Making Dandelion Wine the Morgan Way

Dandelions harvested from my yard in Lawrenceburg, IN around August 2006. I remember searching the Internet for a good tutorial on this. Sure, there's a lot of recipes on the net, but I want pictures and a clear explanation of each step. I also wanted the technical information like what should my starting SG (specific gravity) be and at what stages should I move on to the next. Since I couldn't find one, I thought I'd go ahead and put together my own Dandelion Wine page with this info for all you wine-makers who give a crap.

You'll need the Basic 10 and I'll note anything else you will need throughout this tutorial. That said, let's proceed...

Harvest some dandelions:

Grab the best that you can find. See side-bar notes (at right). Involve the kids. It's a real help to get the littlin's out there to help harvest all the yellow tops they can find. Earier in the morning until about noon, you will find the dandelions opened to their peak. Get the biggest ones you can. It'll come in handy when it comes time to prep them for the wine.

You'll notice that I gave mine a basic washing before I separated the yellow from the green. I'm undecided about doing this before-hand. When I washed mine, the yellow flower immediately wilted and many of them even closed up some. Both made it more difficult to do the separation.

 

Separate the Yellow from Green:

You've probably heard it before... GET ALL THE GREEN OUT. Leaving in any green, even a little bit will contibute to a more bitter wine. We are fermenting out the flavor from the yellow part of the dandelion only. Anything you put in the primary fermentation vessle will contribute to the taste, so no green. It's a tedious process separating the flower but will be worth it in the end. There's an art to fermenting that is beyond the scope of this article (but you may find it elsewhere on my page in the future)

Here is the best way that found to separate the yellow part of the flower from the green. Pay close attention, cause it could save you hours.This process allowed me to pick the yellow from the flower in about 1-2 seconds per flower. Add that to the bucket you have and it's a "Make yourself a drink, sit in the front yard and grab your wife to help" type of process. Really, my wife and I were able to separate the bucket that you see in about 3 hours and it yielded about 12 cups of YELLOW that this particular recipe is calling for. If you have a better way, please email me and let me know and I'll be sure to extend credit to you. Here's the technique and again, I think it would be better to do this on dry, unwashed flowers, just after picking.

Hold the dandelion between your index finger and thumb right on the "bulb" part of the green. This is just below where the yellow flower enters the green bulb. Squeeze/mash it tightly and give it a twist at the same time. The yellow will fan out and almost push out of the green. With your other thumb and index finger, get a pinch on as much as the yellow as you can and pull it out. there will be some left in the flower. It is my opinion that you should just toss it with the green. Trying to get it out will only bring back in some green and you'll just have to separate it later. If you get one good pinch of yellow for each flower, you're doing good and your process will be shortened significantly.

If it sounds like we talked a LOT about separating the yellow part of a dandelion from the green, pick you a pail and sit down and try it and you will know what I mean. I am all about process, so if this process helps one person, GREAT, sign my guestbook and tell me about it.

 

Celebrate the Separation:

Okay party people, we should now have a nice container of yellow dandelion flowers. Again, involving the kids, mine felt the need to run their hands through it a little. That's ok. The fermentation process does wonders. This is also the reason I would consider NOT washing the flowers before the separation. They are easier to work withdry. Wine makers joke that you can ferment ANYTHING. My dad always joked about making a batch of wine by fermenting his laundry :) Well, I'll stick to things like berries and dandelions and I'll also let the kids handle them up a little cause it's such a great experience.

Hannah was the official dandelion-getter. When we needed more, she'd hand them over. In the end, she got to caress the warez for a while. Ya see the little particles of green in the jar?You want to get that out of there before adding to the must. Again, a good task for the kids if they have a little desire. Some people would say ahhh... let it be, but with the work that was involved, forget it, all the green is coming out as I want only the sweetest part of the dandelion for this brew.

 

The Ingredients:

11-12 cups of dandelion flowers
1 gallon BOILING HOT water
2 lemons (zest and juice)
2 oranges (zest and juice)
1.5 lbs of sugar
1 can frozen Welchs White Grape Juice
3 tsp yeast nutrient
2 tsp pectic enzyme
1.5 tsp tannin
Yeast (experiment with differnt strains here)

I decided to use a Champagne yeast because of the characteristics of the fermenting it does. Not all yeast is the same.There is so much and I like to try something different each time. Montrachet is considered a "killer yeast" which has an aggressive fermentation. The other yeasts that I considered was Premiere Cuvee and Cotes de blanc. Premiere Cuvee seems to be the all-purpose yeast. I've never gone wrong with it. You'll have to decide what you will eventually use. I have to admit, my education in yeast in an ongoing process.

Optional: Raisans, dates, figs, sultanas

Yes, the raisans (or any of the above fruits) add the body that dandelion wine seems to lack. I've had dandelion wine where only dandelions were used and it was something close to water. Maybe someone has done something successfully with only dandelions. If so, I'd like to know. Use your imagination.I used raisans.

 

Preparing the Must:

Don't let the dandelion flowers sit around for anything longer then a day (put them in the fridge and leave them uncovered ONLY if you have to,) but it's better to prepare it and get it into your primary asap so it doesn'tbegin to mold. You'll find these flowers are delicate and are already wilting by the time you get them inside. Once inside, you will want to go through all your yellow mixture carefully and pick out any green stems and things that made it past you the first time. I laid mine out on the counter and spread it out to make it easier to see. Again, for this recipe, you want about 11 cups of dandelion yellow flowers.

While you are picking out the green, get a large pot and and put a little over a gallon of water on to boil. We want a gallon, but add more for evaporation. Get it BOILING HOT. While you are waiting for the boil, shave the zest off the lemons and oranges and get itready to add to the mixture. After I shaved off the zest... which was the entire outsides of the lemons and oranges, I cut them in half, tossed them into my lemon press and squeezed out the juice and set it aside. Then, I took any large chunks of pulp from the lemons and oranges and put it in the juice.Normally, I may have took everything and threw it in, but since this is a delicate wine, we want to keep the bitter rhines out this time.

Ok. Got that water boiling.... add in your dandelion flowers... stir real good. Dump in the zest from the lemons and oranges, then dump in the juice and pulp chunks. Add in the frozen can of Welchs White Grape Juice Concentrate and all the sugar. Adding the sugar while it is hot will help dissolve it. Keep it boiling for as long as it take syou to add all the ingredients.

Now, most recipes I saw said to put all this in a straining bags and tie it off before either dumping the water through it ordropping the bag in the boiling water. I say horse poop on all that. I throw things right into the mix and I strain things off during my racking processes. I like this because it give the yeast some substance to chew one. Chunks of pulp, whatever... I like it all free-ballin' in the must and I also like to see it floating in my secondary. Stir it all up. It should start cooking down into a beautiful brothy, pulpy-looking mess like the picture on the right (just below the measuring bowl of lemon/orange zest.) This is about 7 minutes or so.

 

Setting aside for a day:

That's all for today. Turn off your heat, leave it covered and let it sit on the stove all night to cool. Don't open it... let it stew there as long as it may. WE HAVE NOT ADDED THE YEAST YET. That will happen tomorrow when the must has cooled to 65-75° F.

 

Adding the Yeast:

The next day, you will uncover it, dump it all into your primary fermentation vessel. I'm using a 3-gallon crock for this batch, but you can use a sanitized 5-gallon bucket or another vessel that you may have laying around. Add in the yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme and tannin. Maybe you'll want to top it up a bit with some more water. I wanted to get 2-3 gallons. You don't want to dilute your must too much. You can leave as is, or you can add some more water. I added more water as I planned to sugar-feed the must for a period of 2-3 weeks. Sugar-feeding is the act of making a thick, syrupy water-sugar mixture (or even better, a mixture of sugar and part of your original must) and watching your SG (specific gravity) closely.

You measure specific gravity using a hydrometer. A hydrometer measures the density of a liquid as compared to water. Water has a constant SG of 1.000. Before I added my yeast, I took a measurement to get the SG of my must. It was 1.700. As the yeast eats the sugar (producing alcohol) the SG will lower closer to 1.000. Right about when it reaches 1.100 or so, I will suger-feed the must with my syrup mixture to give that yeast something to chomp on. Sugar-feeding has helped me better control my alcohol content and I like to be sure I end up with wine and not something like dandelion juice. Experience makes perfect. I highly recommend, if you are serious about making wine, getting a book with the basics.

Take at LEAST 2 SG readings during your process. One should be taken before fermentation starts, the second should be taken at fermentations end. Subtracting your second reading from the first reading will give you your percent of alcohol.

So, by adding sugar, kick that SG up before adding the yeast. Making sure the must has a solid 75° F temperature (storing the must at room temperature for 12 hours or so will do it),then add your yeast. Give it all a stir and cover it up. Some will say cover it with plastic wrap, but initially, I wet a towel down and cover the crock with it. I rewet the towel daily as I check to be sure fermentation has begun.

After 3-4 days (or when your SG is around 1.100, rack into your secondary fermentation vessel. I am using a 3-Gallon US Glass Carboy. I enjoy watching my liquor clear.

Leave it in the carboy until fermentation is completely finished. Rack it again and let it sit for 2 months.

After 2 months, rack once more and then bottle. From here, I visited our friend and mentor, Jack Keller's website and looked at his recipes. He stated on one recipe to let the wine age six months in the bottle before tasting, and that it would " improve remarkably" if allowed a year.

That all said, I saved several bottles that are still aging in the cellar. I have since been drinking this wine and it is delicious.

Good luck to you. Please let me know of any suggestion, comments, or if you stopped by. I hope this has helped you make a great batch of dandelion wine.

 

Just an update (after 1 year)

Letting my particular dandelion wine sit for a year did not do it much liberty. It developed a "musty" smell and taste that I can only attribute to perhaps not having it sulfited as much as I should have. Iwill pay more attention to the sulfite levels at bottling and suggest you do the same if you want this wine to sit and age properly.