At a glance
- Style
- Melomel (spiced)
- Alcohol
- About 13.3% ABV
- Finish
- Semi-sweet
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Honey
- Wildflower, with a little buckwheat
- Yeast
- Lalvin 71B
- Ready in
- 4 to 6 months
- Batch
- 1 gallon, scalable
Ingredients
Quantities are for one US gallon (3.8 liters). Pick a batch size and every amount updates; one packet of yeast covers up to six gallons. Not sure how much honey your own twist needs? Use the mead calculator.
- 2.75 lb Honey, wildflower (or 2.25 lb wildflower + 0.5 lb buckwheat)
- 4 lb Sugar pie pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cubed (weighed after peeling; or two 15 oz cans of 100% pumpkin purée, see FAQ)
- 0.8 gallons Spring water (to make 1 gallon of must with the honey)
- 1 packet Lalvin 71B wine yeast (5 g; one packet covers up to 6 gallons)
- 6 g Go-Ferm (yeast rehydration nutrient) (optional but recommended)
- 5 g Fermaid O yeast nutrient (split into 4 doses, see steps)
- 0.5 tsp Pectic enzyme (added with the pumpkin)
- 0.25 tsp Amylase enzyme (optional) (helps clear starch haze)
- 1 stick Ceylon cinnamon (about 3 in / 8 cm; in secondary)
- 2 Whole cloves (in secondary)
- 0.25 Whole nutmeg, cracked (in secondary)
- 0.25 oz Fresh ginger, sliced (in secondary)
- 0.5 pods Vanilla bean, split (optional) (in secondary)
- 0.5 tsp Potassium sorbate
- 1 Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite)
Swapping the fruit or changing the amount? Adding fruit to mead covers how much to use per gallon, when to add it and how long to leave it. The dose and timing of the enzyme are explained in how much pectic enzyme per gallon of mead. This recipe ferments dry and is sweetened at the end: how to backsweeten mead has the stabilizing doses and a honey chart for any batch size.
Equipment
- 2-gallon bucket with lid for primary
- 1-gallon glass jug
- Airlock and drilled bung
- Hydrometer
- Baking sheet
- Nylon straining bag
- Small muslin spice bag
- Auto-siphon and tubing
- No-rinse sanitizer (Star San)
New to this? Our mead making kit checklist covers what each piece does and what you can skip.
Step-by-step method
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Roast the pumpkin
Peel the pumpkin, scrape out the seeds and strings, and cut the flesh into 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes. Roast on a baking sheet at 400°F (205°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, until the edges are browned and the cubes are soft. No oil, no sugar, no seasoning. Let them cool completely.
-
Mix the must over the pumpkin
Sanitize everything. Put the cooled pumpkin in the straining bag inside the bucket and sprinkle the pectic enzyme (and amylase, if using) over it. Dissolve the honey in about half the water, pour it over the bag and top up with the rest. The honey alone gives about 1.096; take your real reading after a few hours and a good stir, when the pumpkin has given up some juice.
-
Pitch the yeast
Rehydrate the 71B in 50 ml of 104°F (40°C) water with the Go-Ferm for 15 minutes, then stir it in. Keep the ferment at 62 to 68°F (17 to 20°C) with the lid and airlock on.
-
Feed and punch down
Add a quarter of the Fermaid O at 24, 48 and 72 hours and at the 1/3 sugar break (about 1.067) or on day 7. Push the bag under once or twice a day so no pumpkin sits dry above the liquid. Degas gently before each addition.
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Pull the pumpkin after 7 to 10 days
Lift the bag out and let it drain for a few minutes without squeezing. By now the roasted flavor is in the mead. Left longer, pumpkin breaks down into a mush that clouds the batch and can turn vegetal.
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Finish primary and rack
When the gravity holds steady near 1.000 for three days (usually 3 to 4 weeks), rack into the glass jug off the thick sediment and top up to reduce headspace.
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Spice in secondary
Put the cinnamon, cloves, cracked nutmeg, ginger and vanilla in a sanitized spice bag weighted with a sanitized marble and drop it into the jug. Taste every 2 to 3 days and remove it when the spice is just slightly weaker than you want, usually 5 to 10 days. Cloves and nutmeg take over fast.
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Clear and stabilize
Leave it 6 to 8 weeks to clear. Pumpkin meads are slower to drop clear than berry meads because of the starch and pectin. Once clear and stable, add the crushed Campden tablet and sorbate and wait 48 hours.
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Backsweeten and bottle
Sweeten with honey 1 oz at a time (about 0.002 gravity per ounce per gallon): around 6 oz takes it from 1.000 to 1.012. Pumpkin is low in acid, so if it tastes flat after sweetening, stir in acid blend 1/8 tsp at a time. Bottle and give it at least 2 months.
Timeline
- Day 0Roast pumpkin, mix, pitch yeast
- Days 1 to 7Nutrient additions, punch down daily
- Days 7 to 10Pull the pumpkin
- Weeks 3 to 4Rack to the jug, spice bag in
- Weeks 10 to 12Stabilize, sweeten, bottle
- Month 5 and onDrink; best from 6 months to 2 years
Why this recipe works
Pumpkin is not a sugary fruit. USDA figures put raw pumpkin at under 3% sugar, so 4 lb adds only about 5 gravity points. Almost all of the alcohol comes from the honey, which is why this recipe uses 2.75 lb, close to a traditional mead, and treats the pumpkin as a flavor and body ingredient rather than a sugar source.
Roasting is the step that makes it taste of pumpkin. Raw pumpkin in a fermenter gives a thin, green, squash-water note. Roasting browns the sugars on the surface and softens the flesh so the flavor comes out quickly, and it is where the "pie" in pumpkin pie mead really starts.
Sugar pie pumpkins (the small, dense baking kind) are the ones to use. Carving pumpkins are bred for size and are watery, stringy and bland. Butternut squash is a fine stand-in: much US canned pumpkin comes from Dickinson-type pumpkins, the same species as butternut.
The spices go in secondary, after fermentation, for the same reason as in our spiced mead: you can taste and stop. A small buckwheat share in the honey adds a molasses note that reads like the dark sugar in a pie filling; leave it out for a lighter, cleaner mead.
Variations
- Pumpkin bochet: caramelize 1 lb of the honey first (see our bochet recipe) for a toffee and toasted-marshmallow note that suits pumpkin very well.
- Pumpkin cyser: replace the water with 0.8 gal of preservative-free apple juice and cut the honey to 1.75 lb for about the same starting gravity.
- No spice: skip the spice bag for a plain roasted-pumpkin mead, and use 1/2 oz of medium-toast oak cubes for 2 to 3 weeks instead for some structure.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| It will not clear | Starch or pectin haze. Add 1/4 tsp of amylase enzyme and, if it is still cloudy after two weeks, 1/2 tsp more pectic enzyme. Cold-crashing in a fridge for a week also helps. Fining with bentonite or a two-part chitosan and kieselsol finer works after that. |
| It tastes vegetal or like raw squash | Usually unroasted or under-roasted pumpkin, or fruit left in too long. Time and the spice addition help; next batch, roast until the edges are properly browned. |
| A thick sludge layer is eating my volume | Normal with pumpkin, and much worse with canned purée. Rack carefully off it and top up the jug with a little water, mead or neutral white wine. |
More mead recipes to try
- Spiced mead (metheglin) recipe: Cinnamon, clove, orange and vanilla added by taste in secondary. The holiday mead.
- Bochet (caramelized honey mead) recipe: Honey cooked to dark caramel before it ferments. Toffee, marshmallow and dark fruit.
- Apple pie mead recipe: A spiced, semi-sweet cyser: cinnamon, vanilla, allspice and nutmeg. The fall mead.
More fruit mead recipes: Strawberry mead, Raspberry mead, Blueberry mead, Blackberry mead, Cherry mead, Cyser (apple mead), Peach mead, Mango mead (and pineapple mead), Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM), Pyment (grape mead), Elderberry mead, Banana mead, Pomegranate mead, Cranberry mead.
Or browse all our mead recipes. If this is your first batch, start with the traditional mead recipe or the step-by-step guide to making honey wine.
Frequently asked questions
How much pumpkin per gallon of mead?
3 to 5 lb of peeled, seeded pumpkin per gallon. This recipe uses 4 lb, roasted. More pumpkin adds body and sediment faster than it adds flavor; the spices and roasting do most of the work.
Should I roast pumpkin for mead or use it raw?
Roast it. Raw pumpkin gives a thin, green squash note. Roasted pumpkin at 400°F until the edges brown gives a toasty, caramel-edged flavor that survives fermentation.
Can I use canned pumpkin for mead?
Yes, but expect a lot of sludge. Use 100% pumpkin purée, not pie filling, which has added sugar and spices. Two 15 oz cans per gallon work. The purée passes through straining bags and settles into a thick layer, so you will usually lose a pint or more of mead when racking. Fresh roasted cubes in a bag are cleaner.
What spices go in pumpkin mead?
The pumpkin pie set: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and ginger, with allspice or vanilla if you like. Use whole spices in a bag in secondary, not ground pumpkin pie spice, which clouds the mead and is hard to remove.
Does pumpkin add sugar to mead?
Very little. Pumpkin is under 3% sugar, so 4 lb adds only about 5 gravity points per gallon. Plan the strength around the honey.
When should I start pumpkin mead for Thanksgiving?
By late July or early August if you want it properly aged by late November. It needs about 3 months to bottle and is noticeably better at 5 to 6 months. Started in October, plan it for late winter instead.
Can I use a carving pumpkin?
You can, but the result is weak. Carving pumpkins are watery and stringy. Use sugar pie pumpkins, or butternut squash, which roasts and ferments very well.
How strong is pumpkin mead?
This recipe is about 13.3% ABV, like a strong white wine.