Questions on making pumpkin/apple/honey wine

[Emerald]

Hi all I am very new to making wine and have only made so far the famous Edwort's Apfelwein and one 1 gallon batch of cyser. I have a list of ingredients on hand right now and not much spare cash to go and buy anything extra and I want to get some advice on how much of what and in what combo things should go together. I do have a plan and hope that it will work as this will be the first try at a wine with solid ingredients and not just juice.
I have these ingredients in these amounts and I do not have a scale or hydrometer, so I will not be able to really know what the starting sugars will be.. Most of my measurements will probably be cups/oz. I don't think that I will have to use all of each ingredient or anything this is just what I have available at the moment, and what I would like to use.
So far in all my reading(and that is alot of reading here ! ) the main thoughts on wines are 2 to 3 pounds of fruit per gallon, about 1 pound of sugars per gallon and about 1 strong tablespoon of tea per gallon? But the other flavorings are a "personal choice" more than a strict guide.

5 pie pumpkins (I would guess each one is about 3lbs) I plan on roasting them for the wine to make them sweeter.
6 of the snack sized boxes of raisins (sulfur free 100% natural)
6oz of orange blossom honey
6oz of buckwheat honey
probably about 1 1/2 cups of wildflower local honey
white sugar
2 lbs brown sugar
apples (I can get more apples)
apple juice (2 gallons at the moment)
good black tea
citric acid
cinnamon sticks
whole cloves
whole allspice berries
campden tablets
Orange Juice concentrate frozen (if needed, I was going to buy a couple oranges but at a Buck a piece! no way)
5 gram packet of Cote de Blanc yeast

Now the hard part- I only have a 3 1/2 gallon bucket for the first part of the fermentation and was planning on putting the cooked pumpkin, cut apples, 1/2 the raisins and the white/brown sugars in the primary bucket and let it ferment for at least a week, stirring every day and then racking into my 5 gallon carboy and topping it off with the honey, apple juice, orange juice concentrate, other 1/2 of the raisins, spices, tea and citric acids to finish fermenting out.
The questions are:
1. When would I need to use the campden tablets? after cooking the pumpkin and adding it to the bucket with the apple chunks and sugars, and I think that you pitch your yeast 24 hours after using the campden tablets right?
2. How much of the white/brown sugar should I use in the fermenting bucket or should I use only white or only brown?(I know that sugar is one of the things that most folks here really discuss, and I don't have access to corn sugar at the moment)
3. Should I stir the Must of pumpkin/apples once a day, or twice a day, and if it makes a cap does that need to punched down a couple of times a day, or does that happen when you stir?
4. I use buckwheat honey in making my whole wheat breads and it is quite strong flavored, should I use only a couple of ounces of that as an accent flavor?
5. With that much fruit/raisins/ orange juice pulp I will probably need to rack again to another carboy (I think I can get another glass 5 gallon locally before it is needed) after the lees get too thick, but how thick is too thick?

I am sure that it will have to age for a while and I want this to be ready for next Halloween, but do not want to screw it up with that much work into it.
So What do you all think? All advice is welcome. (I think)
NOTICE: I cross posted this at a homebrew forum and not one person could help(at least so far no one has posted) I am hoping that someone here could help more.

[Alan]

Thats a hell of a lot to digest, but I'll try my best!

1. When would I need to use the campden tablets? after cooking the pumpkin and adding it to the bucket with the apple chunks and sugars, and I think that you pitch your yeast 24 hours after using the campden tablets right?

If you are going to cook all the ingredients you won't need the campden tablets as everything will already be sterile, these are basically just for strerilizing your ingredients. However if not, they would be added to your must after the cooking is done and yest, 24 hours before pitching yeast.

2. How much of the white/brown sugar should I use in the fermenting bucket or should I use only white or only brown?(I know that sugar is one of the things that most folks here really discuss, and I don't have access to corn sugar at the moment)

How many gallons are you going to make? Usually about a pound of sugar to taste and this also depends on the yeast your using and when and at what alcohol level it will peter out at, particularly weather you want a dry or sweet wine. The honey also essentially works as a sugar substitute so don't forget about that in adding or subtracting sugar. Remember that allmost all wine yeasts will start to die at 18% alcohol, but depending on the yeast you use, they may digest all of that sugar and give you an 18% alcohol, or they may not be able to digest all of it and give you a sweet wine. The trick is to know the yeast your working with and what it will do, a hygrometor would help with determining the amount of sugar/specific gravity but you don't have to have it. Remember if it is too sweet when it's done it can be watered down a bit, if it's to dry sugar can be added when it's done, by the glass or by the bottle if you use a product to prevent renewed fermentation.

3. Should I stir the Must of pumpkin/apples once a day, or twice a day, and if it makes a cap does that need to punched down a couple of times a day, or does that happen when you stir?

If you can, wrap the pumkin and apple in cheesecloth and you'll have less to strain and less waste. Stir it only once a day as you are essentially making a white wine and don't want to oxygenate it too much, this will also "punch" things down, but you can also use your spoon to "smoosh" the material ocassionally if you want. Stir once a day for five days and then rack the wine the first time.

4. I use buckwheat honey in making my whole wheat breads and it is quite strong flavored, should I use only a couple of ounces of that as an accent flavor?

No, use all of that honey or you won't get a honey flavor, that's a promise, even in mead, the more honey the better from my experience.

5. With that much fruit/raisins/ orange juice pulp I will probably need to rack again to another carboy (I think I can get another glass 5 gallon locally before it is needed) after the lees get too thick, but how thick is too thick?

Here is my general rule. Ferment one-two weeks with fruit. Rack and remove fruit. Ferment two weeks, rack again. Ferment two weeks, rack again. Allow fermentation to continue after last racking for 3-6 months, rack again, add something to kill yeast or expose to freezing temperatures and bottle.

Wow, lots of information, hope this helps friend.

[flowerpower]

The wine is going to be pumpkin/apple? Most pumpkin beers use the same spices as pumpkin pie. I don't think I would include buckwheat honey & I wouldn't use much of the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, or allspice. You don't want the spices overpowering the fruit taste.

[Emerald]

On the question of the campden, the pumpkin is cooked but the apples that I am going to drop in(probably sliced thin) will not be, and I do know that natural yeasts do live on apples- it was how my Grandparents made hard cider, just let cider ferment out. I have quite a few flour sack clothes that I could wrap the pumpkin and apples in that are white and I can boil them for making it sterile, and that would make things a bit easier to rack off from.
But I have cote de blanc yeast to put in there, I like wine to be a bit dry, and then if I want something a bit sweeter I just put in a shot of juice or 7-up or whatever.
I am making 5 gallons of wine. But the brewing bucket that I want to put the must in is only 3 1/2 gallons so I was going to primary ferment with the total amount of pumpkin/apples and 1/2 the raisins and only the brown/or white sugars. Then after a weeks worth of fermenting and stirring down I was going to rack that 3 gallons to my big glass carboy and top off with either apple juice or cider(if I can find cider that doesn't have that preservative in it, that is ) and the other 1/2 box of raisins and the honey (or mix of the honeys that I have) and the few spices- I have been warned that one to two stick of cinnamon, and only about 5 cloves and a few of the allspice berries will flavor the whole 5 gallons. My personal reason for putting the spices and honey last with the apple juice/cider is that the honey's aroma and flavor will not get fermented out with the rapid fermenting of the pumpkin/apple mix.(I have done tons of reading on the subject and most of the sites and books recommend letting the fruits ferment first and then adding honey last when racking to the secondary.

I might not use the buckwheat honey as that is a strong flavor and I am not sure if it is something that I like that much, it might be good in bread, but wine is a different story. But I'll bet it would be good in a pumpkin ale recipe, would add a nice strong richness to the brew.

Not everything that was on the list will end up in the wine, it is just what I have on hand and it might be awhile before I get to a store or the local brew shop, so that is why I listed everything. I will be thinking of getting that hydrometer, as I thought that one of my wines that are going right now was done as most of the yeast dropped and the airlock was back to almost level, and now we are having a few warm days and that airlock is bubbling again about 1 bubble every other minute! My house must have been a bit too cold for it to ferment so that the bubbles moved, the same with the cyser (apple mead)that I have going, it does not like the house to drop to the low 60's. (I have to stop being cheap and just turn the heater on! ;D) I do know that you develop better flavors with lower temp ferments, but that was too low!

And thanks again on your answers! It kinda confirmed what I was thinking of doing, but was too scared to just go for it!

I will try to keep updating this to let ya know exactly what I used and how it is going.