Hi all. As a hobby, and somewhat spiritual fulfilment, I make my own wine. It's a very fun thing to do and well worth it when you get the end product.
On the day before Beltane I went out into my local forest and foraged for what I could find. My area was abundant in Wild Garlic (Which are invasive where I live so I could harvest to my heart's content), Wild Onion, and Dandelion. Which I responsibly foraged. I made some garlic bread from the garlic, some onion soup from the onion and with the Dandelion I decided to make a wine. I have never made a floral wine before, but I have tried it before. Here I will show the recipe I used for the wine. This will be a very non-astringent wine as that is how I like wine.
I find this to be a very personally spiritually fulfilling thing to do as I feel very connected to nature, taking the gifts of the wild to make something that me and my friends can enjoy. Especially with wine holding a cultural and spiritual significance.
**Dandelion Heads**
When harvesting the dandelions I made sure to take only the flowers. There are often little bugs in the flowers to I made sure to tap the flowers before picking them to dislodge any little critters that might've found themselves there. Make sure not to include any of the stems as the stems contain a sticky resin. While the resin is perfectly edible I imagine it might impact the taste of the wine.
Additionally, I made sure to only harvest dandelions that were far from any roads to avoid pollution.
Once I got home, I thoroughly washed what I had harvested.
**Recipe**
Ingredients:
- approx 800g - 1kg (1lb 12oz - 2lb 3oz) Dandelion Flowers
- 1kg (2lb 3oz) White Caster Sugar (Although any kind of sugar would work)
- Handful of Star Anise, Whole
- Handful of Cardamom Pods, Whole
- approx 1 teaspoon of Cayenne Chilli powder
- 2 Teabags (This part is optional. Adding tea will make the wine more astringent, so if that is something you enjoy feel free to add this)
- Wine Yeast (I used a versatile white wine, high alcohol yeast, but you could also use bread yeast though the flavours would be quite different and the alcohol percentage would be alot lower, potentially to the point where the wine would not be dry)
Equipment:
- 1 Large Pot
- 1 Bucket with Lid (around 5L/1 Gallon)
- 1 Airtight Container (I would recommend using a glass demijohn)
- 1 Airlock & Bung
- 1 Hydrometer (Optional but it's helpful to know the ABV of what you make)
- Camden Tablets
- 5 Sterilised Wine Bottles
- 5 Corks
- Cork Fitter
Method:
1. Fill pot with water and begin heading. Whilst the water is heating, add the flowers (If your pot isn't quite big enough to fit all the flowers at once, add them in batches, they will shrink as they cook, so you can probably fit them all at the same time), At the same time, slowly add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
2. Once all dandelions have been added, add spices.
2.5. (Optional) Steep tea in hot water then add it to the dandelion juice.
3. Bring to boil and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.
4. Take off heat and allow to cool. (Optional: Once cool, store the dandelion juice in the fridge overnight).
5. Once cool, or in the following morning. Sterilise the bucket, and hydrometer. I do this using bleach. Once sterilised and rinsed, pour the dandelion juice into the bucket. At this point you can use the hydrometer to measure the Specific Gravity pre-fermentation (this helps you determine the ABV later on)
6. Sprinkle yeast ontop of the dandelion juice and cover loosely. The wine will now begin primary fermentation. Store the bucket in a warm dark place. In about a week you will transfer it to the demijohn for secondary fermentation. Over this week a froth should form ontop of the juice, this is a good sign as it shows the fermentation has started.
7. After about a week, the wine is ready to be transferred to the demijohn. Make sure to sterilise the demijohn beforehand. Using a funnel and filter such as muslin cloth, pour the wine into the demijohn. You don't want the flower heads to enter the demijohn but a small amount of solids getting into the wine is perfectly fine. Once the wine is in the demijohn, fit the airlock and place the demijohn in a cool warm place. The demijohn will sit in this state for about a month. At first the airlock will bubble often, around once a minute or so, over the course of the fermentation, this bubbling will slow down as the yeast uses up the sugar. When the bubble stops or almost stops, the wine is ready to be bottled and/or enjoyed.
8 - Once the bubbling has stopped. Take off the airlock and place one crushed Camden Tablet into the wine, fit the airlock and gently shake the demijohn. The Camden Tablet will stop any remaining yeast from fermenting any further. This is to prevent a build-up of CO2 in bottles that could lead to explosions. Leave the wine for a day for the Camden Tablets to do their thing.
9 - You can now either enjoy the wine as it is now, or bottle it for a future occasion.
My Beltane Wine Recipe
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