Dandelion Metheglin - Page 2

brandonjonesVW · 11-30-2009, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kauai_Kahuna

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Find some girls around and teach them the "He loves me, he loves me not" thing and have them put the petals into a bucket for good luck.

Hopefully you can get around the child labour laws with that.

It looks really great, just a few things I noticed. Zesting to me is just taking tiny little flakes. I would call what you did peeling. Not a problem as long as you had no pith (white stuff) attached to the skins.
I just wish I could get good honey here, and forget about Dandelion's.
Best of luck and thanks for posting the pictures and recipe.

Yes, I basically peeled the fruits, removing all of the pith manually with a knife. Like I said, I took my time. It was most likely unnecessary to take it that far, but I wanted as much of the citrus to extract as possible in the boil.

Sniffs from the airlock provide a nice hit of citrus with an equally fruity hit (think Fruity pebbles + citrus). Fermentation has been pretty strong from the get-go.

brandonjonesVW · 12-05-2009, 04:08 AM

Lot's of bubbling with this one! Smells amazing.

Good deal of sediment allready too. It's churning a good deal around in the murky depths.

Bacchus · 12-05-2009, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LightningInABottle

I read that you are not supposed to put any green parts of the dandelion into the mix. It looks like you got some geens in the fermenter. Hopefully it comes out ok.

I've "read" and "heard" lots of stuff about brewing, brother. Experience has taught me that most of it was false or just someone's opinion.

Teromous · 12-05-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bacchus

I've "read" and "heard" lots of stuff about brewing, brother. Experience has taught me that most of it was false or just someone's opinion.

True, but don't dicount everything you hear. Sometimes you might just be lucky enough to not find out why a person recommends something.

brandonjonesVW · 12-07-2009, 05:17 PM

I do know that the green parts from the dandelion are extremely bitter, especially this late in the year. Taking account for the volume of petals versus a few green bits that might have been missed, as well as the length of aging, I would say that the bittering effect will be next to nil. Waiting a year is nearly as much of a test in patience as it was collecting & picking all those flowers.

LightningInABottle · 12-08-2009, 01:34 AM

Let us know how it comes out! It looks good so far. I can't wait till spring. We have used any lawn chemicals in years and I look forward to putting my yellow friends to use.

Quote:

I've "read" and "heard" lots of stuff about brewing, brother. Experience has taught me that most of it was false or just someone's opinion.

Have you made a batch with the greens included? I have researched 3 wine recipes and they all say the key it to not have any green bits. I imagine it is the same for mead. I haven't read yooper recipe but intend to before I make mine.

nbspindel · 12-08-2009, 01:41 AM

what's a metheglin? i've been considering a dandelion beer. Think its possible? i'm still pretty fresh so wouldnt even know where to start off to make a good dandelion beer, but sometime in the future i will.

Matrix4b · 12-08-2009, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nbspindel

what's a metheglin? i've been considering a dandelion beer. Think its possible? i'm still pretty fresh so wouldnt even know where to start off to make a good dandelion beer, but sometime in the future i will.

A metheglin is a mead style, much like porter is a beer style. What it means is a mead that is flavored with spice. Melomel is a mead flavored with fruit.

Technically, this mead should be called a Rhondel which is a mead flavored with flowers.

I suppose you could make a beer with dandelion. It might be a bit bitter, suppose you could cut back on the hops on it a bit. Should be tasty if done right.

The main diffrence is clasification here.

Wine= fermented fruit (possibly sweetened with honey only).

Mead= fermented honey. The active fermenting agent is honey.

Beer= fermented grain. The sweetness comes from the sweet starches of grains. I think a defining characteristic is that it has hops as a bittering agent in it.

Braggot = fermented grain and honey. Sort of a combination of beer and mead.

There are many other styles but that is the basics.

The Dandilion metheglin looks good. How much sweetness are you going for here. I have heard dandilion wine is very dry.

brandonjonesVW · 12-08-2009, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrix4b

The Dandilion metheglin looks good. How much sweetness are you going for here. I have heard dandilion wine is very dry.

All the dry recipes I found call for 3 lbs of sugar & a high alcohol tolerant yeast. I made a mistake by not taking an OG reading, but the EC-1118 should ferment this to dryness.

The "tea" I made from the dandelions, orange peel & lemon peel smelled pretty darn good. I'm sure it could be used as a flavoring for beer. You would definitely have to have a lot of dandelions for a 5 gallon batch of beer though. It took me a couple of months, collecting 10-20 flowers out of my yard every couple days.

brandonjonesVW · 12-21-2009, 05:46 PM

Coming up on 1 month in the primary & this is still bubbling steadily. Accumulated approximately 1/2" sediment in the bottom. The golden raisins have little colonies of yeast on them, munching away. I might rack after Christmas & add some more yeast nutrient.