Re: pumpkin-shredded

I have recently started a pumpkin wine also. I did not shred the pumpkin though. I actually put the pumpkin chunks in the blender with the water I was using for the wine and liquefied it. I started to shred it but when I realized how hard pumpkin really was I decided to liquefy. I added 3 gallons of water but ended up with 4 gallons of wine after straining. The pumpkin was one left over from Halloween that we didn't carve. My fiancé was going to through it out and I said "Are you crazy, I can ferment that!!!". She thinks I have gone mad.

The only con I see so far to liquefaction is the racking. I racked it from the primary removing about 2 inches of pulp, then again from the secondary there was about 3 inches of pulp which I strained. And will most likely need to do it again. I was able to get 3 1/2 gallons with out needing to strain but strained another 1/2 gallon to make a gallon. This is cool because I now have a 3 gallon unstrained and a 1 gallon strained. It will be interesting to see if the flavor is any different because one is all liquid strained out of the pulp at the bottom. It is actually a lighter color too.

Good luck on yours. Too bad they take a year to mellow out, or so they say.

Have you had a chance to taste your other batches? If so how did they turn out?

David

We had got into a discussion a few months back about what differences there could be in fermenting on shredded pumpkin versus chunks. The theories were that the shredded would provide more contact with the water and thus you'd be able to pull out more of the sugar and pumpkin flavor (maybe use less sugar). The other idea were tossing around is that the type of pumpkin you use can or cannot make a difference in your wine. I'm a gardener, so I chose a sugar pie pumpkin thinking I will get a sweeter, more pumpkiny flesh which would be better for cooking and therefore better for wine. There always seems to be a glass leftover after I bottle a batch. I have tasted both at that time but not since. They were promising at 7 months. I will open my first this January - it will be 2 years old then, and will let you know. Darlene

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Wow, two years? You are very patient. I am considering bottling a gallon or less in beer bottles. This way I can sample the wine over time with out wasting an entire bottle. I could even look for those little 6 oz bottles.

David

I bought 16 nice pie pumpkins this year for 8 bucks. I figured, some sugar, yeast, chemicals on hand, couple years, no problem.

The first batch I made used 15 lbs of shredded pumpkin, no freezing, and sugar to bring the batch to 1.090 and lv-1116. If it was to go higher from the fruit, then we'll see. I suspect it will, it is already dry, just off second racking and settling. This batch was way messy with lots of pulpy jelly stuff rising and I had to punch down this cap frequently to prevent what I feared would be a big mess. I suppose I stirred too frequently, and it didn't ferment away too fast. took about 9 days to get to 1.000 if I recall. I used a kitchen strainer to get the big pulp out when racking, then ran everything through a fine straining bag to get as much liquid as possible. Eventually this was way too slow for me, so I squeezed the bag, and that was part of my pulp problem. To refresh the memory, here are a couple of pics of that batch. The darn jelly/pulp pic doesn't come up anymore.

The next 16 lbs of pumpkin, I shredded, placed in gallon freezer bags, and will be a dead of winter project, along with my elderberry and freshly frozen blueberry batches.

The most recent batch, I adapted quite a bit from other recipes, and notes are fresh, so here it is.

The pumpkin was 1 inch cubes or so initially, but were raisins or smaller after dry. The initial SG was 1.070, it was 1.085 when I added yeast a day later, and was nearly 1.090 1 day after that. This fermented vigorously within a day, stirred the mixx about 3-4 times a day and it smelled like a pumpkin pie spice candle bread, if that makes sense. It fermented below 1.000 within 5 days, and I strained off the fruit and racked. It is now just in first secondary stage, and is just barely bubbling. There was only 2 1/5 gal yield to this, of which I suspect I will get 1 3/4 gallon once it is off the jelly/pulp that settled out. So far, I really like this recipe. the must didn't jelly up like the un-dried shredded batch did, and there was less pulp. Lesson learned though will be to use about 1-1/2 gal more water to get a full 3 gallon liquid out of the batch (dehydrated, didn't compensate for that) , and will adjust the sugar level after I get a vinometer reading at a later racking. The amount of mess is much better, stirring easier, etc. I only used a kitchen strainer (dedicated to winemaking) to strain the fruit out of this batch. Next time I will plan better and may see if I can make some kind of pumpkin bread with the leftover fruit.

The color of both batches is much paler than you'd expect, but then so is pumpkin with the skins removed.

I have pictures of this batch with progress that will make an interesting post later in time.

Big lesson learned is that this type of wine does carry lots of sediment/pulp, and more water is needed even if you strain the must into secondary.

Greg, Erie.

Follow-up; It would seem that at least in the case of my pumpkins, whether the pumpkins are shredded or in chunks, I still needed to add the same amount of sugar. My SG was on the low side, so I ended up adding another 2/3 cups sugar which brought my total to 5 cups of sugar on this batch (just what I've added in my previous batches) to get to the appropriate starting SG. Darlene

When I did mine a couple weeks ago, I didn't even record an initial SG reading because I figured it wouldn't be correct. I had so much pulp that I thought the pulp would suspend the hydrometer causing an incorrect reading.

Would it read correctly?

Mine was a 3 gallon batch and I added 10lbs of sugar. It fermented dry in about 4-5 days. I used a recipe on Jack's site but multiplied everything by

a.. 5 lbs grated pumpkin flesh a.. 3-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar a.. 1/2 oz citric acid a.. 1 tsp yeast nutrient a.. 6-1/2 pts water a.. Montpellier or Eau de Vie wine yeast

David

David, I usually put my fruit in a nylon bag (which has holes, but still keeps a majority of the fruit/pulp in it. I had the same concerns you do, but I tested this one batch 3 or 4 times in a row. I took a test, then stirred and tested again, then stirred some more and tested again. While I made sure to keep as much of the pulp out of the test, the liquid pretty much tested the same all the time (within a small range). I would rather have a general idea of what my starting SG is, then none at all. I believe you need to have above 10% alcohol by volume in order for the wine to preserve well. Jack's recipes are terrific, and I refer people to his site all the time. As I have progressed in my own wine-making skills, I am becoming a bit cautious when it comes to the sugar in any recipe. I (have been a gardener for years) have come to appreciate that fruit or veggies which are grown in different years, or in different parts of the country are not equal to each other, nor are all pumpkins alike (sugar pie versus carving pumpkins). I have observed even with my own strawberries which I have picked from the same place every year, and freeze the same every year; that the sugar content can be very different and therefore this will affect the sugar I use in my winemaking. But it is hard to know how much sugar is in the strawberries already....? I was very surprised this time around when I made my strawberry wine, that the potential alcohol was 15% - since I used the same recipe, prepared it the same way, and yet I ended up with rocket fuel. My conclusion was that the strawberries I picked this year were very sweet compared to previous years, so that even though I used the same amount of sugar, my starting SG was very high. Sometimes posters get perturbed when they follow a recipe and it may not come out like they think it should. My whole point is that a recipe is just that, a recipe, and it may be affected by the fruit/veggie you use. I'm sure your wine will come out just fine. Just remember to take lots of notes, so that when you make it the next time (after you have done numerous tasting trials) you'll be able to make it the way YOU like it. Darlene ;o)

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