Pumpkin Pie Wine

[saintprovogirl]

First I am very new to the wine making hobby so I want to thank all that respond.

I am now in the process of making Pumpkin wine and have seen several recipes. I decided to combine 3 of them and came up with this...

Pumpkin Pie Wine

Ingredients:

3 gallons distilled water (Correction...do not use distilled water...tap or spring only)
20 lbs pumpkin skinned and chopped (sugar pie pumpkins)
4 lbs white raisins
10.5 lbs sugar (Starting SG 1.09)
7 sticks crushed cinnamon stick
2 tbsp cloves
4 inches sliced ginger root
1 can frozen Welch’s White Grape Juice
4 tsp yeast nutrient
2 tbsp acid blend
4 tsp pectin enzyme
1 packet of Lalvin K1-V1116 (Montpellier) yeast

Instructions:

1. Wash and sanitize all utensils.
2. Boil 3 gallons of water.
3. Add pumpkin, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, ginger root, and Welch’s grape
4. juice to primary fermenter (add ingredients to nylon bag).
5. Add 9 lbs of sugar to primary fermenter.
6. Pour boiling water over contents of primary fermenter. Stir well and let cool to room temperature.
7. Add additional water if needed to reach 5.5 gallon mark on primary fermenter.
8. Add additional 1-1.5 lbs of sugar or more to raise SG to 1.09
9. Add yeast nutrient, acid blend, and pectic enzyme to mixture.
10. Cover and let sit overnight or 24 hours.
11. Add yeast to 2/3 cup warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Add yeast to primary fermenter.
12. Stir and measure daily until SG is 1.02 or less.
13. When desired SG is reached, strain and rack to secondary.
14. Stir daily and rack every 4 weeks to allow mixture to end fermentation

Note: Pumpkin is best frozen first then thawed out; allows for more juice. Add cubed pumpkin to food processor and process until it’s shredded but not pureed.

Please let me know what you think of this recipe and if you think it will work out. I'm not educated in the acidity levels as of yet so I decided best not to mess with it or include it in this recipe...yet. Oh and BTW...I used carving pumpkins (I know, I know...) instead of sugar pie pumpkins.

Sarah

 

[djrockinsteve]

Sarah you should not use distille water when making wine/beer. Your yeasts need ingredients that are in water. If you have bad water you may use spring water.

Also make sure you are using sweet pumpkins, not the jack o lantern ones. There are other threads currently on here you may want to search and read.

 

[saintprovogirl]

Sarah you should not use distille water when making wine/beer. Your yeasts need ingredients that are in water. If you have bad water you may use spring water.

Also make sure you are using sweet pumpkins, not the jack o lantern ones. There are other threads currently on here you may want to search and read.

Yeah I had read the threads about the pumpkins, but could not find any sugar pie pumpkins local and just happened to have 3 lovely carving pumpkins on my porch that I couldn't let go to waste. Next year I'll try a little harder.

I did not know that about the distilled vs. spring water so I'll make sure I put that in the recipe and do that with all future batches. Oh, while we are on the subject of water, can you use regular tap water or is the chlorine just too much?

~Sarah~

 

[djrockinsteve]

Regular tap water is okay as long as it's sanitary. After you add your ingredients you will add sulfite so that will kill anything that's hanging around in there. By waiting 24 hours the chlorine will dissapate.

 

[Julie]

Yeah I had read the threads about the pumpkins, but could not find any sugar pie pumpkins local and just happened to have 3 lovely carving pumpkins on my porch that I couldn't let go to waste. Next year I'll try a little harder.

I did not know that about the distilled vs. spring water so I'll make sure I put that in the recipe and do that with all future batches. Oh, while we are on the subject of water, can you use regular tap water or is the chlorine just too much?

~Sarah~

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. The pumpkins that you used are not going to give you any pumpkin flavor in your wine, sorry to tell you this. If you can drink your water, you can make wine with your water. If you are uncomfortable about that use spring water.

 

[saintprovogirl]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. The pumpkins that you used are not going to give you any pumpkin flavor in your wine, sorry to tell you this. If you can drink your water, you can make wine with your water. If you are uncomfortable about that use spring water.

It smelled super pumpkin-e today, but I'm sure you are very right. I will start using just regular old tap water cause why waste money on something I can get from my kitchen sink.

 

[saintprovogirl]

Regular tap water is okay as long as it's sanitary. After you add your ingredients you will add sulfite so that will kill anything that's hanging around in there. By waiting 24 hours the chlorine will dissapate.

Sorry if some of my posts are redundant. I hadn't see that you had responded on this thread. I appreciate you getting back to me and educating me.

 

[teraann]

Sarah - How did this turn out?

Tera