Updates re my "Pumpkin Ale" and also the new "Red" hops I tried

I messed around with the whole soaking spices in vodka before and found out:

a) I had a similar experience with spice clumping & b) I could taste the vodka in very small amounts in the resultant beer, which was nasty as I am not partial to it.

Soooooooo - what I do, as I recommended here and was callously ignored ;-) is add a larger amount of the spices with a couple minutes left in the boil. By kegging time, the spice balance is perfect in my pumpkin porter (fairly subtle). The spices and amounts I used this year were:

1tbs + 2tsp cinnamon 1tbs + 1tsp fresh ground nutmeg 1tsp ground ginger 1tsp ground mace 1tsp ground allspice .5 tsp ground cloves

The beer is awesome and my friends have nearly wiped it out. I may do a second batch.

_Randal

That's interesting; I'll make it a point to try to see if any vodka taste is detectable in this batch. I really didn't think that a couple of ounces of vodka in a 5-gallon batch would be noticeable since most of it is water and ethanol, and I don't think the rest of the stuff causes an actual chemical reaction such as causing phenols.

Heh, heh. There were a lot of suggestions, some of which were diametrically opposed, so I couldn't take everyone's advice at the same time. (Yes, I noticed the smiley).

The reason I didn't want to add to the boil is because I was afraid of possibly extracting tannins, and of driving off too much in flavor and aroma if I boiled too long, or the one hand, or introducing bacteria if I didn't boil long enough, on the other hand. But since this obviously works well for you, then I'll give your technique a try on my next batch of spiced beer.

In fact I might even give your recipe a try. Was that for a 5-gallon batch? ... and what style of beer did you use as a base?

Thanks.

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =

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750+ homebrewer group just for Equipment: 390+ just for Growing Hops/Herbs/Grains: NEW group just for Homebrewing Supplies: Join 'Homebrewers' to Help Cure Disease:

I have brewed a pumpkin porter for about 4 years now and I am on the side of adding pumpkin to the mash ... I add a LOT of pumpkin to the mash, here's my recipe (most recently brewed 9-15-2007):

5 gallons:

16 pounds of fresh sweet pie pumpkins, cut up, seeded and roasted until very soft and browned (roast cut-side up). Scrape the pumpkin out of the shell, mush it up and add it to the mash tun with the strike water.

10 lbs Marris Otter 2 lbs munich 1 lbs special B 1 lbs chocolate malt 1 lbs 20 lovibond crystal

Single infusion mash - 90 mins - @ 154.

1.5 oz northern brewer pellets @ 60 1.5 oz northern brewer pellets @ 20

Added spices with 3 minutes left of a 90 minute boil:

1tbs + 2tsp cinnamon 1tbs + 1tsp fresh ground nutmeg 1tsp ground ginger 1tsp ground mace 1tsp ground allspice .5 tsp ground cloves

Yeast: white labs WLP051

Sparge takes a long time, I suppose it would go faster if I added some rice hulls but it's never actually stuck on me yet so I've kept them out. You can (obviously) leave out the pumpkin if you like. I am going to apply an abriged version of this spice mixture to a darkish English style pale ale along with coriander and orange peel in an attempt to make something akin to Old Fezziwig.

_Randal

I soak the pumpkin spices in the vodka, then use the pumpkin-spice flavored vodka to flavor my beer (usually 1-2 ounces per 5 gallons). The main reason I do this is to control the degree of spice flavor in the resulting beer--I have had very variable results when adding spices to the boil or secondary. I have felt that this was due to varying degrees of freshness in the spices each year, or varying strengths of spice flavors, depending on the brand of spice used that year.

The resulting beer always turned out great, and I never tasted the alcohol from the vodka.

Kevin

Bottled only nine days ago, my pumpkin ale can probably use a little more conditioning, but so far it is very nice. I was afraid that I might have used too much spice since I've never done one before, but I think I got lucky because while it does have a fairly pronounced taste, it is not overwhelming. Certainly not any more than other spices I've tasted in a few commercial beers. I'm very pleased with it. I'm not sure how this beer would be improved by actually using pumpkin, but I guess I'll just need to give it a try sometime just to see.

This was also bottled nine days ago, so it will probably improve a bit more with another week or two of conditioning. I am very pleased with it, as well. It has a very distinct flavor unlike any other beer I've ever had. I'd actually question whether the 'red hops' are truly hops that are typically used for _brewing_ (as compared to maybe a decorative variety), but then again there are a lot of hops that I've never tried. The only thing that I can say is that they 'looked' like hops, and I was told by the vendor that they 'are' hops.

Cheers.

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =

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760+ homebrewer group just for Equipment: 400+ just for Growing Hops/Herbs/Grains: NEW group just for Homebrewing Supplies: Join 'Homebrewers' to Help Cure Disease:

I just came across this in an article on Hops from OSU extension office:

"Spider Mites, Tetranychus urticae.

The adults are very small, have eight legs. They are pale green,

yellowish to reddish in color, often with a dark spot on each side of

their body. A hand lens is needed to see the pearly white spherical

shaped eggs. The spider mite feeds by puncturing the lower leaf

surfaces and withdrawing plant sap. Each puncture produces a small

light colored spot. Eventually the leaves become bronzed, shrivel and

die. White webs may also appear if infestation is severe. The spider

mite will also feed on the petals of the cones causing them to turn

brown, a condition growers call "red hops". Spider mites are a problem

during prolonged periods of warm, dry weather. Mite predators include

the western predator mite and the small black lady beetle. Regular

washing of the plant's leaves with your garden hose may prevent an

outbreak. "

I suspect that your "red hops" are something different, but I remembered your post.

JK

snip

Thanks, John. Yes, I found that article while I was doing a google search for red hops. As you've noted, mine are different. I must say that the beer turned out to be very nice, so I'm ordering some more. I just wish I new for a fact what they are; in looking at the info again, the supplier actually referred to them as "German Red Hops", but that doesn't produce any more info through google, either.

Cheers.

Bill Velek - PERSONAL sites =

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760+ homebrewer group just for Equipment: 410+ just for Growing Hops/Herbs/Grains: NEW group just for Homebrewing Supplies: Join 'Homebrewers' to Help Cure Disease: