Pumpkin preperation

Im getting ready to make some pumpkin wine, was planning on using what we call spookie pumpkins, AKA, sugar or Pie pumpkins. My question is will cooking the pumpkin whole before removing the flesh for wine hurt any thing?

When I eat Golden Nugget squash, I take the entire thing with out cutting or anything, and throw it on the grill. The out side turns straight black but the inside is f'ing delicious. Cut in half scrap out seed and eat out the flesh using the skin as a bowl.

Can I Grill my sugar pumpkins, to make it easier to extract the meat, and put the meat straight in the must, or does it have to be uncooked? Will one or the other taste better in the end? Does it cook out the sugars or anything I should know about?

What I've done for pumpkin beers is to either cut the pumpkins in half and seed raw then roast, or roast them whole and do what your saying. I usually do them whole at 375 until a knife slides in and out with zero resistance (1.5-2 hours), then cool, and seed/scrape out the flesh.

well todays the day for this pumpkin wine. A friend suggested baking them whole to keep flavors in then scooping them. Basic question is does cooking the fruit used to make wine effect it's taste/outcome?

59f100292 said:

well todays the day for this pumpkin wine. A friend suggested baking them whole to keep flavors in then scooping them. Basic question is does cooking the fruit used to make wine effect it's taste/outcome?

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Be sure to add pectic enzyme if you do. Cooking fruit breaks down cell walls, releasing a haze into the juice that is difficult to get rid of. Pectic enzyme in primary should help cut down on the fogginess.

thanks for the advice - it got put off until tonight. Will it effect the flavor? also, for 5 gallons, any suggestions on how much cinimon/nutmeg or anything else to put in? few tsp's?

0.25 oz Ginger Root (Boil 12.0 min)
.5 tsp Cloves, Crushed (Boil 5.0 min)
.5 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min)
1 tsp Allspice (Boil 5.0 min)
1 tsp Cinnamon (Ground) (Boil 5.0 min)

I used that mix as posted in Yuri's Thunderstruck thread. My Thunderstruck was a HUGE hit!

59f100292 said:

thanks for the advice - it got put off until tonight. Will it effect the flavor?

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It won't effect the flavor if you put only the right amount in -- my bottle is five drops per gallon. More is not better with pectic enzyme. :)

I have a dry pectic enzyme - any one know how to convert from drops to tsps?

well i made some wine last night and ran into some dilema's. I am using an "ale pail," 6+ gallons or so i think. I was following a 5 gallon recipe, but the volume taken up by the 20 pounds of pumpkin meat only allowed for 4 gallons of water to be poured over the must with out over flowing the must. So now I have ~4.5 gallons of must or so (once the mesh bag of pumpkin is taken out) with the suger planned for 5 gallons (12 pounds). I don't think I can just pitch and top it off in the secondary because that much sugar in the low volume must has a really high SG. I think the alc will exceed the R-212's % level. what do I do now? If i just pitch the year will it only convert a certain amount of sugar then exceed and die off?

also, It was 1am by this point, and I did not want to wait for it to cool to add cambden tablets and pectic enzyme. So i went to bed, and of course was running late for work thismorning, and have not added it. I can not add the cambden at the same time as the yeast right, it would just kill the good yeast too - so now i need to go home tonight add cambden, and then pitch tomorrow correct? any one have any advice? or it is just a lost cause

Regarding your open head space issue, you could top off with a relatively neutral wine, like a dry white if topping off is needed. Make sure, though, that you squeeze off all the juice in your pumpkin bag before discarding it.

For your other concerns, stop fretting! Toss in the pectic enzyme and campden tabs, give it 24 hours or so, and pitch your yeast. Everything will be fine! (probably) :)

I threw the PE and 5 crushed tablets last night, it's still fermenting and overflowing through the airlock, but much slower. Ill pitch the correct least tonight and see what happens.

by last night - it had stopped fermenting from the tablets. So now I added the correct yearst. Im expecting to go home and find an overflowing pumkpin mess on my floor.

And now its fermenting from the new yeast. Maybe Im not screwed after all.

Have you racked your wine yet? Is it still cloudy? I am very excited to hear how it is going, I would very much like to try pumpkin wine the next time they are in season.

yea i racked it into a five gallon carboy, and topped it off with some extra juice I had saved in teh fridge. It kept fermenting and bubbling for a god awful long tim e which I suppose is a good sign, It's cleared up a good bit. All in all I'd say any issues from quantity in the primary have been diverted, I'll let every one know next october if it tastes any good. I still havent added any seasonings - do you think it is too late now?

My girlfriend and I started a pumpkin wine yesterday from the canned stuff, since it was cheap after the holidays (and she loves pie making and wanted to experiment with spicing a wine). Here's what she added (we made 6 gallons).

• 3 oz cinnamon
• 1 ½ oz ginger
• ¾ oz cloves
• 10 Lipton black tea bags

Of course, we added them in primary, but since the stuff has to age two years or so by most accounts, you're probably safe throwing them in now. ;)

59f100292 said:

yea i racked it into a five gallon carboy, and topped it off with some extra juice I had saved in teh fridge. It kept fermenting and bubbling for a god awful long tim e which I suppose is a good sign, It's cleared up a good bit. All in all I'd say any issues from quantity in the primary have been diverted, I'll let every one know next october if it tastes any good. I still havent added any seasonings - do you think it is too late now?

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OK, it's now after "next October" -- so???? How's it taste?