Pumpkin Pie Mead (fermented in a pumpkin)

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jtd_419 said:
Had to try this. Jacko'lantern pumpkin right out of the garden, must prepared as per original post. Only problem I had was too much honey and the pumpkin barely held a gallon resulting in a ridiculously high gravity of 1.170......I hope this doesn't ferment too dry
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You are kidding about fermenting to dry right? What yeast did you use?
 
Yeah I kinda was .... I used a sweet mead yeast and am more worried that it will still be like syrup when it finishes. ... smells wonderful though
 
jtd_419 said:
Yeah I kinda was .... I used a sweet mead yeast and am more worried that it will still be like syrup when it finishes. ... smells wonderful though
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What's the alcohol tolerance? If it's to sweet you could pitch another strain if it stalls.
 
It was d47. Was thinking maybe 1118 if I does stall but I would like it to finish sweet just not overly so
 
jtd_419 said:
It was d47. Was thinking maybe 1118 if I does stall but I would like it to finish sweet just not overly so
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Well, considering the tendency of yeast strains to stall out prior to there actual alcohol tolerance, if you had a potential alcohol of 14% you should finish at about 12%. That should give you pleasantly sweet mead without being overly sweet.

There are to many factors involved to be able to tell for sure, but you should be about right. If you finish dry, you can always back sweeten. Then pasteurize. That's my preferred method most of the time anyway.
 
Thanks..... I appreciate the information since the only meads I've made as of yet are variations of jaom with different fruits but I really like the commercial meads that I've tried and have been trying to experiment with some of the recipes here
 
jtd_419 said:
Thanks..... I appreciate the information since the only meads I've made as of yet are variations of jaom with different fruits but I really like the commercial meads that I've tried and have been trying to experiment with some of the recipes here
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Honestly, I never use mead yeast. I use whatever yeast is likely to ferment dry. Then I back sweeten the batch, and bottle pasteurize. It's much more predictable then trying to figure out if this batch is going to stall with the sugar content you want. ... Yeah. I'm seeing double from the moonshine I drank, so feel free to ignore me...:tank:
 
jtd_419 said:
Thats something else I gotta try one of these days
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Well, it's was blackberry midnight moon. It's a commercial "moonshine". Though it is in something like a mason jar. Honestly, I was fairly impressed. It's a white whiskey, but it's got that smoothness you associate with real moonshine. Not the best maybe, but very good.
 
I keep seeing the jars popping up at stores but I haven't tried it yet..... something about labeling it moonshine and selling it at Walmart just seems wrong to me
 
jtd_419 said:
I keep seeing the jars popping up at stores but I haven't tried it yet..... something about labeling it moonshine and selling it at Walmart just seems wrong to me
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I thought it was funny. One of the slightly ridiculous things you do just out of curiosity, like trying sassafras extract or canned quail eggs.
 
Pumpkins are ready where I am. yesterday I drove by a patch and thought what can I use these for. Can't lie, I got a bit excited when I saw this. Fermenting in a pumpkin. :D
 
Just a little update on the lemon juice idea ..... it works too well, I tried it and the pumpkin started getting soft before there were any signs of decay. I could have lost the whole thing if I had waited a few more days before I checked it and noticed that the lid had shrunk
 
I had to move my mead from the pumpkin to regular fermenting bucket today. The bottom of it was all soft, and some liquid was on the counter under it. I'm going to give it a couple weeks, then check on it. I hope it isn't infected with anything, though I think that's likely at this point.
 
Last year's attempt didn't work out well. Something nasty, green, and disagreeable grew in it at some point (ew). This year I'm going to do a few things differently: using a whole nutmeg, cinnamon chips, and whole allspice. That way, when I rack it, I won't have so much free floating spice material (I think that was the core of my icky growth...looked like it). And I will coarse-filter it, at minimum, if needed after adding clearing agents. Here's hoping its ready to try at Christmas :)
 
I plan on starting this next week or the week after just in time for Halloween. I just haven't decided on the exact recipe yet. I plan on doing 2 pumpkins and use the as decorations for Halloween. I also think I'll boil all the ingredients cool then transfer to the pumpkin. Possibly add more clove to the secondary
 
I started mine yesterday. 5lbs of orange blossom in just under 2 gallons. I've been waiting for almost a year to try this.:D
 
I see.. I brewed this bad boy up yesterday. All I had was ale yeast and bread yeast..so I went with the bread yeast.. first attempt at a mead. I dont mind the bready taste so ill see how it does with age... how long did you bulk age?
 
tripplehazzard said:
I see.. I brewed this bad boy up yesterday. All I had was ale yeast and bread yeast..so I went with the bread yeast.. first attempt at a mead. I dont mind the bready taste so ill see how it does with age... how long did you bulk age?
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I had my caramel apple mead bulk age for 9 months prior to bottling.
It was bottled and I still haven't touched much of it. It gets better with more age on it. What style mead are you making? Are you planning on aging it in glass carboys or the pumpkin?
 
BeerMeDuffMan said:
I had my caramel apple mead bulk age for 9 months prior to bottling.
It was bottled and I still haven't touched much of it. It gets better with more age on it. What style mead are you making? Are you planning on aging it in glass carboys or the pumpkin?
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Defiantly aging in glass.. from what I understand the pumpkin only lasts about a week.. so im thinking it will be good for next harvest season if it lasts that long. I did a hybrid recipe.. ancient orange and this one. I scaled the spices back a bit but plan on ageing on more cinnamon sticks. We will see :) :mug:
 
tripplehazzard said:
Defiantly aging in glass.. from what I understand the pumpkin only lasts about a week.. so im thinking it will be good for next harvest season if it lasts that long. I did a hybrid recipe.. ancient orange and this one. I scaled the spices back a bit but plan on ageing on more cinnamon sticks. We will see :) :mug:
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I also added more honey. .. hopefully it ends up more dry than sweet.. not sure how much sugar that bread yeast will eat up but I may have to dilute when I finally bottle
 
tripplehazzard said:
I also added more honey. .. hopefully it ends up more dry than sweet.. not sure how much sugar that bread yeast will eat up but I may have to dilute when I finally bottle
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You can always add in rehydrated mead yeast down the line. I've always finished fermenting in as little as two weeks. If your FG doesn't finish as dry as you want, add some more yeast to that bad boy.
Have you had any mead previously to making it? Where are you located?
 
BeerMeDuffMan said:
You can always add in rehydrated mead yeast down the line. I've always finished fermenting in as little as two weeks. If your FG doesn't finish as dry as you want, add some more yeast to that bad boy.
Have you had any mead previously to making it? Where are you located?
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I have tried chausers . And love it. Never used mulling spice tho. I like the pure honey wine taste... im in kc mo. :)
 
tripplehazzard said:
I see.. I brewed this bad boy up yesterday. All I had was ale yeast and bread yeast..so I went with the bread yeast.. first attempt at a mead. I dont mind the bready taste so ill see how it does with age... how long did you bulk age?
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I generally don't age in bulk. Once it's hit FG I usually bottle mead. I consider 6 months an absolute minimum before I'll taste mead. A year is better. Every mead I've made has been pretty awful when it was young.

tripplehazzard said:
I also added more honey. .. hopefully it ends up more dry than sweet.. not sure how much sugar that bread yeast will eat up but I may have to dilute when I finally bottle
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Did you take a gravity reading? Bread yeast has about a 15% alcohol tolerance.
 
BeerMeDuffMan said:
Preach it brother. Young meads taste out right scary. The longer it sits the better it tastes.
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No joke. The first time I made mead I thought the batch was ruined. I bottled it anyway and stuffed it in the back of my closet. Found it nine months later, and it was completely different.
 
Ok, going to try this today guys, wish me luck. I'm going to try an experiment and keep it in the pumpkin for only 5 days as some of you say it looked questionable if left too long. Plus I'm going to use the Lalvin QA23 yeast, I'm interested how it will work with the pumpkin meat.
 
Did this back in mid September and I guess it's a good thing I reread the recipe today, I've been waiting almost five months for this to clear. Now that I loojed back to see if anyone else was having trouble clearing I see that it calls for turbokleer
 
Just checked mine that I started last fall. It's ready to bottle after a year in the carboy though it seems a bit thin. I'm topping it off with apple juice after filtering it; if it takes off fermenting again I'll probably kill the ferment and bottle. Very promising.
 
Now this is hopefully a 6 gallon pumpkin.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1413633868.321606.jpg

It weighs in at 26.2kg or just about 53lbs if my maths isn't wrong.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
I just racked off my pumpkin after over 2 weeks, pretty close to 18 days. I never had any mold develop on mine. I cleaned and sanitized it with starsan before cutting into it with a sanitized knife. It stayed in a small closet with no airflow as well, which I'm sure helped keep wandering bacteria off of it. The only reason I racked it was the pumpkin was getting very soft and sketch as hell, plus it seems I have gained liquid from the pumpkin as fermentation has moved along. I have 2.5 gals sitting in secondaries and put about 8 pounds of local honey in it (the pumpkin was from a local farm too!) Now it's time to wait.
 
Looking at making a batch of this for my first mead. Seems pretty straight forward.

Honey+water+Spice+yeast+pumpkin+time+much much more time = great pumpkin mead?

I've got the 1g glass to spare. Just gotta pick up some clearing agents. And wait for a big 'ol pumpkin to show up. I think it sounds fun.

Has this stuff ever been drinkable by Christmas? Or go ahead and plan to wait the year?

And has anyone up scaled the recipe? Maybe cubed the pumpkin, roasted it thrown that into a proper primary for a week?
 

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