Pink Dandelion Wine Recipes

DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• Place dandelion blossoms in the boiling water, and allow to stand for 4 minutes. Remove and discard the blossoms, and let the water cool to 90 degrees F (32 degrees C).
• Stir in the yeast, sugar, orange slices, and lemon slice; pour into a plastic fermentor, and attach a fermentation lock. Let the wine ferment in a cool area until the bubbles stop, 10 to 14 days. Siphon the wine off of the lees, and strain through cheesecloth before bottling in quart-sized, sterilized canning jars with lids and rings. Age the wine at least a week for best flavor.

DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar and cool to lukewarm.
• Place the dandelion petals, citrus juice and zest into a one-gallon fermentation vessel. Add the yeast nutrient and pour the lukewarm sugar water over the top.
• Dissolve a packet of champagne yeast or other wine yeast in lukewarm water. Allow it to stand for 5 minutes to rehydrate and then pour it into the wine. Top off with a bit of extra water to bring to fill the carboy, but be sure to leave at least an inch of headspace.
• Cap with an airlock and ferment for about 3 weeks or until fermentation has stopped. It will take a bit longer if you don't use raisins because they provide extra micro-nutrients to get the yeast working faster.
• Siphon the wine into a clean container, leaving the yeast sediment behind. Allow the wine to ferment in secondary for at least 6 to 8 weeks, checking the water lock periodically to ensure that the water hasn't evaporated.
• Sciphon the dandelion wine into a clean container, again leaving the sediment behind, to prepare for bottling.
• Bottle the dandelion wine in corked wine bottles for longer storage, or flip top Grolsch bottles for tiny batches you're not planning on storing long.
• Allow the wine age in the bottle at least 2 months before drinking, ideally 6 months or more. Note: During aging, the wine should be kept somewhere cool-ish like a basement or closet on the north side of the house.

HOMEMADE WINE

Steps:

• Combine the yeast, sugar and juice concentrate in a gallon jug. Fill the jug the rest of the way with cold water. Rinse out a large balloon, and fit it over the opening of the jug. Secure the balloon with a rubber band.
• Place jug in a cool dark place. Within a day you will notice the balloon starting to expand. As the sugar turns to alcohol the gasses released will fill up the balloon. When the balloon is deflated back to size the wine is ready to drink. It takes about 6 weeks total.

DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• 1. Place dandelion flowers in a large heatproof container. Pour boiling water over top. Cover and let steep for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. When making dandelion wine, cleanliness is key. Make sure your kitchen counters, hands, and all utensils are sterile.
• 2. Pour the resulting tea through a fine-mesh strainer into a large pot or saucepan, pressing the petals to extract as much flavor as possible. Discard blossoms and bring tea to a boil.
• 3. Place sugar in a heatproof 1-gallon jar. Pour boiling dandelion tea into jar and stir to dissolve. Add lemon and orange slices. Cover jar and let liquid stand for 2 weeks at room temperature, shaking every couple days.
• 4. Pour dandelion wine through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter into a clean container. Serve or cover and store refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.

PINK DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• Take the blossoms, remove stem and leaves, and boil in water.
• Remove from heat and let stand overnight, then strain.
• Then add lemon, raspberries, cinnamon and sugar (so its overly sweet to the taste).
• Warm mixture over low flame until the sugar is dissolved (honey many be substituted in equal proportions).
• Next, when the mixture is lukewarm, add active yeast which as been suspended in warm water.
• Cover the pan with a towel and let it set for three days undisturbed.
• As you check it, visualize the energy in your wine increasing even as the bubbles are forming (a sign of fermentation starting).
• Finally, strain the mixture again and bottle in loosely corked bottles.
• Once the corks no longer pop out, tasted to see if the wine needs any additional sugar.
• If so, return it to the stove and sweeten to taste, but bring it to a boil so as to kill the yeast.
• Cork tightly and let age for one year in a cool, dark area for best results.
• Enjoy this liquid of the Earth and Sky or if you wish, you can use this as a offering for spells or spirits of your garden!

MAKE YOUR OWN DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Snip off most of the calyxes (green parts) from the base of flowers and all of the stems. It's OK if a little of the green goes in, but too much will result in a bitter wine.
• Compost or discard the calyxes and stems. Put trimmed petals in a nonreactive vessel (no aluminum, copper, or iron).
• Bring water to a boil and pour over flower petals. Let mixture sit for 2 hours.
• Place a colander lined with cheesecloth or butter muslin over a large, nonreactive pot and strain dandelions, pressing gently on the flowers to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Compost or discard dandelion petals.
• Place pot over high heat and bring strained dandelion infusion to a boil.
• Stir in citrus juices and sugar, mixing to dissolve sugar.
• Add lemon and orange zest and chopped raisins. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• When mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in yeast nutrient or cornmeal and wine or baking yeast.
• Cover and leave at room temperature for 10 to 14 days, stirring 3 times each day.
• Strain into a sanitized 1-gallon jug and seal with either a fermentation lock (available from online homebrewing and winemaking supplies) or a balloon with a single pinprick in it. The pinprick allows gasses to escape during active fermentation, but the balloon still keeps detrimental bacteria out.
• After 3 weeks, siphon or carefully pour the liquid into another sanitized jug, leaving behind any yeasty sediment.
• If there is more than 2 inches between the top of the wine and the rim of the bottle, top off with a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water.
• When wine is clear, rather than cloudy, wait 30 more days and then siphon or carefully pour it into another jug, leaving behind any yeasty sediment on the bottom.
• Refit with an airlock or pricked balloon.
• Repeat this procedure every 3 months for 9 total months until almost no sediment is forming on the bottom of the jug anymore.
• Funnel into sanitized bottles and cork bottles.
• Age for another year before drinking.

DANDELION WINE

Steps:

• 1. Measure generous quarts of washed blossoms into a large saucepan. Add the 4 qts of water and boil 30 minutes. The smell will be very strong, but don't worry the finished wine will be fine.
• 2. Pour through a strainer, then pour through double thickness of cheese cloth, into a large glass, stone, or plastic container. You can buy the proper container from beer making outlets, or even online.
• 3. I recommend a plastic wine making jug because they come with a air release valve.
• 4. When cool, add yeast that's been disolved in the tepid water.
• 5. Add raisins, sugar lemon and orange. Cut the lemons and oranges into small pieces, and leave the skins on.
• 6. Let ferment for 2 weeks, stir every day. Just leave out on the counter top, don't refrigerate. I just swirled the jug around because couldn't get a spoon in there.
• 7. Strain and let settle for a day.
• 8. Strain through several thicknesses of cheese cloth until clear.
• 9. Bottle, seal and refrigerate. This will get better as it sits, and will still have some sediment in it. I always waited for at least 1 week before drinking.