0x0005 - Dandelion Wine

While Dandelion’s were nice and yellow, I decided to make some Dandelion Wine!

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2013-06-13

It’s spring, and what better way to celebrate it than to make some Dandelion Wine? Doesn’t that sound at least a little tasty?

The Recipe

Based on a Thrifty Gardening article, with few alterations.

Ingredients

Yield

About 1 gallon.

Process

  1. Pick dandelions and separate yellow bits
  2. Bring 1 gallon of water to boil
  3. Pour water over dandelion yellow bits, cover with a cloth, and let sit for 2 days to steep – like a tea!
  4. Add sugar and citrus zest
  5. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes
  6. Let cool to room temperature
  7. Pour into a gallon jug
  8. Pour citrus juice into jug
  9. Pour yeast into jug
  10. Put an airlock on the jug and let sit until fermentation is done and liquid has cleared
  11. Bottle and age for at least 6 months, 1 year or more preferred

Notes

  1. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time getting ALL of the green bits separated from the yellow bits, but I don’t think it’ll affect flavor to much in the end. I hope.
  2. There’s a diagram that shows mostly the same process with pictures! yay!

Pictures and Progress!

First, I picked the dandelion bits (with Jess’ help), and tried to separate the yellow bits from the green bits… but I still had a lot of green!

Step 1: Pick the Dandelion Yellow Bits (mostly)
Step 1: Pick the Dandelion Yellow Bits (mostly)

Next, I boiled the dandelion (mostly) yellow bits.

Step 2: Boil those bits!
Step 2: Boil those bits!

And then, the dandelion bits steeped for 2 days.

Step 3: Steep those bits!
Step 3: Steep those bits!

Then, the steeped mixture had the sugar and citrus added, it was boiled for 10 minutes, cooled to room temp (somewhere around 76°F), then strained and poured into the gallon jug. The citrus juice and yeast were pitched, and then the airlock was added:

Step 4: A bunch of stuff!
Step 4: A bunch of stuff!

And 3 weeks later, fermetation has mostly stopped, and now I wait to let it settle a bit before bottling it, and then age it for a year.

Step 5: 3 weeks in the bottle
Step 5: 3 weeks in the bottle