pumpkin wine

[sully55]

after having made two vinters harvest fruit based wines ( cherry, blueberry) i decided to use the halloween pumpkin to make 6 gal. of wine. realizing that pumpkin in itself is bland i decided to flavor it like pumpkin pie. so i added nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and half the sugar used was brown sugar. the must tasted just like pie when done. i overdid the sugar a little bit cause the starting sg was 1.100. i pitched a red star champagne yeast i had hanging around on 12/20. on 12/24 the sg was 1.010 and racked to carboy.on 12/28 the sg dropped to 990 so i stopped the fermentation with 6 camden tablets. it immediatly started to settle out and on 1/4 i reracked a very clear wine.
the problem is that it no longer tastes like pie. it's bitter and the spices taste off. i experimented with a glass of it and back sweetened it and added more cinnamon to reach something thats more palatable.
my quetions are: should i degass this as i've always done? should i use clearifiers on it and if i should flavor it when should i? are there other options for flavoring?

ingredients:
1 large pumpkin skinned and mashed
6 gal water
14 pd sugar (5 pd brown) 1 pd too many!
1.5 tsp peptic enzyme
1.5 tsp tannin
6 yeast nutr tabs
15 tsp acid blend

spices to taste

 

[Wade E]

Im not sure on what size or amount of lbs it would take to make a pumpkin wine as ive never done so so I dont think Ill be of much help on this one so take my advice here with a grain of salt. I know pumpkins can get very big but Ive heard that it really take a a lot of pumpkin to get enough flavor also. You might jut be tasting everything but the pumpkin like maybe a lot tannin coming through.

 

[vcasey]

Like most fruit/veg type wines you need about 5 pounds per gallon and with pumpkin you also need to factor in the tremendous amount of sediment so you need even more.
Pumpkin can also be very sweet depending on the type used. I used pie pumpkins and used 2 cups (no idea why I did not weigh the sugar) for 1 gallon of wine and for my 1 gallon of mead I used 3 lbs. of honey for a starting SG of 1089 for each. For the mead I know I remember I did use a different type of pumpkin.
The best thing for your wine right now is time. I made mine in early 2008 and we had a bottle in late 2009 and it was just starting to turn the corner. You can always let it bulk age on additional spices since some of the aroma can be lost in fermentation. Also use whole spices not powders and no need to hurry and clear this one until about a month before bottling. Time will help it clear on its own, I don't always degas my wines/meads (kits I do) but just let the wine do its magic.

If you do add more spices - go light check often. You can always add more or let it sit longer for more spice flavor. You may want to consider a bit of a vanilla bean, like in baked goods it can bring out more flavor.

 

[sully55]

actually my wife had suggested vanilla also. ithink i'm going to add a cinnamon stick and vanilla bean and let it sit awhile. i have to keep reminding myself to be more patient. any mistakes i've made always had to do with my eagerness to start my next batch.
any ideas on what the abv is this one?

 

[jnmar]

...any ideas on what the abv is this one?

If you started it at 1.100 sg and stopped fermentation at 0.990 sg, according to my charts it's at 16.4% ABV.

Ooops, an online calculator tells me it's 14.4 ABV sorry

 

[vcasey]

i have to keep reminding myself to be more patient. any mistakes i've made always had to do with my eagerness to start my next batch.

any ideas on what the abv is this one?

Easily solved - get more carboys!

Looks like 13% and will need time, back sweetening will help but patience is your friend.

 

[sully55]

more carboys it is! got to make another white. where can i find this abv calculator?

 

[jnmar]

Here's the one I just happened to use:

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php

or you can Google ABV calculator and come up with several ones or even the formula to do it manually.

 

[vcasey]

Jack Keller's site is packed full of info and calculators. Lots of recipe ideas as well. 1 thing to keep in mind is we tell everyone it's your wine make it how you like it. Jack uses less fruit and more sugar then a lot of us. Sit back with some wine or coffee (cause you'll be reading for a long while) and follow the linkhttp://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

 

[Wade E]

I too get around 14.4%. Be careful when using cinnamon as it can make it hot quick like a fireball. I encountered this awhile with 2 recipes, one was a apple pie liquor which tasted really good for a few weeks but I left the stick in too long and it ended up tasting like a fireball. The other was actually a mead recipe in which it called for the sticks again and cloves and both took over the batch and 2 years later I still didnt like it so its been sitting there around 5 years now. One of these days I need to try it again and see if it needs dumping!

 

[sully55]

i didn't think about the fireball scenario. thanks

 

[Kemo]

Sweeten first then add then clearing agents

 

[vcasey]

I too get around 14.4%. Be careful when using cinnamon as it can make it hot quick like a fireball. I encountered this awhile with 2 recipes, one was a apple pie liquor which tasted really good for a few weeks but I left the stick in too long and it ended up tasting like a fireball. The other was actually a mead recipe in which it called for the sticks again and cloves and both took over the batch and 2 years later I still didnt like it so its been sitting there around 5 years now. One of these days I need to try it again and see if it needs dumping!

One day I'll actually do the math instead of just using my chart for a quick guesstimate.

Adding spices is like adding oak. It can really finish off the wine nicely, but be careful a little can go a long way. Check often so you can pull the spices before the wine starts tasting like Wade's fireball.

Wade try mulling that wine, might be nice warmed with a few more spices or in my case a spice bag. Even adding some apple juice might be nice and help mellow it out a bit.

 

[Wade E]

Its the JOA that just has too much cloves mainly, it could be great right now as I havent tried it in probably 2 1/2 years now. Thats how disgusting it was to me then!

 

[sully55]

clove was one of the spices used along with nutmeg. i had a couple of people taste the wine and although not possitve we feel that the overpowering and bitter spice taste is probably clove.

 

[Wade E]

They are strong suckers and can over power a wine fast, I know!!!!

 

[sully55]

i added 4 cinimon sticks and 4cups of brown sugar to backsweeten bringing the sg up to 1.004. let it sit till today and great news it has mellowed out and has become quite palatable again. definitly more pumpkin pie like. i racked and cleared it hoping to bottle in a few days. i'd love to send a pic of the label but don't see where to add attachments. thanks for the imput it seems to have really turned this swill around. hopefully aging will improve it more. hey if we could only make wine out of snow here in ct. we would have it made!