1. Home
  2. Winemaking Craft Forum
  3. Pumpkin anyone?
  4. Page 2

Pumpkin anyone?

Hi Darlene/all,

I just bottled a pumpkin wine.

I shredded/grated the pumpkin in an electrice food processor last October and froze it until February. I didn't do this for the reasons you list... I did it cause I didn't have time to get to the winemaking until then.

Anyway, the wine turned out great! I've gotten tons of good response from the people that have tasted it and demand is definitely outpacing supply. I only made 3 gallons. I'm doing 6 gallons this year!

Check out my website to see a pictorial diary of my the process I used.

formatting link

Good luck, Gus Calandrino

Reply to
gus
Loading thread data ...

Gus, I'm glad it came out so tasty for you. Congrats. I will check it out. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Hi Gus,

Great diary... Exactly what I was looking for, I'm still new to the whole winemaking process and I wanted to give Pumpkin wine a try :-)

One question, can you tell me where you bought your straining bag ?

If any of you are interrested, I took a few pics of my batch of strawberry wine and posted them here

formatting link
I have yet to put newer ones...

Thanks, Eric

Reply to
Eric Bisaillon

Eric,

I bought it at "Grape and Granary" website. I've included a link but not sure if it will translate ok.

formatting link

Best, Gus

Reply to
gus

Eric, Any paint or hardware store will have nylon paint straining bags in 1 and 5 gallon sizes. Quick, available and cheap, and they last for years.

Reply to
MikeMTM

Gus/Darlene/All

I mentioned that I was going to freeze the shredded pumpkin then make the wine. Well, my grapes either all froze and fell or the deer got them all. SO.. better tending next year.

That means I didn't freeze and I got impatient. I basically tripled the recipe on Jack's website to make 3 gallons. I bought the pie pumpkins for 50 cents each, got 16 of them. I only used 5 for my 3 gallon batch, about 15 lbs of shredded pumpkin. 11 left. I suspect that I want to make 2 more 3 gallon batches. One from Gus's recipe, with which I WILL freeze the shredded pumpkin, and one I may try the oven drying trick. I want to try the drying routine to see if it cuts down on the cloudiness and amount of sediments. It fermented dry, down to .992, but was still going when it went to secondary. I rack for the second time this weekend.

Here are a few pics of what I have so far.

the must (about 4-1/2 gallons in primary

formatting link

I stirred this several times a day because I had the same problem with the cap.

formatting link

The jelling stuff on top. Would this mean i should have added more pectic enzyme? Sometimes it was 3 or 4 inches thick.

formatting link

All of the cloudiness, thickness and the lees.

formatting link

The jelly stuff propogated to the top in secondary too. I scooped out what I could and topped off from the small bottle.

formatting link

And two that follow are only partly related. four different kinds of pumpkin seeds. Garlic, sweet and spicy, ranch, Emeril's Essence flavor

formatting link

And since I'm about as much of a comedian as I can be, here's this little tidbit.

formatting link

Greg, Erie.

Reply to
Hoss

Greg,

Keep us posted w/pics.

Did you strain your must w/a straining bag? It seems like you've got a lot of stuff suspended in your must?

gus

Reply to
gus

Greg, lol - Enjoyed the pics and the info. I'm days away of starting my own batch of pumpkin from stuff I shredded a month ago. Could you tell me how much sugar you used per gallon? and what your starting SG was? I want to avoid rocket fuel, and Jack thinks the shredded pumpkin will require less sugar, because the pumpkin is more exposed (& the sugar in the pumpkin will seep out better)when it is shredded. Thanks. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.