Inspired by comments on one of my earlier posts I have decided to have a go at making dandelion wine. In the comments on the post I was given a recipe which I have mostly followed but with slight deviation; This was mainly due to being unable to find one of the ingredients but fingers crossed it'll be ok.
The first step I took was to collect the dandelion heads. Due to the time of year and the abundance of them on my lawn, this step didn't take too long. The recipe asks for 6 pints of dandelion heads but I only managed 3 pints, although they where packed quite tight into the pint glass so will assume I have picked enough for the recipe. If I haven't picked enough then the only downside I can see is that it won't taste as much of dandelion as it's supposed to; Having no base for comparison, due to not having tasted dandelions, I will continue with the recipe as normal.
 |
| Lawn covered in dandelions |
The next step (once I had washed my pollen stained hands) was to pour boiling water (7 pints approx) over the dandelions and let them sit in a cupboard for 48 hours out of the way. At this point they started to have a not entirely pleasant smell about them.
After leaving them for 48 hours they really had a smell to them, again not pleasant. The next step was to peel 2 lemons and 1 orange, trying not to get the white pith in. The peel was placed in a large pan along with the dandelion mix and 3lbs of sugar then brought to the boil for 10 minutes (it took about 15 minutes to get to boil). After taking it off the heat I squeezed the juice from the peeled lemons and orange in and added 1 litre of red grape juice (this is where I deviated from the recipe provided; The original recipe asks for white grape juice not red). It was then left to cool. |
| Pan of dandelions and peel (pond water) |
Upon returning from a rather unsuccessful walk, the baby cried for most of it, I carried on with the next step. I added a heaped teaspoon of pectolase and a heaped teaspoon of yeast nutrients then gave a good stir. Pectolase helps breakdown plant matter and clear the wine and nutrients are to give the yeast food to help it get going better. After I had given it a good stir I added the wine yeast and covered with cling film. It now needs to be kept covered for 4-5 days, stirring daily. After 4-5 days I will transfer the liquid into a demijohn with airlock to ferment.
 |
| Garden after dandelions were picked |
When I left for work this morning it looked as though fermentation had started but only slowly at the moment.
Don't be discouraged when transferring to a demijohn. Mine, at that stage, looked less 'vibrant yellow' and more 'vomit green' with a bit of scum floating on top. However, this settled pretty quickly and the colour is now an attractive mustard. I'll be interested to know how the red grape juice affects the colour - probably it will send it more orangy.
ReplyDeleteIt does look a bit grim at the moment but I will stick at it. All the flower heads are now floating on the top due to the fermentation. Gave it a good stir earlier and it was almost like fizzy pop! I forgot to include the cup of black tea in my method but this did get added at same time as the pectolase. I will add pictures of it when it's put in demijohn. Should be bottling my mead soon so will have more spare demijohns so may start another JAO mead if I can get hold of more honey.
ReplyDelete