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Adding spices to secondary
I'm making a pumpkin pie ale and it's ready to transfer to secondary and add spices. I've added spices to secondary before by boiling spices in about a pint of water and adding to secondary. But I would like to know if it would be just as safe to add the spices to a few ounces of vidka, let it sit for say 15 minutes and then add the spiced vodka to the secondary.
Would the vodka give any off flavors to the beer? Would the spices not be sterile or sanitized enough thus way? More vodka? longer soak?
Anyone have experience using vodka this way? Results.
As far as the pumpkin pie beer, pumpkins aren't in season yet and I didn't want to use canned, so I used sweet potatos instead. steeped the potatos and pale malt in 160 degree water for 20 minutes then removed grains and potatos.
DC
That's how I plan on adding spices to my winter ale. I've never done it before but from what I read all you have to do is soak the spices in as little as vodka as it takes to completely cover/submerge them. I'm not sure how long I'm going to soak them for, though - maybe an hour? maybe overnight? The vodka shouldn't add any off flavors because I think by law, real vodka (not that flavored stuff) has to be flavorless. Someone with actual experience could probably shed some more light on the topic.
I've used a little vodka to handle some spices for a wheat ale once. Just a shot glass of vodka, with the spice sadded before it was racked. Then I just poured it in the secondary, gave a little stir, and put the lid on. I didn't use enough because there was spice flavor at all, but the vodka was completely undetectable. No off flavors at all. I used Gray Goose if it matters....
vodka is fine. depending on the flavors of the beer, a little burbon would probably taste good too. I'll be hinest though, I used to soak spices in liquor, then I started the habit of just tossing them in...
BrewTown_Bill wrote:
vodka is fine. depending on the flavors of the beer, a little burbon would probably taste good too. I'll be hinest though, I used to soak spices in liquor, then I started the habit of just tossing them in...
Me too... then I worry about contamination LOL...then I do it again, worry some more, tell my self NEXT time... then I do it again...
I use burbon to sanitize the spices I add to my Holiday beer.
Before I started soaking spices in the burbon the beer would eventually start to spontaneously ferment resulting in gushers a few months down the road.
I've used both bourbon and vodka to soak spices and I usually just do it overnight. Next day I do a little taste test and then dump the whole concoction into the batch.
DT
I asked the very same question on a different forum and I was told to add the spices at flame-out. Not sure if there is a huge difference. It seems there are many different schools of thought on this. Not sure which way I may go....brewing a pumpkin porter in July.
dallen wrote:
I asked the very same question on a different forum and I was told to add the spices at flame-out. Not sure if there is a huge difference. It seems there are many different schools of thought on this. Not sure which way I may go....brewing a pumpkin porter in July.
Most of the spice qualities have to do with aroma, when adding at the end of boil, you can lose some of this aroma during the wort chill, and what does make it to primary is susceptible to blowoff during prim ferm. This makes an addition to secondary an advantage.
Just make sure you go EASY on the vodka.
Even as little as 1/4 cup in a 5 gallon batch can show up in the final brew and it takes a LONG time to blow off.
Bourbon is a little more forgiving, but still leads to "Hot" tasting beer if you put too much in.
I add spices at end of boil and then I add them again to the priming sugar. I boil them along with the priming sugar. Works real well that way. No need for 2ndry addition.
I've made pumpking ale alot and that works best for me. Also you don't really get much flavor from the pumpkin itself so sweet potatoes should work. Last batch I made I took the pumpkin, cut it in 1/4s, sprinkled pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar on it, baked it at 300 degrees for an hour, scooped out the meat and mashed it along with the grains. then added spices at end of boil and again at bottling.
DC
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