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Start Date: 11th September 2004
Bottle Date: 9th October 2004
| 1.1kg (4.5 litres) | Dandelion Flowers |
| 8 litres | Hot Water |
| 4 | Lemons |
| 4 | Oranges |
| 2.5kg | Glucose |
| 100g | Sultanas |
| 1 tsp | Dried Lalvin EC1118 Wine Yeast |
Spend the day collecting dandelions. This is best done on bright, sunny days, but we chose the coldest day in September on record for the last seven years. Likewise, it's best to have dandelions that haven't been damaged by rain, or hail. We got both.
Heat the water to boiling in a saucepan, and add flowers, glucose, and the skin of the lemons and oranges. Boil covered for one hour.
Allow liquid to cool to a suitable temperature for pitching yeast. This can be assisted by immersing the pot in a sink of cold water. Add the juice of the lemons and oranges, sultanas, and yeast.
Leave the mixture for 24 hours, strain, and either bottle or transfer to a microfermenter for fermentation. Bottle (or screw down the caps) when fermentation is complete. For this batch, we moved it to a microfermenter.
| Date | SG | % Alcohol |
|---|---|---|
| 2004-09-12 | 1.090 | 0.00 |
| 2004-09-29 | 1.031 | 8.26 |
| 2004-10-09 | 1.013 | 10.78 |
2004-09-12 Tastes pretty good after mixing everything together, but since fermentation hasn't finished, we don't know how it tastes when done.
2004-09-29 Took an SG measurement and had a taste. The taste of dandelions is strong, and the wine definitely needs to improve to be of the same quality as our last batch. Of course, it's well known that wines tend to taste awful until they've properly matured, so that the drink is acceptable at the moment is probably a good sign. 8.26% alcohol makes it quite a potent drink, especially with more fermentation to go.
2004-10-09 Today we bottled our wine. It's still fermenting, but we want our microfermenter for some beer, so we're going to allow the wine to finish fermentation in the bottle. A taste revealed a brew much improved since last month, so the finished product should be quite good indeed. With 10.78% alcohol it's quite potent, and fermentation still is not complete. For our next batch we may decide to use only half the glucose and observe the results.
2005-03-01 The wine is still fermenting, very slowly, but fermenting nonetheless. We were releasing the pressure every week, now possibly every three weeks. However the wine has continued to improve, and now has the texture of a white wine with interesting overtones. I think it would be much better chilled, and so we've placed a bottle in the fridge.
2006-11-25 The wine tastes fantastic. It's clear, light and just slightly sparkling. Popular with friends and family alike, it's probably going to be a Christmas favourite. Works equally well cold or warm, but I think we'll keep refrigerating it first.
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