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Taste Notes

Spices turned out as expected, but I guess I am just not a pumpkin spice kinda guy Vanilla faded out a bit next time that should be added last. Definately can detect DMS in this one as a flaw.....should have had a stronger/longer boil and not covered the pot ever when using a Pumpkin. Note, mellowed considerably near bottom of Serving Corney spices less sharp, cleaner taste but still DMS smell.

Notes

Harvested a pumpkin (A calabash squash variety related to the Seminal Pumpkins) from my garden this morning, roasted it, mashed it and added to a grain bill of 75% Munich Malt, 25% two row pale. I was worried about getting a stuck sparge so I first set my mill to a bit courser with the Munich Malt and did enough grain to cover the bottom of my sparge pot. In a second bucket, I ground the rest of the two grains but to a finer level. The mashed pumpkin and skins where placed in a gallon zip lock and (preheated) warmed in the strike water. When the water was at my strike temp, added first the course grains, second the fine grains and then dumped the pumpkin mash and skins on top. I did not mix in the grains at all, but added more strike water on top till they where all covered. Later in the sparging, I mixed only the top half of the grains. Anyway, my point of all this was that the courser grains on the bottom part (since I did not have any rice hulls) worked great.....Excellent efficiency and as fast as I wanted to sparge through the grains. After my boil and bittering hops, I cubed with aroma and flavor hops, pumpkin spice mix, and some "perpetual vanilla" (real vanilla bean that soaked in vodka for a year). The skins gave a nice yellow color (the pumpkins where actually green with a bright yellow, not orange flesh)....but the grain color won out in the end as the Munich malt is fairly dark. It's my first attempt at a vegetable beer. Notes: Wort was a little bit more cloudy than usual, I believe this will clear well in the cubes before I start fermenting. One of 2 of the 5 gallon batches was spilled and lost in the primary. One survived.