The pumpkin has been tasted - Oh My Goodness that's sweet. Just like pumpkin pie. I actually had a piece of pie while I was having some pumpkin ale and the tastes were the same. Just the texture was different.
I was proud to be able to share some with Cousin Ben. He's the one who pushed me that final step to start homebrew and I'm totally digging it. He didn't spit it out, so I'll take that as a victory. His beer preferences are very different than mine and he's a bit of a hop head. That he was able to tolerate something so sweet shows what a good sport he is. He did give me some tips that will help me with future batches.
The beer - it didn't carbonate in the bottle very much at all. There wasn't any satisfying pop when the lid was opened and there was no discernable head when it was poured into the glass. I really think I just ran out of yeast. I may have pitched my yeast before they were all awake and ready to do their work. I also didn't give them many chances to really thrive. They were probably a little colder than they would have liked to be in the basement and I didn't stir them up at all during fermentation to give them chances to find sugar that they may have missed.
Ben tells me that if I am using the smack pack type yeast that is provided by wyeast, I can actually activate the night before with no loss of quality. I think this will help me in the future, especially when I'm shooting for a higher gravity beer like I was with this one. Also yeast are cheap, so I shouldnt be afraid to pitch more if I need to.
The beer that has been bottled and is in the basement is all going to get agitated and be put back to carbonate for another week. I'm hoping to get a little more carbonation out of it. That would also help offset a little of that sweetness.
Notes for the next time - 10% more hops - there isn't any discernable hops or aroma with all the spices I put in. Yeast - activate the yeast in advance or maybe try making a starter. More fermenation is desirable and will dry out the flavor a bit.
My rating 7 out of 10. - Too sweet and too flat, but otherwise a good representation of what it was supposed to be.
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