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A sure sign that spring has arrived in New England are the yellow dandelion flowers that pop up in every open area of grass. Although pretty to look at, most people consider them weeds and will mow their lawn (or worse, spray it with chemicals) soon after they appear. I see them quite differently. As soon as I see them blossoming, I start thinking about one of my favorite spring traditions: making dandelion wine.

Preparing dandelion wine is a relatively simple process, especially if you’ve brewed wine or beer before, and an excellent excuse to spend some time outside on a sunny spring day. It’s not complicated and doesn’t take more than a few hours, less time if you have a helper. If you already make beer and wine, you already have all the equipment you’ll need; if not, you’ll need to invest in the basics (kits are available from your local brew store).

Here’s what you’ll need to but a batch of dandelion wine together:
- The wine brewing equipment mentioned above
- About 2 lbs of dandelion flowers (heads)
- 2 ½ pounds of sugar
- 1 can of white grape juice concentrate
- ¼ cup orange juice concentrate
- One packet of champagne yeast (any brand will do)
- Water

Finding a spot with plenty of dandelion flowers is usually not to hard in the early spring. Your own yard may have enough but if not, as in my case, office parks and other semi-public grassy spots are a good choice. A spot that has not yet been mowed since the snow has melted yields the densest crops of flowers. Also, and this is very important, make sure you’re picking in a low that is not created with any kind of herbicide / pesticide. This is rare, but just something to be aware of.

The best time to pick is a sunny day in the early to middle afternoon. This ensures the flowers are fully blossomed when you pick them. Wear cloths you don’t mind getting dirty; the blossoms will leave a yellow residue on your hands. When picking the flowers, pick only the heads with as little stem as possible; the white milky stuff in the flower stem is bitter and could foul the taste if too much is extracted into the wine. If you have a helper and a nice spot with lots of flowers, you can pick enough flowers for a batch of wine in about an hour. Again, you’ll need about 2 lbs of flowers, which is about 2/3 of a plastic grocery bag.

After picking, dump the flower heads into a 16 quart or larger cooking pot and add water until the flowers are submerged. Cover, and simmer for 1 hours. This releases all the nectar into the water. After simmering let the “stew” cool with the lid off of the pot for about an hour. While the dandelion heads are cooling, dissolve the 2 ½ lbs of sugar in water in another pot and sterilize your brewing equipment.

Once the dandelion flower stew has cooled enough to work with using your bare hands it needs to be strained into the fermentation container. We strained the liquid from the pot and the dandelion heads through a sock made of cheese cloth (we also use this for beer making) but a large stainless steel cooking strainer will also work. The cheese cloth is a good choice because it allows you to wring all the liquid out of the cooked flower pulp. We also re-strained the pulp with regular cold water to ring out as much of the nectar as we could. Below is what was left after the process was complete.

After the straining we added the can of white grape juice concentrate, 2.5 lbs of sugar (dissolved into a sugar-water solution as indicated above), and ¼ cup of orange juice concentrate. Then the bucket was filled up with cold water until it reached 5 gallons. After the brew cooled to under 100 degrees, I added the yeast, put the lid on the bucket, and added the fermentation lock. Although the color is initially pretty muddy looking, the wine will clear to light golden color, similar in color to champagne.

In a few weeks, after the sediment has settled to the bottom, I’ll move the wine to another fermentation container. Then it’ll set for another 6 to 8 months before bottling; I may move it to to another container one more time and add some pectin before bottling if it has not cleared up. After bottling, I’ll let it sit for 3 to 4 months then give it a try. If it’s good, I’ll begin bringing it out for drinking. Or I’ll let is sit longer; it only improves with age.