DANDELION WINE

How to Make DANDELION WINE
DANDELIONS are in season during the spring and summer months, but they lend themselves deliciously to a beverage you can serve year-round. April and May are the best months to harvest dandelions for the purpose of wine making in the Northern hemisphere. Try it out, and taste it for yourself.

Ingredients

* 1 package (7 g) dried yeast
* 1/4 cup (60 mL) warm water
* 2 quarts (230 g) whole DANDELION flowers
o Using 2 quarts+ of just the petals can make for a less bitter DANDELION WINE .
* 4 quarts water (3.785 L)
* 1 cup (240 mL) orange juice
* 3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lemon juice
* 3 tablespoons (45 g) fresh lime juice
* 8 whole cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon (1.25 g) powdered ginger
* 3 tablespoons (18 g) coarsely chopped orange zest; avoid any white pith
* 1 tablespoon (6 g) coarsely chopped lemon zest; avoid any white pith
* 6 cups (1200 g) sugar

Steps
1.
This is only the first half of the DANDELION blossoms!
This is only the first half of the DANDELION blossoms!
Wash and clean the blossoms well. Think of it as a fruit or vegetable; you don't want bugs or dirt in your DANDELION WINE. Remove all green material.
2. Soak flowers for two days.
3. Place the DANDELION blossoms in the four quarts of water, along with the lime, orange, and lemon juices.
4. Boiling the DANDELION blossoms.
Stir in the ginger, cloves, orange peels, lemon peels, and sugar. Bring the mix to a boil for an hour. This creates the 'infusion' that will later become wine after fermentation.


5. Strain the dandelion liquid.
Strain through filter papers (coffee filters are recommended). Let the infusion cool down for a while.
6. Stir the yeast in while the DANDELION infusion is still warm, but below 110 degrees F.
7. Cover it and leave it alone, let it stand overnight.
8. Pour it into bottles, poke a few holes in a balloon and place over the tops of the bottles to create an airlock, to keep out unwanted wild yeasts, and store them in a dark place for at least three weeks so that it can ferment. At this point you now have wine!
9. Rack the DANDELION WINE several times, optionally.
10. Cork and store the bottles in a cool place. Allow the DANDELION WINE , time to age. Most wine making recipes recommend waiting at least six months, preferably a year.

Tips

* Pasteurization uses sixty-five degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) for half an hour to avoid changing character.
* Pick the DANDELION flowers right before starting so they're fresh. Midday is when they are fully open. Alternatively, you can freeze the DANDELION flowers immediately after harvesting, then pull off the petals right before preparing the DANDELION WINE.
* It may take more than three weeks for your DANDELION WINE to ferment if the temperature inside your storage area is cool. But be aware that fermentation at warmer than room temperature may change the taste of the wine, and can lead to higher levels of fusel alcohols, which have been known to contribute to hangovers. Warmer temperatures can cause many other problems like strong yeasty flavors, rancid odors and bacterial contamination. Generally fermentation should be done at room temperature or lower (50-75 F or 10-24 C).
* This recipe will produce a light wine that mixes well with tossed salad or baked fish. To add body or strength, add a sweetener,raisins, dates, figs, apricots, or rhubarb.


Warnings

* Avoid using DANDELIONS that may have been chemically treated. Also, try to stay away from DANDELIONS that have been graced by the presence of dogs, or that grow within 50 feet of a road.
* There is some evidence that DANDELIONS have a diuretic effect and may cause more frequent urination.

Wine Making - The Flavors Of Wine

Just another mooched article from the net.

Although the four main flavors sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are all your tongue is really capable of tasting, the long lasting impression that wine leaves in your mouth is far more complex. When you drink or taste wine, your taste buds and your sense of smell are involved, adding to the way you interpret wine overall. The flavors, aromas, and sensations that wine is comprised of provide the interaction that you taste when you sample wine.

Sweetness is something that wines are well known for. With most types of wine, grapes are responsible for the sweet taste. Grapes contain a lot of sugar, which breaks the yeast down into alcohol. The grapes and yeast that were used to produce the wine will leave behind various sugars, which your tongue will be able to quickly detect. Once your tongue detects these various sugars, the stimulation of sweetness from the wine will be ever so present in your mouth.

Alcohol is also present in wine, although your tongue doesn’t really know how to decipher the taste of alcohol. Even though the tongue doesn’t really taste alcohol, the alcohol is present in the mouth. The alcohol found in wine will dilate blood vessels and therefore intensify all of the other flavors found in the wine. After you have samples a few types of wine, the alcohol level can easily have an effect on your taste buds, making it hard to distinguish other drinks that you may have.

Another flavor is acidity, which will effect the sugars. With the proper balance of acidity, the overall flavor of wine can be very overwhelming. Once you taste wine that contains it, the flavor of the acidity will be well known to your tongue. Although acidity is great with wine, too much of it will leave a very sharp taste. With the right levels, acidity will bring the flavors of the grape and fruits alive in your mouth providing you with the perfect taste.

Yet another effect of flavor are tannins, which are the proteins found in the skins of grapes and other fruits. If a wine has the right amount of tannins, it will give your tongue a great feel, and bring in the sensations of the other flavors. Once a wine starts to age, the tannins will begin to breakdown in the bottle, giving you a softer feel to the taste. Tannins are essential for the taste of wine providing the wine has been properly aged.

The last flavor associated with wine is oak. Although oak isn’t put into the wine during the manufacturing process, it is actually transferred during the aging process, as most wines will spend quite a bit of time in oak barrels. Depending on how long the wine is left in the oak barrel or cask, the ability to extract the flavor will vary. Most often times, wine will be aged just enough to where the oak taste is visibly there and adds the perfect sentiment to the taste.





Although there are other flavors involved with the taste of wine, they aren’t as present as those listed above. The above flavors are the most present in wine, and also the flavors that you need to get more familiar with. Before you try to taste wine or distinguish flavors, you should always learn as much you can about the components responsible for the flavors. This way you will know more about what you are tasting and you’ll truly be able to

LAVENDER WINE

Mooched froom Jack Keller, anyone familiar with online wine recipe's will surely know of his work. If I end up doing this one, I would probably use honey instead f sugar and blackberry juice instead of Welches.


There are many varieties of lavender, plants of the genus Lavandula -- especially Lavandula officinalis. They all contain clusters of small, fragrant, purplish flowers. The small flowers must be picked off the stems to make the wine. Flowers can be picked and frozen in ZipLoc bags for later use. This wine is not only delicious, but its bouquet will be appreciated as soon as you open a bottle.

1 to 1-1/2 pints lavender flowers
2 lb granulated sugar
10.5 oz can of Welch's 100% white grape juice frozen concentrate
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/8 tsp tannin powder
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne yeast

Boil 1/2 gal water and add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Stir in frozen grape concentrate and return to boil. Immediately pour boiling water over all dry ingredients except yeast in primary. When water cools to lukewarm, add remaining water and sprinkle yeast on top. Cover with cloth and ferment 7 days. Strain out flowers and transfer liquid to secondary. Fit airlock. Ferment 60 days and rack, top up, refit airlock, and allow to sit another 60 days. Rack into bottles and allow to age one year.