Dandelion Wine

I spent this past weekend in Vermont at a house that had a field full of dandelions. One of the first batches of wine that I ever made was dandelion wine. I've honed my winemaking skills since then and couldn't pass up the chance to give this summer classic another try. Most people have heard about dandelion wine but few have actually tried it, probably because it isn't sold commercially (that I know of). If you know anyone who makes it, beg them to try some. It's really a treat on a hot summer afternoon.

The best source for recipes for unique wines has to be the Winemaking Home Page. This is a very detailed site on how to ferment almost anything. All the dandelion recipes have the same general ingredients: dandelions, sugar, yeast nutrient, yeast and addition of an acid of some sort. Some recipes call for the addition of raisins or grapes to add to the "body" of the wine. I'm always open to trying new things, but in this project I'm taking the purist approach- so no grapes in my dandelion wine! The sugar is necessary because, well, the dandelions themselves add flavor, not sugar, and therefore you need something sweet for the yeast to ferment. The addition of an acid is to enhance the mouth-feel of the wine. The yeast nutrient is necessary because yeast need a few things to grow and duplicate that are found in many fermentables but not in dandelions.

The first step in the process is to pick a ton of dandelions, separate the pedals from the green stalk, pour boiling water over the pedals and let it soak for two days. This will essentially make a big pail full of dandelion tea. Next you strain out the pedals and add the sugar, yeast nutrient, acid and yeast. I decided to use a commercial acid blend rather than citrus because I had it lying around and it produces more predicable and balanced results. Mix in sugar until the specific gravity reaches about 1.090. This is measured with a hydrometer which, by floating in the liquid, tells you the level of suspended solids (i.e. sugar) there is in the liquid. By using a web based calculator or a chart, you can tell how much alcohol is in a liquid by measuring the gravity before and after fermentation. In other words, you figure out how much sugar has been consumed by the yeast and can determine how much alcohol the yeast has produced.

Most recipes call for about 3 quarts of dandelions to one gallon of water to 2.5 to 3 pounds of sugar. Along with the acid and the nutrient, this should create the right environment for the yeast and create a nice balance of alcohol and dandelion flavor. I scaled this recipe up by about a factor of 3 so I should get about 15 bottles out of this batch.

Look at how dark my dandelion "tea" turned out! With the yeast hard at work, I set aside my fermentation pail. Check back in a week or two for an update on this project!