My first foray into troubleshooting...

So... there was no fermentation at all in the pumpkin spice. I waited through the weekend to see if it was just slow, but nothing was changing. Wine friend suggested it was too cold, so I put my heating pad on high under it and hoped. Still nothing. As a last resort, I went back to the wine store to get another packet of yeast. This really is a complete last resort, because one packet of yeast is a LOT of yeast, and the odds of every single spore in there being dead is very very very low. But I had nothing else to try, so might as well.

While there, I ran through my issue with the guy over the counter. He asked if I'd checked the specific gravity (I had.. as much as I could with as goopy and viscous as it is), when I'd pitched it, and the like. He, too, was baffled, as that particular yeast is known for being able to handle very extreme conditions, and is often used to restart stuck fermentations where other yeasts fail. The temperature range is HUGE (down to 50F, which my house never gets that low. It stays around 70 in winter), has a high alcohol tolerance, needs few nutrients, and can handle incredibly high sugars. It should have worked!

He ended up giving me another packet for free and suggested that I just sprinkle this one on the top instead of rehydrating and activating it, as that is what he always does. It's not unknown for a whole packet of yeast to be dead, but it is rare, and he said that that's the only thing he could think of, as he knows that "[I] know what [I'm] doing". That did make me feel better, that after 3 batches, I'm considered knowledgeable and not a beginner, because I sure as hell don't feel like I'm all that experienced! Just ask Wine Friend. I pepper her with questions all the time at work!

Anyways, on Monday I got home, stirred the must (which, after sitting in pectinase for coming up on a week, is pretty gross and goopy looking), and sprinkled the yeast on top. And hoped.

Apparently I *did* get a bad pack of yeast!

Within an hour, the yeast had puffed up and started foaming a bit, which showed they were prodicuing carbon dioxide. It was such a fantastic sight! I very very gently stirred the must before going to bed, making sure to leave some yeast on the top, just in case the sudden transition to a place with very little oxygen would kill things.

The next morning, I saw a FEW bubbles popping up, but not as many as I was hoping. But at least there were some bubbles. I attributed it to the fact that the must is so damn thick that it's hard for gas to get to the surface. A vigorous stir and more came up, but still not in the amounts I was getting with my last two batches.

But... things took a turn for the better in the next few days! Every stir has been easier and less thick. More bubbles come to the surface and fizz every time, and I see more when I take off the lid, too! This morning (Thursday) it was FINALLY thin enough that I could accurately measure the specific gravity (1.100) so fermentation is DEFINITELY happening! I'm so relieved!

We will probably rack it into the secondaries tonight. I say "we" because the nylon bag is SO HEAVY with pumpkin, goop, and spices, that I can't hold it by myself and let it drain. I'm going to need Boyfriend's help with this one. Maybe later I'll have a video showing the airlock blooping away.

I've been tasting the actual liquid this whole time, and if this is what it's going to taste like, but with alcohol in it, this is going to be a seriously awesome wine and I will need to make this every year. It seriously tastes just like a pumpkin pie. Though I haven't been able to taste much alcohol in it yet. Right now, the tang is more "Not sure if alcohol, or just ginger". 

I feel like a cross between a 3 year old (BUBBLES!!!) and Dr. Frankenstein (IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!!).

Updates and a new batch!

So I kind of felt that making posts that were essentially "Racked both. Still taste funny. Wine friend says they'll mellow and be good. Looking pretty!" every month would be pointless, so that's why I haven't updated. And that's my story.

But, I started a new batch! Pumpkin spice!

So, Jack Keller doesn't have a pumpkin spice recipe, but he DOES have a pumpkin recipe (Pumpkin Wine), and an apple spice recipe (Apple Spice), and so I sort of franken-recipied one for myself. I took the pumpkin wine recipe and just added spices in what I thought would be decent amounts to give it a nice pumpkin pie spicy flavor. Apples are about as light bodied as you can get, so I added more than the apple spice recipe called for. In total, for a 3 gallon batch, I added:

4 oz whole cloves
4 oz whole allspice berries
10 three inch long cinnamon sticks (my cinnamon sticks were kinda old...)
4-5 oz whole nutmeg
4-6 oz (didn't really weigh this one) fresh chopped ginger

The rest of the recipe remained the same. So, the first step was chopping and grating the pumpkins. Which, yes, if you do this, get a food processor. Do NOT try and do this by hand, even if just a 1 gallon batch. Your arm will die. Seriously.

Firstly, I used pie pumpkins, NOT jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Now if you're like my boyfriend who has only made a pumpkin pie from pumpkin in a can, you might wonder why you would never make an adorable tiny jack-o-lantern out of those adorable smooth pie pumpkins. And also, why *can't* you make a pie from the big pumpkins? And also... why are we getting 9 of them?

Going out of order, the answers are:

We're getting 9 of them because they're pretty small:

 

Shown next to my food processor for comparison. This was obviously before any grating or even scooping had started, because everything is still relatively clean. 

Pie pumpkins are small. And they're called "pie pumpkins" because, well, you make pie from them. Also because 1 pumpkin usually equals 1 pie. It's kinda cool that way. Anyways, to open these suckers, take a large knife (seen in the bottom left there), and slice vertically, but don't go through the stem because your knife won't go through.  Start just to the side of the stem, and slice down. I try to slant it to go through the middle of the pumpkin.

And that's the reason you don't make jack-o-lanterns from pie pumpkins. They have very thick rinds. Also why you make edible things from them, because they have very thick rinds.

Just like any other pumpkin, scoop the seeds and fibrous stuff out. You don't have to get it completely perfectly clean, but decently so.

Chop your pumpkin up into pieces that will fit in your food processor. How big, I will leave up to you. Note, up till now, you could still make pie out of these. I could cut this up, bake skin side down until they're soft, scrape out the flesh, and pulverize to make pumpkin goo. But that's for a later time.

Grated pumpkin looks like cheese:

I left the skin on because I was honestly too tired and too pressed for time to cut it off. I'm glad I decided that because some of my pumpkins weren't exactly fully ripe. Unripe pie pumpkins have the consistency of a bowling ball. I had to call in help to even cut them, much less chop them up.

On the ground because he was afraid he would crack my counters. Yes, they were that hard. We had to chop them into pieces using a huge knife, and a rolling pin to pound the knife through.

It took all 9 pumpkins to get the full 15lbs, and even that only barely.

To this I added all the spices above. The sugar, I also followed Jack's recipe, and used 10 1/2 lbs of it. I put all of it in my largest pot and added water quart by quart until I couldn't add anymore (about 8 pints), then carefully stirred things up. Once everything was in suspension, I turned the heat on low to slowly heat it up, but not bring to a boil, as I wasn't yet ready wtih the pumpkin. Eventually, it all DID dissolve, and I was ready, so I turned up the heat. After pouring the boiling sugar water over everything, brought to a boil the rest of the water, and added it.

It looked disgusting:

The rabbit poop things are allspice berries. I promise.

Cover and left overnight.

The next morning, I crushed 3 campden tablets, dissolved them in a tiny amount of the must, and added and stirred. This must is...... different. There's SO MUCH solid in there that it takes a good effort to stir it, but I wanted to make sure all the powder got through it.

Covered and went to work.

When I got home, I added the pectic enzyme, stirred again, and went to bed.

This morning, I added the citric acid (1 1/2 oz of it!), as well as yeast nutrient, energizer, and the yeast itself.

As you can tell, I used a different brand of yeast instead of the Red Star I had been using. This is one that Jack suggested for a high alcohol dry wine, and my wine friend uses thsi one almost exclusively. This also apparently is incredibly hardy and is used to revive stuck fermentations. The alcohol tolerance is aroudn 18%, but can go up to 20% if conditions are right.

The must didn't look much better:

Actually, I think it looked worse. But it smells FANTASTIC!

As of now, the yeast has been in there coming up on 12 hours, and I'm starting to get worried. This is a very fast acting yeast, but has low flocculation, and low foaming. Two things that my other yeasts were very high in (especially the Montrachet!). This must is also not as watery as the others, so I don't hear or see bubbles as easily. Boyfriend is confident it's working, and I hope it is. I'll give it another stir before bed tonight.

If things go well, I'll stir it in the morning and evening tomorrow and Saturday, and depending on how it looks Saturday evening, we may be ready to rack into the secondary containers by that time. I hope so, because I don't want to leave it until Sunday night, and I really want to taste how it's coming along!

I decided to dump the overflows from both the blackberry and the peach banana as they were starting to taste off, and markedly different than the main bottles, so I now have two extra secondary containers, and one extra airlock. Win-win for me!