Pumpkin Wine!!!

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Mr_S_Jerusalem

Landlord.
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
799
Reaction score
375
So after buying 3 pumpkins for Halloween and totally failing to carve them out of sheer laziness, combined with being randomly given 3 other squash which we promptly roasted I had a moment of madness...

I mean it seemed a shame to waste the 3 pumpkins right? So obviously I googled a recipe and had to get rid of them lol

So today I have started 2 gallons of Pumpkin Wine, does anyone else have any experience making this?
 
does anyone else have any experience making this?

Yes :thumba: - https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/pumpkin-wine.73989/


Jack kellers recipe from the thread above -


Pumpkin Wine
5 lbs grated pumpkin flesh
3-1/2 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 Thanksgiving or Christmas. [Adapted from Leo Zanelli's Home Winemaking from A to Z with major modifications by Jack Keller]
 
Oh yes I see lol

Curious that your recipe does not feature any raisins

Mine is very similar but it was essentially 3 medium sized pumpkins peeled and grated, I don't know how much the flesh weighed in the end as I lost track lol
1 kilo chopped raisins
2 kg sugar
juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
large cup of strong tea
yeast and the usual suspects

3 litres boiling water to dissolve sugar, chuck all ingredients in except yeast. top up to 2 gallons of liquid with cold water. add 2 campden tablets.
pitch yeast in 24 hours.
leave a week.
strain into demijohns
etc
 
Last edited:
So in a further development it seems every time I take the lid off this to stir it there is a strong smell of sort of a boozey sulphur flavour that elegantly drifts around the room lol.
I’m hoping this will change after I strain off the solid stuff later today.
 
It transpires that having taken an SG reading for fun it is currently sitting at 1.000, however my vinometer says it is only 6 percent. Also I have approx 2 litres of
Liquid left.
Have I done something wrong?
 
I add pumpkin puree to my Apple wine, it don't taste like pumpkin but it does improve the flavor and it seems to make it much clearer for some reason. I don't use anything to try to clear it up.
 
Lol that sounds mental.

I’m drinking some pumpkin wine right now.

I’m not gonna lie, it’s a tad young lol. Also it has this mildly unpleasant smell, and the initial taste basically makes you raise your eyebrows and be like wtf?! Also it has too much alcohol in it lol. Btw I’m like 2.5 glasses in here lol.

That said, it ain’t undrinkable. Just, lol.

Also I got 11 bottles of it so I’m like man up, it’s booze and it doesn’t have any ****** side effects, jah feel?
 
What is yeast energizer? Is it VitaminB1 or something else?


Yeast Energizer vs Yeast Nutrient​

It is important to remember that Yeast Energizer and Yeast Nutrient are not the same thing.
Although Yeast Energizers are types of nutrient blends, they also contain components such as vitamin B, diammonium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, magnesium sulphate, and yeast hulls. Yeast energizers are particularly useful to restart a Stuck Fermentation, as it allows yeast populations to increase in a batch of beer or wine which likely has been depleted of these components due to an earlier yeast population growth. The additional components included in Yeast Energizers are most effective when added 24 hours or more after pitching yeast.
Yeast Nutrient provides nitrogen and ammonium phosphate to the Beer Yeast or Wine Yeast. The nitrogen is used for amino acid generation, while phosphate contributes towards various energetic requirements for the yeast. You'll find urea is sometimes included as a source of nitrogen but not phosphorous. Yeast Nutrients are usually added the yeast prior to pitching.

When to use a yeast energizer or yeast nutrient:​

  1. Unless you are using a lot of sugar (Note: many prepared inexpensive Malt Extract kits and Grape Concentrates do use lots of sugar) you will have no need of either a yeast nutrient or a yeast energizer under typical circumstances in normal alcohol Beer Recipe and Wine Kit production.
  2. Using Montrachet yeast in White Wine Kits will require some form of extra nitrogen to avoid hydrogen sulfide formation, even under normal circumstances. It is unusual in this requirement. In the absence of sufficient oxygen-based amino acids this yeast goes after the sulfur based amino acids and generates hydrogen sulfide as a side product. To prevent this an additional source of nitrogen is suggested.
    https://www.midwestsupplies.com/blo...ce-between-yeast-energizer-and-yeast-nutrient
 
Thank you for your help. I had found similar information, however, I could not make head or tail of it. But, your explanation was much more understandable or i***t proof.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top