first attempt at Dandelion wine

[Hunt]

Hey all I have been doing some research into Dandelion wine for the last few days and have even started collecting the flowers needed to make it ( 2 hours and 1/4 gallon bucket later). I have some questions before i go much farther with this. Im gonna freeze the flowers for 24 hours to kill anything should the flowers be washed before being steeped to make a tea so as to remove any unwanted bugs and contaminants that die off once frozen. I still have days worth of picking flowers to go before i can even think about making this.

Another question that i cant seem to get answered is once you are steeping the flowers for a tea should it be refrigerated for the 2 days the recipe im using calls for or just left at room temp. I pretty much understand everything else.

Here is what im using

(6 gallons)
• (5) 1-gallon zip top bags of dandelion flowers
• 6 canisters of frozen 100% white grape juice
• 3+ gallons water (more to top up to 6 gallons)
• 12 lbs granulated sugar
• 10 lemons
• 5 oranges
• 1.5 tsp liquid tannin
• EC-1118 yeast and Go-Ferm
• Fermaid-K (added when must is strained on day 3-4)
Step by step
Pick the flowers after they have fully opened, ideally under full sun. You can freeze them if you can't use them
right away. For this recipe you do not need to pick the petals off the flower heads, but the heads should be
trimmed of any stalk and rinsed well with cool water.
Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil in a large stock pot. Remove from the heat. Add the dandelion flowers and stir.
Cover with plastic wrap. Mix twice per day for two days. Don't allow the flowers to steep longer than this.
Bring the steeped flowers to a low boil. Add the peels of the lemons & oranges. Boil gently for 1 hour.
Remove the stock pot from the heat. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a primary fermenter. Add the
sugar, white grape juice, tannin and the juice of the lemons & oranges. Use water to top up to 6 gallons. Mix
well.
Allow the mixture to cool to 70 degrees. Rehydrate the yeast and pitch when it has cooled to within 10 degrees
of the must. Gently place the cover (with an airlock affixed) on the fermenter. Don't close the top for 24 hours to
allow the yeast to have some access to oxygen. After 24 hours close the top firmly and allow fermentation to
occur.
The starting gravity will be somewhere around 1.100 which if fermented completely dry will be quite potent.
Fermentation can be suspended early to retain sweetness or the dry wine can be diluted and sweetened to
taste.

 

[jojabri]

I'm looking forward to a Dandelion in the future. For some odd reason, my dad and his dad have requested it... something about "back in the day, when I was young, "so-and-so" used to dandelion wine, and that stuff would knock you right on your a--."

 

[jensmith]

No to washing the flowers. You will loose the pollen and some flavore. With all the boiling your recipe calls for anything nasty will be steralized.

For the two day seep, leave on the counter top. Again, any wild yeast or bugs will get killed with your next boil. Putting it in the fridge may slow down the extraction proccess. Not a bad thing, just something to be aware of.
Remember that the more green parts used the more bitter the wine will be. This is why most recipies call for only yellow pettels. I like the dandilion bitter bite so its not a bad thing to me. If it bothers you then take out the flower heads sooner then the recipe calls for.
Or just pour boiling water over the flowers, let sit two hours and strain off. Use the resulting tea as your wine bace. No need to boil, let sit, boil again.

Hey all I have been doing some research into Dandelion wine for the last few days and have even started collecting the flowers needed to make it ( 2 hours and 1/4 gallon bucket later). I have some questions before i go much farther with this. Im gonna freeze the flowers for 24 hours to kill anything should the flowers be washed before being steeped to make a tea so as to remove any unwanted bugs and contaminants that die off once frozen. I still have days worth of picking flowers to go before i can even think about making this.

Another question that i cant seem to get answered is once you are steeping the flowers for a tea should it be refrigerated for the 2 days the recipe im using calls for or just left at room temp. I pretty much understand everything else.

Here is what im using

(6 gallons)
• (5) 1-gallon zip top bags of dandelion flowers
• 6 canisters of frozen 100% white grape juice
• 3+ gallons water (more to top up to 6 gallons)
• 12 lbs granulated sugar
• 10 lemons
• 5 oranges
• 1.5 tsp liquid tannin
• EC-1118 yeast and Go-Ferm
• Fermaid-K (added when must is strained on day 3-4)
Step by step
Pick the flowers after they have fully opened, ideally under full sun. You can freeze them if you can't use them
right away. For this recipe you do not need to pick the petals off the flower heads, but the heads should be
trimmed of any stalk and rinsed well with cool water.
Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil in a large stock pot. Remove from the heat. Add the dandelion flowers and stir.
Cover with plastic wrap. Mix twice per day for two days. Don't allow the flowers to steep longer than this.
Bring the steeped flowers to a low boil. Add the peels of the lemons & oranges. Boil gently for 1 hour.
Remove the stock pot from the heat. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a primary fermenter. Add the
sugar, white grape juice, tannin and the juice of the lemons & oranges. Use water to top up to 6 gallons. Mix
well.
Allow the mixture to cool to 70 degrees. Rehydrate the yeast and pitch when it has cooled to within 10 degrees
of the must. Gently place the cover (with an airlock affixed) on the fermenter. Don't close the top for 24 hours to
allow the yeast to have some access to oxygen. After 24 hours close the top firmly and allow fermentation to
occur.
The starting gravity will be somewhere around 1.100 which if fermented completely dry will be quite potent.
Fermentation can be suspended early to retain sweetness or the dry wine can be diluted and sweetened to
taste.

Sent from my iPod touch using Wine Making

 

[jojabri]

No to washing the flowers. You will loose the pollen and some flavore. With all the boiling your recipe calls for anything nasty will be steralized.

For the two day seep, leave on the counter top. Again, any wild yeast or bugs will get killed with your next boil. Putting it in the fridge may slow down the extraction proccess. Not a bad thing, just something to be aware of.
Remember that the more green parts used the more bitter the wine will be. This is why most recipies call for only yellow pettels. I like the dandilion bitter bite so its not a bad thing to me. If it bothers you then take out the flower heads sooner then the recipe calls for.
Or just pour boiling water over the flowers, let sit two hours and strain off. Use the resulting tea as your wine bace. No need to boil, let sit, boil again.






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I found a few ants and bugs as I was de-stemming. I'm down with protein, but ewwww

 

[Hunt]

Cool I was wondering if the small bugs would make a difference in flavor.

 

[jensmith]

Most small critters will crawl out of your dish as you are destemming. If you want to chase down every last one spread out your pettels /flowers on a cookie sheet one layer deep. Easy to see bugs now and easy for them to escape.
When picking your flowers give the cut flower a shake before bagging it. This elimenates most bugs. Fish out the few that get in your stash every inch. Usualey its just an ant or a spider.
Mostly bugs taste just fine. Ants can have a strong flavore, this is why they get dipped in chocolet before eating them. Or fried in a spicy mix. The worse bug to eat accidently is a slug!!! That slime gets lodged in your mouth and is nasty!


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[not-so-Highborne]

Did you get like a spinach smell to yours. I pick this a.m. Steeping now but the water is more green then yellow. I only used the head with no stems. What's up with that?


From the not-so-Highborne.

 

[jensmith]

No spinnage smell that I remember. But I only used the yellow parts. No green at all. That is probely where the spinnage smell comes from.
I am making my dandylion beer right now. No flowers are open yet. I could barley find enough whole baby plants that I use in my beer. Which is not really a beer at all. It is just low abv and drinkable in a week. It smells like dandylions, not spinnage. The root may be overpowering the green leaf smell.


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[Hunt]

I havnt started my Wine yet. Still need 3 gallon size bags of flowers. We just got some rain today so the flowers should be out in force in a day or so