Dandelion Wine

[medpretzel]

Well, I picked enough dandelions to make a gallon of wine.

250 gr. Dandelions
Water to 1 gallon
Sugar to SG of 1.080
1/2 cup rhubarb (fresh)
1 tsp nutrient
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp energiser

Will buy some grape juice (1 liter) for body tomorrow and add that.

Will be using FermiVin yeast (Lalvin 71B-1122 equivalent)

M.

[grandmawoods]

Have you made this recipe before? The rhubarb sounds like an interesting addition.

[Duffbeer]

Maria, is that 1/2 a cup of rhubarb juice or rhubarb pieces ?

[medpretzel]

1/2 cup pieces.

never added the rhubarb before, but have made dandelion wine a few times already.


Good stuff!

[medpretzel]

pitched the yeast last night (finally!).

[kmoorman]

pitched the yeast last night (finally!).

Did you let them steep before pitching the yeast?

Kieron.

[kmoorman]

I've always made a variant of Jack's No 1 wine - with very good results. However, this year I'm tempted to do a batch of mine

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...ead.php?t=1452

And 1 batch of Jack's no 30 and do a comparison...

however, where can I get Welch's 100% White Grape Juice frozen concentrate in the UK, or will normal Concentrate do?

Kieron.

[lockwood1956]

Normal concentrate will be fine

cheers
Bob

[kmoorman]

Normal concentrate will be fine

cheers
Bob

I imagine you doing some sort of Jedi trick when you say that.

[lockwood1956]

"these are not the droids you are looking for"

[kmoorman]

"these are not the droids you are looking for"

You can go on your way.

[lockwood1956]

hahaha

I intend to pick nore Dandelions today (or tomorrow) need to do some weeding etc in and among my vines

[lockwood1956]

I am going to try to get some racking done this weekend, and i had a sneak sniff of the dandelion wine this morning....it smells fab.

[Her Lushness]

Have you made dandelion before? This year is my 1st year for this, and mine smells pretty foul.

What should the finished wine taste like? and what colour would it be?

[Chris-S]

Have you made dandelion before? This year is my 1st year for this, and mine smells pretty foul.

What should the finished wine taste like? and what colour would it be?

I have bottled my 2007 brew this evening, but I'm considering pulling the corks and adding sweetner to it.
It's been a troubled brew, whick looked thick and smelled vile. The notes on the jar showed it was racked twice, filtered once and finally had finings added in Sept 2008. It used to stain my fingers yellow every time I touched it - nice yellow scum on top.
The finings cleared it and it's golden and beautifully clear now. Strong too (1104 down to 990 ... so about 15%), but way too dry. Quite a heavy, thick bouquet of dandelion ... you can tell I'm not sold on this. (I have another "unfettled" jar in the shed, where it might just stay)
The glass I have in front of me has been very much improved by some granulated sweetner I found in the kitchen cupboard, and I'm going to have pull the corks and add some to the bottles I've done tonight. Any ideas what is best to add? The stuff I have found is probably Aldi's best granualted aspartame and never having sweetened a wine before I don't know what the best stuff to add is.
Does it sound like it's come out as it should have?