Dandelion Wine - Ginger Clove

[CidahMastah]

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

 

[CidahMastah]

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.

 

[CidahMastah]

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.

 

[Astael]

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.

 

[CidahMastah]

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!

 

[CidahMastah]

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.

 

[dancingchicken]

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!

 

[CidahMastah]

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.

 

[Mparsons327]

I'm excited to give this a try this year Keith. Did you ever get a gram weight of the flowers?

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

this recipe calls for 3 quarts per gallon https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/dandelion-wine-21095/

a big difference

 

[CidahMastah]

this recipe calls for 3 quarts per gallon https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/dandelion-wine-21095/

a big difference

I also use a different method to steep the petals (I don't) boil.

 

[achyllesthewarrior]

I know this thread is old but I figured I'd give it a shot. Do you wash the petals at all beforehand? If so, did you wash the whole heads and then de-petal or did you wait until all the petals were removed?

Thanks!

 

[CidahMastah]

I know this thread is old but I figured I'd give it a shot. Do you wash the petals at all beforehand? If so, did you wash the whole heads and then de-petal or did you wait until all the petals were removed?

Thanks!

Sorry I never saw this. But no need to wash the petals. I just pinch the flower to cause the petals to lift off the green crown. Try not to allow any green into the "tea"