Pumpkin Wine

Equipment you will need to make Pumpkin Wine

• Brewing bin or plastic bucket
  Purpose-made brewing bins have tight-fitting lids, but you can make wine just as well with a plastic bucket that is tightly sealed with cling film as well
• Glass fermentation jar or demi-jon
  Demi-jons are quite reasonable to purchase and are used to keep the wine in until fermentation is complete
• Airlock
  This is part-filled with water and fitted on top of the demi-jon to prevent bacteria entering, by allowing fermentation gasses to escape from the jar. You can use a plug or cling-film but airlocks are so cheap (literally a few pence) it is worth doing it properly
• Muslin or muslin bag
  This closely woven material is the ideal way to strain the pulp
• Siphon tube
  This allows for removal of the wine from the jar without disturbing sediment and stops unnecessary spillage (very important, you wouldn't want to waste any!)
• Bottles and corks
  Bottles can be reused providing they are washed thoroughly, but new corks need to be used each time

How to Make Your Own Wine

1. Use washed and good quality fruit, and cut up into pieces if the fruit is large
2. Always sterilize your equipment before use. This is very important as bacteria can cause mould or spoil the wine or turn it to vinegar. Sodium metabisulphate tablets can be used to clean equipment, and can be added to the wine in the form of Campden tablets at the fermentation stage, and each time the wine is transferred to a new vessel
3. Place the fruit in a brewing bin or large plastic bucket and pour boiling water over it. Stir and cover. When cooled to lukewarm, crush the fruit and stir in half of the sugar until dissolved
4. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient, before covering and standing somewhere warm for three days, stirring daily
5. The liquor is strained off the pulp into a demi-jon, the remaining sugar added and the airlock fitted. The jar should be placed somewhere warm to aid fermentation
6. Fermentation generally takes a few weeks, or even months. After the allotted time, the wine is "racked off", which means it is siphoned into a clean jar, and left to clear. This usually takes several months as the wine needs to mature before drinking
7. When the wine is ready, it is siphoned off into bottles and corked

Pumpkin Wine Ingredients

• 7lb pumpkin
• 2lb sugar - refined white sugar is the norm for wine-making. You can substitute brown sugar, but it will alter the taste of the wine
• A piece of bruised root ginger
• Juice and rind of 2 lemons
• 1lb raisins
• 10 cloves
• 1 gallon of water
• Yeast and yeast nutrient - you can now buy yeasts specific for wine-making, which give a better result, but you can use bread yeast (either fresh or dried) and still get a successful result. You need to keep it at the right temperature as it is a living organism. Low temperatures mean it is not active and high temperatures will kill it. You should activate it just before adding to the wine at around 21-22 degrees C (lukewarm). A yeast nutrient is added at the same time - you don't have to use one, but it keeps the yeast working and converts more of the sugar to alcohol
• 1 tsp malic acid - wine needs a little acid to work, so if none is present in the raw ingredients, then some needs to be added
• 1 cup black tea - forms of acid that can be added to wine are usually either citric acid or tannin. Tannins are present in tea, so a cup of cold black tea can be used when a recipe asks for tannin. It helps preserve the wine
• Pectic enzyme - if the fruit used in the wine contains a lot of pectin, then this is required. Pectin causes things to jellify, as you will know if you make jam. This enzyme breaks down the pectin and gets all the juice out of the fruit, and it also helps to clear the wine