dandelion wine

[darren64]

hi I'm thinking of makeing some dandelion wine,but is it ok to freeze the flower heads until I have got the required amount.

 

[oldbloke]

Should be fine, but it doesn't take long to collect enough for a gallon. Fill a gallon bucket with heads and you're there. About half an hour if you have a 7yr old to help.
Although... We thought this year I might try more than a gallon of heads for a gallon of wine.
Doesn't half stain...

 

[ingypingy2]

About half an hour if you have a 7yr old to help.

I remember being 7 and sent out to the fields with my friends to pick dandelions and clovers for the folks to make wine with.....I hated it!!.......with this in mind, I am strongly considering sending my 7 and 9 year olds out for the very same thing lol!!! :) Can anyone recommend a good recipe for either? :)

 

[oldbloke]

Thinking we might use more dandelions per gallon this year, but this is what we did last year:

2011-04-17
Picked a gallon of dandelion heads, giving about 1/3 gallon of petals.
(also did one where just made sure there was no stalk rather than no green stuff at all, came out just as good)
Left to steep in bucket filled to about half gallon level with boiled&cooled water, with campden tablet
2011-04-19
Dissolved 3lb sugar in 1.5l water heated in large pan.
Zest of 2 large oranges grated in. 3 or 4 Tbsp of cold tea added.
Juiced oranges, added via strainer.
Strained in dandelion infusion
Left to cool to pitching temperature.
Strained into fermenting vessel (to lose orange zest)
Added nutrient, pitched yeast (Young's all purpose white)
2011-06-07
Racked, some sediment stirred up and transferred.
Hydrometer says dry, sneak taste says pleasant white, very slightly sweet
2011-06-19
Bottled. Very pleasant wine.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I spent a lot of time last summer digging up dandelions in next door's 'lawn' in a vain attempt to stop them recolonising neighbouring lawns which I had almost cleared. But the roots are up to 12 inches deep, and you only have to leave a tiny piece to produce an even more vigourous plant. But I need not have bothered. The neighbour's kids and their friends have taken up football and turned the whole area into a muddy morasse where no plant can survive. Analogies with wild pigs belies my attitude to the 'beautiful game.' The idea of spending ages seperating petals from these pestilential plants for a few bottles of insipid wine beggars belief!

 

[Devonhomebrew]

if a plant has a use it isnt a weed in my altomant grass is a weed but in feild it is the crop its down to how you look at things dandelions make a fantastic wine so they arnt a weed to me.

 

[oldbloke]

It wasn't insipid, it was very nice. Doesn't take long to snip off the stems.
And it's medicinal! Can't remember what it cures though...
You can make "coffee" out of the roots, too (if you're quite mad)

 

[Dtothe3]

1 x gallon of dandelion heads per gallon of wine.
1 lemon
1 orange
3lb x sugar
6 pints of boiling water
Cuppa strong tea
Yeast & nutrient

Pick the flower heads on a sunny day and do NOT freeze. Freezing will mess with the cell structure of the dandelion heads and you won't get a decent wine.

Rinse the heads, put in a bucket with the juice of the fruit along with the peel (no pith). Add the tea and cover with the boiling water. Macerate (gently crush the heads against the side of the bucket). Add a bit of sodium mitabisulphate and leave for ten days in a warm place. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient (starter bottle is a good idea) and leave for a further three days (dont forget to cover the bucket).

Strain into a demi john and carry on as normal.

- Easy Made Wine & Country Drinks, by Gennery-Taylor

This is the first wine I made and it was great. These days I would consider making up a 4 gallon lot and topping it up with grape juice to the 5 gallon mark (using what I've read on this forum anyway).