So I made a pumpkin spice ale as I had planned. Going into the fermentor/throughout fermentation it smelled wonderful. When I bottled it, the beer smelled fine not the original pumpkin crazy smell as it was before fermenting but it still smelled good. I decided to taste my hydrometer sample to see how the beer was coming along and I wasn't happy. I don't know if I just don't like it or if I made a bad tasting batch of beer. It has a really funky taste that I can't figure out the cause of. I think it could be a couple of things: 1) not balanced enough, or 2) spicing was wrong/out of proportion or something. I might not have used enough bittering hops making it cloyingly sweet. I don't know what the deal is but I am going to let it age for a couple more months tasting a bottle every couple of weeks to see if it gets any better if its not good by 6 months I'll just dump it.
The cider however is a different story. It tastes smells and tastes good. Not overwhelmingly appley but more like a dry white wine. I enjoy it, but it still needs time to carbonate more thoroughly. The yeast I used seems to attenuate well but it still needs time to get the carbonation up to where it should be. Meanwhile I will be drinking the remaining case and a half of Dunkelweizen so I can make room for another batch. I do not know however what I will be brewing. I think I'm going to go with a kit to keep it simple and not mess with tweaking recipes.
