Dandelion Wine

[lockwood1956]

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp

[kmoorman]

This is the recipe I've used for the batch I started over the bank holiday weekend:

3 litres of dandelions flowers (removed from stem and other green parts)
2 gallons of water
6lb 14.31oz (3.127kg) sugar (to take to 1090 prior to adding yeast)
6 large navel oranges
1 small tin of white grape concentrate
1/2 tsp malic acid
1 tsp tartric acid
1/2 tsp wine tanin
1 tsp pectolase
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp gp yeast

I've basically adjusted CJJ Berry's recipe and incorporated parts of David's recipe above.

I poured 2 gallons on boiling water over the petals, and left them to steep for 2 days in a plastic fermentation bucket. I them poured it all into a pot (2 pots in fact) and boiled for 10 minutes with the peel of the oranges. I them sieved through muslin onto 3kg of sugar, acids, pectolase, tannin and nutrient in a primary fermenter. I then let it cool (SG1082), and added the juice of the oranges (SG1083) and then the concentrate (SG1085). I then added another 4.5oz (127g) of sugar to take it up to 1090. I then added the yeast and left it alone over-night. It was fermenting nicely this morning, and the odd 'urine' smell had faded.

[kmoorman]

I can't believe I didn't come back on this one.

The finished wine was wonderful - it has a complex flavour, with a dry almost sauvignon blanc flavour at the the front of the mouth, but with a sweet centre (from flavour rather than sugar) and a nice tannic finish (similar to Verdelho). It is quite remarkable. Of the whole batch I now only have 3 bottles left, which I need to avoid drinking for a while.

I can't wait for March / April to do more!!

I will certainlt stick to the recipe above, which means less petals than the original recipe.

[lockwood1956]

Always great to have a recipe recomendation, on my list of "to do's" for this year

I read somewhere that dandelion wine works best with dandelions picked on St Georges day at midday (honest)

regards
Bob

p.s. can I call you Kieron too?

[Mamgiowl]

I started to make this last year but, believe it or not, couldn't find enough dandelion flowers, and to be honest I got fed up getting all the petals off the ones I did find. Well done for persevering Keiron,* and now I know how good it is I might try again this year.

*I've taken the liberty of including myself on the list of people who can use your first name. Hope you don't mind?

[kmoorman]

Please - everyone, call me Kieron.

It is true that some recipes recommend picking the flowers on St George's Day... I think the key is to pick on a dry sunny day (i.e. midday) to get the flowers as dry as possible.

As far as the patience to remove the flowers is concerned, I just sat on our garden banch in the sun and it was a very pleasant experience; certainly more fun than stripping elderberries from the stalks!

In fact, just to provide a little more info as to the flowers, I was relatively quick with the removal, and wasn't too worried about leaving some of the green material behind (just some of the 'fronds' below the flower). I simply grabbed the entire flower (close it between my fingers) and pulled the whole thing away from the 'cup' like green area below, and if some green came with it, so be it (I think leaving a small amount of the green gives the wine a nice dry bite to it anyway).

Kieron.

[Mamgiowl]

I think that was my trouble last year. After I'd scrabbled about trying to find a million flowers (OH had just mown the lawn so I had to go further afield ) I was too darn hot and as I pulled them apart my hands were so sweaty that yards of greenery went in the bucket, then I found I didn't have enough anyway! Pah!
Perhaps that's why they recommend St Georges day - it's not usually so warm at the end of April.
However, after your recommendation I will give it another go this year.
Thanks, Keiron

[jojo]

I just racked 5 gal of Kellers recipe (w/grape concentrate) and the smell is wonderful. It started out smelling like the lawn, but changed rather quickly. Milky it is.

[lockwood1956]

Result!

[kmoorman]

I'm getting ready for this years batch... I currently have 4.5 litres of petals frozen in a bag waiting got a few more litres to be available.

Note - I did an experiment last year with freezing petals in batches to allow me to do 1 big batch, and there was no difference in flavour to the non-frozen batch I did the previous year.

I've also used a different technique for getting the petals off the flowers, which is simply using a big pair of scissors and snipping them off the flowers into a measuring jug.

Kieron.

[kmoorman]

Up to 6 litres of petals now... will wait until I get 7.5 litres to make 5 gallons...

[benarnold]

Up to 6 litres of petals now... will wait until I get 7.5 litres to make 5 gallons...

Would anybody care to take a guess how many dandelion heads it takes to make up a litre of petals?

There are quite a few in the grass verges near me, but I imagine that I'd need a very large number of them!

[Mamgiowl]

I picked enough to make just over 250grm of petals only and that took about 500 flower heads picked over 3 days.

Yes, I know I'm a sad bugger, but the only way I could cope was to do it 50 at a time. And, yes, I did lose count, hence the 'about'.

[benarnold]

I picked enough to make just over 250grm of petals only and that took about 500 flower heads picked over 3 days.

Yes, I know I'm a sad bugger, but the only way I could cope was to do it 50 at a time. And, yes, I did lose count, hence the 'about'.

Thanks Mamgiowl,

That's even more than I was thinking, looks like I'll have to find a few more pieces of uncut grassland.

It's not sad; it's dedication

[kmoorman]

Thanks Mamgiowl,

That's even more than I was thinking, looks like I'll have to find a few more pieces of uncut grassland.

It's not sad; it's dedication

I've got no idea what 250g is, but from my back garden I can pick maybe 50 flowers, and that is about 1/2 litre of flower heads, and I use 1.5 litres per gallon.