I’m brand new to the home-brewing world, so please pardon my ignorance.
My first batch of beer was an attempt at a pumpkin ale. I used all-natural pumpkin puree. But, I didn’t put the puree in a bag and I didn’t add rice hulls. I’m worried the batch is going to have the consistency of soup. Is there anything I can add to the primary fermentor to help sort of thin it out? Is there anything else I can do (secondary fermentation, etc.) to help?
Thanks!
[quote=“BigWoods”]I’m brand new to the home-brewing world, so please pardon my ignorance.
My first batch of beer was an attempt at a pumpkin ale. I used all-natural pumpkin puree. But, I didn’t put the puree in a bag and I didn’t add rice hulls. I’m worried the batch is going to have the consistency of soup. Is there anything I can add to the primary fermentor to help sort of thin it out? Is there anything else I can do (secondary fermentation, etc.) to help?
Thanks![/quote]
When did you add the puree? to the boil?
I wouldn’t worry about the consistency. All of that pumpkin matter will settle out with the slumbering yeast, trub, proteins, etc.
I would leave it for a minimum of (you won’t like this) 2-3 weeks though 
Thanks for the reply. I added it to the boil.
I don’t mind the wait - I did a little research and most people seem to suggest leaving it in the primary fermentor for about this long. If I leave it for 2-3 weeks though, about how long should I leave it in the bottles? Or is this mostly a subjective thing?
Thanks!
If you keep the bottled beer in the 70s, it’ll take a week or so to carbonate. If you fill at least one PET bottle along with the others, you can follow easily determine when the batch is carbed.
Good idea. Thanks!
Just in case you haven’t heard of the trick before, what you do is fill the PET bottle to an inch from the lip, then squeeze the sides to push the beer up to the lip, and hold it like that while you screw on the cap. Then as the pressure rises, the beer level will drop and the bottle will expand until it’s tight like a regular soda, so you can watch the level change and squeeze the bottle and keep track of the progress.
Also, while many homebrewers have good success with putting the priming syrup in the bottom of the bottling bucket and then racking the beer on top to mix, I found that an occasional, gentle stir with a long stainless spoon kept the sugar distributed throughout the batch and eliminated the sometimes inconsistent carbonation that I got without stirring.
I’ve done the same by adding 90oz of pumpkin puree directly to the boil. I noticed my wort was soup like as well. It will all settle out in the primary , but be prepared for a lot of trube to collect in the bottom of your primary. I left mine in the primary for 1 week then racked to my secondary for two additional weeks. Bottle conditioned for two weeks …turned out pretty good. Next time I will add more spices
Just wanted to add a little bit since you mentioned rice hulls. Rice hulls are something all grain brewers add to a mash to improve sparging when you have sticky hull-less grains like wheat or rye, or when you have additives like pumpkin. There’s no need to ever use them in a boil.
A mesh bag of some kind would have been a good idea for putting the pumpkin in the boil, but as others have said it will all settle out in the fermenter. Don’t worry about it.
