May 2014 Wine of the Month Club

[Medic8106]

I guess I'll get in on this month. I've been doing quite a lot of drinking and not enough making of wine...

Making Dandelion Wine - or at least trying.

9 cups dandelion petals
1 lb white or golden raisins
2 lbs granulated sugar
1 lemon (juice and zest)
3 oranges (juice and zest)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp tannin
water to 1 gallon
Lavlin EC-1118 yeast

Prepare flower petals beforehand. Put water on to boil. Meanwhile, prepare zest from citrus and set aside. Combine flowers and zest in nylon straining bag and tie closed. Put bag in primary and pour boiling water over it. Cover primary and squeeze bag several times a day for 3 days. Drain and squeeze bag to extract all liquid. Pour liquid into pot and bring to boil. Stir in sugar until completely dissolved. Stir in chopped or minced raisins, cover pot and remove from heat, let stand 1 hour. In primary, combine juice of citrus fruit, tannin, yeast nutrient, and heated liquid. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature. Add pectic enzyme, cover and set aside 10-12 hours. Add activated yeast and cover. Stir twice daily for 5 days. Strain through nylon straining bag into secondary and discard raisins. Fit airlock and set aside. Rack after wine falls clear, adding crushed Campden tablet and topping up and reattaching airlock. Rack again every 2 months for 6 months, , adding another crushed Campden tablet during middle racking and stabilizing at last racking. Wait another month and rack into bottles.

Attached is a picture of the initial must preparation after boiling water and pouring it over the petals and citrus peels. The second picture is about 2 days into the fermentation process. The raisins (not chopped) are floating on the surface. The only thing that really got me on this one is the initial process of pouring the boiling water over the petals and seeping for 3 days. The smell of the must at the 3rd day was awful. Hopefully it turns out well though. Been wanting to make this for a long time. I found many different recipes out there, many different petal preparations. I have about half full flower heads and half only the yellow petals.

 

[the_rayway]

Oh good Nathan! Thanks for doing a dandelion - I've been really interested in trying one this year after my lilac seems to be going so well.

Looking forward to updates.

 

[Jericurl]

Nathan,

I'm glad you are doing this wine.
I've been interested in a dandelion wine for a while now.
Did you pick your own?
Believe it or not, I've been looking for dandelions since last year. I think I've seen 4 or 5 total.
Obviously nowhere near enough for a batch of wine.
I'll definitely be watching your progress on this one.

 

[Medic8106]

Nathan,

I'm glad you are doing this wine.
I've been interested in a dandelion wine for a while now.
Did you pick your own?
Believe it or not, I've been looking for dandelions since last year. I think I've seen 4 or 5 total.
Obviously nowhere near enough for a batch of wine.
I'll definitely be watching your progress on this one.

Yes i picked my own. We have plenty here in PA! To be honest, i didn't even measure the flowers out. I picked 2 gallon containers full and used them all! My grandfather used to make it and it was excellent. I doubt mine will compare. We shall see...

 

[StoneCreek]

Well, I think it's time for me to jump on the bandwagon and try one of these WOTM clubs. I have decided on doing a Loquat wine since they are finally in season here. However, My huge, 30+ foot, tall tree is not producing yet this year so I have been driving around town looking for additional trees since they are used primarily as ornamentals. Unfortunately, out of about 15 trees I've been able to locate, I have only gotten 5.5 pounds of fruit. Very disappointing. We did have a late hard freeze earlier this year which is very unusual for south GA. I think that has had a negative impact on these "tropical" loving trees. I was hoping for a 6 gal. batch but that seems unlikely this year unless I can work in a trip to Florida soon! The recipe I'll be using is Jack Keller's to which I'll probably add a handful of golden raisins to add a bit more body. I just put the fruit in the freezer this evening so I'll hopefully be pitching yeast soon. I'll also be keeping up with that dandelion wine. I have always wanted to try that but can't seem to find a decent supply of flowers.

 

[Stressbaby]

Nathan, I made dandelion last year and the progression of smells over the 3 days was interesting. For me, it was cooked spinach > buttered popcorn > something else more wine-like.

Jericurl, that sounds like what I have heard called "secondary addition." I've considered trying this with my plumeria wine. Supposedly it keeps the esters from fermenting off and the alcohol produced in the fermentation helps the extraction from the flowers. Keep us posted!!!

 

[winesleeper]

Welch's Green Chile Wine Update

Here is what I have got going today. Smells like green chiles.

 

[Jericurl]

That wine is going to be so yummy.

I'm already thinking of meals you can eat with it.

 

[Jericurl]

Ok, SG down to 1.03 so I stirred the ever lovin fizz out of this thing then transferred to my different vessels.
For some reason the close up of the lemon blossom isn't uploading.
It smells pretty darn good though, you can smell the floral aroma through the airlocks.
It's still bubbling nicely.

I've been doing a bit of reading on Cote des Blancs yeast, and it appears that wine made with it likes to sit on the lees for a bit.
I'm considering not immediately racking off as part of my May experiment.

 

[the_rayway]

Great jugs Jeri! I love the purple colour coming through.

Winesleeper - I'm very envious of your chiles. Very envious

Need to get on starting mine. It's going to be an Orange Creamsicle Pee thingy. I got orange juice. and vanilla. I'm thinking of doing all the tweaks that I talked about in my other 'Notes' thread. Maybe a Mother's Day start!

 

[Medic8106]

Well I racked my dandelion to the secondary last night, SG was 1.000. I have not used raisins before on wine but I think I would put them in a mesh bag prior to adding to the must. I don't know if that its the right thing to do, don't see why it would hurt but it would be easy to squeeze out the juice from the raisins instead of what I did. I seemed to lose some juice by not being able to squeeze them out real well. Smell is better at this point...

 

[Jericurl]

David,

I'm not familiar with loquats. What do they taste like?

Nathan,
I agree with you.
I've used raisins a couple of times and both times I forgot to put them in a bag. They swell up quite a bit and it seemed like a lost a bit of liquid going forward.

 

[StoneCreek]

Jeri, loquats are also called japanese plums, although they are not plums and they are from china. They are very sweet and tart. they have flesh like a plum and a skin similar to a peach. I have also read that they are high in pectin so I think I'll be adding more enzyme before moving to the secondary.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[Stressbaby]

David,
I got 1.5 gal of loquat wine from 9# fruit. It has been an absolute bear to clear, despite pectice, SuperKleer, and bentonite. After 10 months it still has that amaretto/almond taste and smell.
Loquat wine threads here and here which you may have seen.

 

[Jericurl]

Not much bubbling going on anymore.

I'll let it settle for a couple of days then check SG on on three carboys to see where we are.

ets: color not totally accurate but pretty close.

 

[Kraffty]

I've been having a blast reading along with these and considering all the combo's the group has come up with so far. It's really surprising to me that you started this back in november, time flys huh...
Keep having fun.

Mike

 

[Jericurl]

It's really surprising to me that you started this back in november, time flys huh..

I know right?

I think there are several of us that haven't even been making wine a full year yet. It's nice to have so many people willing to experiment and share.

 

[StoneCreek]

HaHa, I just got my first equipment kit for Christmas so I've only been Winemaking for about 4 months. Jeri, How did your Cactus Pear turn out? Have you tasted it recently, Mine was very drainable!

 

[Jericurl]

I haven't tasted it recently.
I did top off the airlock about a week or so ago.
I need to just go ahead and futz around with it and get it bottled.
The last time I tasted, it was definitely alcoholic, it tasted almost spicy, but thick (if that makes sense), almost like it needs to be watered down a little. It's hard to describe.

 

[the_rayway]

Great picture Jeri! What a beautiful shot.

I think I may have to bow out this month (boo!) Between work and a condensed class I'm taking at University - I can barely drag myself to bed at night. All wine making will likely be on hold for the next little while.

Looking forward to checking up on how this month goes though!