A year ago, the chance congruence of a fifty pound bag of undesired squash, and a empty fermentor led me to try brewing a squash wine. This seemed like a reasonable idea; I checked around for recipes. I don't mind winging a recipe, but its always instructive to learn from others mistakes.
Oddly, the various books I have on wine-making did not have any squash wine recipes. These books have publication dates from 1899 to 2012, and include that ferment things from cherry pie filling to crushed chickens, so I was a little surprised by the omission.
The Internet wasn't much more informative. The New Zealanders had tried it, but as near as I can tell, the fermentation enthusiasts in New Zealand have tried everything.
'Marrow Squash makes an insipid wine that is improved considerably by adding an ounce of grated ginger root; Zucchini Squash makes a very poor wine; Hubbard Squash makes a wine very similar to Pumpkin', Jack Keller remarks.
Hmmm thought I. Intriguing.
Most of the recipes I could find were heavy on spices and raisins; a trick I always felt really gave you a spiced raisin wine with whatever random additive-of-the-day.
Guided by this snotty sense of purism, I brewed
14 cups baked (then peeled and mashed) Green Queen Table Squash
3 kgs brilliant yellow sugar (which brought my S.G. to 1072)
Acid blend and diammonium phosphate in case my tiny yeasties lacked pep
and water sufficient to make 16 litres of brew.
Fermentation was swift to start - within two hours the gas cap was jumping, and everything seemed well.
After 20 days I transferred it off the pulp, and measured it at 900 S.G.
It had a strange taste. an initial sharp bite that faded instantly, followed by a faint flat , almost burnt metal aftertaste, difficult to discern, but equally difficult to ignore.
Age. I decided. This wine is young and unfriendly. Age will temper it.
A year has passed, and the temper has gotten worse. It has the brownish-gold shade of beer; the taste of dry white wine, and an aftertaste that is persistent and un-ignorable.
One of my taste testers, who will largely drink anything, including various 'prison hooch' style concoctions was perfectly willing to pour his sample down the sink rather than finish it. I am not certain what went wrong here; perhaps baking the squash first rather than fermenting it raw?
Maybe a decade in the cellar will improve this...I will be interested to find out. Perhaps I shall do up some fancy labels, and use the bottles as handout gifts for people I don't really like.
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