My wife loves everything pumpkin spice so I thought I would make 5 gallons of wine for her. My mom has a pumpkin patch and I am up in the air on which recipe to use. Maybe both...
Pumpkin Mead or Pumpkin Wine?
Pumpkin Mead or Pumpkin Wine?
I bought 17lbs of honey a month ago because it was a good price at the farmers market. Was just looking for a good recipe to use it with.Do you have a good source for large quantity of honey? As a first go pumpkin wine would be the easier if you don't have access to ~ 15 lbs of honey
What recipe did you follow?One of my best fruit wines was a pumpkin - will and might do it this year
I went off Jack Keller's website and followed it - I believe I used bowling ball size carving pumpkins. I did freeze them first and removed all the seedsWhat recipe did you follow?
I made Keller's pumpkin once and after farting around with it for a year and a half tossed it out, it was awful.
I have since read that pumpkin wine is much better with 1/3 sweet potatoes and if you roast the flesh first.
I made Keller's pumpkin once and after farting around with it for a year and a half tossed it out, it was awful.
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Very true, gotta get the spices right, excellent point.I believe that I read somewhere that in the early days of these here colonies beer was often brewed from squashes (including pumpkins) . But that said, canned pumpkin is more likely to be other squashes, AND, it is very likely that it is not the pumpkin flavor that people find so attractive about pumpkin beer (and perhaps wine) as much as it is the blend of spices. If it IS the spices that make the dish and not the vegetable itself then focus more on those spices and find a vehicle for using them in a wine IF (I say IF) you don't find that pumpkin wine works for you.
Is that recipe you would share? My wife loves Zucchini.Last year I made a delicious wine from zucchini (made another batch this year too but not yet ready for bottling) I am not really into pumpkin spices (Grew up in Scotland and pumpkin was not anything we considered as autumnal fare) but while I loved the fruitiness that I got from the zucchini I imagine that it would make a great vehicle for supporting those spices. And zucchini wine had no unpleasant off flavors in the primary - and I simply cover my primary with a towel to keep out flies and cats.
Does It need aging????absolutely -
Three very large zucchini (total weight was about 8.75 lbs)
1 gallon of spring water
2.5 lbs of sugar
- Chop the vegetables into cubes and boil in the water with sugar for 20 minutes
Allow this to cool overnight
Transferred to food grade bucket. Increased volume of water to about 1.5 gallons (added a little more sugar to give me a gravity of about 1.090 (potential ABV = 12%
Add pectic enzyme (about 1 T)
Add 1/2 t tannin
I added peel and juice of 1 lemon
Rehydrated 71B and pitched after about 20 minutes
I cover the fermenter with a towel
Add 1/2 t of nutrient when the lag phase had ended.
Removed vegetables 4 days after boiling.
Racked into carboys when gravity was around 1. 005
The wine is now crystal clear but with a golden hue. Just tasted this as I wrote this out and it could do with some more acidity. I may add some acid blend or some more lemon... I am not sure. It's dry but has enough inherent sweetness to make this quite drinkable.
(started this August 16.).
I have a buddy who makes a very good pumpkin beer, I asked him what his secret was to making a good pumpkin beer and he said he gets 3-4 baking pumpkins cuts off the tops, turns them upside down on a aluminum foil baking sheet and bakes them at 350 for 15-20 minutes. He said the pumpkins gives off a pumpkin extract liquid when heated that he puts in the beer. I’ve never done this or seen it done but it sounds reasonable that this could be done for a mead or wine???