Pumpkin anyone?

Question:

Has anyone made pumpkin wine and what are your thoughts. I'm just looking for another little project before winter, but after the grapes this year.

I have access to large quantities of Pumpkins for reasonable if I wish.

The question is this: What would be better, Regular pumpkins or the smaller pie pumpkins? I checked Jack's site, but there is no distinction on what kinds of pumpkins are suggested.

Are there typical problems with the must/fermentation that I should be aware of?

Greg, Erie, PA

Reply to
Hoss
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Hmmmm interesting thought.. for the last number of years around this time I always make a pumpkin beer that ends up about 8% no sugar needed.. I call it Pie-eyed Pumpkin. I just might try a wine this year.. Try you own recipe.. but make sure there is some cinnemon and cloves in it to give it the usual pumpkin pie flavour. With beer I found if I cut the pumpkin in large slices and baked them in the oven at 170F for about 8 hrs. I get a hell of a lot of sugar content out of the starch in the pumpkin For the beers no sugar needed..

cheers the islander.

Reply to
islander

Hey, I've made pumpkin wine 2 times, and I will be making it again this fall. As a gardener, I like to look for pie pumpkins for the wine. I figure if it makes a better pie, it will make a better wine. I cut up my pumpkins into pieces, taking the skin off and the insides out. I freeze for a couple of months first before I make the wine. Pumpkins are very hard, so the freezing breaks down the fruit. There are recipes out there that call for different types of spices, but that I think is up to the individual winemaker and their tastes(I didn't use them). Pumpkin wine takes a long time to age, about 2 years. My first batch will be ready this January. When I bottled it at about 8 months though, I was very pleased. The harshness was gone, and what I had left was a wine which tasted something like a German Riesling. Good-luck. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Hi

I like the sound of 'Pie-eyed Pumpkin' do you have e recipe?

Reply to
jon frohmaier

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:12:32 GMT, "Dar V" wrote: Darlene,

I thought the same thing about the pie pumpkins. I also thought about freezing them. Did you follow a certain recipe, I intend on following Jacks. Since the pumpkin is so starchy, how much ballpark sugar did you use? I know you said you didn't use spices, how was the taste when you bottled it? Strong pumpkin or subtle?

I made a big batch of watermelon, and the smell was much harsher than I expected when I racked it. Of course I had a little left over, so I fridged it and had it the other day. Surprisingly, it smelled much better and though still tasting harsh and yeasty, i know it has high potential.

I was going to just make a 3 gallon batch of the pumpkin, and maybe sweeten a gallon when I bottled it, but now that Islander replied with that neat sounding recipe, I am stumped as to whether I am going to make a 3 and a one gallon or two three gallon batches ;-)

Reply to
Hoss

Nice thought Islander! Doing this, you probably lost a lot of moisture from the pumpkin, right? Surely I'll have to readjust the liquid level once the flesh is reconstituted.

I can see many different batches on the horizon.

Greg, Erie, PA

Reply to
Hoss

I sort of used Jack's recipe as well as a recipe from Terry Garey's book on Home winemaking. Pumpkin wine doesn't taste like pumpkin to me, nor does it have an orange color. I would say my pumpkin tastes like a German Riesling wine - a light colored wine. I've made watermelon wine too, and you're right it has a very strong smell and taste (unlike pumpkin; which might be why people add spices).

My latest pumpkin wine had a 12% alcohol by volume - here's the 1 gallon recipe:

5 lbs frozen and thawed pie pumpkin 4 1/2 qts water 1 can 100 % Welch's white grape juice Juice of 3 oranges 1 tsp yeast nutrient 1/4 tsp tannin 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme 5 cups sugar 1 crushed campden tablet 1 packet Montrachet yeast

I like w> Darlene,

Reply to
Dar V

Greg,

I did not use the recipe on my web site (the one from Leo Zanelli's book) as the sugar was just too high for table or social wine. I used

1.5 pounds of sugar and the alcohol was still high (about 15%), so I certainly believe the poster who claimed he had 8% natural sugar in his pumpkin.

I did not use spices, as that was not what I wanted to taste. I was after the taste of pumpkin wine.

As in the recipe, I grated the pumpkin. I used an electric rotary grater. Doing it by hand would have been a very tiresome chore, as the flesh was very hard. However, I soon saw the advantages of grated pumpkin over slices or chunks, as it fermented to dryness in only 8 days and the yeast really were able to get everything out of the pumpkin. The discarded pulp looked like it had been bleached and tenderized.

Mine has been in the bottle for 10 months and is not ready to drink. Everyone I have talked to has said 1-3 years are required, but the finished wine is so mellow you just want to gilp it. I suspect the person who said two years aging in the bottle is probably right, but individual batches will vary, of course, due to the pumpkins used (varieties, ripeness, terrior) and techniques employed. Mine is considerably softer than it was when bottled, but not yet mellow. And, since I know it will indeed mellow out, I know it will be worth the wait. It has already developed a good nose during the 10 months.

By the way, I used two small pumpkins. I have no idea what kind they were but my wife said they are the sweeter ones.

Good luck and don't be impatient.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

My wife always says that the best pumpkin pie is made from squash. They tend to be sweeter. You might consider some of the winter squash. Maybe buternut which is my favorite. But I have not make wine from it yet.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Hello, After reading Jack's reply, I guess I would be careful how much sugar you add and take SG readings to make sure you have enough. I've been gardening longer than I've been making wine, and I live in Wisconsin. Jack lives in Texas. This isn't the first time I've noticed that fruits or vegetables from a garden can be different from one local to the next, and this will then affect your wine (and how much sugar you add and such). I've even noticed that veggies can taste different from one year to the next depending on whether we had a cool summer or a hot summer. We could both be talking sugar pie pumpkins, but because of where we live, the different type of climates, and soil types - we will end up with a different type of pumpkin which requires different sugar amounts to make wine out of. Jack used 1.5 lbs for his recipe and hit 15%. I used 5 cups of sugar (2 1/2 lbs) and hit 12%. I think it depends on your pumpkins.... Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Ray, give your wife credit for that one. My father was a baker and made tens of thousands of pumpkin pies over the 40-odd years he worked. He said he never made a pumpkin pie out of pumpkin -- ever. The canned pumpkin they used (at every bakery he worked at) was hubbard squash.

However, I've never made hubbard squash wine.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

I wonder how it would work if you used a can of pumpkin pie filling - Libby's is pure pumpkin puree, before you add the spices.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Vanderwal

Darlene, I think shredding the pumpkin makes a difference too. When you shed it (as opposed to cutting it into pieces) you get far, far more surface area for the yeast to work on and so they extract more sugar. Your pumpkins may have had the same amount of sugar as mine, but if it isn't in a juice that can readily be extracted and the yeast can't get to it, you have to make up for its inaccessibility by adding more.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

Jack, I'm seriously going to try the shredding with this next batch, and will let you know. The winemaker in me acknowledges your excellent point, but the gardener in me wonders.... I've just seen and tasted how different the vegetables from my garden can taste from year to year, depending on the weather. As an example, a dry spell will make some cucumbers taste terrible, yet others will taste fine (and all from the same plant). I'm always willing to learn, so I will try it and see. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Darlene, I understand your points. Do you have a refractometer? You could probably cut out a thin slice of pumpkin and use a garlic press or something to extract a drop of juice for a Brix test just to have an idea of how much sugar is in the pumpkin and adjust sugar from there. I did that this year with peaches, cherries, plums, apples, and of course grapes. It beats an extended cold maceration and hydrometer test for figuring sugar content.

By the way, if you don't have a rotary grater (preferrably electric), I would seriously start looking for one. You DON'T want to grate pumpkin by hand.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

Jack, I don't have a refractometer, but I do have a hydrometer. And I've been really working hard at shooting for 11 or 12% alcohol by volume, and succeeding with a starting SG of 1.085-1.090 (& then fermenting to dry). How does this sound? I'll start with a low sugar amount (maybe 2 1/2 - 3 cups)and see what my starting SG is. If it is below the starting SG of

1.090, then I'll keep adding sugar (in 1/2 cup amounts) to get there. If the SG (with 2/1/2 cups sugar) is at 1.090, then of course I won't add any more sugar. I don't want rocket fuel - I learned after last year, when I was making wine with frozen fruit which I didn't know what the sugar content was; ended up with a cherry wine at 15%, & a very sweet watermelon which turned into a wine at 15%. I do have an electric food processor with a grating wheel, so I don't think I'll have any problems grating the pumpkin. I grate zucchini and freeze it all the time, and I tried the recipe you had on your site. I always have enough zucchini from my garden.... Thanks for the input and opinion. Darlene
Reply to
Dar V

Jack and Darlene,

A good alternative to an electric scredder would be a SE Asean coconut shredder. It is a short stool with a goose neck like arm sticking out on one side. On the end of the arem is bolted the shredder which looks like a gear with sharp point on the ends of the cogs. You sit on the stool adn rub the coconut (or pumkin or ...) ove rthe shredder and the juice and meat fallis in a bowl possitioned under it.

Works great. You might find one in a oriental store. You certainly can find the scredder part and make your own. My wife has one that is carved like a draggon. Very nice.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Ray, I've never heard of a coconut shredder, but then I've lived up here in the Midwest for most of my life. Sounds neat - if I run into trouble with my electric one, I'll have an option to look for. Thanks. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

OK, This whole thread gets me thinking. I know I can get the pie pumpkins now... But Grape season is around the corner here and I'll likely get some for the best price possible... Free!

But, I think I will get the pumpkins and shred them and then freeze them. this should bring out the best surface area for sugar fermentation and the freezing should help break the flesh down even more by maceration. Based on past experiences by you talented folks, I think I'll give this a try. If nothing else, I can have all the pumpkin I want/need ready to go for various batches of wine or for a massive single batch around thanksgiving time.

I will likely be using my food processor to grate the pumpkin, but I also recently got the attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I got the grinder/slicer/juicer 3-pack on ebay for a good price. I may try both, but the speed and quickness of cleaning of the Cuisinart food processor will likely provide the quickest results.

If I get enthusiastic enough, I may take pictures and link them to my image hosting site with notes into the group. I know that right now, I am asking more than helping, but I can't wait until I can help others out in the same way that YOU have all helped me.

I am glad to be a part of such a fantastic group of experienced knowledgeable people. thanks again and happy fermenting.

Greg, Erie, PA.

Reply to
Hoss

Hoss, Sounds like a good plan to me. Could you please let us know how things go? I'm going to shred & freeze my pumpkin too, and it would be nice to compare notes. Good-luck. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

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