Have You Ever Tried Dandelion Wine?
Homebrewers love some dandelion wine, don’t they? It’s not the most common drink but it is more widely circulated than most would expect.
These flowers have been known to make appearances during any time of year but we have now reached the point where their presence is most pronounced. From the end of March to the beginning of May, they seem to be everywhere!
Lawns, roadsides, fields, the possibilities are endless. If you are outside for more than five minutes during this time of year without seeing any, we have to question where you are looking. All jokes aside, this is the perfect time of year to make some dandelion wine and we are here to provide you with all of the tools that you need to get started.
The items that you are going to need to make it are as follows:
– Enough dandelion petals to loosely fill up a gallon size container
– 4.5 liters of water
– 1.5 kilograms of sugar
– four lemons’ worth of juice and zest
– 500 grams of chopped, squashed, and pounded raisins (can be subbed for a 200 milliliter can of white grape juice concentrate)
– One sachet of white wine yeast and yeast nutrient
To get started, boil the water and pour it over the petals. Cover the mixture and leave it for a couple of days, although you will need to stir it up occasionally.
Grab a large saucepan and pour the mixture in. Then, it is time for you to add the lemon zest. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir the sugar in until it has a chance to dissolve. Give the boil another five minutes to continue. Then, it is time to take off the heat and add the lemon juice to the equation. The crushed raisins or grape juice concentrate must also be added.
Use a Campden tablet to thoroughly clean the fermenting bucket before pouring in the mix. Cover the bucket until it cools. Add the yeast nutrient, yeast, and cover. Give the mixture three or four days to ferment. Transfer it into a demijohn next, with the use of a funnel and a sterilized sieve. Fit a bubble trap and allow for a couple more months of fermentation. Rack it off into a fresh demijohn, leave until it is clear then bottle it up!
Yum!