Dandelion Wine

• Harvest many, many dandelion heads, using only fully open flowers and avoiding any that have been sprayed with fertilizer, herbicide and so forth.
• Using scissors, cut off and save only the yellow petals till you have 7 cups of them.
• Wash the petals in water and drain them.
• Put the petals in a plastic food-grade fermenter (2 gallons or larger).
• Pour the hot water into the fermenter.
• Stir in all remaining ingredients except the yeast and cover the fermenter.
• After 24 hours, add the yeast and again cover the fermenter.
• Stir the mix daily for four days.
• Pour the mix though a sanitized strainer (culling the pulp) into a sanitized gallon jug.*
• Fit the jug with an airlock and set it aside for one month.
• After a month, if the wine is clear, it can be drunk or bottled. To age or clear it further, depending on personal preference, siphon the wine into another sanitized gallon jug, top it up and let it set for three more months.

* A sanitized cloth bag can also be used to contain the petals in the fermenter, Deaton noted. He cautioned that everything that touches the wine after the first day should be sanitized and added, “If you have any questions about … sanitizing or bottling procedures, contact your local home-brew supply shop.”

This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2010.