Another view:

The wine was actually beautifully clear as you can see here:

And here: (the glass is just foggy). Unfortunately it tasted disgusting. I have no idea if this is normal for a wine that’s only about a month old, but as of yet it’s not good, and still a little carbonated. I read some home winemaking blogs online and all of their comments definitely made me feel better. The consensus for people in our situation is that it really just has to age. Oh! And FYI I took a hydrometer reading and it was 1.090.

And the pumpkin wine. We reached a 1.030 reading so it was ready for the carboys. It fit fairly neatly (with only a little leftover) into 2 carboys. I think they’re both going to end up being about 1/3 sediment so I think it will end up at 2nd racking fitting into 1 carboy. We tasted it and it’s really good!

I’m still not sure if the pumpkin wine will turn out, but at least it’s not over yet!

Get ready for a pictures post on Monday

I’m trying not to get too emotionally attached to it. After all it did only cost maybe $6 altogether. That was just for the pumpkin and the few cardamom seeds I used. The other ingredients I already had on hand from the blackberry wine. I’m just going to ride it out and go with it. What happens, happens. 

Speaking of blackberry wine I think it’s time to rack it a second time. The bubbling has slowed almost to a stop. There’s quite the collection of sediment on the bottom. Pictures tonight and another post tomorrow

I know that it is fall and that it’s the perfect time of year to work with fresh pumpkins but I wanted to experiment with some small wine batches (1 gallon) with ingredients that we could have access to all year. That means canned pumpkin! Cheap and easy

So easy: I just opened the cans of pumpkin, and added all of the ingredients as per the recipe and a special ingredient = green cardamom…mmmmmm…..If you’ve never had the chance to taste and smell green cardamom get thee to an East Indian store post haste and buy some!

To prepare the cardamom I crushed it with a mortar and pestle then heated it on the stove in a frying pan to release the oils, then added it to the pumpkin mixture. This is an experiment and I don’t know if anyone has ever made canned pumpkin wine so my biggest concern is whether or not I will be able to clarify it.
Without further ado, the pictures:

Pumpkin with ingredients in primary fermentor

Crushing the green cardamom

Green cardamom heating on the stove

Green Cardamom added to pumpkin mixture

I knew this time to take the hydrometer reading immediately - 1.100

Same hydrometer reading - different angle showing our potential alcohol content to be 13%

Ultimately I envision this wine being a highly flavored highl alcohol content port-style wine. If I had planned better I could have gotten a more appropriate yeast, but again this is an experiment – so no pressure if it doesn’t turn out. Those of you who are in the know, know that true Portuguese “Port” is fortified with brandy. I think this will be happening for one of the gallons. Because as it is I think that there’s about 2 gallons in the primary fermentor.

Sorry it’s sideways

Just starting - see no wine in the tube yet

Now the wine is starting to come down the tube...

It works!

Getting there. We didn't time it but I'd guess it took about 5 full minutes,

Now this is a total experiment. I took a short video so you can see how it bubbles constantly.

Working on this now so check back later

I really love my hair color in this picture…..

In the picture the reading says 1.070. When it reaches 1.030, then I transfer it into the secondary fermentor.

Since we didn’t take the reading in the beginning it’s not going to be at all accurate. The guy at the store said that whatever final reading I end up with to add “a couple of points”….So if I get 10% alcohol, that I can call it “about 12%”….Well now I know for next time!

I do not know why some of the pictures are green, some are orange and some are super white

Picking out our glasses:

Our table all set (with the flash):
 

And without the flash:

The names of the cheeses we ate:

And pictures of the cheeses:

And the wine:

Everything gets a “2″ rating.

Again – sorry about the crap pictures. Better next time!

The wine making kit came with equipment to make 6 gallons of wine. In order to do this we were going to have to pick 24 pounds of blackberries. We were only able to pick 18 But as it turns out after adding all of the ingredients we were only about a half a gallon short so I went to the store and bought 2 pounds of frozen blackberries – so not so bad… Below are the pictures of the first few steps in the process.

Here are the berries sitting in the primary fermentor

At this point I couldn’t imagine how it was ever going to be enough berries.

The blackberries had to be squeezed, pressed, and strained through mesh bags. The mesh bags stay in the primary fermentor for the first week as well.

Messy!

Here are all of the ingredients I added (only a teaspoon or two of each so these little bags will last a long time!)

And here it sits for the next 5 days or so. I forgot to add that I added the yeast after it had sat like this for 24 hours.

Stay tuned over the next week or so as we attempt to figure out how to use a hydrometer, and siphon the must into the secondary fermentor! Weeee!

Because…I don’t think anyone is interested in my daily adventures in quinoa and hemp…?