SangreDelSol

Sangre Del Sol

Strictly speaking yeast digest monosaccharides better than disaccharides (table sugar) so you should invert your sugar first. The yeast will develop the enzyme needed to invert the sugar themselves but it takes longer and probably negatively effects the flavor of the wine. Still I have never inverted my sugar first. If I try I'll report back the results.

Howto

1. Collect the Flowers

	First you need to gather 1 gallon of dandelion flowers. This is just the yellow part of the flower so use a knive or scissors to cut the yellow part from the rest of the plant.
	I use a gallon milk jug to collect the flowers. It takes a good hour or two so be sure to enjoy yourself and look at the other flowers, and enjoy the spring air.

2. Gather Ingredients

dandelion wine ingredients

• 1 gal dandelion flowers
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 qt sugar
• 6 qt water
• 2 pkg yeast

most wine makers will likely frown on the bakers yeast but we have always used it and have alway been happy with the results.

3. Primary Fermentation

	start 2 pkgs of yeast in luke warm water and a pinch of sugar. Too hot and you will kill the yeast, so keep it warm, not hot.
	Dissolve 2 qt sugar in 5 qt water. Let cool before proceeding, otherwise you will kill the yeast
	Mix the flowers, lemon, orange, raisins, and cooled sugar water in a clean 5 gallon pail
	Quickly cover the primary fermentation pail with a clean cloth or towel and an elastic band to hold it in place. This is to keep wild yeast, dust, and other junk out of the wine. Let it ferment for 9 days

4. Secondary Fermentation

	Strain off the solids. If you are really fancy you can filter out some of the dreggs too (coffee filter maybe). I don't bother, time clears all wine. Add another quart of water and quart of sugar to the mix at this point. Again watch the temperature of the sugar water.
	Bust out your syphoning tube and syphon off the wine into your secondary fermentors. I typically use a carboy but can't find it - my dad uses wine bottles so I'll go that route this time.
	As you fill each bottle slip a balloon over the top. This keeps oxygen (and wild yeast and all that junk) out. You can use any type of interlock for this stage.

Once the fermentation stops (no more bubbles) the dreggs will start to settle to the bottom of the bottle. Eventually you will end up with crystal clear wine but this can take many months. Its fine to drink cloudy wine but it looks and tastes better if its clear. I usually sit on it for a few months before bottling to let all the refuge particulate matter (dust) settle.

5. Bottling

Carefully syphon the the wine from the secondary fermentation bottles to their final bottles and cork. The trick here is to disturb the dreggs as little as possible so that the resulting bottled wine will be crystal clear.

-- ChristopherPepe - 09 Jun 2007