New to wine making and this forum!

Hey guys, I signed up about two weeks ago, and did a little bit of reading since then. Today, I started my first batch of wine.

I am starting with a gallon of dandelion wine!

Sounded good, just got it all set up and she's bubblin away!

1.5 quarts of dandelion flowers
1 gallon of water
3 pounds of sugar
and a packet of yeast
edit: oops forgot to mention also added 5 tbs of lemon juice


we'll see how she goes!

Super excited!

Welcome. Have fun.

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your project. Arne.

Welcome, Xune! Enjoy your time here at WMT!

Welcome! I got a gal of dandelion wine aging in carboy from last year heard dandelion wine was awesome so had to make some lol but cleaning and preparing is a pita! Cheers!

Welcome, I'm new here myself.

I've always wanted to try making a dandelion wine or mead, but I live in the city and wouldn't know where to find dandelions that haven't been sprayed.

Welcome to the forum!

welcome to winemakingtalk

Welcome to the forum and the hobby!

barbiek said:

Welcome! I got a gal of dandelion wine aging in carboy from last year heard dandelion wine was awesome so had to make some lol but cleaning and preparing is a pita! Cheers!

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Hahaha! That is for sure! I assumed it was gonna take an hour or so... But cleaning all the dandelion flowers took almost 3 hours! WAY longer than I expected, and jeez it hurts to sit cross legged on the ground that long! Though it was nice to get out and be in the sun for a little while.

Definitely a PITA, but well worth it, after I had the dandelions soaking for a while, then putting the heat to it and smelling it, I can already tell this is going to be gooood. It smelled earthy and strong, can't wait to see how it tastes as a wine!



So I have a quick question though for anyone who might know the answer...

It's been sitting pretty much all day today and the airlock has not bubbled once. I thought maybe my seal wasn't good, so I reset all the seals, and still nothing. I can see bubbles rising in the wine itself, but the airlock hasn't budged all day. Seals are all air tight, seems like it should be pushing.. Any help?

I have this type of airlock, though I don't think that would really make a difference,

http://c-zpjtkijf.lagrangesystems.n...450ximage_366.jpg.pagespeed.ic.GDjqxK9INq.jpg

Just give it time.

heatherd said:

Just give it time.

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Cool cool, that is kind of what I figured, but since I am new to it, couldn't hurt to have another opinion. Thanks much.

Hey guys, wine's been going for about 2 weeks now, and in the last 4 days, the hydrometer hasn't changed. So I assume that it's done fermenting. But my hydrometer is sitting on 1.020. Seems like it should have went further.. What do I do now? Just bottle it and be content that it worked at all?

What was your reading when you started? It could be done or it could be stuck. Need a little more information. Arne.

How does it taste to you?

It was at 1.090 when I started it on the 13th of May.

It is entirely drinkable. I tried the sample I pulled other day when I posted this last question. I think maybe I added just a bit too much lemon juice, as it tastes almost sour, but its not bad at all.

I just assumed it should finish to 1.000 or so, as it was only set to be about 12% when it finished.

Either way I'm going to drink it, I just wanna learn a little more for the next batch of wine.

If it taste good then you are a success. IMO, the hydrometer is a toy. The wine is what it is, and making a bunch of measurements really doesn't effect the wine in the glass. If you made a mistake, or something went wrong, maybe and only just maybe the hydrometer might tell you something is off, that only your drinking can and will confirm. YMMV...

I agree with Montana. If you like the way it tastes, it's a success. If it isn't less than 1.000, I would give it time (3-12 months) in bulk storage to let it clear and stablize.
Yeast stop working when they run out of food or the environment is too toxic. If there is sugar left, then it is due to the latter. The reason I'd give it some time in bulk is that you want to make sure the environment is toxic, you don't want fermentation to kick in, in the bottle.

Additionally I'll add, time is important. Twice now I've made serious mistakes, and time in the carboy would have solved both.

I've bought several 5 gallon Culligan water bottles for extra storage containers. When a wine is not quite complete, but active fermentation is over, these inexpensive bottles allow more storage time, while letting me use my carboys for active wine making.

xune said:

But cleaning all the dandelion flowers took almost 3 hours!

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I just looked up recopies. Only use the flower petals. Anywhere from 4-1 to 1-1 on the volume of petals to water. That is a lot of flowers. I had imagined using the leaves. A few weeks ago, I dug up 2 five gallon pails of dandelions, probably would have given me only a few cups of petals.

jeez it hurts to sit cross legged on the ground that long!

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How about just harvesting the tops, and cleaning while sitting at a table? Next year, i will try harvesting flowers over a week or two before digging up the plants.