Dandelion Wine

4.41 from 143 votes

Dandelion wine captures summer in a bottle with its sweet, floral flavor and subtle honey notes. My recipe is adapted from the Foxfire Books, and I've been making it for 15 years.

Prep Time1

Fermentation Time60

Total Time60 1

Course: Winemaking & Brewing

Cuisine: American

Servings: glasses (1 gallon, about 4 bottles)

Author: Ashley Adamant

Equipment

Ingredients

3 quarts water approximate, more to fill
3 pounds sugar roughly 5 to 6 cups
1 quart cleaned dandelion petals packed, from roughly 3-4 quarts blossoms
3 medium oranges juice and zest
1 medium lemons juice and zest
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet wine yeast see notes

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar and cool to lukewarm.
Place the dandelion petals, citrus juice and zest into a one-gallon fermentation vessel. Add the yeast nutrient and pour the lukewarm sugar water over the top.
Dissolve a packet of champagne yeast or other wine yeast in lukewarm water. Allow it to stand for 5 minutes to rehydrate and then pour it into the wine. Top off with a bit of extra water to fill the carboy, but be sure to leave at least an inch of headspace.
Cap with an airlock and ferment for 10 to 14 days, or until fermentation slows significantly.
Scoop off the floating dandelion petals, then siphon the wine into a clean container, leaving the sediment behind. Allow the wine to ferment in secondary for at least 6 to 8 weeks, checking the water lock periodically to ensure the water hasn't evaporated.
Bottle the dandelion wine in corked wine bottles for longer storage, or flip-top Grolsch bottles for small batches you're not planning on storing long.
Allow the wine to age in the bottle at least 2 months before drinking, ideally 6 months or more. During aging, keep bottles somewhere cool like a basement or closet on the north side of the house (65 to 68 degrees F is ideal, but room temp is fine).

Notes

Choosing Yeast: Different yeasts produce different flavors and sweetness levels. Red Star Cote des Blancs is my top pick for dandelion wine because it's a slow fermenter that preserves delicate floral notes and has a lower alcohol tolerance (12-14%), leaving more residual sweetness. Lalvin D47 adds fruity and floral character with hints of spice (15% tolerance). For a drier wine, use Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast (18% tolerance). One packet treats 5 gallons, so use about 1 teaspoon per gallon. Never use bread yeast.

Cleaning Dandelion Petals: Only use the yellow petals. The green sepals underneath have a bitter, milky sap that will ruin the delicate flavor of your wine. This is tedious work, but it's absolutely essential. Plan on about an hour to clean a quart of petals. Freeze cleaned petals if collecting over multiple days.

Small Batch Option: Divide the recipe by 4 for a one-quart batch using a mason jar and fermentation kit. Use only 1/4 packet of yeast for a quart batch.

Mead Variation: Substitute 3 pounds of honey for the sugar to make dandelion mead. Honey takes longer for yeast to digest, so expect 2 to 4 months in secondary instead of 6 to 8 weeks. The finished mead will have more body and complexity than the sugar-based wine.

Backsweetening: If your finished wine is too dry, you can backsweeten it. First stabilize the wine with 1 Campden tablet and 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate per gallon to prevent refermentation. Wait 24 hours, then add simple syrup to taste. Rack again before bottling.

Cold Infusion Method: This recipe uses a cold infusion, meaning the sugar water is cooled to lukewarm before adding to the petals. This preserves more of the delicate floral flavor than making a hot dandelion tea first.

Aging: Dandelion wine tastes rough when young. Give it at least 2 months in the bottle, though 6 months or longer is ideal. Store bottles somewhere cool and dark, like a basement or closet on the north side of the house.

Yield: Makes approximately 1 gallon (4 standard wine bottles, about 20 glasses).

Nutrition