Dandelion Wine Day 5
Alright, so on Day 2, April 30th, we dumped all the flowers and water in which they were soaking, into a big pot and started boiling it.
We added about 2.5 cups of sugar and about 1 cup of Wildflower honey from Chilliwack River Honey.
I added zest and juice of 4 oranges and a lemon, as well as about 2oz of fresh Bee Pollen, and 1/4 of REALLY strong black tea.
After about an hour, I dumped it all back into the 5 gallon bucket and waited for it to cool. It got stirred aLOT.
At a temperature of app. 127 F, the hydrometer read at about 1.160 or 20%.
Once the temp got down to a respectable 100F, the pre-prepared L-1118 yeast was added and all was vigorously stirred and sloshed again.
This stodd , covered with a peice of cotton and tied round to keep out fruit flies, for three days.
Today, after a few stumbling blocks (unable to locate an auto-siphon, but found one, a PERFECT size, a mini auto-siphon from La Brewhouse that will fit not only into the 5 gallon carboys but the 1 gallon I am using right now) I got the Dandelion wine/mead hybrid into the one gallon glass jug and fit it with the airlock.
I ended up boiling about two cups of water, and adding to it a few tblsp of sugar, a pinch of pollen and a TINY little bit of nutrient . When it cooled I added it to the gallon jug because I lost alot of liquid which absorbed into the dandelion petals and did not make it into the secondary. I was worried that much of the pollen , which we use as a nutrient, would be left out when transferring because it was really caught up in the fruit and petals which wanted to stay floating on the top, and which were left behind in the primary.
However, it is happily chugging away, so I am hoping that the added water wont throw off the balance of the little yeasty environment.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to comment. It's always fascinating to know that people read what I write.