Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Dandelion Wine

This was another recipe that was stashed away in the same fashion, again, modify the recipe according to your needs, this recipe makes 5 gallons.

Ingredients
1/2 bushel Dandelion Blossoms
3 gallons + 5 quarts Spring Water
15 lbs of sugar
1 cake or enevelope yeast (dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water)
2 15 oz boxes seeded Golden Raisins
12 oranges (juiced)
6 lemons (juiced)
Parafin

Gather half a bushel basket of dandelion blossoms. Wash the blossoms, put them in a large kettle with 3 gallons water. Simmer very slowly for 2 to 3 hours. Strain mixture through layers of cheese cloth into a large crock squeezing the cloth dry. (It looks & smells hopeless at this point but don't give up.) While mixture is still warm add 15 pounds sugar and 1 cake or envelope of yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup of warm water. Let it ferment in crock for 8 days. Pour the liquid into a 5 gallon barrel and add 2 15 ounce boxes of seeded raisins and the juice of 12 oranges and 6 lemons. Reserve the rinds of the fruit & cut them into small pieces. Put them in a kettle with 4 or 5 quarts of water & simmer for 20 minutes. Add enough of this liquid to the barrel to fill it. Let the wine work in the barrel for 14 days, adding more of the citrus infusion from time to time, to keep the barrel filled, and letting the foam run off. When the wine stops working & the foam settle, there will be an air space at the top of the barrel. It will not effect aging once the barrel is sealed. Close the barrel & seal the bung with parafin. Let wine age for a year, longer if possible. To bottle wine, wait at least a year otherwise keep it in the barrel and siphon off as needed leaving the sediment at the bottom. The resultant air space will not damage the wine as long as the keg is kept tightly bunged between "taps". This recipe makes about 5 gallons.

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