Pumpkin Wine Recipe
- 8 Cups Pumpkin
- 1 lb Raisins
- (1) 4 inch Cinnamon Stick
- 1 inch Fresh Ginger Root
- (1) Whole Nutmeg
- 1 Gal Water, Boiling
- 5 Cups Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Yeast Nutrient
- 3 teaspoon Acid Blend (Pumpkins are low acid, so you need to add extra acid to make a more potable wine. See below.)
- 1 Campden Tablet
- 1 Package Wine Yeast (Fruit/Sweet Wine Yeast, like Red Star "Champagne", works great)
Wash, trim, peel and chop (or grind) the pumpkin. Place in primary fermentor. Add raisins, spices and boiling water. Let sit overnight.
Add all other ingredients except yeast.
Stir well to dissolve sugar. Specific gravity should be between 1.090 and 1.095. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and stir. Stir daily for three to five days, until specific gravity is 1.040. The mix will get nice and bubbly, and should have a pleasant, mildly yeasty smell.
At the end of this first ferment, the pumpkin will have turned to mush and the grapes will be plump. Strain the must and squeeze out as much juice as you can.
Siphon into secondary fermentor, make up to volume with water and attach airlock. You can see at this point the wine is very cloudy – not terribly appealing.
For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.
For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.
Meanwhile, the wine is sitting, covered, in a corner of the kitchen, and the particulates have settled very nicely – no more cloudy wine.
The wine is best if you can refrain from drinking it for one full year from the date it was started, so it looks like this will be ready for next Christmas.
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