Hoppy Brewing

So the wonderful pumpkin Cyser that I opened on thanksgiving had issues. Mainly, the mold. It was too bad to crack it open and find a nice layer of mold on the pumpkin and dots on the liquid. What went wrong? Here’s what I have figured:

• I killed the yeast (campden tablets) and then added more honey when I put it in the pumpkin. Therefore, I had a perfect breeding ground for organisms and no live yeast to counter it.
• I stored it at room temperature. The perfect temperature for most molds and wild yeasts. I did cover it with plastic wrap, but I am under no illusions that that helped the situation. It did keep the fruit flies off though.
• The wax did not seal. I melted a candle around the opening, but when I opened it up, I was surprised that the top came right off. Maybe there is a better wax I can use next time that is a bit more flexible or sticky or something.

I’m really glad that I did this experiment. And don’t misunderstand, I did still drink it. And it was tasty. I added 4 cinnamon sticks, a clove, and an allspice ball. It could have used even more spice. But it was a nice, semi-dry cyser. Next time I will either do the primary fermentation in the pumpkin or refrigerate the pumpkin. Something to combat the wild microbes.