Notice (4/15/10): This post contains content that the author saw fit to amend in the comments.
It’s dandelion season at my house. Dandelion wine can be really bad. Or it can stand in for a nice light rosé, on a hot day now and again. Save you some dollars, for the good stuff.
Well, here’s the basics. You make a sweet tea out of dandelion heads, being careful not to include any stem. The better the tea, the better the wine—pretty straightforward so far, yes? I think I used about 1.5 pounds of sugar per gallon last year. Anywhere around there will ferment dry, do good service.
Put your sweet tea into a crock or stock pot or something like, put it somewhere dim with good air, and stir it at least twice a day, vigorously, to incorporate air and ambient yeasts. Do this until it starts sending up a good bubbling, then strain it into a nice clean jug or carboy, set an air-lock on it, and put it away somewhere dark and cool.
Once it stops bubbling, might be a few weeks or a few months, you can bottle it. If you leave it in the jug for a long time, though, make sure the water in your air-lock doesn’t evaporate, or else you’ll have a whole lot of really nice dandelion vinegar. Which, I am sure, would be absolutely lovely on salad. In fact, I think I might set aside a half gallon this year for just that.
When you bottle it, you might want to stir in a little sugar just beforehand, to give it a little fizz. Maybe 1 or 2 eighths cup per gallon, depending. Once you get up toward an eighth, you’re probably going to want to bottle with caps, rather than corks.
That’s about it. They will improve with time for a little, if you keep them somewhere dark and cool. Try to save most of them for summer.
Addendum:
Last year I believe I advocated adding a dash of lemon juice, to cut the slightly cloying character of dandelions. You might try this but I’ve come to see it as a bit inelegant. I’m planning on running some experiments using dandelion leaves and roots, to balance it out with a little bitterness. But last year I used only the petals, whereas this year I’m going to try whole heads, so maybe further augmentation won’t be necessary. Judge for yourself.
5 Comments
You might give folks at least a little bit of an idea of how much dandelion you use per gallon. Not that you know, I know. But a range would probably give people confidence.
I’m so trying this. I need to find a patch of dandelions that hasn’t been covered in LA smog.
Maybe some chrysanthemum flowers to help with summer heat too….
missus gives me the perennial complaint. People don’t know how to make herb tea. Well, maybe try filling your steeping container 1/4 full with loosely packed flower heads, and see how you like it. I don’t really think I can be more specific than that. You like your tea strong or thin? Long steeped or fast steeped? Make it with hot water or cold water? Beats the hell out of me. If the tea’s good, the wine will be good. Then you add sugar.
Perhaps this post needs a little revision. I went and ate a dandelion head and it was a little more bitter than I expected it to be, and then I went and made tea with the ratio I gave and it was both bright green and a little weak.
I remembered that last year, what I did, after cutting off all the petals with a pair of scissors, was to pour hot water over half of them, with the sugar, and add the other half when the water cooled. Then I stirred as directed for a number of days, tasting every day, ready to skim off and press the flowers if I’d decided they’d leached enough. On recollection, this is probably more or less the same thing I’ll do this year, and what I should have recommended in the body of the text. I still can’t help you with volume, except that maybe 1/4 will be a better measurement with petals than heads.
A friend of mine commented that all this is a lot of work. And this is true. But, considering the work consists of picking flowers, and the result is genuinely decent wine for something like $0.25 a bottle, I consider that it beats the alternative.
I suspect that someone following the advice in the post will still get something decent to drink, and frankly I’d be curious to drink it. Still, sorry, I’m a little more enthusiastic sometimes, perhaps, than I ought to be.
Will, I had a nice gulp of the bottle you gave to Hayley and Ryan…delightful it was, and inspirimg too! I am more in the realm of drinking Kombucha than wine at the moment, so I am off to gather some heads and add some tisane to my next vat of that. Definitely need some vinegar too. Personally, I do not think it is possible to be more enthusiastic than one ought to be. See you soon perhaps!
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