Pumpkin Beer Looking for some feedback. Idea is pumpkin beer with a touch of chocolate, coffee, and spice. Sweeter and creamy, like a pumpkin latte. Lower abv to be able to have 2 pours without getting jacked up. O.G. 1.056 F.G. 1.015 ABV 5.3% IBU 20 ish SRM 15.0 Vienna Malt - 8 lb, 60.66% Rye Malt - 2 lb, 15.17% Flaked Barley - 1 lb, 7.58% Lactose - 1 lb, 7.58% Caramel 40 - 1 lb, 7.58% Chocolate Malt - 3 oz, 1.42% Magnum, 0.4 oz. , FWH for 21 IBU London Ale III house strain Mash at 158 F Spicing: 1/2 tsp nutmeg at flameout 1 cinnamon stick, torched, immediate secondary x1 week 2 vanilla beans, split, immediate secondary x1 week 1 oz coarse ground pumpkin coffee steep x 24 hours in secondary Any thoughts? I don't often do spiced beers, so this is out of my comfort zone. Cheers
My instincts tell me to rein it in. You have a flavorful base malt, rich specialty malts, lactose, and several spices, plus rye malt and flaked barley. Just seems like a lot going on. Either the flavors are layer harmonically or some flavors will muddy up the others. Not sure which would happen, but that's my concern.
That makes sense, gonna remove the rye malt and add +2 lbs of Vienna . Take out that extra character.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with grinding the beans. Just break them up with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer. I normally do 36-48 hours on a coffe dry bean. I used some pumpkin flavored coffee in a milk stout and I didn't like it. Only coffee profile I've ever done that I didn't like. It just didn't work very well.
So I'm new to brewing, but I do know coffee quite well (national barista certification/ I run a coffee shop) If there's anyway to avoid pre-flavored coffees, then that would be the better route to get solid flavors. Flavored coffees are made by spraying this weird alcohol based synthetic flavor over the roasted coffee beans. The alcohol dries fast leaving the flavor residue behind. I could definitely see how CADETS3 had off flavors from that. Maybe just use normal coffee and the spices should suffice to give it that "Pumpkin Spice" taste you're looking for.
That is another thing I was debating. That is a good call! I will go with a local roasted bean from Panther, Argyle, or Subculture Coffee and let the spices do the pumpkin flavoring.
