Hey everyone,
I have a quick question. My pumpkin ale is nearly done and I bottle this weekend. Is there anything wrong with adding more pumpkin spice in the bottling bucket if I think the spice isn’t enough when I taste it? Will this do anything to the beer itself? I wasn’t entirely sure about it so I figured I’d ask here and check and see if anyone has done this before. Thanks again.
There is nothing wrong with that. Just be sure that you do taste it and see what you think. Also, in my experience, a little spice goes a long way.
I mix my spices in with vodka and then let the spices settle out and decant the vodka into the keg until it tastes right. Easier to put in a little and add more rather than overdoing it. The spiced vodka trick makes it easy.
@Mullerbrau,
what spices and ratio do you use in your vodka? i was gonna do this tonite, and was thinking of doing two shots worth of vodka with say a ratio in “parts” of 4 cinnamon, 2 nutmeg, 2 ginger, 1 clove. maybe some vanilla (only have pure extract though, not beans).
thnx.
This year I made 10 gallons. Had it last night and it is awesome.
Spice Extract: add the following fresh spices to a
200 ml. bottle of vodka:
3 tsp. Cinnamon
1.5 tsp. Allspice
1.5 tsp. Nutmeg
1.5 tsp. Clove
1.5 tsp. Ginger
Add strained vodka to bottling bucket before bottling or keg. I added 2 oz per keg to suit my tastes.
The nice thing about making a tincture is you can adjust it to suit your taste. I just bottled a pumpkin ale that I spiced using the same method as Mullerbrau. I found that I could add a little of the tincture to a glass of milk or cup of coffee to get a feel for which spices were too strong or too weak. Then I adjusted the tincture from there. I’d start with his recommendation, and adjust from there.
I found that I liked a little less cinnamon, more nutmeg and the addition of some vanilla as well.
