Notes: The corn sugar in the recipe is an approximation for the sugar in the apple juice, not an actual ingredient. I used 5 gallons of apple juice and 1/2 gallon of water as a base.
I boiled 1 gallon of apple juice with the spices (about 10 shakes of each out of the shaker), the whole bottle of pumpkin pie spice extract (I think it was a 1oz bottle), and the 4 lbs of light brown sugar.
I peeled and roasted the butternut squash and let it roast at 375 for about an hour, checking in on it frequently until it tasted good and was tender. Then I turned on the broiler for 5 minutes to give it a good roast/ browning for some extra flavor. I accidentally burned some, so I peeled off the black bits. If I were to do it again, I would peel the squash better. It has really thick skin that doesnt peel easily and a potato peeler doesnt quite get all of it. I would give it another go around or use a thick knife.
I put the squash in the fermenter and poured the boiling cider over it. I then added the rest of the apple juice straight from the bottle. I topped it off with about a half gallon of water from the tap and added back in my yeast starter.
I had some really old yeast that took a few days to wake up in my starter. I should have poured off the starter liquid but instead I added it all to the fermenter. |
