Dandelion Wine - Ginger Clove

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CidahMastah

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This recipe is a compilation of recipes I read from all over, and techniques I read from all over. I tried to find the original one that I took most of the guidance from to give credit, but could not. A thousand pardons....

UPDATED - for clarity

My experience with this recipe yielded a very nice light white wine with floral and slightly spicy ginger and clove notes (not at all overbearing, they round out the finish and are slight but add complexity). I would not characterize this as a "fruity" tasting wine. Depending on your sugar, something between a Pinot Grisio/Riesling/muscat (from dry to sweet).

Makes one gallon (5 bottles)

Ingredients:
1 gallon water
2qts loosely packed dandelion tops (no green) - will get a gram weight this year.
4 cups sugar (confirm with hydrometer that this gives you roughly 1.110 S.G.)
NOTE: I did S.G. of 1.130 and ended with a F.G. of 1.024 (13.91%ABV) Yeast fermented out to failure and left a residual sweetness I was targeting for (1.020-1.025) for a muscat sweet wine
(depending on your ABV desired)
2 Oranges
1 Lemon
1 Lime
1/2 tsp ground ginger
8 Clovers (whole)
1/2 packet Yeast (I used Cotes de Blanc)
1/4 tsp Yeast nutrient
3 Camden tablets

1. Add water and flower petals into a container and cover (put in the sun for 2-3 days) -i.e. make a sun tea with dandelion petals.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients in a HD bucket. Include the flower petals and the fruit peels.
a. Hand juice the fruits and throw in the skins
b. mix well so sugar is integrated.
3. If you are adding Camden, use one tablet and let the mixture sit one day under a towel in a cool dry place before pitching yeast.
4. Add yeast to 1 cup 100 degree water and rehydrate 10-15 minutes and pitch.
5. Cover bucket with towel and let sit in dry cool place with no sunlight light - ferment at ~68F degrees for 5-7 days (CONSTANT temperature is desired).
6. Rack off through coarse strainer into gallon growler and airlock - leave to ferment to dryness for about 3-4 weeks (1 month from start of ferment).
7. Rack off (add a camden tablet if you prefer) and top off with water as needed. Let sit for 3-6 months from start of ferment - this allows the wine to clear.

Before Bottling:
8. Because this recipe is designed to exhaust the yeasts capability to continue fermentation, you should end up with 11-14% alcohol (cotes de blancs rated ABV potential) and the yeast will not be able to convert any more sugar after that point. i.e. you shouldn't have to add sorbate - but you can do so to ensure you don't get a start up of fermentation if your yeast under attenuated.

a. Before bottling, take a hydrometer sample - if you are at 1.000 - this will be a bone dry wine. If you are above 1.000 then your yeast under attenuated. At this point you must decide what type of wine you are looking for (dry, semi-dry, sweet) and add sugar to get there. My recommendation is to shoot for something in the 1.010-1.020 range - depending on how sweet you like it.
9. Once you decide your type of wine, add sugar and stir in and take hydrometer samples until your reach your desired gravity. Once this has been completed, you are ready to bottle.
10. Bottle as early as 3-6 months from start of ferment (be sure to add 1 camden tablet when bottling). Let condition no less than 5 months (from start of ferment) before trying. I would try your first bottle at 7 months and then try a bottle per month. If you are patient, wait a year.

If you backsweeten:

1. cold crash wine 24-48 hours (bring temp to <50F)
2. In your bottling bucket add sorbate (1/4 rounded tsp per gallon) and sugar to a gravity reading of 1.010-1.020 - as per your tastes).
3. Once you reach your sweetening gravity add 1 camden tablet before bottling.


Notes:
1. Camden additions. I personally add Camden at the start and at every other racking.
2. My wine was good at 5 months, getting really good at 7 months, but I ran out! The spice notes did not come out until about the 7 month mark. These were subtle and at the end, rounding out the finish. They were great.
3. I would bottle at 3-5 months, then try a bottle a month or so, starting at 5-6 months.
4. Store in <50F environment for bottle conditioning if possible.

Other notes and backstory

Let me say that I initially screwed up this recipe by putting in too much sugar (so I ended up with something of a light floral Riesling wine) - however it was still very very good. I think I accidentally put in 10-12 cups of sugar (I thought I was going to do a double batch originally). I would go with the recipe posted below and back sweeten if needed. I will be doing this one again in the spring and will update my results. I hope to add sugar to ferment out to ABV failure and have a residual sugar of 1.010-1.020. Will post when I get those results.

My original batch fermented out with residual sugar left (I believe I had 1.040 F.G. but will check my notes - I forgot to grab a S.G.), so I assumed I tested the yeasts maximum ABV threshold on the cotes de blanc. I believe it ended up at somewhere like 11-14%ABV.

Enjoy - this one was a big hit. My mom recently called me and asked "if I pick, will you make the wine for me?" I know she is my mother, but it was unprovoked and unsolicited.

This wine is a winner. Enjoy!

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I might give that a try, but will use fresh ginger. I put it in my rhubarb and I really like it!

Debbie
 
I was actually thinking of using fresh as well, but we didn't grow any last year. Ginger is one of those spices that is really good when used in just the right amount. Good luck with your dandy picking! :)

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Just wanted to remind people of Dandy wine season!

My wife and I were out yesterday picking for this years dandelion wine - we grabbed enough for 5 gallons of the regular batch and plan on doing a test batch with the heads (and the green).

I am thinking that since my recipe doesn't involve a harsh heating of the dandelions, it might work with the green on the flower heads for my sun tea method. If it does, that would be unreal. We were picking for about 3 hours in total to get 10qts for the main batch and 2 quarts of green heads for a test batch.
 
I might give that a try, but will use fresh ginger. I put it in my rhubarb and I really like it!

Debbie

Debbie - did you have a rhubarb wine that you make? Care to share the recipe? I am pretty sure we will have a ton of rhubarb this year.

Thanks!
 
Thank you for this recipe...a little story for you. My mom's family was DIRT poor growing up...think stereotypical west virginia family. Her dad killed or grew everything they ate or drank (a coca-cola was a once a year treat for the kids. This included alcohol as well. Recently she told me her dad used to make a bunch of dandelion wine annually.

She asked how hard it would be to make and I told her I would research it. I am coming home from college tomorrow and making this recipe together will be a perfect (belated) mothers day activity.

Other than applewine I have never made wine. I have a 4-6L bottle (not sure exact size but I was going to use it to start 1 gallon batches of mead since it is a bit bigger than 1 gallon). Should I use that one for the initial fermentation before moving it to my 1 gallon bottle on the first racking? Since the jug will give a little bit of headspace should I just start in the 1 Gallon bottle?

Thanks again for the recipe and any advice you can give!
 
Thank you for this recipe...a little story for you. My mom's family was DIRT poor growing up...think stereotypical west virginia family. Her dad killed or grew everything they ate or drank (a coca-cola was a once a year treat for the kids. This included alcohol as well. Recently she told me her dad used to make a bunch of dandelion wine annually.

She asked how hard it would be to make and I told her I would research it. I am coming home from college tomorrow and making this recipe together will be a perfect (belated) mothers day activity.

Other than applewine I have never made wine. I have a 4-6L bottle (not sure exact size but I was going to use it to start 1 gallon batches of mead since it is a bit bigger than 1 gallon). Should I use that one for the initial fermentation before moving it to my 1 gallon bottle on the first racking? Since the jug will give a little bit of headspace should I just start in the 1 Gallon bottle?

Thanks again for the recipe and any advice you can give!

That is a really cool story - just goes to show you that you can find a way even in hard times to make your hooch :)

I would start this one in a home depot bucket or similar (after 5-7 days gently rack off into your gallon jug and top up with water as needed and put your airlock on). I never start fermenations this way (in a homer bucket), but since you have all the dandelion petals, and the fruit halves, etc. It would be really hard to start this off in a glass fermenter. After that 5-7 days - then rack it into your glass jug.

I will tell you this - the dandelion wine from this recipe was hugely popular with those that tried it. I thought it was all a myth about how good this stuff was until i tried it myself.
 
Ooooooh this is even closer to her dad's methods...he fermented it in an open 5 gallon ceramic crock (which I still have my dad's from when he brewed 25 years ago!)

Does the camden act as a sanitizing measure for the wine?
 
Ooooooh this is even closer to her dad's methods...he fermented it in an open 5 gallon ceramic crock (which I still have my dad's from when he brewed 25 years ago!)

Does the camden act as a sanitizing measure for the wine?

Yes - basically this is like cider. If you have any type of unpasteurized must, many wine makers like to toss in 1 camden per gallon, to sanitize (though - I don't believe it truly sanitizes) and suppress wild yeasts, if any are present. So the key is, pitch in your camden and mix it up, let it rest 24 hours so the camden does its thing, then... pitch in your commercial yeast and it will take over. give it a good stir before you pitch to help aerate the must a bit prior to pitching.

Cool about the crock - sounds like you have something way cooler to ferment it - keeping the tradition alive and use it!
 
I found a cool link for everyone to use to determine how to leave residual sugar in the wine. Cotes de blanc has 11-14% ABV potential - so I think I am going to shoot for 14% on my next batch, and backsweeten after fermentation is completed. Since I will ferment this at around 70-72F, I assume my attenuation will by on the higher side.

http://mbhp.forgottensea.org/sgpat.html

so 4 cups 2 tblsp per gallon for 14% (16 tablespoons in a cup). That means I will be putting in sugar up to 1.110 S.G.

I also posted it above.
 
OK so as an update I decided to take a few quick pics last night as I put this together - I will post them later.

I will note that I am glad I only did a "test" version of the dandelion heads with the green still on them. When comparing the aroma of the two batches, there was a sickly almost make you gag smell from the batch with green heads included. However from the petal only batch, there was a floral grassy citrus aroma - quick nice - as I remembered from last year. (i.e. I think the green top batch will be a dumper - for the sake of experimentation I will carry it out though).

I added the camden last night and will pitch the yeast tonight.

Photos soon to follow.

I went with 1.130 S.G or 17% alc potential on my batch this year. Plan being, when it ferments out (hopefully down to 14%, or 1.020-25 F.G.), I will have a Riesling/muscat level of sweetness. I found that I really enjoyed the sweet wine at 1.040 last year, so reducing it to 1.025 should put me lower, but possibly right where I want to be (my wife likes this sweet). I do have plans for another dandelion picking session in a week or so. At that time I think I will shoot for a dry white version with less sugar for myself.
 
Welp finished my 4 hour drive about an hour ago and realized I left BOTH bottles of camden at school. I am thinking of either boiling it instead of making a sun tea as described in another recipe, or just saying Eff it and going on without it.

Actually I remember something in the drug store has the same chemical make up as camden...
 
Phew, crisis averted:

"A substitute for the campden tablet is four grains of sodium metabisulphite which may be obtained at a drugstore."

Glad you solved it! I don't think the camden in necessary - but I use it to ensure I don't find out it WAS needed in 8 months ha!

To any watchers:
I posted some photos on posts 1 and 3 - please check them out

I just racked off the dandelion must from the bucket with peels/etc. (3days from putting them all together). The ferment had already started, and I knew couldn't do it later this week.

Additionally - I updated the directions so they were a bit clearer for new people - but please - if you read them and you need explanation - please let me know. I would love to make this recipe as user friendly as possible, simply because it is an easy recipe for new and experienced wine makers.
 
*petals *and

Yup - (that is no green petals OR bottom) you can have a few green petals in there - but ideally you don't want any. Look at the picture on post 1, second picture. See how there is minimal green in there?

What I do is, pinch the dandelion, which releases the petals and the little seed things as well where the petals connect to the stem. Then I grab with my thumb and forefinger and pull the fluff up, leaving the green surrounding petals behind, taking only the petals (yellow and white).
 
Ok thanks. Guess what I saw yesterday? It was a whitish cream colored dandelion. It was the coolest thing. And thanks for the recipe going to start picking today and head to brew store saturday or Sunday I can't wait:)
 
I only managed to get a quart or so of dandelions does this matter a lot will it affect it?

I would try to grab some more if you can.

Truthfully, I have never tried it with less so I am not sure of the impact. I would assume that it would have less floral aroma, but I am sure it would still be drinkable.

Dandelion wine is not overly complex, so it might make for a blander wine.

If that is all you have though give it a try.
 
It's about a quart of loosely packed flowers... per gallon.
If you see a white dandelion, it probably isn't a dandelion. NEVER use flowers that aren't 100% identifiable as edible.

Debbie
 
deb_rn said:
It's about a quart of loosely packed flowers... per gallon.
If you see a white dandelion, it probably isn't a dandelion. NEVER use flowers that aren't 100% identifiable as edible.

Debbie

Ok thanks and it was a dandelion it had the exact same shape. And I think it was connected to the same looking plant. I didn't use it. It was a day before and I threw it away. It was awesome .
 
One more question. Can I use any type of wine yeast? Any really good ones that are a step up from the rest?
 
It's about a quart of loosely packed flowers... per gallon.
If you see a white dandelion, it probably isn't a dandelion. NEVER use flowers that aren't 100% identifiable as edible.

Debbie

its 2 quarts per gallon - so they were a quart shy
 
One more question. Can I use any type of wine yeast? Any really good ones that are a step up from the rest?

you can use probably any white or fruit wine yeast. I have only used cotes de blanc on this so far -but if you need help choosing another yeast post up the choices you are debating with and we can help.

One note about a yeast change. This recipe is designed to ferment out until the yeast are exhausted. If you change your yeast the ABV potential changes as well. Cotes has 11-14% potential where say 1118 has like 18% potential. So you would have to plan on crashing, sorbating, sulfiting to ensure no ferment startup if you back sweeten.
 
Ya I believe I'm just going exhaust the yeast to the point where it can't ferment anymore. Thanks for the help I'll post my results 7 months later. Lol
 
Ya I believe I'm just going exhaust the yeast to the point where it can't ferment anymore. Thanks for the help I'll post my results 7 months later. Lol

exactly :)

That is the only thing that is a pain about this recipe - you really do have to wait it out.

When I first made this I tried some at ~2 months and I as so pissed. I almost dumped it all out. Well I just neglected it and left it. 5 months later I tried it and it was drinkable, but not smooth. So I bottled it and tried them about one bottle a week until I ran out.

I am trying to decide if I have it in me to get more dandelions for another couple gallons ;)
 
Well I made this recipe and ran out of white sugar so I used brown sugar. I already drove around for hours and didn't wanna get more so I used brown sugar. I fill what I left out with brown sugar which was about 2 cups.... Will it affect it.. I thought it would compliment the spices. Any help???
 
Well I made this recipe and ran out of white sugar so I used brown sugar. I already drove around for hours and didn't wanna get more so I used brown sugar. I fill what I left out with brown sugar which was about 2 cups.... Will it affect it.. I thought it would compliment the spices. Any help???

While I don't think there will be a significant flavor contribution from the brown sugar vs. white - I don't think it will hurt it at all. Shouldn't be a problem whatsoever.
 
11/1/11 - Just an update. It hasn't cleared yet, but the little test batch has. I think I will be bottling soon anyhow so I can free up the fermenter and will be letting it age a bit more before we crack into it. of course... I am sure we will have to sample the 5 month old!

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Just another update - I bottle all 7 gallons of the dandy wine! It looks like I ended up with a 1.024 F.G. which is right where I was shooting for (1.020-1.025) for residual sweetness. The wine tastes very good but at 5 months it needs some more aging and none of the ginger is sneaking out yet. I am very happy with the wine though -n tastes just like last years (except I have a heck of a lot more in bottles this time around!)

So S.G. 1.130
F.G. 1.024
ABV = so that is 13.91% wine!

The great part is that now we can start cracking these open here and there and have plenty for the 1 year mark :)
 
Forgot to mention that the wine I made with the green heads on it didn't seem to be that bitter. I only tried a little, but I thought I noticed some bitterness. I decided i wanted to give it some more time to age out and see what happens. I will report back in a few months when we crack a bottle open to compare with petal only wine, which didn't have any bitterness.
 
Ok all,

just a picture of the wine to date. Sure is isn't ready yet, but the wine has lost a ton of the wildness and is really startting to taste seriously good. Almost time to pick dandy again!!

As you can see with no fining ingredients this is clear as it gets.

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Forgot to mention that the wine I made with the green heads on it didn't seem to be that bitter. I only tried a little, but I thought I noticed some bitterness. I decided i wanted to give it some more time to age out and see what happens. I will report back in a few months when we crack a bottle open to compare with petal only wine, which didn't have any bitterness.

Wondering how this ended up tasting? The picking of the dandelion petals off the flowers takes so long, its would be nice to be able to use the sun tea method i fit does indeed work. Though theres not alot of direct sun where I am in the woods, so I wonder if I could use a heating blanket wrapped around the bucket to add warmth and draw out flavor.
 
Wondering how this ended up tasting? The picking of the dandelion petals off the flowers takes so long, its would be nice to be able to use the sun tea method i fit does indeed work. Though theres not alot of direct sun where I am in the woods, so I wonder if I could use a heating blanket wrapped around the bucket to add warmth and draw out flavor.

I actually haven't tried it yet, so we will have to crack a bottle pretty soon.

As for the warm blanket - that is fine too. Basically the concept being to gently coax out the color and flavor from the petals with warm low temps vs. boiling it.

I will post back when we try the petal dandy wine and let everyone know how it turned out!
 
I had someone post in asking about the dandy wine final results so I will make a comment on it now. We have been hoarding the wine and only have 2 bottles left and it is great as always. We plan on doing 3g of dryer and 3g of sweeter if possible this year. I am thinking that we will should for a final gravity of 1.012-4 or 1.020-2.

Since I like spice, I also plan on upping the ginger just a touch because I think it is a really nice nuance.
 
Hi there! I read this post with great interest and would really like to try a batch of your dandy wine this year. I have just one question at this point. In the photos it looks like you have some of the dandy "blowers" in your mix as well. By "blowers" (this is what my kids call them, lol) I mean the white seed carriers that blow away easily in the wind when the pods fully mature. Is this true or is it just the yellow immature petals in there?
Thanks!
 
No seed pods. Likely it is just washed looking petals. When you pinch the dandy head the base of the petals are white. Avoid any green pieces as it adds a bitter flavor. With the sun tea method I use it is still drinkable, but I prefer the cleaner taste of the petals only.
 
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