DANDELION WINE (FROM MOMMY
BYLER)
 
1 gallon dandelion blossoms
3 lb. sugar
2 lemons
2 oranges
1/2 oz. yeast
A little ginger root, if desired

Pour 1 gallon boiling water over flowers. Cover. Leave for 3 days, stir every day. Then strain into a pan, add lemons and oranges and ginger root. Boil this gently 1/2 hour. Cool. Then add yeast and leave to ferment for 3 days. Then cork lightly. Leave for 2 months, then bottle.

NOTE: Recipe says to spread yeast on toast. I don't know how Grandma did. I asked Cris and Sara and wrote Katie. They didn't seem to know. But maybe in those days they had yeast in small blocks and this was the way they dissolved it.

Recipe also mentions putting wine in "cask." Katie mentioned she doesn't know what a "cask" is and I don't either. Many of us have made wine. I am sure we can adapt this recipe to our own ways.

NOTE FROM RAY KATIE: I remember being by Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of day in the summer and picking dandelions to make this wine.

recipe reviews
Dandelion Wine (From Mommy Byler)
 #28520
 Sam (Texas) says:
"Cask" also a flask or a bottle of some kind that holds things like Alcohol etc.
 #35637
 Mark (North Dakota) says:
My family wine recipes you pour the yeast on a piece of toast and float that on top of the wine mixture for 24 hours yeast side up. After 24 hours remove toast from mixture and stir daily for 2 weeks.
   #79021
 Liam (Arkansas) says:
The starch in the bread helps activate the yeast. I've also seen recipes that use a quarter cup of white rice added to the boiling water, with granulated yeast. Starch in the rice was supposed to jump-start the yeast.
 #109750
 Rick (Florida) says:
A cask is a small, barrel-shaped container usually for liquids. A keg is similar in shape.

My Grampa used to make this during the depression (and prohibition).
 #154949
 Jean Helm (United States) says:
A "cask" (mentioned in one of your recipes) is a term for any sized wooden barrel that could have iron straps around the outside.
 #175921
 Mary (Ohio) says:
You failed to mention at what point to add sugar. I boiled mine, and will have to reboil with sugar. Hope it turns out OK.
   #176333
 Mary Weckbacher-Robeck (Ohio) says:
Here we are 2 months after making this wine, time to bottle, and it tastes gross. Waaay too sweet with a weird after taste.
 #181016
 Barb (Wisconsin) replies:
Never good to use regular baking yeast for wine! Go to a liquor store and ask for wine making yeast. Absolute must or you can taste the "bready" yeast. I also think that amount of sugar is too much. Cut it in half. I use Welch's bottled 100% juice with good results. I let it "cook" for 30 days, but try a small taste early and see if it's how you want it. Health food store may have brewers yeast for making wine.
 #184684
 Mike (Wisconsin) says:
"Cask" is generally taken to mean barrel.

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