Dandelion Wine

[alcopop]

• 3 qts dandelion flowers
• 1 lb golden raisins
• 2 lbs 7 ozs granulated sugar
• 2 lemon (juice and zest)
• 1 orange (juice and zest)
• 7 pts water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• all-purpose wine yeast

Set aside 1 pint of water and put the remainder on to boil. Meanwhile, wash flowers and trim away all stalk. Put flowers in primary and add boiling water. Stir and cover primary and set aside for no more than 3 days, stirring daily. Slowly pour contents through nylon straining bag into 1-gallon boiler and squeeze bag to extract all liquid. Add the sugar and zest of citrus and bring to low boil, holding for one hour. Return to primary, add citrus juice and recover. When cooled to room temperature, stir in yeast nutrient and add yeast. Recover and ferment 3 days. Strain into secondary, add raisins and fit airlock. After wine clears, rack, add reserved pint of water and any additional required top up and refit airlock. This wine should be racked every 2 months and bottled after 6-8 months and cellared another 6 months before drinking. [Adapted recipe from C.J.J. Berry's 130 New Winemaking Recipes]

I hope that someone can help I have followed the above recipe to the letter, but am confused about where it says "add raisins fit air lock" the next sentence "After wine clears" has me confused as with the raisins in it I have a layer at the top and another at the bottom.Should this not be racked/strained off and then left to clear?
Sorry that this has been a bit long winded.
Terry

[ms67]

i havent seen any recipes from this book until now, but i am a fan of Berry, so thanks for posting this.

i agree with you, its best if you dont let wines sit on heavy sediments for too long. i would rack once the fermentation has stopped, or all but stopped, then rack again when the next sediment is building up (and the wine is showing signs of clearing).

do you like the 130 new recipes? do you have "first steps ...." and if so do you recommend getting 130 new recipes to sit with it?

as a slight aside this recipe seems like quite a faff, i can only guess that the results justify it. If i were making it i would add the raisins at primary BUT have the flowers in muslin bags. After 3 days i would take the flowers out (easy as they are in a bag) and leave the raisins in primary for a further few days. Then strain into DJs for secondary. It may be that this would not leave the raisins in for long enough so it would be an partly experimental brew and the next time i may chop the raisins. similarly the flowers may also need a little longer (or more frequent stirring) unless they are loosely packed into a number of bags.

[alcopop]

Thanks for the reply. I will do as you suggest and rack off of the sediment at the weekend.
I have had my small taster and so far it is shaping up to be very good, not sure if to top up with water as in the recipe or WGJ because as you say it is best not to leave on the pulp/sediment for too long.
I found the recipe on one of the sites there were quite a few for dandelion I just happened to pick No5 as I had all of the ingredients.
By the way I put the raisins through the blender

Terry