Pumpkin Ale Slow Fermentation

I tried out my first five gallon batch (prior to this I had a 1 gallon system) with a pumpkin ale. I followed this recipe: SMASHING PUMPKIN ALE except that at the last 15 minutes of the boil I added a tsp of Irish moss to increase the clarity of the finished product. I also opted to add real vegetable and added 11 cans of 100% pumpkin puree or a little over 10 lbs of pumpkin. I used the liquid recommended yeast instead of the dry mentioned in the recipe.

The brewing process went well but when I started to siphon into my carboy I was unable to use my filter funnel because the wort was too thick (likely because of the pumpkin) and it kept clogging it up. So I skipped the funnel and put the wort directly into the carboy.

Within about 6 hours I noticed the first signs of fermentation. Within 12 hours it was bubbling pretty well, which was to be expected. However, it's been about 36 hours now and the fermentation seems to have stopped. I never got a good, vigorous fermentation and no head on the beer. The beer separated, so about the top half of the liquid looks like a solid pumpkin beer, very clear, and the second, bottom half is very thick, likely the pumpkin.

I've never brewed with pumpkin before so should I not expect a good fermentation because of this? My OG was a little off from the recipe (I think) as I had 1.050 and they had 1.056, but it was also very tough to tell because the wort was so thick the hydrometer just kind of stuck in it and didn't float and bob like it should have.

Any tips are greatly appreciated. I fear my first batch with my new five gallon system won't turn out very well.

Topic pumpkin ale fermentation homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

11 cans is a lot. Pumpkin is also mostly starch so adding it in the boil probably did give you some flavor, but mostly a starchy mess as you indicated. You didn't mention it but I would suspect you left a fair amount of material behind in the boil kettle because I doubt it would all fit in your carboy (meaning 5 gallons of wort and all that pumpkin solid). So it sounds to me like you have a small amount of beer that fermented out already or slowed drastically due to all the starch.

I'd let it settle for a few days. Take a gravity reading and see if its close to terminal gravity. The longer you let it sit the more that puree will settle down some and the more beer you'll be able to rescue when you package. It might not be a total loss, but you'll have to wait and see.

Tips for the future would be to add that pumpkin to the mash. I'd also add pound of rice hulls as well to help with the lauter. I make a sweet potato beer and I add baked sweet potatoes to the mash. That converts much of the starch to fermentable sugars and leaves much of the solid mess behind.

About

Geeks Mental is a community that publishes articles and tutorials about Web, Android, Data Science, new techniques and Linux security.