screwing around with the graham cracker extract? That's not the stuff. I'm telling you, someone just try what I mentioned previously in the below quoted post and you will be there. Just remember to GO LIGHT"!
So are you saying that you have made a clone using your method and it was spot on? Or are you still screwing around with whether or not to brew it and provide confirmation?
Are you guys using McCormick's Imitation Butter and Nut flavoring? I'm trying to figure out which one. I don't see that Capella offers one.
Great, thanks for the reminder and clarification. i think I'll pick up some of that at the grocery store. Like I've been saying, the graham cracker extract is nasty, so this is worth a shot. My plan is to add a drop to a 1L pet bottle of my pumpkin beer, give it a couple weeks, then taste test.KingBrianI said:yep!
I wouldn't drop the Victory.
cotillion said:So you'd leave the caramel 60 instead of the crystal and add back in what, 1lb of victory? Maybe drop the caramel 60 to 12oz?
Also, what is your reasoning for the victory? I am actually having trouble finding my source that said ST uses 2 row and caramel...so maybe I'm mistaken
Ok, didn't know they were giving exact ingredients (looking bottom of page 20). I really have no idea then!
i've been watching this thread for a while, and i am a little troubled by the huge differences between "this is almost an exact clone" and "this isnt even close."
i am thinking about working from the recipe from page 20, but instead using 1 can of the pumpkin sludge (perhaps coated with honey and baked?), 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 vanilla beans in unflavored vodka and .25 tsp of the graham cracker extract.
am i missing anything else here?
Hmmm. Since you're like 1-2 miles from me, I may need to see for myself. You know, confirm your findings....Here's what I did and it's a close enough clone for me. ...
Hmmm. Since you're like 1-2 miles from me, I may need to see for myself. You know, confirm your findings.
Yeah dont use graham cracker. And if you use the vanilla butter and nut flavoring, BE CAREFUL!
I added 1/4 tsp to a brown ale and it's heavy on the flavoring. I'd start with 1/16 of a tsp.
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