Re: cucumber wine

In article , Dar V writes

I made a wine a long time ago from neat cucumber juice and IIRC it turned out to be very good. I don't recall how I extracted the juice, but peeling then freezing first, de-freezing, then adding sugar worked very well for me recently with zucchini. Cucumber would need a flavour boost with something like lemon, but if you are not keen on that, possibly lime, mint or even juniper?

Thanks Alan. Glad to hear somebody has made it before. Can you describe the taste? just a basic white wine...? I agree on the need to boost the flavor, and freezing the fruit/veggie before making the wine. I was leaning towards either bananas or raisons to add body, but I appreciate the other ideas. Darlene

In article , Dar V writes

It was a long time ago, but IIRC the cucumber flavour held up well. At the time, I was trying to produce a 'gin' clear wine, so I used only sugar with no grape juice or other boosters, but in the end it looked more like a pale sherry than gin. Somehow, I can't quite equate banana flavour with cucumber and I would use sultanas rather than raisins, but there's not a lot to choose between those. Is candied peel an option?

I strained my 2 gallon batch of zucchini off the mash today, spreading the liquid equally between 3 x 1 gallon secondary fermentation vessels, because I know it has a lot of lees in it and because it is still fermenting vigorously. Just at the moment, it would look more at home in a soup kitchen than in our kitchen, but hope springs eternal.

Darlene,

I am thinking you might want to try spicing it with just a hint of clove and maybe some corriander and cinnamon. Just a tiny tiny tiny bit.

Thanks. You've given me a lot to think about while the shredded cukes are in the freezer. Darlene

In article , Dar V writes

Dar, your cukes will do very well for having been frozen, I'm certain of that, but I am having second thoughts about its advisability with looser fleshed zucchini. The batch I did released their juices very well after freezing and being treated with sugar and enzyme, then the solids rose to the top in the usual way and I gave them a good stir twice a day for three days. After I stirred them yesterday, the 4th. day, I could see that there had been a change in the mash. It was still fermenting vigorously, but the solids and liquids vessels were not separating. I could see that because my initial fermentation vessel is translucent. I decided to strain it off immediately, but the liquid in the secondary vessels now looks almost as though it has been cooked into a soup.

It is early days and I hope that batch of wine may come round in time, but what I am going to do is try again without freezing, peeling or enzyme this time. I will wash, top, tail and roughly chop the fruits, then put them into a vessel with sugar and see what juice is extracted. If it looks viable, I will sulphite it, then proceed in the usual way, maybe using grape concentrate, maybe not. Fortunately we have a massive surplus of zucchinis, so I am able to experiment.

Alan, I think it depends on your fruit. I've been shredding zucchini and freezing for years to make bread and muffins. It has only been recently that I have tried making wine. You're in the UK, and your fruit may come out a bit different than mine here in Wisconsin. Zucchini has always been pretty dry when I freeze it, but if I wait a few months longer and thaw, I get a very soupy wet consistency. It seems to get more soupy the longer you freeze. Anyway, I would hang in there and keep going. I was surprised by how much wetter the shredded cucumbers turned out before I froze those. Pumpkin (which I shred & freeze also) on the other hand comes out very, very dry and there's not much water when I thaw that, but the wine is very, very good. Let me know how your other ideas work. Darlene

Now I have to ask you for another recipe here, Darlene. :) Will be trying your zucchini recipe sometime here in September, but October will be doing Pumpkin wine. So if I ask nicely could we get your recipe in here? Will do yours and Jack's again(as I'm doing for the zucchini), then sometime next year compare them, choose which one I like best(or decide that neither is quite what I want and experiment some more with modifying closest one to get what I want, which of course is the second most fun part of this hobby. The first of course is just enjoying the final product :) )

Thanks in advance Joel

In article , Dar V writes

The 'zucchinis' I am using are what we call courgettes, and later if they are left on the plant they become marrows. The present batch was only in the freezer overnight. Today, I have prepared 20lb. of the same fruit, I have not peeled or frozen it this time, just cut it into slices and chunks. I put it in a vessel with some sugar and a little enzyme. It is already decanting out juice, and I am anticipating about 8-12 pints of fluid will have appeared by tomorrow morning. If so, I have a choice of gherkins, melons, nectarines, lemons etc. to add if I wish.

For wine-making purposes, short time freezing would probably help to soften pears and apples. We freeze a lot of those for winter storage, but this year there's such a bumper crop, I shall be looking at some ideas for using the surplus.

Hello, Not a problem. Here it is.

5 lbs pumpkin (shredded, frozen, and thawed) 1 can 100% Welch's white grape juice 4 tsp acid blend 1 tsp yeast nutrient 1/4 tsp tannin 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme 5 - 6 cups sugar 1 gallon + 1/2 qt water 1 package wine yeast

I do want to caution you on the amount of the sugar to add - it depends on the pumpkins, whether you get sugar pie pumpkins or regular pumpkins. In order to hit th 11-12% range for you % alcohol by volume. I have added 4 cups in the beginning, but the SG wasn't high enough, so I added another cup. It still wasn't high enough so I added another 1/2 cup. I would rather add more than too much in the beginning. I do stabilize & sweeten this before I bottle, but try it beforehand and add what you think you would like. Good-luck. Darlene