[Descardeci]

Hey folks, look like a have a curse on me, every time a made a pumpkin ale is ended with contamination, the first time was in 2015, my 3 recipe, it was awful, too sour, I don't know what happen but something very wrong, the second time, last year, I roasted the pumpkin with a nice brown sugar on top, get the roasted pumpkin made a puree and put on the boil, in the last 15 minute, I get the contamination on the fermenter, my bad on that, already reserv those for brett and wild fermentation, it was 5 gallon, I was ready to dump but the taste was really good, so I dumped 2,5 gallon and keeped 2,5 gallon, and I was suprised what a nice beer, the diacetyl give a nice buttering complement, the phenolic combine perfect with the spice, the sweet of the malt, pumpkin and brown sugar, it was a dark brown sugar, the bitter was on point to give a nice back so it was not so sweet, it had a very high carbonation, the fermentation continue in the bottle, I had bottled in a amber pet bottle, it was very good, I'll never know for sure what bugs had there, and I need help from you guys to trying to get the close as possible so I can brew a again, I had a pellicle on top, so I think brett, had diacetyl in a good level so pedio maybe. I know gonna be hard to get the same beer (maybe put the beer in the same fermenter and wait?), but for trying to keep the max control in the recipe which bugs would be good in a pumpkin ale?
Cheers folk

[reverseapachemaster]

It's going to be impossible to say for sure what it was because a lot of wild yeast and bacteria can create pellicles along with diacetyl and phenols. If it happens every time you make a pumpkin ale maybe try another batch and see if the same thing happens and then keep some of the slurry to repitch in subsequent batches.

I would personally be more concerned that you keep suffering infections when you make this beer. My guess is adding starch at the end of the boil is giving food to a chronic infection in your equipment that is usually too starved in your other beers to be noticeable but with a lot of extra food that your brewing yeast won't consume creates a different opportunity for your unintended companions.

[Descardeci]

It's going to be impossible to say for sure what it was because a lot of wild yeast and bacteria can create pellicles along with diacetyl and phenols. If it happens every time you make a pumpkin ale maybe try another batch and see if the same thing happens and then keep some of the slurry to repitch in subsequent batches.

I would personally be more concerned that you keep suffering infections when you make this beer. My guess is adding starch at the end of the boil is giving food to a chronic infection in your equipment that is usually too starved in your other beers to be noticeable but with a lot of extra food that your brewing yeast won't consume creates a different opportunity for your unintended companions.

I know I'll recreate the same beer, but a help with a controled culture is what I want now, and it was the fermenter the second time, the first time was years ago, and the I don't use that fermenter anymore. I like the idea of try a batch again and then keep the slurry