SkylerChaBro

Recipes 

My girlfriend and I were curious about making dandelion wine. While I can find many recipes for the wine, I want to know where to get dandelions. I would figure (from brewing beer) that you can't just pick them as they will most likely have wild yeasts and bacteria found in nature on them. If we wanted to make this how would we get it's main ingredient, or sterilize it without destroying it?

Maybe wine works differently than brewing.

Thanks,

Mark K.

Revvy

Recipes 

Yooper's got a recipe on here. And I trust her

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/dandelion-wine-21095/

There's also a basic brewing podcast as well on the subject.

You have a long cold winter to learn as much about it as possible, don't think we'll be seeing them in Michigan for awhile.

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Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

Yooper

Recipes 

The key for dandelions is to pick them on a bright sunny day, while they are fully open. Then, sit in the shade and remove the yellow petals from the green calyxes. (The green part is very bitter). I like to freeze the petals in a ziploc bag until I have enough for a batch.

You don't have to worry about wild yeast/bacteria/ etc. Yes, I'm sure it's there, just like it is on everything we use for wine. But, I use campden tablets and I also use boiling water on the petals. It's not a concern at all. I use many fruits and flowers for wine and there are ways to prevent wild contaminations.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

SkylerChaBro

Recipes 

Looks like I missed that in my search, probably misspelled dandelion, thanks Revvy.

With freezing rain and and sleet coming down since yesterday, I'm sure we won't be seeing them for a nice long time as well. Gives me plenty of time to read up and make a few brews before hand.

I was thinking that the boiling water may be too much for the petals. I have only tried a couple beers so wine would also be pretty new for me. My girlfriend

*Lame alert*
When I was much younger I would go out into the yard and pick dandelions for mah mawm, because I was such an awesome son. When I tried to remember the flower I remember them being somewhat delicate and thought boiling water would possibly destroy the petal.

Thanks for the advice Yooper.

will_cbe

Recipes 

Wild yeast is not what you need to worry about, it's pesticides and weed killers. I'm considering growing a bunch of dandelions on my front porch so that I can have a supply that isn't contaminated.

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Will
www.comicsbyemail.com
Fermenting: Blackberry Wine
Aging: Mulberry Wine, Mint Mead, Dandelion Wine, Mesquite Mead
Drinking: Apfelwein
On Hand: Peach Mango Wine, Huck's Cider, Mulberry Mead, Orange Spice Mead, Cyser, Apfelwein, Maple Cinnamon Mead, Hard Cider, Brown Sugar Cider

SkylerChaBro

Recipes 

Yeah that was a cause for concern as well. We know of a few fields out in BFE Michigan that we may be able to use and are not maintained. Maybe those would work?

guscampag

Recipes 

Working on a 5-gallon batch of dandeliion wine per Yoopers/Jack Keller recipe. Ready for the boiling/add lemons phase tonight after work. Had a couple of questions. As far as peeling the lemons and oranges. Do you just use a potato peeler or something or a cheese grater and put the zest in? (I think that's what they call it.)

Also what kind of yeast would be good? Montrachet? I hope-that's what I have on hand. But I could run by the LHB store today if I need to. I'm lucky to have one close by!

Comment-Wow it really was a lot of work to clean those dandeliions. My thumbs were really sore afterwards. I hope this is some good stuff! Never had it before. I'll ake sure to let it age before I try it.

Thanks for any input.

Gus

Yooper

Recipes 

Dandelions are a TON of work- I can't even get my best friend to help any more, even though I bribe her with wine. But trust me- it's worth it!

I use only the colored part of the zest- no white pith which is very bitter. I actually have a little tool that looks like a vegetable peeler called a "zester" which helps alot. You can peel the fruit, and scrape off the white part off of the back of the peel with a knife.

Montrachet will work just fine.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

guscampag

Recipes 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm hoping for the best. I am following the recipe. Only I used only 10 quarts of dandelion petals instead of 15. I'm thinking it should be okay because Jack Keller says he has actually only made this recipe with less dandelions than the 3 quarts per gal called for. I see a lot of the other recipes call for 2. Anyway, I could not have possibly picked or cleaned any more dandelions!

I made the mistake of trying to freeze some the week before, but I guess I should have read the post a little closer. Apparently, you need to seperate the flowers from the calyx, etc FIRST. I didn't seem possible to do anything with the frozen mess. So I had to repick another bucket. My thumbs weren't the only thing hurting. The ole back was a little tired, too.

I'll need to pick up 5 lbs of golden raisins on the way home.

Maybe next I'll try a batch of rhubarb. Need to keep something in those carboys over the summer, I guess.

Gus

will_cbe

Recipes 

Yooper, what type of raisins do you use? Purple raisins or golden raisins?

__________________
Will
www.comicsbyemail.com
Fermenting: Blackberry Wine
Aging: Mulberry Wine, Mint Mead, Dandelion Wine, Mesquite Mead
Drinking: Apfelwein
On Hand: Peach Mango Wine, Huck's Cider, Mulberry Mead, Orange Spice Mead, Cyser, Apfelwein, Maple Cinnamon Mead, Hard Cider, Brown Sugar Cider