Dandelion Time !!!!!

[St Allie]

I made a gallon batch this summer.. got bored with collecting up dandelions though so supplemented the batch with plums.. smelled and tasted ok on bottling.. Can't tell you what the end result will be yet.. determined to leave it at least a year before tasting..

Allie

 

[Boozehag]

I have one batch brewing away and nearly finished, cant say I liked the initial taste I got when siphoning it but then hey it might improve, I have a whole lot more flowers ready to go in freezer but will wait to see what this tastes like first before I tie up a carboy with another lot!

The de-petaling is pretty labour intensive.

 

[Luc]

I have one batch brewing away and nearly finished, cant say I liked the initial taste I got when siphoning it but then hey it might improve.

You really have to age this for a year.

The dandelion-strawberry mix is much earlier drinkable.

Luc

 

[Boozehag]

Oh will do for sure Luc, Im in no hurry to drink it yet!

 

[Wade E]

Okay I am sunburned from yesterday as I found a nice little park just loaded with dandies. After many hours of cutting all the petals off last night I ended up with 24 cups of just petals. I am doing a 3 gallon batch with 3 lemons, 3 oranges, and 2 lbs of golden raisins. Put it all in this afternoon after adding what was in our yard this morning which was probably another cups worth as they were huge. Going to use Cotes Des Blanc yeast on this and Ill add that tomorrow night.

 

[Boozehag]

You cut the petals off? Dont you pluck them out? So how many hours did that take you, for that amount of petals I can imagine quite a while!

 

[Wade E]

I picked them solid sat for approx 3 hours at a park that was just loaded as far as the eye can see. I did not pluck them as that would require a lot more time then I was willing afford, It took about 2 1/2 hours to cut all the petas off. Ill probably never do it again!

 

[St Allie]

heheheh Wade,

There must be a market for frozen petals surely?

Somebody could make a fortune off bored winemakers..

Allie

 

[Paco]

Ping! Ping!

 

[Wade E]

Sorry Paco, didnt see that post. This is only my first Dandy wine but can say that Red Star Cotes Des Blanc is a very god yeast for delicate wines. Lalvin 71B-1122 would be good also.

 

[Wade E]

Here;s a pic of my Dandelion wine starting to clear on its own.

 

[Racer]

Nice! Looks like things are coming along good for you there Wade. I only picked a couple of quarts worth of petals this year. I'm planning on starting a dandelion & strawberry wine in the near future. Until then the petals will stay in the freezer for safe keeping.

 

[linuxbgood]

I just put my dandelion wine in the secondary (1 gal) and added a pound of raisins for body, the raisins bloated and came to the top and forced all the wine into the lock and all over the place. I removed some of the soon to be wine and the same thing happened again. Is there a trick to stop the raisins from rising to the top? Right now I put it all back in a 2 gal plastic bucket but I have alot of head room now will this hurt the wine as long as its vapor locked?

 

[Racer]

First of all. Welcome to the forum!

Did you add the raisins to the wine after the first racking? If so there will be sugar in the raisins that will re-start your fermentation. That would help cause the over flow. So going back to a primary bucket with everything wont hurt at this point. If I mis-read please help with a bit more info.

 

[linuxbgood]

First of all. Welcome to the forum!

Did you add the raisins to the wine after the first racking? If so there will be sugar in the raisins that will re-start your fermentation. That would help cause the over flow. So going back to a primary bucket with everything wont hurt at this point. If I mis-read please help with a bit more info.

Thanks for the welcome

I added the raisins at the first rack from primary to secondary like the recipe called for.

after soaking the peddles for 3 days and a boil (after cooling of course)
I added peddles limes, oranges and yeast let sit for 2 days then racked to 1 gal carboy and added raisins. The raisins keep getting up in the neck of the carboy and causing the wine to overflow into the vapor lock and all over the counter. So I put it back into the primary 2 gal bucket and vapor locked it, but there is alot of head space.

 

[Racer]

Ok I see were your at now with your wine. You should leave your wine in the larger fermentor until the primary fermentation is closer to being done. Do you have a hydrometer to help you check what your wines sg. is?

 

[linuxbgood]

Ok I see were your at now with your wine. You should leave your wine in the larger fermentor until the primary fermentation is closer to being done. Do you have a hydrometer to help you check what your wines sg. is?

I do but I don't have a wine thief and when doing a gal it hits the bottom of the bucket. It has only been working for 2 days so its not even close to being done. So the 4" of head space (empty space) is ok as long as its working?

 

[Racer]

Thats right, an active fermentation is giving off alot of CO2 that keeps oxygen away from the wine. Once fermentation is slowing down or over do you have to really watch how much headspace you have.

I started my strawberry/dandelion wine on tues. last week and its not even half way thru its primary fermentation yet. My basement is still cool enough to keep the yeast slowed down in getting the job done.

 

[Wade E]

Well my dandy wine wasnt clearing on its own at all so I broke down Monday and added SuperKleer and its cystal now. I let that sit till probably next weekend and rack and sweeten with simple syrup. I hope it doesnt cloud it up caus i forgot to sweeten before adding the fining agent which is the way I usually do it.

 

[Luc]

My dandelion-strawberry (this years batch) is already crystal clear and in fact has been bottled 3 weeks ago when I came back from my holliday in France.

Hope your will be as delicious as mine is.....

Luc