VERY CLOUDY pumpkin ale

[NYShooterGuy]

Brewed with puree'd pumpkin. Now it's clouded the beer. Filter over raking cane available?
Will it be to corse?
What type do I get?
What other options?

Don't want cloudy bits in my beer.

 

[freisste]

Are you set up to cold crash?

 

[Ladd]

You can cold crash as mentioned above (if you have the ability to), use some finings (such as gelatin or isinglass) or you can just give it more time (my recommendation) and it should clear up nicely for you.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

Outside temps here in NY get to 32° at night. That would be the only way I could cold crash. I have no way to do so in a ridge or freezer. Of course all the wild animals, curious neighborhood cats, insects that still want to crawl around in this cold can find my fermentator. I could try putting the bucket in a container outside but no guarantee the beer won't freeze.

Plus, carrying a bucket up and down a flighr of stairs churns everything back up.

 

[jschein]

Give it a couple of more weeks stuff will settle down

 

[IslandLizard]

You can tie a "very fine mesh" hop bag to the bottom end of the racking cane and rack the beer. It will hold most if not all of the pulp and fiber back. Rack very slowly (put a strong clip or clamp on the hose) so you don't compact the slurry onto the mesh. There may still be a haze left from very fine particles that made it through. That will sink in the bottles during aging/carbonation.

Whatever is left over in your bucket, you can pour into a large jar/container with a lid or foil cap and let sit in the fridge for a week or longer. The pulp will sink slowly, leaving gorgeous beer on top. Rack and bottle that if you wish.

Good sanitation and low oxidation techniques are needed.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

Thanks guys. I think I'll bottle from where the carboy is to minimize churning up the slurry and try that mesh and clamp trick.

Am I assuming the clamp is to slow the flow of the beer from the very pulpy carboy to the bottling bucket to prevent the current to be too strong and minimize the chances of clogging the mesh and /or racking cane?

 

[IslandLizard]

Yup!

If you don't have a hop bag that fine, a paint strainer, a piece of muslin or a ladies' stocking (white preferred) may work. You want a lot of surface area, creating a pocket of clean beer inside where your racking cane drinks from.

Please don't throw out the 1-2 gallons of pulpy beer that's left behind. Harvest it as I said before. I've poured it into quart take out containers close to the brim and lidded them. A couple weeks in the fridge precipitates all that pulp.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

I saved the pulp in 4 ball jars filled to the top and placed them.in the frodge last night after racking. I through away the last quart in the bucket because I had no more room.or jars. The intention was to harvest the yeast, but ive already seen a separation of the beer from the trub. Only about 5-10% but it also has sterile water mixed in as well. If anything, it might be too thin and weak to save for drinking, but I did end up with 4.8- 4.9 gallons of very cloudy beer in the carboy. My gravity readings as well were very low in both the OG and the FG.

Can I assume that all that floating pulp is giving the hydrometer more "boyancy" and not a true reading?

It seems as though being my 7th beer, and having gotten down some of the routine, getting such a low gravity is a error due to another factor then my own mistakes. (Not to sound too full of myself), but I as guessing all that pulp is not allowing the hydrometer to get a true reading. (1.034 @66° F OG, & 1.016 FG @ 64°F with a 60° calibrated hydrometer. ABV was calculated to be 2.417%. The recipe should have given me a much higher ABV.

 

[freisste]

I saved the pulp in 4 ball jars filled to the top and placed them.in the frodge last night after racking. I through away the last quart in the bucket because I had no more room.or jars. The intention was to harvest the yeast, but ive already seen a separation of the beer from the trub. Only about 5-10% but it also has sterile water mixed in as well. If anything, it might be too thin and weak to save for drinking, but I did end up with 4.8- 4.9 gallons of very cloudy beer in the carboy. My gravity readings as well were very low in both the OG and the FG.

Can I assume that all that floating pulp is giving the hydrometer more "boyancy" and not a true reading?

It seems as though being my 7th beer, and having gotten down some of the routine, getting such a low gravity is a error due to another factor then my own mistakes. (Not to sound too full of myself), but I as guessing all that pulp is not allowing the hydrometer to get a true reading. (1.034 @66° F OG, & 1.016 FG @ 64°F with a 60° calibrated hydrometer. ABV was calculated to be 2.417%. The recipe should have given me a much higher ABV.

If it is so thick that it doesn't allow free movement of the hydrometer, then yes. But that would have to be like apple sauce.

I would have to see what you are talking about to be sure, but I would guess the pulp is NOT affecting the reading. Remember, extraneous objects don't affect the density of the liquid. I always tell people: boats don't make the lake more dense.

Regarding your actual values: was this extract or all grain? If extract, you probably didn't mix well enough and sampled wort that had more water than sugar. If all grain, maybe you had an efficiency issue.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

Extract. No boil over, but had added extra H2O to top off to 6 Gallons to compensate for the added pumpkin pulp that would be left behind.

 

[amcclai7]

What about peptic enzyme to break down the pumpkin proteins? I'm not 100% sure on this but it might help. Its available at most LHBS.

 

[Transamguy77]

Was the pumpkin added during the boil? I've made 3 pumpkin beers now and the last one I added it to the boil and after a year it's still cloudy, no chunks just a haze, like a wheat beer.

Oh and I used a paint strainer bag and pulled it at flame out so I wasn't dealing with that large amount of muck at the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[amcclai7]

Was the pumpkin added during the boil? I've made 3 pumpkin beers now and the last one I added it to the boil and after a year it's still cloudy, no chunks just a haze, like a wheat beer.

Oh and I used a paint strainer bag and pulled it at flame out so I wasn't dealing with that large amount of muck at the bottom of the fermenter.

How did it taste though? I'm about to make a pumpkin beer and I want it to actually taste like pumpkin. I don't think there's anyway to get enough pumpkin flavor in a beer strictly by using it in the mash. In the boil also makes me a little nervous. perhaps in the secondary is the way to go.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

It tastes good. Like pumpkin pie. I just have too much haze. It's been clearing up in the secondary

 

[Transamguy77]

How did it taste though? I'm about to make a pumpkin beer and I want it to actually taste like pumpkin. I don't think there's anyway to get enough pumpkin flavor in a beer strictly by using it in the mash. In the boil also makes me a little nervous. perhaps in the secondary is the way to go.

It tasted really good, just enough pumpkin flavor to know its there. I took it to a local beer fest and I got a lot of comments about how balanced it was and enough pumpkin taste but not over the top.

The haze is my only issue with it, someone told me that since the pumpkin was put in the boil the starches were released into the wort and since they were not converted they just stayed in it. I have since started using Irish moss so the next batch might not have the same problem.

 

[amcclai7]

It tasted really good, just enough pumpkin flavor to know its there. I took it to a local beer fest and I got a lot of comments about how balanced it was and enough pumpkin taste but not over the top.

The haze is my only issue with it, someone told me that since the pumpkin was put in the boil the starches were released into the wort and since they were not converted they just stayed in it. I have since started using Irish moss so the next batch might not have the same problem.

Again, what about pectic enzyme? its supposed to break down vegetable and fruit starches. maybe you could use the pumpkin in the boil and then add the pectic to the fermentor. Did it with a raw pear cider and it worked wonders.

 

[NYShooterGuy]

I'm going to try cubed pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices next time at the end of the boil (about 10 minutes left to the boil). Hopefully that will prevent the hazing that I'm getting from pureed pumpkin.