Topic: Pumpkin Wine

[Jokerman]

Anyone know how to make a simple pumpkin wine?

I've just started wine making and fancy turning the carved remains of my Dils atlantic into something nice :)

I've amde Ribena wine, but that's about my limit so far.

I have seen recipes for pumpkin but they all say to rack it about 4 times over the course of the process. I was just wondering if you keep doing this, won't you just get less and less wine as you always leave a large drop int the bottom. Or do you just top up the next demijohn with water after it's racked?

Sorry for being thick....  :)

[pumkinlover]

I've never made pumpin wine so can't be specific on that.
As you rightly point out every time you rack off you loose some wine- so it is a sensible question! you are not thick!!
When the wine is fermenting well you can sterilise an ordinary wine bottle and put in some of the wine, then treat this as the rest of the "must"  (wine in the making -to you and me). Rack it off when finished and use to top up  the demijohn.
Or you can as you say use water- this will obviously lower the strength and taste of the wine, or I sometimes use some similar type of wine (when you have some to use) or commercial white wine.
Anne

[Jokerman]

ok..... this is the one I'm attempting... also added a bit of cinnamin as well.... don't know why... just seemed the right thing to do  :)

PUMPKIN WINE




Pumpkin Wine
5 lbs grated pumpkin flesh
3-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 oz citric acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp yeast energizer
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
6-1/2 pts water
wine yeast (see above)
Grate the pumpkin flesh mechanically (recommended) or by hand and set aside. Do NOT place chunks in a blender and attempt to chop them. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat. Place grated pumpkin flesh in primary and pour boiling water over pumpkin. Allow to cool to room temperature and add finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Cover primary and allow to sit 8-10 hours. Add pectic enzyme and allow to sit overnight. Next morning add citric acid, yeast nutrient, energizer and activated yeast. Cover primary and stir twice daily for three days, submerging "cap" as necessary to keep moist. Pour through a nylon straining bag and let pumpkin drip drain. Transfer to secondary and fit airlock. If you did not recover a full gallon of liquid, wait 5 days and top up as necessary. Rack after two weeks and again after additional 30 days, topping up and refitting airlock each time. Set aside for 3 months and then rack, stabilize, sweeten if desired (unlikely you will need to but...), wait 3 weeks for dead yeast to fall out, and rack into bottles. Set aside to drink next year at Halloween or Christmas.

[pumkinlover]

How is the wine going??

[Jokerman]

It's not... just wouldn't start to ferment. left it for 4 weeks, then poured it down the toilet.  Got a plum and carrot wine bubbling away though.... :)

[pumkinlover]

Shame it must have been a lot of work to prepare 5lb of grated pumpkin flesh :(

[steve76]

done some carrot wine 12-18 months ago........ its rocket fuel...... taste a little like whisky but you know you've drunk it...
Got one bottle left that will be had new years eve along with slow gin and slow vodka ;)

[Jokerman]

Worse than that..... did 2 lots... 10lb of grating wasn't fun. I didn't allow oxygen to get at the must so think the campden tablet kept killing off the yeast....

mistake learned though   :)

Got a rice and raisin going today..... just got made redundant so plenty of time on my hands at the moment  :)

[pumkinlover]

I stopped using sulphite before  fermentation a few years ago and never had any problems, no stuck ferments and up to now nothing gone off.

[Jokerman]

Do you always add before you bottle it though?   ???

[pumkinlover]

I add it after fermentation when I do the first rack off. Then on second rack off, but not usually if I have to rack off a third time. I rarely bottle now- I just rack off when ready to drink and then work our way through the demijohn!! That sounds like we drink it really quick but it seems ok for two or three weeks.  :-[