Here is the recipie from a book by Francis Pinnegar called "Wine making at home"
It is close to the traditional recipie I found on the internet, copied from a pamphlet from the 1920's.The people who put it on the internet said we do not stand by this method.I have tried it so it does work:
You need for one gallon of Dandelion wine:
All purpose yeast (says wine yeast starter)
1.5 teaspoons citric acid
2.25 litres/4 pints of dandelion flowers
a lemon
1 yeast nutrient tablet
1/4 teaspoon grape tannin
cooled boiled water
The wine needs a sugary base.The book says:
1.5 kilos/3lb sugar
1.5 teaspoons citric acid
900 ml/1.5 pints water
The method is boil 3litres/5 pints of water. Put the dandelion flowers in a plastic pail.Macerate them with a wooden spoon, and then pour the boiled water onto them.Leave in the pail for 2-3 days only, stirring daily.
Make the Sugar Syrup as above.Allow to cool down.The must (the flower/water mix) needs straining through a fine nylon sieve into a clean pail.Add the sugar syrup, the lemon rind, and juice, then the yeast. Cover and leave for seven days in a warm place to ferment.
After seven days it needs Sieving into a fermentation Jar, top it up to the 4.5litre/1 gallon mark with cool boiled water and fit fermentation lock.
Allow to ferment untill clear then rack (draw the wine off with tubing leaving any dead yeast at the bottom).This needs repeating three months after that, then bottle it two months later.
He says it is drinkable in nine months.Last years Dandelion wine is 7 months old now, clearing in colour, and not bitter.
I measured the pints of flower heads in the glass.
NB The wine is made with the flower petals, not the leaves or stems as they are bitter tasting.
Some recipies suggest a few flower heads with the green bits left on for wine body. Three quarters of mine is just petals!
I have not used any tablets he mentioned.I also used oranges and lemons, to give the citric acid and a nice flavour along with dandelion wine taste.I substituted 100 grams of Raisins for grape tannin.I also have added black tea to the wine.
The original recipie just used normal ingredients.No chemical additives were listed.I used a cider flagon as a fermentation jar, and yeast from the cupboard.
I hope it inspires you who want to try it out, and discover what our grandparents knew about home wine making, traditional country wines. :)
3 comments:
Thanks for the recipe David. I'm goning to give it a try if I can find enough dandelions.
I'll put my recipe on making elderberry blossom champagne on my blog soon because to my surprise my elderberries are starting to flower already. They are 1 month earlier than usual.
Thanks Yolanda elizebet I will look forward to it.Hope you try out the recipie.You can also google it too, and get as complicated as you want.I wanted to make old fashioned country wine with traditional ingredients.:)
Interesting! I never try to eat flowers! I wonder how it taste. Anyway, thanks for sharing this post. I will try to make something like this.
-yumi-
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