Been doing a lot of reading around here and am learning a ton. I've started my first batch of wine - dandelion wine - and being as I see very little information about this particular wine, I figured I'd post up the recipe in exchange for all of the knowledge I am currently gathering from this forum!
I was going to post this in the recipe section, but realized I couldn't fill out many of the fields. I got this recipe from my father-in-law, who got it from his father. I think this current variety has been being made for at least 50 years on that side of the family! the alcohol content has never been tested, and it uses fleischmann's bakers yeast. when I explained the difference in yeasts, he informed me that he simply followed the original recipe and made minor tweaks over time. anywho...here's the original recipe
1 quart of dandelions to a gallon of water (just the heads, greens have never been separated from the petals) - bring to a boil for 5 minutes, strain out dandelions
1lb raisins
6 cups sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
1 package yeast (Fleischman's baker's yeast is what he's been using for decades...go figure) in 1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp sugar, let stand 10 minutes before pouring in
cover with a tea towel to keep flies out
stir every day for 2 weeks. Strain it and let stand one day. Bottle, and do not turn lids tight.
at this point, he will again leave it for ~ 2 weeks and pour off the top into new bottles, leaving sediment behind.
we usually start drinking it after about 4 weeks, but he tries to age it at least 3 months. I've been tasting it, and at 4 weeks it's still a bit on the sweeter side, but still quite enjoyable!
since I can't get dandelion's for a while, it's on to apfelwein so that I can actually age some of this as long as I'm supposed to!
I was going to post this in the recipe section, but realized I couldn't fill out many of the fields. I got this recipe from my father-in-law, who got it from his father. I think this current variety has been being made for at least 50 years on that side of the family! the alcohol content has never been tested, and it uses fleischmann's bakers yeast. when I explained the difference in yeasts, he informed me that he simply followed the original recipe and made minor tweaks over time. anywho...here's the original recipe
1 quart of dandelions to a gallon of water (just the heads, greens have never been separated from the petals) - bring to a boil for 5 minutes, strain out dandelions
1lb raisins
6 cups sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
1 package yeast (Fleischman's baker's yeast is what he's been using for decades...go figure) in 1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp sugar, let stand 10 minutes before pouring in
cover with a tea towel to keep flies out
stir every day for 2 weeks. Strain it and let stand one day. Bottle, and do not turn lids tight.
at this point, he will again leave it for ~ 2 weeks and pour off the top into new bottles, leaving sediment behind.
we usually start drinking it after about 4 weeks, but he tries to age it at least 3 months. I've been tasting it, and at 4 weeks it's still a bit on the sweeter side, but still quite enjoyable!
since I can't get dandelion's for a while, it's on to apfelwein so that I can actually age some of this as long as I'm supposed to!