# Pumpkin wine questions



## franc1969 (Nov 28, 2019)

Country wine- pumpkin edition. I got a bottle from a friend a couple of days ago, and I really like it. I had thought of doing this after reading some old winemaking books, but don't know about where to start. Too many options. Some recipes call for cooked pulp, others raw shreds. Which have you done, and how did you like it? Have you compared both? Yeast choice for added flavor? Ginger/no ginger? Other spices? Amylase/not?
One recipe I am thinking of is https://www.tyrantfarms.com/tony-williamson-and-andrea-deyrup-pumpkin-champagne-recipe/ though I am not sure if I will try a sparkling wine for the first time. I have similar type pumpkins, and also some leftover sugar pie pumpkins, jarrahdale, and blue hubbards. I cook, puree and freeze a huge amount of these every year, but have even more leftovers from an orchard this year.
Another recipe is https://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2007/10/18/pumpkin-wine-recipe-for-halloween/ , which bakes the pumpkin first, with amylase.


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## salcoco (Nov 28, 2019)

https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp there is a recipe here also that I made that did not require cooking. wine was well accepted.I think you are finding that there are as many recipes as there are winemakers. just make a decision on one method make it than try another. or make them at the same time to compare easily when finished.


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## franc1969 (Nov 28, 2019)

Thanks. I was hoping someone had tried both ways, I've also seen a wine from canned pumpkin. Sometime.innthe next few days I'll figure out what poundage I actually have, and try something.


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## Yeasty Boy (Nov 29, 2019)

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/pumpkin-frankenwine.66863/

Check my notes for a start. It worked out for me.


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## Ignoble Grape (Dec 9, 2019)

Yeasty Boy said:


> https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/pumpkin-frankenwine.66863/
> 
> Check my notes for a start. It worked out for me.


I wish I had found your recipe about 1 month ago! It sounds better than mine.

Here's the recipe I'm using currently:
https://blog.eckraus.com/pumpkin-wine-recipe

Question: Does it end up tasting like pumpkin pie/spice? Is that the final goal?

Huge issue right now with mercaptans - egg smell through and through. I think this is because I was traveling and left too long on the gross lees. Spent yesterday splash racking and adding sulfites. Hope that it clears by the weekend.

Followed directions exactly. Not much of a pumpkin flavor - though it does have some subtle something. I felt like it needed spices, and I see that you added yours to the pumpkins directly during prep - I just chopped mine up and threw them in the container. The cinnamon sticks didn't really do much, but they were older and probably not the freshest of ingredients. Going to add more of the pie spices next - new cinnamon sticks, ginger, allspice.

What about oak? I could see vanilla being nice.


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## Mr_S_Jerusalem (Dec 12, 2019)

I did not find mine had much of a pumpkin taste (so far anyway). It may reveal itself after a couple months conditioning. 

Mine also had an eggy smell, however this disappeared after I added campden tablets. I read somewhere that happens but I can't remember why.

Wish I'd added more spices to be honest. I added a handful but I was decidedly restrained and I should've chucked a load in lol


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## Ignoble Grape (Dec 12, 2019)

Mr_S_Jerusalem said:


> I did not find mine had much of a pumpkin taste (so far anyway). It may reveal itself after a couple months conditioning.
> 
> Mine also had an eggy smell, however this disappeared after I added campden tablets. I read somewhere that happens but I can't remember why.
> 
> Wish I'd added more spices to be honest. I added a handful but I was decidedly restrained and I should've chucked a load in lol


Thanks - this helps to benchmark my current wine as I have no expectations. You mentioned you haven't really noticed a pumpkin flavor - how old is your batch right now?


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## Mr_S_Jerusalem (Dec 12, 2019)

My batch was started on about 1/11/2019 (spare pumpkins from Halloween lol) and bottled 4 days ago.

I like to bottle them pretty soon after they clear as I only have a few demijohns. It actually started clearing by itself quite quickly as well.

So of course when I tried it, it was at bottling stage and therefore very young.

That said, even though it was ridiculously young it was still quite tasty, which I was very pleased about.


Actually now that I've written that I see that I could've easily left that a couple months lol.

Oops.


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## bshef (Dec 12, 2019)

I made a pumpkin wine with raw shreds. It was a semi-sweet wine but very little pumpkin flavor; as I recall, no back-sweetening needed. it was very good. Wish my pumpkins had survived this year. Too much rain.


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## Rice_Guy (Dec 13, 2019)

There are high moisture/ low sugar jack o lanterns (pumpkins) and there are cooking pumpkins (squash). For flavor I grow Amish pie, butternut, acorn or Hubbard (squash).


franc1969 said:


> Some recipes call for cooked pulp, others raw shreds. Which have you done, and how did you like it? Have you compared both? Yeast choice for added flavor? Ginger/no ginger? Other spices? Amylase/not? . . . I have similar type pumpkins, and also some leftover sugar pie pumpkins, jarrahdale, and blue hubbards.


* the cooking types have a higher starch content therefore it would extract more with amylase (the beer enzyme, not pectase). Steeping after grinding makes sense since you save a lot of labor. However, , I steam prior to freezing and pull some for pressing, juice yield is low but it is clear and ferments well. Hubbard as picked are extremely dry, cooking then pressing wouldn’t have much juice yield, this again suggests the easy way is to grind.
Jack-O-lanterns have a high moisture, so you can get a lot of liquid after cooking. They also seem lower on flavor. ie what you have available pushes the direction of how to process.
* Flavors? The question is what do you like? If the goal is pumpkin pie flavor then add pie spice, ginger, cinnamon cloves. Whatever you like in pie.
The variation going in the basement is “thanksgiving wine” which is roughly 3 liters of butternut squash juice, a liter of cranberry juice, a can of frozen OJ, .6kg sugar, tannin and tartaric acid. (Last years blend used half a can of OJ and 6 oz real lemon) Finished Flavor last year. . . mild squash notes with dominant orange and cranberry notes. . . but then the goal was to use up squash, not make a pumpkin pie.


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## Rice_Guy (Dec 13, 2019)

Mr_S_Jerusalem said:


> Wish I'd added more spices to be honest. I added a handful but I was decidedly restrained and I should've chucked a load in lol


You can always do an extraction as 1 part spice/1 part grain alcohol (like the 4oz extracts at your wine toy store) and then do a drop by drop bench trial of additional levels of spice or one flavor note.


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## Ignoble Grape (Dec 13, 2019)

Rice_Guy said:


> You can always do an extraction as 1 part spice/1 part grain alcohol (like the 4oz extracts at your wine toy store) and then do a drop by drop bench trial of additional levels of spice or one flavor note.


This is a fantastic idea!


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