Dandelion wine OG

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mcr122

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Normally a beer brewer but my wife has been bugging for years to make a dandelion wine. We picked a recipe from Jack Keller's website that calls for 2 qts flower pedals, 4 oranges, and 3 lbs sugar. I want to double the recipe but 6 lbs of sugar seems like it will be alot. I could measure the OG prior to adding yeast but i am unsure what number I should shoot for. Lalvin D47 (2.5 g) will be my yeast. How much sugar and/or what should my OG be. I am aiming for a semi-sweet taste. We tried a dandelion wine given to us from a friend last year and although a good try it tasted like eating a tabelspoon full of raw sugar.. Thanks for the help.
 
I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's in my recipe which is stolen directly from Jack Keller. I think an OG of 1.085-1.100 is great for most country wines, and then you can back sweeten or try to overwhelm the yeast later on. If you start too high with the intention of having a semi-sec wine, it's not that reliable. Some wine yeast strains will be happy, and go to 18-19% and finish dry anyway. Then you've got rocket fuel! Some strains will just get overwhelmed at the start and not ferment properly. That's why my preference is to start with 1.090ish and then backsweeten if desired. I like dandelion just off-dry, about 1.000 at the end. I've sweetened it to 1.010, but that's WAY too sweet for me!
 
yoop, I decided to try the dandelion anyway even after my last failed attempt.. didn't you say I could freeze the petals until I have enough collected. I have some frozen now but they turned brown?
 
Which recipe do you use? There are 30 with an additional 12... I was thinking of trying my hand at it.

It's in my recipe dropdown. I've done a couple of them, but that's the one I like best.

Steve, they may turn brown (I don't remember if mine did) but if so don't worry about it.
 
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