I plan on making a zuchini wine soon and have developed a basic recipe. I need some help finalizing the recipe and developing a process. Also does anyone know how much I'll get out of the squash in the way of fermentables.

Pectic Enzyme
10 Oranges
7 lemons
15+ lbs Zuchini
5+ lbs Crookneck Squash
Yeast Energizer
Yeast Nutrient
Peppercorns
Chili's
Basil
6lbs Honey
Sugar (Will need about 10 lbs I believe in order to get my OG where I want it)
Ginger (may or may not use some, haven't decided)


I plan on cutting up the squash and adding it with the sliced lemons, oranges, and other flavorings in the primary and pouring 5 gal of boiled water over it along with some campden tablets. Also I'm switching to a bucket rather then a carboy and doing an open ferment. I'll remember to stir this time for the first 3 months, then rack to secondary and rack every couple months after that.

I dont know about making wine from squash, but fermenting in the bucket will not take 3 months, did you mean 3 weeks maybe? Better to say SG 1.010 due to fact that this may happen in 6 days - to 3 weeks. I have never had one take 3 weeks to get to sg 1.010 wich is point you need to get it out of that bucket and into a carboy.

I agree with bob1, watch the SG and when it gets to 1.020 or lower you can rack to the secondary. Maybe only 4 to 6 days. I only made vegetable wine once. When I lived in So CA back in the 70s when I had a large garden. I made wine out of carrots, oranges, parsnips, and sugar. Used some tea bags for tannin. Vegetables don't clear that quickly. The taste was pretty good though. I put it in the garage and forgot about it. 25 years later when I was ready to move I drank some of that wine. Really clear and tasted pretty good. I was amazed that it hadn't oxidized in all of that time. The only part of the recipe I didn't know about was the acid. It was blah at first. My wife actually called a chemically company that did commercial acid measurements. A guy there measured the acid and mixed up some chemicals, for free, and told my wife to dump them into the wine. Really changed the flavor.

After reading over the posts several times I see you aren't using tannins in the wine. You might consider either wine tannin or tea bags. My notes back that far are quite abreviated but I did use 3 tea bags for 5 gallons. The lemons and oranges should give you some acid. Low acid vegetable wine tends to spoil due to low acid. Off the subject a little but my wife has a zesting tool. We just made some golden wheat beer and zested 2 lemon peels and put it in the secondary, microwaved 30 seconds to kill bacteria, and it really gave the beer a lemon flavor. Something to consider after you use the juice. I guess you could zest the oranges also.

You may have the below web site info. If not, here it is. Jack Keller has lots of recipes on his site. He has lots of other info also. The recipes are for 1 gallon of wine. I like to look over his recipes and checkout the different things he put in the recipes. I have never tried his exact recipes. He has a zuchini recipe at the bottom.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp

Sorry, I missread my own notes while typing it. It should say stir for first few weeks and rack to secondary after 3 months.

As to tanins, I was hoping the white pithy part of the lemons and oranges would add some.

I'm getting so old sometimes I can't remember. LOL. Maybe I typed it wrong. Normally add 1 crushed campden per gallon. 24 hours later add yeast. Stir twice a day until SG gets down to 1.020 or lower. Keep pushing down the bag you have the vegetables in so it stays wet. You can almost tell because the major bubbling will decrease. Quicker than beer. At 70 degrees F it only takes 4 to 6 days. I then transfer to the secondary and put on the air lock. rack again about 3 weeks later to get the wine off of the gross lees. Then rack about every 2 months.

I don't know if there is tannin in the lemon and orange peel or not.

I still wait until 1.010 I have transfered at 1.020 a couple of times for diferent reasons like going away for weekend. Every time I found a mess when I got back to it. Also I have I Welch Recipe that calls for peppercorn what is it for I assumed this was a tannin.

If you look in the old wine making books they suggest racking at 1.030 SG. That is a little high. Newer wine books suggest letting it ferment totally out. That scares me a little with an open primary. I do like to see some bubbles in my secondary without adding campden. Sometimes I transfer to my secondary instead of racking. Jack Keller seems to think you get more flavor if you leave the wine on the fruit for a longer period and transfer (except for the fruit bag). Commercial wineries do it with a plastic cover and CO2. Different fruits and different yeasts seem to ferment out differently. Making wine so long I don't put a hard SG number on it. I look at the bubbling and the SG and when the SG is low and the bubbling looks like it won't overflow an airlock I transfer or rack. All of that said, it is hard to describe what the wine looks like when I transfer or rack so I just pick a number that seems safe with an open primary. For example my blackberry wine usually is still bubbling fiercly at 1.020 SG. So I wait until it calms down.