Any opinion on this pumpkin cider recipe?

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Grendal

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Last night I talked about my pumpkin beer in chat with a few of the fellas...and one man said it was a good waste of pumpkin better off to make pumpkin butter....soon after he left...inspiration hit me. Pumpkin butter cider. I've not made any but the idea hit me and I tried to formulate a recipe. An expert I am not.

When I make my pumpkin butter I usually end up with left overs.

3.5 cups of pumpkin butter = 16.1 ounces (roughly) = 1 pound 1 ounce

3.5 cups is 28 fluid ounces.

1 gallon is 128 fluid ounces.

that means 4.5 times 3.5 = 15.75 cups...(it be much easier if you just use 4 quarts of pumpkin butter lol)

In theory we need to make a gallon of thinned out pumpkin butter.

To do this we need to make pumpkin juice.....

We'd need pie pumpkins.

Scoop out the inards into a pie dish or baking dish. Then bake it. We will eat the seeds as a snack, while we just slice up the pumpkin, peeling and roast it as well. We will press this to extract the juice.

no idea how much juice we can get from a pumpkin. We'd like a gallon of pumpkin juice.

So Once we got our 1 gallon of pumpkin butter, and 1 gallon of pumpkin juice, it's time to brew.


1 gallon pumpkin juice (Flavor)
1 gallon pumpkin butter (even more pumpkin flavor and more alcohol)
2 cup granulated sugar (for making alcohol)
1 teaspoon yeast energizer (to help a complete fermentation)
3 teaspoon acid blend (help balance the three main acids. By balancing the acidity, it makes it easier for the yeast to ferment properly.)
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme (to help break down any pectins, they cloud the cider)
1 campden tablet (to Kill off bacteria, add 24 hours BEFORE adding the yeast)
4 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice (obvious pumpkin pie flavor)
Wyeast 4007 Malo-Lactic Cultures (provides rapid and complete malic acid to lactic acid reduction to balance and soften wines, should work for cider too.)
Cider Activator Wyeast ACT4766 (Allows fruit character to dominate the profile.)
American Oak Infusion Spirals - Heavy Toast (pronounced caramelized, carbonized and toast flavors very quickly. Full flavor in 6 weeks.)

Place juice in primary fermentor and pumpkin butter in a very fine cloth. Add balance of ingredients excluding pumpkin pie spice. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir daily for 5 to 6 days or until frothing ceases. Strain out pumpkin and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Siphon into secondary fermentor, add pumpkin pie spice, and attach airlock.

Rack in three weeks, and again every 2 months until the cider is clear. Month before clear, add oak spirals. I'd only add a 4 inch peice, you want a light oakiness to balance out the pumpkin flavors.

Remove oak spirals, Gently stir in 1/4 cup sugar per gallon. Bottle into beer bottles or clean pop bottles. Age three months.

I suppose it will be very pumpkinie, with a good pie spice with undertones of carmelized, carbonized, toastyness to help balance the pumpkin and the pie spice and add a bit of warmth to it.
 
A lot of people toast the pumpkin and throw that in the actual fermenter itself - not the juice. Just an idea.

No idea what butter would be like in a cider! I'd suggest adding the pie spice after fermentation to ensure a good flavour.
 
A lot of people toast the pumpkin and throw that in the actual fermenter itself - not the juice. Just an idea.

No idea what butter would be like in a cider! I'd suggest adding the pie spice after fermentation to ensure a good flavour.

It's not actual butter...sorry I forgot...um it's more of a jelly/jam/spread, it's called butter cause of it's smooth butter like consistancy.

Yeah I thought about after fermentation, guess in my eagerness I'd like to just get the pumpkin in there lol.
 
Aah right. I think they reduce things like that like they do with jam and sweet chilli sauce, could be a lot of pumpkin flavour in there with a gallon...have you checked how to use it against any other recipes? Try tasting pumpkin against pumpkin butter and try to make some assumptions about the flavour strength too. Remember you can always start secondary fermentation if you want more pumpkin flavour, but you can't do it the other way around. I've never used pumpkin before, this is just what i'd do. hahah.
 
Aah right. I think they reduce things like that like they do with jam and sweet chilli sauce, could be a lot of pumpkin flavour in there with a gallon...have you checked how to use it against any other recipes? Try tasting pumpkin against pumpkin butter and try to make some assumptions about the flavour strength too. Remember you can always start secondary fermentation if you want more pumpkin flavour, but you can't do it the other way around. I've never used pumpkin before, this is just what i'd do. hahah.

I cannot find a single recipe using it in a drink...not a one. For a single pint, 1 pound pie pumpkin, peeled and cubed, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon cloves. You'd need 8 pints for a gallon....so 8 pounds pie pumpkins, peeled and cubed, 4 cups water, 4-8 cups sugar (I was thinking brown sugar), 8 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ginger, 2 teaspoons nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon of ground cloves.

To me flavour wise, it's like spreading pumpkin pie on toast. Least that's the store bought...the stuff I make at home is a bit more washed out. You get more taste from the spices with a pumpkiny after taste with mine.


oh man.... try metric, just try it i promise you'll like it

I can't work with metric...too many numbers, and it's a pain to convert in my head.
 
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