Dandelions

[oldbloke]

Blimey, it takes a while to snip the petals off a gallon of dandelion heads! And you only get about 1/4 gallon of petals out of it!
Currently infusing.
Onto sugar solution on Tuesday night.
I assume a white wine yeast, unless anybody knows better?

 

[fermentall]

hi OB white wine yeast or champagne,even general purpose wine yeast will be ok :

 

[oldbloke]

I have several recipes hereabouts, some have oranges and/or lemons in, some don't. Thought i might just chuck in a tsp of citric powder. Any advice?

 

[Moley]

You don't need to snip all the petals off, just remove any stalk and use the whole heads.

Powdered citric might be a poor substitute, the recipe I've used called for the orange & lemon zest as well as the juice.

 

[oldbloke]

Saw some really nice oranges in Costco today, so they can go in. They're the tastiest oranges I've had for ages - but I can only eat 1 a day and it was a tray of 12.
Might do another gallon without all the snipping, and using the more instant recipe I have instead of the 2 day infusion first, for comparison. Not like there's a shortage of dandelions round here - or demijohns!

 

[oldbloke]

Just pitched the yeast.
When I was dissolving the sugar earlier there was t'missus's morning teapot handy so chucked in a few Tbsp of tea for tannin, and zest of 2 large oranges.
Juice of the oranges went into the sugarwater when it had cooled a bit, with the dandelion infusion.

 

[oldbloke]

1st gallon of dandelion racked today, tastes pretty good, but the lees got badly stirred up - very light, this stuff - so it needs another good rest to clear again. I was going to give it at least another month in the demi anyway. Plus it started bubbling again, though the hydrometer claimed it was bottlable.

 

[golder247]

That all sounds quite delicious, I may have to give that a try.

 

[oldbloke]

Well it cleared quite quickly in the end so I bottled it and racked the 2nd dandelion wine.
We had a bottle with Sunday dinner and even with no aging it was very good.
I'll definitely make more of that.

 

[Sean_Mc]

I read theres more vitamins in dandelions than any fruit recently....can't remember where though :wha:

 

[suzie]

I made dandelion wine back in April. It finished fermenting after 3 weeks. I stabilised it and racked it off then degassed it. I have racked it again since then. Its very cloudy, more than other wines I have made. Also when I was racking it I had a little taste. It tastes of alcohol and no other flavour coming through. Is this right? I will leave it in the DJ until its very clear and not drink it until its at least a year old but am I wasting my DJ space if it has no dandelion taste?

 

[oldbloke]

What was your recipe? Mine had a touch of tea and juice and zest of a couple of large oranges, and a great deal of the flavour I have may come from them as much as the dandelions for all I know.

 

[suzie]

I cant find my notes but I think it was a litre of dandelion heads, sugar, citric acid, grape concentrate, a cup of strong tea, yeast and nutrient. No lemons or oranges.

 

[oldbloke]

The citric will be equivalent to the orange. Seems a bit low on actual dandelions. I think I may have a little too much tea in mine, but it should mellow, it's very young yet

 

[suzie]

I will leave it in the dj until it has completely cleared then will try it as I bottle it. I am hoping that it will improve after a yr or so

 

[oldbloke]

Yeh, I've heard so many "we put it in the cupboard and forgot about it" stories I've decided nothing counts as failed until it's 10 years old.