Pumpkin wine

[ryankelley]

Having hand grated the pumpkin as well, and considering the work involved, I understand your statement mainecr. I'll let you know . . . in a year or so.

e-wine

I used a heavy Ice Cream Scoup/Spade to get mine out. It came out thin, so I thought I was in good shape. I used Hubbard Squash, so I follow Jack Keller's recipe on that which called for cutting it into chunks and using pectin enzyme.

I'll let you know in 1-2 years if this was a good way to do it.

 

[e-wine]

I racked the pumpkin wine. It has also cleared up very nicely. I'll try to post a picture since the colors of the two wine contrast each other well. The s.g. was 1.004 and the wine smells great. It's a little harsh at the end and I hope aging will mellow it some but still quite nice for a young wine. I'll report my wife's assessment once it's available. Thank you.

e-wine

 

[ryankelley]

I racked the pumpkin wine. It has also cleared up very nicely. I'll try to post a picture since the colors of the two wine contrast each other well. The s.g. was 1.004 and the wine smells great. It's a little harsh at the end and I hope aging will mellow it some but still quite nice for a young wine. I'll report my wife's assessment once it's available. Thank you.

e-wine

I just racked mine over the weekend also. It hasn't cleared yet, so I degassed, sorbated, K-meta, and sparkeloided it. We'll see what happens. I'm ready to get my carboy back, so hopefully I can bottle it in 57 days.

 

[jrock7106]

I have a little less than 5 gallons in my 5 gallon carboy. What should I top off with? I topped my apple off with apple juice.... but I don't think there is pumpkin juice, and I can't find pumpkin wine ANYWHERE! Would a white wine work?

 

[ryankelley]

I have a little less than 5 gallons in my 5 gallon carboy. What should I top off with? I topped my apple off with apple juice.... but I don't think there is pumpkin juice, and I can't find pumpkin wine ANYWHERE! Would a white wine work?

I originally bought some welches white grape juice concentrate to top mine up after racking. The members in here told me it was a neutral flavor that won't get in the way of pumpkin.

But instead I went to the hobby store and bought about 10 pounds of clear glass marbles. I rinsed them off well and submerged them in an oxygen sanitizer. Then dropped them into the carboy. I added as many as I need to bring the level 2 fingers from the stopper.

 

[e-wine]

According to what Ive read, most recipes provide for water additions to make up for racking loses.

e-wine

 

[e-wine]

I bottled the wine yesteday and we will allow the wine to age until Thanksgiving. We did drink some of the "left over" wine and, as my wife observed, it has a bit of a grapefruit taste. Also, it is strong although not unpleasent. I'm will plant some of the seeds soon and I'll start another batch later.

e-wine

 

[ryankelley]

Amylase Enzyme

I just added Amylase to my pumpkin wine this week. I had a haze that I thought might be starch. It has cleared some and I see a later of sediment on the bottom that wasn't there before. It still has a long way to go.

 

[mainecr]

I talked to my Mom in Florida today. She and Dad liked my Pumpkin from Jack Kellers recipe. 15 months old. Semi-sweet, it's what I call a good popcorm wine. Just right for popcorn and a glass of wine playing board games with my 8yo grandaughter.

 

[e-wine]

My first attempt at posting pictures to this site. The wine in the middle is the Sweet Potato and the pumpkin wine is on either side. The green tint is due to the lawn. The pumpkin wine is actually yellow.

e-wine

 

[Tom]

Looks nice and clear. How long is it aging

 

[Runningwolf]

Awesome looking wine! I liked the green tint. It makes it look like a nice refreshing lime drink. Nice and clear. Thanks for sharing.

 

[e-wine]

Tom,

I've already bottled both and the pumpkin will age two years. The Sweet Potato will age as long as long as my wife chooses to wait. Most likely, she will start on it in late June. The "new" s.p. batches should cover the holidays.

e-wine

 

[Tom]

If it comes out as good as you think you need to make SIX gallons next. ::

 

[e-wine]

For the s.p., I have six gallons in a secondary and two, one gallon batches. Peeling and cutting the potatoes takes some time otherwise, I'd start another 6 gallon batch. If you remember, I still have 8 open 5 gallon carboys and one 14 gallon demijohn. Don't worry, I'm working on them.

e-wine

 

[tjbreitmeier]

I'm currently making pumpkin wine. transferred from primary to a carboy yesterday. there is a lot of starch in pumpkins and as a side effect of my ignorance there is a lot of starch floating at the top of the carboy from where i did not add pectic enzyme before adding yeast. the liquid that is separated from the starch looks wonderful and I'm hoping to come up with a solution for removing the separated starch soon.
as for a recipe: I used one 10lb pumpkin, scooped out the insides as you would a jack-o-lantern, pulled out all the seeds (baked them with Cayenne powder), pureed the innards, chopped up the remainder of the pumpkin and removed the meat from the rind, then followed through as i would for any other wine i have made.
starch was present in the primary Fermenter, but it was harder to tell how much was there as compared to the carboy. In hind sight, I should have attempted to remove the starch from the wine in the primary. I am thinking about attempting to slip the racking tube past the starch and siphon the liquid into another carboy, then strain the starch through cheese cloth into the primary and filter that into the carboy with the rest of the liquid. would be nice to have a simpler solution. I will post my results.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Hey I resurrected this post from earlier this year for those (and myself) wanting to make a pumpkin wine. Here is Julie's recipe/post;

"I did a Pumpkin Pie spice wine for Thanksgiving this year, it turned fairly well. I started it last year, it was one of my first wines so it wasn't without mistakes. First mistake was not taking a hydrometer reading. I have no idea what the alcohol content is. I got the recipe from this little red (magenta?) recipe book that I had bought. Here is the recipe:

One Gallon
3 large cans of pumpkin (it called for 4 lbs. of pumpkin but I used the canned pumpkin with spices already added)
7 pts of water
2 1/4 lbs sugar
2 1/2 tsp acid
1/4 tsp tannin
1 tsp nutrient
1 campden tablet
1 pkg wine yeast (I used Lavlin 1118)

The wine came out with a good mouth feel, nice and smooth but the cinnamon over powered the pumpkin taste. That was my 2nd mistake. You first tasted the pumpkin which was great but ended with a strong cinnamon taste which I felt should have been lighter. I wasn't sure if the spices that were in the pumpkin were enough so I decided to add another 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, I should have left it alone.

Anyway I have 2 bottles left and it will sit until next year's Thanksgiving to see if the cinnamon weakens any. I do have a 5 gallon carboy fermenting away right now made from fresh pumpkin.


Julie"

 

[Isaiah]

So the brown sugar over powers the pumpkin flavor? and how so? hope my doesnt turn out bad i used brown sugar!

 

[djrockinsteve]

don't use a lot. I believe it can give a molasses flavor???

 

[Isaiah]

well i didnt realize i didnt have enough white sugar at the beginning so I used brown and probably a couple of cups of it ive got about 2 and 3/4 gallons of it most the sugar though is white