Dandelion wine tastes foul!

[AntX]

Hello fellow brewers!

My story started about a month ago, while I was having a BBQ with friends. I couldn't stop myself from looking at the multitude of dandelions and think about the old crazy neighbour that used to make dandelion wine.

I tought I remembered the basics of the recipe, so I decided I'd give it a try.

So I gathered about 3 gallons of blossoms, and brought that to a boil for 15 minutes or so, after adding a cup of lemon juice and some zest.

I then filtered the liquid to a bucket (With nylon pants...haha!), and added water and white sugar until I got to 5 gallons and a SG of 1.070. I needed a little less than 7 pounds of sugar.

I then waited for it to cool down to about 70F, and added a handfull of dried fruits (mostly raisins, but I also had bananas and cranberries), then prepared and pitched the yeast (LC-1118).

After less than 24 hours, it started bubbling like crazy (6-7 bubbles/s), and the smell was SO AWESOME. I kept the carboy in a closet, and everytime I opened the door, it smelled like freshly baked raisins bread / banana cake. I couldn't wait for the fermentation to finish so I could taste it!

Well, it's now 3 weeks later, and boy, what a disapointment! This thing still smells good, but is so bitter, it's just undrinkable!

My FG was exactly 1.000, so it's also very very dry, with 9% ABV.

I figured out I should rack it to a secondary, bring the gravity to 1.080 (I don't think the yeast will be able to eat all that sugar... that thing is rated for 18% ABV), let it ferment for another 3 weeks, and then bottle it for a few (3? 6?) months... what do you think?

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Yooper]

Well, time will help alot. I'd just leave it alone for a while. I'd rack, top up, and leave it be. It should go to .990, no problem. After it's finished, I'd let it sit at least 3-6 months only racking if there are 1/4" of lees after 60 days. Dandelion wine will throw lees for quite a while, so you may need to rack after 4-6 months even if the lees are scant. I wouldn't bottle until it's close to a year old, simply because of those lees.

A couple of things- if you left the green calyx on the dandelions, that will make it bitter. For my recipe, I remove every bit of green that I can. Perhaps some of the bitterness you're getting came from boiling the green part. I just use the yellow petals. The bitterness should fade quite a bit.

Once it's finished, you may find that sweetening may be what you want to do. I'd stabilize with sorbate and campden, and sweeten to approximately 1.000 if you want it just not too dry, or up to 1.008-1.010 if you want it slightly sweet. I like it dry, because it's crisp and fruity, like pinot grigio but some like it sweetened a bit. It's a light wine, so you don't want to sweeten too much. Then, after bottling, let it age in the bottle 3-6 months before trying the first bottle.

 

[AntX]

Ah, so keeping the sepals is probably what caused the bitterness, right? So you think letting it sit for a while will help in that matter?

Another thing I noticed is some kind of greenish goo-ey stuff surrounding the floating raisins... it reminds of yeast flakes, but I'm not sure... should I be worried about infection? As I said, the smell is still very good, and not some kind of roten flavor.

In any case, since the lees are more than 1/2", I think I will rack to a secondary...

Thanks a lot for the great advice!

 

[Yooper]

Ah, so keeping the sepals is probably what caused the bitterness, right? So you think letting it sit for a while will help in that matter?

Another thing I noticed is some kind of greenish goo-ey stuff surrounding the floating raisins... it reminds of yeast flakes, but I'm not sure... should I be worried about infection? As I said, the smell is still very good, and not some kind of roten flavor.

In any case, since the lees are more than 1/2", I think I will rack to a secondary...

Thanks a lot for the great advice!

Well, I always rack to a secondary about five days after starting the must, so I don't know what would happen if I left it. I bet that's where the foul taste and greenish stuff is coming from- fruit will rot. I rack to secondary at 1.010-1.020 and get the wine off of the lees as well as any fruit that may be in there.

The bitterness should improve with time, depending on the cause and how bitter it is. I would think it'll be a totally different wine in a year.

 

[Dr_Gordon_Freeman]

you're going to have to wait months, not weeks for wine... most will not taste good at all for at least 8 months to a year.

 

[artyboy]

Dandelion wine takes a loooong time before it tastes right. The bitterness is really overpowering, especially if you add anything green to the must. The last time I made it it took months to clear. I eventually added sparkeloid to speed it up which worked great. It was probably a year old before I bottled and at that point it was pretty awesome.