Post by rose on Mar 24, 2006 14:55:18 GMT -5
This recipe I adapted from Susun Weed's book Healing Wise. When subbing honey for sugar, you can go pound for pound. If you're measuring volume rather than weight, 1/2 cup honey is about as sweet as 1 cup sugar. You'll notice 1/2 cup honey is quite a bit heavier than 1/2 cup sugar....
3-5 qts dandelion blossoms
5 qts water
3 lb honey (mine) or sugar (Susun's); this is 1 qt of honey
1 organic orange
1 organic lemon
8 grams yeast (more or less)
Make sure you gather the dandelion blossoms on a beautiful sunny day--follow the bees to the best blossoms. When you get home, place them in a large (2 gallon or more) non-reactive container. Boil water and pour over flowers. Cover with a cheesecloth and let stand for 3 days, stirring daily.
On the fourth day, strain out the blossoms from the liquid. Cook the liquid with the sugar or honey and rinds of the citrus for 30-60 minutes. Return it to the non-reactive container or crock (I don't recommend even stainless stock pots for fermenting in--glass, ceramic, or plastic are what I use, but I don't put the liquid in plastic unless it has cooled.) Add citrus juice.
When liquid has cooled to tepid, pitch the yeast. Susun says to soften it and spread it on toast, which you then float in the "wort". My yeast is usually liquid (from the homebrew supply shop) so I just stir it in. If it were granulated, I just stir it in too.
Cover loosely and let work for 2 days (to a week). Then Susun says to bottle it and cork it LOOSELY. I don't know how to cork loosely, so I move it into a carboy (large glass jar with narrow neck) with a fermentation lock as I would for any other secondary fermentation. After gasses stop bubbling up through the fermentation lock (usually at least a couple of months) it can be bottled. Open the first bottle on winter solstice; it usually gets better with age and the last bottle you drink will be the best one.
This recipe made me about 1 1/2 gallons last year. I kept some in a gallon cider jug with cork and fermentation lock (you can put a balloon over the opening if you don't have a lock), and the rest in a 1/2 gallon canning jar with plastic lid. It didn't seem to get contaminated this time, but that is a risk with no fermentation lock. It made about 7 bottles of wine. We opened one in January, but it is still pretty harsh and I think summer solstice might be time to open the second one.
Enjoy!
--Charlene
3-5 qts dandelion blossoms
5 qts water
3 lb honey (mine) or sugar (Susun's); this is 1 qt of honey
1 organic orange
1 organic lemon
8 grams yeast (more or less)
Make sure you gather the dandelion blossoms on a beautiful sunny day--follow the bees to the best blossoms. When you get home, place them in a large (2 gallon or more) non-reactive container. Boil water and pour over flowers. Cover with a cheesecloth and let stand for 3 days, stirring daily.
On the fourth day, strain out the blossoms from the liquid. Cook the liquid with the sugar or honey and rinds of the citrus for 30-60 minutes. Return it to the non-reactive container or crock (I don't recommend even stainless stock pots for fermenting in--glass, ceramic, or plastic are what I use, but I don't put the liquid in plastic unless it has cooled.) Add citrus juice.
When liquid has cooled to tepid, pitch the yeast. Susun says to soften it and spread it on toast, which you then float in the "wort". My yeast is usually liquid (from the homebrew supply shop) so I just stir it in. If it were granulated, I just stir it in too.
Cover loosely and let work for 2 days (to a week). Then Susun says to bottle it and cork it LOOSELY. I don't know how to cork loosely, so I move it into a carboy (large glass jar with narrow neck) with a fermentation lock as I would for any other secondary fermentation. After gasses stop bubbling up through the fermentation lock (usually at least a couple of months) it can be bottled. Open the first bottle on winter solstice; it usually gets better with age and the last bottle you drink will be the best one.
This recipe made me about 1 1/2 gallons last year. I kept some in a gallon cider jug with cork and fermentation lock (you can put a balloon over the opening if you don't have a lock), and the rest in a 1/2 gallon canning jar with plastic lid. It didn't seem to get contaminated this time, but that is a risk with no fermentation lock. It made about 7 bottles of wine. We opened one in January, but it is still pretty harsh and I think summer solstice might be time to open the second one.
Enjoy!
--Charlene