Dandelion Wine

(makes one gallon)

Ingredients

6 cups dandelion petals

2 lb. white granulated sugar

1 lb. light raisins

3 tsp. acid blend

1 Campden tablet

½ tsp. yeast energizer

1 gal. hot water

¼ tsp. grape tannin

1 packet wine yeast (Lalvin 71B)

Instructions

1. Remove the petals from the dandelions and discard the rest. Make sure you get rid of all of the green parts; they will make your wine bitter. You’ll need 6 cups of just petals.
2. Cut up the raisins and crush the Campden tablet.
3. Combine all of the ingredients, except for the wine yeast, in your primary fermenter. Pour the hot water in last, stirring to dissolve the powders and the sugar.
4. Seal the primary fermenter, with an airlock in the lid. Add water to the airlock.
5. Once the temperature of the must (the unfermented wine) is below 75F, sprinkle the yeast on the surface. You can immerse the fermenter in cold water if you want to accelerate the cooling.
6. Allow the wine to ferment for 4-6 days, or until signs of fermentation slow down.
7. Strain and siphon the wine into a carboy or gallon jug (a nylon mesh bag tied to the base of your siphon works great for this).
8. After 3 weeks, siphon your wine into another carboy or gallon jug. Make sure to keep your fermenter topped up (you can use white wine).
9. After 3 months, siphon and top up again.
10. When wine is clear and stable, add one more Campden tablet (crushed and dissolved in 1 oz of warm water), and siphon into bottles.
11. Seal the bottles and age for 6 months.
12. Enjoy!