Dandelion Wine

Method

The Dandelions

Collect your dandelion heads, remember to avoid any that have been contaminated with weedkiller or animal waste (so avoid verges on dog walking paths). Always forage responsibly and leave some flowers for our native bees

You need to remove all the green bits from the flowers or you will end up with a bitter taste to the wine. There is no shortcut here other than pulling cutting the green bits away or pulling out the petals

The Brew

Sterilise the fermenting bucket and put the dandelion flowers, lemon juice and lemon zest into the bucket

In a different pan, boil the water and then pour in the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar

Pour the boiling water into the bucket, over the lemony dandelion flowers

Allow the water to cool

If you want to kill any wild yeast for a more predictable result then add one campden tablet to bucket to sterilise and kill the wild yeast in the mixture

Cover the bucket and leave for 24 hours

Add the sachet of yeast to the bucket and give the mixture a stir

Cover the bucket and leave it for 4-6 days, stirring once or twice a day with a sterilised spoon

Straining and Bottling

After 4-6 days the fermentation bubbles have slowed down and the liquid should be strained away from the flowers, fermented some more and bottled

The trick here is to avoid explosions! Finishing the fermentation in a demijohn is the easiest way. Here's how

Use a sieve or straining bag to strain the mixture into a sterilised pan or bucket, and then transfer into a demijohn or into large screw-top plastic bottles if you don't have a demijohn

The demijohn's airlock will let off any excess pressure. If using bottles, you will need to loosen the lids to let off some gas when you see the bottles bulging too much. Don't let off all the gas - you want to keep some fizz. Best to do this over the sink in case it is energetic!

For a dry and slightly sparkling wine, leave it in the demijohn for 3-4 weeks until fermentation has slowed but not quite stopped completely

When you are ready, syphon into clean sterilised bottles and store for anything from 3 months to 2 years before drinking

If you do wait a bit too long and it goes flat, try adding a little more sugar and champagne yeast to get things moving again

​Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

My Bottles Exploded

This is a common complaint and there is a chance it will happen sooner or later if you use glass bottles so do be careful. There are a few ways to avoid explosions:

1. Let off some pressure every day - this requires a decent amount of attention to uncap the lid once a day and let some of the air fssss out. Don't release it all or you will get flat (but still very drinkable) wine rather than fizz
2. Use plastic bottles! They may still burst if you don't watch them, but you will get some warning to release some of the pressure if they start to bulge
3. Use a demijohn with an airlock before bottling - this will release the gas but make sure you don't leave it too long or the wine will become a lot stronger and flat with no extra bubbles when the higher alcohol content kills the yeast. Transfer it to bottles once the bubbling slows down, but not when it's completely stopped because you still want some natural fizz in there. If you do wait a bit too long, try adding a little more sugar and champagne yeast to get things moving again
4. Stick it in the fridge - the cool temperatures will slow down fermentation so you will be safe until you want to drink it. You may see the same thing if you store the fermenting bin in a cool place; the lower temperature means the yeast aren't so keen to turn the sugar to alcohol and fizz so you will get a longer fermentation time

The Wine Is Bitter

The most likely causes are either some green bits crept in to the brew or you didn't sterilise the equipment at the start. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this other than try to add more sugar water so the sweetness offsets the bitter flavour, or use the wine in a cocktail. The best thing to do is to head out with your dandelion collecting basket and try again

I Don't Have a Demijohn

If you don't have a demijohn then leave the brew in the fermenting bucket for 5-7 days which should give enough time for the main rush of fermentation to die down, and then bottle it. If you aren't sure then "burp" a bottle every day for the first week to let some gas out. If it seems very fizzy then carefully burp a little gas from the other bottles. This is a bit of an art - too much burping and you end up with a flat beer

If you are still worried then go for a plastic bottle instead of glass. That way, the plastic will bulge when it's ready to burp some gas. And worst case you end up with a popped lid instead of broken glass