BernardSmith
Senior Member
Many folk in the NE of the US who make country wines make a dandelion wine this time of year, but what about making this wine as a mead? Just replace the sugar with honey (I would use a honey whose flavor won't dominate the flowers - clover, perhaps) and I would use a yeast that won't strip off all the flavors from the petals either.
For this batch I made a dandelion tea (after snipping off the flower receptacle from the petals - It takes an unnecessarily long time to pull the petals from the ovary and receptacle, but scissors make quick of that job) with boiling water and am allowing the petals (sitting in a nylon painters bag) to steep for about 1.5 - 2 days. My plan is then to add 2.5 lbs of honey to the bucket with 100 g of gesho I had used earlier in a t'ej. (and some lemon juice and nutrients) My thinking is that the enchet, the twigs, are likely covered in yeast and bacteria and I will add these to the must and allow this to ripen it for about three days. If there are enough viable yeast in the gesho I will let them do their thing and if there are insufficient cells I will add some cultured yeast - probably 71B.
I have another batch of dandelion wine that I started last week so it will be interesting to compare tasting notes.
Thoughts? Thanks
For this batch I made a dandelion tea (after snipping off the flower receptacle from the petals - It takes an unnecessarily long time to pull the petals from the ovary and receptacle, but scissors make quick of that job) with boiling water and am allowing the petals (sitting in a nylon painters bag) to steep for about 1.5 - 2 days. My plan is then to add 2.5 lbs of honey to the bucket with 100 g of gesho I had used earlier in a t'ej. (and some lemon juice and nutrients) My thinking is that the enchet, the twigs, are likely covered in yeast and bacteria and I will add these to the must and allow this to ripen it for about three days. If there are enough viable yeast in the gesho I will let them do their thing and if there are insufficient cells I will add some cultured yeast - probably 71B.
I have another batch of dandelion wine that I started last week so it will be interesting to compare tasting notes.
Thoughts? Thanks