A blog originally for keeping track of my hobby of being a Beekeeper which has evolved to include Home Brewing and even more recently to follow me and my families approach to "The Good Life". Eventually I hope to include baking recipes and stories of our flock of chickens also reporting on the success and failure at the allotments.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Dandelion Wine Fermenting

After leaving the dandelion brew for 4-5 days in a covered bowl it was time to put it in a demijohn for fermenting. I used a sieve to scoop off as much of the dandelion "debris" as possible and then poured the remaining liquid through the sieve a few times for good measure. 




I then poured the remaining liquid into a demijohn (in this case a 3 litre dilute pop bottle). Before the dilute pop bottle I used a larger glass demijohn but this was too large for the amount of liquid I had. At this point I was panicking slightly as I have used the same amount of sugar as I should have used for a larger batch, meaning there is a higher sugar content. This will mean a sweeter wine which is no problem! At this point I should have taken a S.G. reading so I could work out the alcohol level at the end but didn't have time so will play it blind.



The next day I had a look at the mix and am happy to report that it is bubbling away quite happily. Now I need to wait a couple of months before racking the wine, then maybe another rack followed by bottling the wine and finally leaving for upto a year to develop. I will update as I go!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update - looking good so far. I had never thought about scooping the floating flowers (or fruit or whatever in cases of other wines) before sieving it all out into a demijohn. This may be the way forward - and I shall try with my rhubarb wine, which is currently in its bucket, tomorrow.

    Oh, I start work in Wakefield on Monday. Hurrah.

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  2. Congratulations on the job. I wish I'd saved some rhubarb from my dads allotment to make some more wine! He had loads but not sure if he has any left.

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