Pumpkin Whiskey Progress Report : Help Needed! 

for the current batch, I would just say more age, as the wood might help mellow out the sappy/vegetal notes. for a future batch, I would say perhaps dial back the spices slightly and add some rye to the mash bill (10-20% let's say). it will give some of the baking spice flavors without the added compounds that are found in the actual spices that could be impacting the first batch.

Next Batch: For several years I made a pumpkin Spice Beer every year in October. I found through trial and error that canned pumpkin was the only "pumpkiny" thing I could use that wouldn't result in that green grass/vegetal flavor showing up in the beer. Especially once the spices started dropping out. This is why pumpkin beer doesn't age well. The sad truth is that the "pumpkin" flavor people think they crave is actually the smell of the spices, so in reality you could leave the pumpkin out completely and just use the spices and try with your wood aging to get that orange-brown "pumpkin" color.

Ok, I hit pause when you asked how to fix this batch. I’m immediately drawn to your previous video with chips, staves and different techniques. My suggestion for THAT batch is this: Freeze cycle that batch five times and see what happens. You used “green” to describe the 11g wood whiskey that was left alone, and said that characteristic was gone in the third sample that went through simulated seasonal cycling 5 times. So, out that sucker through 5 cycles and tell us what happens Jessie. Cheers

On your next attempt try one of two things. 1. Canned pumpkin, almost all of which is actual Moschata squash species, typically used for pumpkin pie. 2. Boil down the pumpkin into a pie filling consistency, probably worthwhile to toy with enzymes during this process. I suspect that fully breaking down and converting the flesh may solve the raw pumpkin aspect.

I love the fact that you are willing to go all out on a meme level project. I appreciate the passion with which you treat your craft. I don't still, and barely drink. But I enjoy your love of the process. Much love from Canada.

Alright, just hit pause and haven't read any other comments so sorry in advance if other people have already stated what I'm about to say. First to fix this batch 3 things come to mind. 1. Time: longer on the wood may get rid of those "new make/ green flavors" 2. Augment with a flavor enhancer like sugar or salt or maybe both, this will definitely bring out some other flavors and mute some as well, trial and error will be key here to see what has risen to the top. 3 would be an enhancement of number 1 and do your freeze/heat technique to stimulate the age / wood enhancement of the product. It worked in the last video (at least last video for us) so it makes since it wood work here. As for next time look into the varietal of the pumpkins that were used not all are created equal some are just trash. Like those little ones that sit and look pretty, there is a reason they don't rot for years, they are nothing but fibers, there is a reason some people make noodles out of gourds/pumpkins: and that leads to the other thing....you have to roast the hell out of them, probably double the time you think. Those fibers need to be mush I mean like baby food times 1000 or no matter what happens they will present in the finished product. Canned pumpkin also works here for this exact reason but if you're wanting to stay real and "natural" check the variety and roast for days...cheers

After reading several of the other comments, I believe there are some great ideas. Just not on their own. I think use the pie pumpkins, lightly salted before you bake and use 15 or 20 percent brown sugar in the wash with the pectin enzyme to help with some of the non fermentables. That will also help clear more of the solids from the pumpkin. This blends some things I've learned over the years baking and making fruit wines, can't see why it wouldn't translate into a wash for distillation.

On the next batch, could try roasting the pumpkin in an electric frypan or BBQ, get that nice thick black caramelisation happening (that you just won’t get in the oven). Should work similar to charging wood.

For future batches I would strongly recommend using mace instead of nutmeg. The minty part of nutmeg I suspect brings out the green/raw pumpkin flavor. I would also recommend only using butternut going toward and make sure it is roasted fully through. Smaller chunks. Potentially even using amylase to make sure all the starches convert.

My first thought at the beginning of the video was that you could add sugar, honey, maple syrup etc... to turn it into more a whiskey liqueur similar to Glayva.

The branding of your channel is spot on mate just be you that's what we like, safe journeys 😊

Yep, I know exactly the taste your talking about.... I used canned pumpkin and got the same taste. Time on oak is helping.... It does work wonderfully in a pumpkin pie cocktail.... Its like drinking a slice of moms Home made pie. I am thinking of adding a few drops of maple syrup to the aging jar ... we shall see. Great Channel man !! Keep up the good work !!

I know this is a bit older video but wanted to throw my 2c. I helped a book author by the name of Emma Christensen in a chapter of her book “True Brews”. It was over a pumpkin spiced mead. There is a secret weapon when making pumpkin tasting alcohol. Use less pumpkin……. And substitute with sweet potato. Seems like roasted sweet potato has complimentary flavors that are pulled from the alcohol that help complete the fermented pumpkin to bring back that cooked pumpkin flavor. Hope to see you re-visit this some time.

My instinct: Blend with a Rum for some dark sweet flavours and age longer. A lot of those "green" notes mellow away for me at 3-6 months.

For the current you could switch the wood out for a toasted oak instead. Try and see if you can get the marshmallow flavor people associate with toasted finishing.

I like this Channel, keep up the good work.

Jackolanterns are bred for size. What you seek is pie pumpkin. You could use canned but ideally you would want to find a good organic pie pumpkin from a local farmers market. The pie pumpkin is long like a zucchini. Also pretty easy to grow if you have garden space. I recycle a bunch of pumpkins in the fall for my compost pile and have got to try a lot of different varieties. Most of the ornamentals aren't really palatable.

To fix this batch - roast some more pumpkin in maple syrup, but only add the ‘flavoured’ maple syrup out of the bottom of the roasting dish to this jar. Or could soak the wood in maple syrup and roast gently then throw back in the spirit.

Yep. Treat it like a back sweeten situation. I've only just started learning but maybe it's a liqueur disguised as a whiskey? Failure is the best teacher. Itching to see what road it takes. Good luck from across the pond.

You could try storing it with a loose lid. I had an apple brandy that tasted heavily of green apples, after 3 months of light ventilation it turned rosy and smoothed out it then became quite a favourite.

Make a pumpkin sour beer mash, then distill through a gin basket with the baking spices.

Jesse, it may have been cuts. Too much tails. Cis3 hexanol- the compound that gives that smell you mention weights 100.16 mol/g to where as ethanol is like 46 and methanol weighs like 20. You're right too it could have been spices. On the next iteration it might be best to macerate the spices into the spirit, and keep the distillate just roasted pumpkin?

A possible solution, as you like the pure taste without the smell part of it, it could be possible to get rid of the main part of it's aroma would be activated charcoal. Otherwise, adding sugar or caramel might work.

For this lot I would do nothing but put it back with wood and like others have said wait, check again in 3 - 6 months. If you are thinking about doing it again this time after roasting the pumpkin, use it and the spices and bake a pie. take the malt and make a whiskey that you will enjoy

If you're getting a green flavor, it may be Acetaldehyde....possibly pulled too much from the tails? (I forget if acetal would come through in the heads or tails if that's even the issue) If it is coming from the pumpkin itself, roast it. Toss in a sweet potatoes that have been roasted as well it'll help enhance the pumpkin flavor quite a bit. For fixing the existing batch.....you may want to run it through the distiller again, see if you cant strip the "green" character from it. Likewise, you can try doing some roasted squash and sweet potatoes (or yams) and have that soak a bit in *this* mix prior to running it through the distiller. At this point I'm spitballing a bit just based on homebrewing; but i'm not sure how the 2nd distillation would affect the spices so you may want to have an herb basket with the spices again or hold off and see about steeping spices after the fact if it's gotten too much weaker. correction here, not DMS, Acetaldehyde. Most commonly this comes across as a flaw in brewing as a green apple (not a granny smith, but like, an unripe apple) but can also come across as raw pumpkin or squash. In sensory training I was getting more like a freshly cut pumpkin. DMS is more of a canned corn or boiled cabbage smell/flavor.

Nutmeg has d-pinene oil that is one of main parts of pine resin, so it give of thwt green pine smell when it is freshly grounded

Distill it again with coffee and vanilla in the gin basket 🤞🏼 I grew a taste for liquorice in my rum so I put aniseed in with my wood! I know a bunch of people don’t like liquorice but it’s working for me 🤭

Aside from more time for stuff to mingle I think the addition of dried dates with the wood lends a slightly earthy caramel(ish) sweetness that if done in moderation doesn’t come across to cloying sweet. I think the idea has promise but personally feel a dk heavy molasses rum would of been my choice for a pumpkin spice sipper or possibly a rumsky of sorts. In the rumsky scenario I would of cut the nutmeg out of fermentation and would of gone maybe a tincture of spices to add in while blending. I would probably of slimmed the crystal( think you used that) and leaned more towards a special B for some of the adjunct flavor profile. Just my .2c. Really enjoy seeing another way of doing things and appreciate you tackling what you have over the last few years. Cheers

From cooking various pumpkin snacks you need to cut more of the pulp from inside out like way more than u think. That in my experience is where that flavor comes from. And go a bit deeper on the skin as well. You can also leave the pumpkin out for a few days to get a bit aged.

If the bugs are going to get into your drink I guess that means the weather is getting warmer. Must be nice! Here in Canada it colder by the day. lol

Hey Jesse, perhaps it just needs more time on oak. Unmalted barley has a very strong grassy note in whiskey, until it’s got some age on it. You could also try roasting and then smoking the pumpkin.

I'd try roasting a large cube of pumpkin (with small holes poked through) with just a little brown sugar, then placing it in a bag and dropping it in the jar with the product. Maybe a test batch to see how it works, first.

maybe you should roast the pumpkin like how my dad use to with some butter and brown surger the darker the better or molasses and roast till its falling apart soft before using it in your brew need to cook it till it breaks down on its own your pumpkin was still solid chunks when you tossed it in to brew that way you gave it enough time to cook off the green taste also try a mix of types of pumpkin rather than just the one note get a wider breath of flavors not all pumpkins taste the same

I think the solution you're looking for in solving the green (which I interpret as starch) problem is to use amylase enzymes during the run or angel yellow label yeast. Edit: After the end of your video I'm doubling down. You added sugar to fix it. I think better starch to sugar conversion on the front end will help.

If your going for pumpkin pie taste then the base of your mash should be pumpkin pie filling. You can get it straight of a can or from scratch. It’s possible you could save dispatch by adding some sugars and pumpkin pie filling and re-distillate like you did the peanut butter M&Ms in a previous video.

I would try to add peace of wood aged in some kind of sweet wine, so it could give some frut layer and it could cover a lil that green note

Question to check maybe... How ripe was the pumpkin? Maybe try frosen and thaw couple of time? Try different type of pumpkin? Cooking do increase sugar perception and mouthfeel availability but not quantity. Starch is sugar. Maybe try to add amylose enzym to the mash to have more free sugar to ferment

I wonder how many enzymes are in pumpkin seeds? Perhaps they can be sprouted like grain and used to convert the cooked pumpkin more thoroughly? Edit. Just a thought though. Maybe when cutting the pumpkin up initially, run the pieces through a chip cutter so you have more surface area of the pumpkin getting roasted to get more of the caramel flavours coming over?

Makes sense I guess, the yeast ate the sugar that was produced when the pumpkin was cooked leaving you with the raw taste.

Interesting video, Jesse. I am not really a fan of pumpkin except in bread. From the green weird flavors you describe I think Time On Oak is your best bet. Your spirit may develop an ester to tilt the taste and aroma away from greenish off flavors. Put it on the shelf, mate!

I would add a bit of either roasted sugar maple or even charred sugar maple wood. It just might give that sweeter flavoring but still wood notes.

Maybe the pumpkin in the gin basket might have given you the "green" flavor. As for removing it or reducing it in this batch, maybe activated charcoal for a month?

To the current batch, agree with Duganator more time to age in wood. Also, could get desperate and dial up the baking flavor. Dial up by adding a real vanilla bean pod and/or cinnamon stick. I am allergic to cinnamon, I lean to vanilla bean pod - but I won't be drinking it either way. A bit too far to travel.

Genus brewing (you tube) uses sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin for pumpkin beer.

I know next to nothing about any of this, but I do enjoy cooking. And if I were trying to bring out certain flavors over others, sugar is one way to go, but you already said it yourself: add a little salt. Roast pumpkin/squash/etc should have some salt, even with baking spices involved. After all, most baking recipes also involve salt for that same, flavor-enhancing reason. Maybe even do a bit of salt with a bit of syrup. Certainly couldn't hurt to try a pinch and a splash in a glass like you did here

Add 100gm blueberries for a week. I have a (30 oz can pumpkin pie & apple pie filling mix) batch fermenting. Will fyi on it. Gonna use the Air Still.

This sounds a bit odd, for preservation of flavour, but when we deal with vegetable flavours in beer, it’s an issue with the boil, driving off DMS, if there is skins in this batch (didn’t watch the original, loved the transition), than that would over power this, but sulphites are pretty powerful.

uuugh Jesse I also made a pumpkin brew out of some peanut pumpkins I grew. You need to look up peanut pumpkins. Anyway it’s a lot of work for no return! I didn’t even try to put wood in mine to cover up l”that” taste but if you put enough of olive nations peach flavoring in it you get a kinda ok peach pie.

You may have add a little bit brown sugar to bring out that flavor cuz that's when I had to do when I did a certain one do small batch and see how you like it

You can filter your batch, Run it thru your column still

Dehydrated roasted pumpkin flesh place it in the jar like you do with the wood

I will add your adding maple syrup just lead me to try the same thing to my rum that I’m a bit stuck with. Flavors of jaggy, punchy, and pineapple core mellowed with the syrup. I may try to cycle with temps before adding the syrup direct. I’ll wait to see what the masses recommend....

My thought is that you used the pumpkin that was not ripe enough. The flavor you perceive as pumpkin has the raw pumpkin flavor tempered with the sugars. You fermented out the sugars out and are left with the raw taste. You should be able to remove it by using very ripe pumpkins or roast it much longer till it is almost a paste. Think of the difference between a raw apple and a baked apple, or maybe better between your pumkin and pumkin pie.

hi, just a thought maybe try some charcoal, say maple or oak and steep it with sherry cask staves as well. Charcoal first then the sherry staves, maybe ?

And i dont remember yest u used, id go for rum yeast that u used in bannana brandy, so it would point out more baked pumpkin aromae like it did with bannana

Id replace pumpkin with apple. Or make a rye apple whisky. Tasty stuff

I hit pause… here was my thoughts as I was mashing this. I HATED the outcome of my “traditional pumpkin”. When roasting, when it came out the back side of the mash, every step I just looked at it with “the dad look” and told it, “You’re doing a great job… IF YOUR AIM WAS TO DISAPPOINT ME!” Now… the pumpkin pie pumpkins… those lil guys were the Crown Jewels. Roasted phenomenally, mashed great, etc. I reserved 19L for a beer, and ran a 30 minute boil with 9kg of roasted, spiced, maple pie pumpkins and now my whole garage smells like a pie factory. Long story longer, next year I’ll only be using pie pumpkins. As far as fixing it, I was going to take some of the run and age it on sweet maple that was soaked in an 8 year spiced rum. (It’s called Old Monk, and is a pretty awesome Indian rum, lots of vanilla, and sweeter flavors come through.) I think the sweet maple light toast would maybe nudge the flavors out in a way that might fix what you’ve got.

It sounds like it would be better in a cocktail than on its own. (Sugar smooths over a lot of odd flavors, which is part of where cocktails came from). Try pairing it with some rye, maple syrup and maybe a touch of green chartreuse. I also wonder how it might work with falernum (pumpkin tiki!).

Add the maple syrup then make a Bayleys style cream liqueur.

I'd be tempted to try adding some molasses. Sugar will make it sweet, of course, but the richness of the molasses might add another layer that'd play nicely with the flavors already there. Or it could be too much and might muddle the whole experience. Only one way to find out!

Try some salt or MSG (umami), I’ve had some good results with those

Try using canned pumpkin? I prefer using the whole fruit, but sometimes using a short cut works better.

Well, maybe add a very small amount of salt, before salt makes things salty, it first enhances the other flavors. I have had this in normal food but i also know people adding it to coffee. Dutch pancakes get better when i just add a pinch of salt in the batter for like 5 big pancakes, so be gentle.

Add 5ml of glycerin. It will make the water wetter and give you the sweetness your looking for

since maple syrup helps. how about lowering the proof to get more "barrel" candy from the wood. Also since you liked the maple how about putting some maple wood in? Also, does heavier char have an "activated charcoal" effect to mute some off-flavors? SO..... I've rambled myself into a suggestion to age at a lower proof on heavy char maple.

Try adding a shot or 2 of whip cream flavored vodka. Thanks for what you do, MW

Proof positive that if you add a smidge of Canadian, there's an improvement! :-) Take a pint off (sorry ~500 mL in "rest of the world" units), & add some bacon bits, just to REALLY mess with the paradigms of what makes a "good" whiskey!!!

Stillworks and brewing has done a few pumpkin whiskeys, but he bakes the pumpkin with the skin still on it. Maybe that adds a certain flavor like potato skin does?

Vanilla is quite sweet without swamping it with sugar maybe steeping few beans or using a good quality extract?

Ohh yeh i forgot, try running it trough a quick pass carbon filter to help clean it up.

This same thing happened to me with a watermelon wash. Tasted like watermelon rind and green grass. Nasty flavor in my opinion. That being said, I was told I needed to add pectin to the wash in order to bring the true flavor forward in the final product. I have not tried it yet, but maybe its something to try with pumpkin? Great video.

Straight rye grain bill, blend all of the pumpkin in during the aeration stage, don’t use pumpkin in the column.

Have you thought about changing the water chemistry in the final product. The beer world uses water chemistry to improve malt character vs hops vs dryness etc. Do you think adjusting the chemistry could also apply to wiskey?

What if you adjust the temperature? I've been exploring the differences in flavors with whiskey by cooling or heating and it makes a huge difference.

I wonder if a quick pass through a charcoal filter and then back onto charred oak might help?

I would remove the current wood and replace it with some maple and birch. Just a thought

My "Best suggestion" 'm going to throw out there is more for "next time" ... And is coming not from a fermenter, but from a cook, and baker. So *ME* when I make things like "Pumpkin Pie" or similar... I do NOT use just pumpkin... And there are certain spice-notes that seem to be missing in your blend (I say "Missing" just because *I* add them, lol). So first off... I would have used BOTH pumpkin... AND Sweet Potato! Everything "pumpkin" I make includes both. I find the two have extremely similar flavour-profiles, but complimentary, adding a certain level of depth and complexity that's missing from pure pumpkin version. (Also, the pumpkins used do make a difference, the best option I feel would be the MUCH smaller, sweeter pumpkins, they would have more sugar, so... Should be a better product). Secondly? Missing elements. Orange, Vanilla, Allspice, and Cardamom. Also (personally) I find the "ratio" of them a little different. *MY* preference is usually cinnamon-forward, with like 2-3 parts cinnamon, 1 part each of the ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Usually I lower the amount of cloves, and increase the amount of nutmeg, and ginger, so it's more like... 0.75 part clove, and 1.5 each of nutmeg and ginger? Give or take. Orange zest is more important than the juice though, and actual vanilla is kinda needed too. Third? I would consider taking those spices (and orange, vanilla, etc. etc. ) and actually putting them in some of the whiskey after the fact. Fourth? Procedures The Pumpkin? In order to extract as much roasted pumpkin flavour out of it, I ALWAYS roast my pumpkin with the skin ON first... And then just scrape/cut the skin off afterwards. Makes the world of difference. Also I'd have either put the fruit in a food processor, or chopped it WAY finer than that before putting it in the fermenter. The OTHER thing I would suggest changing? Distilling this ON grain. We know (from some of your other videos) that that totally changes the flavour-profile of everything coming through... And I think that in THIS circumstance, those notes would be what this is lacking.

You could consider chill filtering, that's the first thing I thought.

Use it to mix

Did you try carbon filtering a small bit to see if you could pull out some of the organics that are too much?

If you want sweeter, how about a port cask?

For next time, would it be worthwhile using charred maple wood for aging a pumpkin whiskey?

What if you added/blended a bit of another spirit where the flavor profile has similar notes and similar volatility to the green/raw pumpkin but desirable? My thought is a little apple brandy (unaged). The flavor notes always hit on the smell, and the after taste, they're fruity, and would probably go well with the baking spices. Probably wouldn't take much?

A tiny amount of salt will bring out sweetness and round out bitterness

What if you used canned pumpkin and get pumpkin pie scoop the pumpkin out of the pie add the spices and ferment it like that

You should try s'mores moonshine. Like in south park

What about roasting the pumpkin on the grill before adding it to the mash?

You should try using actual pumpkin pies too make the mash. Would that even work i don't know but it is a thought.

For future batches, I'd recommend thinking that the "pumpkin spice" flavor is the flavor that goes into the pumpkin pie, not the pumpkin itself. leave the pumpkin out. I have no idea how to fix the batch you have, rather than maybe serving it in eggnog.

Well if I were to do it differently I’d see if the unpleasant smell came from just the pumpkin because if that was the case just solely use butternut instead of mixing. Though they might both produce the smell and then I wouldn’t know.

if u do it again, BAKE a bunch of pumpking pies from scratch, and then use the baked pumpking filling for the whiskey.

Could you stage it with fruit wood.

Maybe try a sample with brown sugar.

Try charcoal filtering a small amount of it and see if it can strip out some of those flavours, or and maybe redistill half of it and add it back to the rest of it that's my best guess at emergency help 🆘️

What kind of pumpkin did you use?

Pumpkin purée next time. And let it age for a little longer to mask or mellow off flavors.

I have been brewing beer and distilling for a wily now. I would do nothing to it. Let it age. Taste a little ever 30 days until that flavor mellows out.

What's the proof Jessie? Add a drop of water or two to see what happens. You could run some of it through your air pot to see what happens. Just a thought.

I live in New England. The pumpkin capitol of the world. My advice to you it's simple. Stop! While you still can! 🤣 All joking aside, I've seen so much pumpkin stuff all of my life that it has gotten sickening to consider some things in pumpkin flavor.

Add it to a wheatgrass shake. That will hide the green pumpkin taste and salvage a crappy wheatgrass shake 😄