I've seen a lot of recipes calling for just the petals, and not the little green part at the bottom because apparently, it makes the final beverage really bitter. but I've already boiled a batch of flowers with the base of the flower included. Should I restart while I still can or just go ahead and see what happens?
A lot of people are saying that. I think it's going to be OK, but I'm not at the point where I can recommend this yet, so if you have the time, it might be worth redoing yours with just the petals. I'm happy if mine is a failure, not so much if it makes someone else fail.
My experience is that you don't have to ditch it-- you'll just have to do some things to "correct" the flavour after the first ferment. When you go to bottling, give it a taste. If it is too bitter, add about twice the carbonating sugar, and ~1/8tsp salt/litre (salt counteracts bitter but can kill the microorganisms, so a light touch!). Bottle it in a grolsch or other re-sealable so that you can open and re-taste in month or so. Add another tbsp of sugar(but no more salt) if still too bitter, and reseal. Repeat as needed until it tastes good enough for your palate. YMMV, but I managed to turn an overly bitter/dry batch into a tastier brew this way.
Your content really is some sort of antidote to the modern stay-at-home-all-day-depression. I just wanna go outside now and appreciate the good things in life when you show them in your video. Just lovely.
@@vytasbaltrunas3548 as a position, "get it out of your system early" is perfectly legitimate. I quibble whether it's wholesome though. 12 year olds in the park drinking cider isn't what I'd call wholesome. But that's just me being contrary. Current Mike is wholesome. Can't comment on 12 year old Mike though.
I was allowed to drink wine with meals since about age 10. It took the mystery out of alcohol and although I was a bit stupid and reckless in my late teens, I pretty quickly realised that I don't like binge drinking, or getting very drunk. An occasional drink with a meal, or as a social lubricant with friends is not a bad thing at all
@@AtomicShrimp Exactly what i was going to say, drinking small amounts as a young teen in a controlled environment, takes away the mystery of alcohol. leaving it until 18 to be suddenly allowed to drink whatever you want can cause people to go a bit overboard which I'd imagine to bee the root of many drink problems.
Reminds me of the time I made mead with a flatmate once. We flavored it with berries during the fermentation. If you like to brew, I recommend you try doing Kvass, very easy and quick, and although there's not a lot of alcohol in it, it's a tasty refreshing drink for the summer. Taste is kinda between a cider and a lager
"Dandelions are at their peak right now", looking out my window and seeing a raging snowstorm and about one meter of snow still left on the ground haha. Looking forward to try this in june though, the recipe looks very promising. Greetings from north Sweden!
@@rovcanada1 Yes, the summer season is short (I live at the polar circle) but we can get local honey, my neighbour is actually a bee keeper :) I'm guessing we don't get as much as locations more to the south though.
I have made this dandelion mead twice before and now starting my third batch, (2024). I have always left the green bits on, because frankly, the amount of work involved in separating yellow from green is more than i can be bothered to do! And the brew is not bitter at all. Its really quite easy to make if you follow these steps/instructions and not panic, (like i have) about the various stages. Turns out to be a very nice brew at the end! Thank you
This reminds me of my dad. He constantly had wine fermenting. He'd make it out of almost anything! Dandelions, orange rinds, apple peels, foraged berries. The process was so fascinating to me as a kid. Now I kind of want to have a go at it!
My late Father used to make Elderberry wine in our bathroom, I used to hate the smell as a kid! But best believe I'll make some in that same bathroom when I'm retired. I don't like sweet things, watching you taste that Honey mixture made me pull a face :D
i dont even drink, i am here because i followed this channel when he made the nettle soup. I enjoy how natural and unique and earthy everything is in this video.
Mate that's was an awesome video.. you reminded me of a time from the late 80's early 90's when my father's shed was full of diabolical potions .. brought a smile and a tear to my face. Greetings from Amsterdam
Glad you brought up the sterilising debate. (Even though you sterilise everything!) I'm always amazed at how much people think that sterilisation is so vital in brewing. I read a book about 5 years ago that made an argument against sterilisation. Since then I have never sterilised a single thing involved in any brew I have made and nothing has ever gone off. Not once.
It is a statistics game, ive had a brew go bad despite thorough sterilising. The world is swarming with micro organisms, and excessive hygiene can just leave the field wide open to the first one that happens to stray in
What a coincidence. I was wanting to make some dandelion wine last year without much of a plan, but the rainy season started and I ran out of time to pick them. This came just in time to remind me!
I don't think he mentions it in the video but make sure the liquids are cooled to room temperature before adding the yeast! Water that is still steaming will kill your yeast!
You are the most genuine guy on TH-cam. Thank you for the countless hours of entertainment. Found you from the scambaiting a while ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I appreciate the fact that your content is derived from what intrigues you, as that passion really translates into an entertaining experience.
I still can’t believe you have green grass and dandelions. It’s still freezing temperature here and snowing. Its impossibly difficult to start growing stuff indoors. I can appreciate the idea of smelling greens and pollen though. 😯
I just wanted to let you know that I've been a fan of your channel since I saw the Ballad of John Warosa. I'm from the United States and generally enjoy most all of the content you produce. Scam baiting, unboxing, and foraging are all great.
Nice video, thanks. I always use meadowsweet in my mead. No idea why I've never thought of using dandelions; my mum made dandelion wine every year when I was young. I've found it much easier to sterilize my demijohns by simply putting them in a cold oven, turning it on at the lowest setting, leaving it for an hour and then turning it off again. While it's doing that you can get on with other stuff and once it's cooled down the demijohn's ready to use. Just don't put a cold demijohn in a hot oven and always let it cool down naturally because if you don't, in my experience, it WILL break!
I made blueberry mead last fall. It turned out great! I spiced it with nutmeg and cinnamon... It tastes like Christmas :P Just a suggestion... try making ginger wine. I love the stuff... I wait until ginger is on sale and I buy a bunch of hands and cut them into matchsticks to stay in the fermentation until it's done then strain it out. Ginger has some antibacterial qualities that make it easy to not screw up... and the fermentation mellows out all of the ginger's heat. It was the first wine I ever made and I have always gone back to it when I don't know what to make.
my fathers favourite homemade wines were ..banana wine [ ripest bananas only ] , and rosehip and raisin made with a sherry yeast ...both were amazing .
This mans videos stun me every time. In his £2 for 2 days of food, he briefly explained the reason behind the challenges isn’t necessarily about thrift shopping or what have you, but being analytical, and facing challenges. Seriously I felt like I was 20 years old again on ecstasy listening to some philosophy or logic lecture.
I had no idea this was even possible, but now that I think about it, that makes sense. You’re a very resourceful man. Can’t wait to see what you brew or cook next!
@@torianholt2752 Honestly, I've never meaded my dandelion wine. Not sure if I'd enjoy it that way. I'll try a small, side batch this year to see if I like it. Thanks for the hops tip...could be interesting.
I don't know if you've ever heard about it, but this is really similar to kefir. It's also made using yeast and lemon, and can get alcoholic if you let it ferment for long enough. I've never made it with dandelion or honey though. It also seems to have the same type of granules as 12:13 and the making process is kind of similar.
So glad you talked about maybe going overboard with the sterilisation process. I've been brewing for years now and learned over time it's barely needed. A good wash under hot water has always worked for me and I've never had a brew go bad. The sterilisation products are way over the top and may leave residue. I'd rather a brew go bad than ingest that stuff. That's just one man's experience is all.
It also depends what you're brewing. I've had cider turn ropey when I was trying to ferment it entirely on wild yeasts, just because there must have been the wrong bacteria present, and I literally just pressed juice and started it fermenting. Most people shock it with sulphite to deal with that, or pasteurised the juice. For anything where the major components are cooked, it's harder to go wrong
I want into his other videos. I subscribed for the scammers. But the second I watched this I’m now all into these videos. This is entertainment. And useful.
Brewed a bit of beer in my time but not done mead or wine. Watched this morning and decided to give it a go! A short trip to wilko later (needed wine yeast and a demijohn) and my dandelions are steeping in water as we speak. Noticed some comments here that reccomended removing the green from the dandelions so have given that a go. Also bought some wine finings to help make sure it's not too sedimenty when drinking. Current plan is to put some more honey in half the bottles to see what it's like carbonated versus still! Am pretty impressed with the selection of homebrew equipment in wilko, even the small ones!
thank you Mike, you're an inspiration for me. I have a second house with some trees in a grass field. Inalways wondered how I could use it to the fullest. I'll make treasure of this and the stinging nettles soup recipes you made.
if anyone wants their dandelion liquid to look less like "pond water," if you remove the green part of the dandelion tops and use only the petals and you'll get a liquid the color of honey instead.
Interestingly, all of that green stuff has dropped right out of solution/suspension by now (about 5 days into fermentation) - the brew is now a nice golden beer-like colour anyway. I wasn't certain this would happen however.
@@AtomicShrimp good to know - it's a lot less work to leave it all on there, and I think personally I would prefer the herbal/grassy flavor it probably added while steeping.
@@Danny.._ we'll have see. There is a possibility that the green parts may have contributed a lot of bitterness to the brew. But if so, the end result could probably still be used like vermouth or something
@@AtomicShrimp My grandmother always made me separate the greens from the flowers. She did claim that it produced a bitter wine. Fingers crossed for you.
Just earlier today i thought: Man those beautiful dandelions. I heard you could make interesting stuff with them i wonder what recipes are out there and BOOM! Atomic Shrimp delivers. Thank you very much!
That 'Wish" unboxing was the best decision I made a while back. Thanks for my Sunday breakfast interesting video viewing greetings from Amsterdam. Dandelion fritters!
His name is Tom. That is why his channel is called aTOMic Shrimp. Plus his fingers are like prawns however he refers to them as Shrimp because it sounds better as Atomic Shrimp.
Congrats! I've done both mead and dandelion wine. And have good and bad batches of both. With the dandelions, as you saw, the bugs make it quite time consuming to prep, and being that their long taproots can readily absorb pesticides and heavy metals you got to be thoughtful of where you harvest. I tend to just use a few roots from plants I find off the beaten path for an occasional roasted dandelion root "coffee" anymore. Berries mark the start of the brew season for me. Although I usually skip Strawberry, never had luck fermenting them. (maybe its all the little seeds?)
You have inspired me. I have pulling dandelions out of my yard for several days. But not knowing I could make mead out of them, they are no good now. Good news, I still have a lot (I have 1/2 an acre of mostly grass with dandelions). If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will be picking the flowers and getting them ready to make mead. I can't wait to see how yours turns out. Thank you for the inspiration.
the entire plant is edible too, and the leaves are considered a super food I believe. I'd stay away from the stem (not that theyre harmful, they just contain a very bitter sap) but the leaves especially are supposedly quite good to eat. the older the leaves the more bitter so young ones are generally preferred.
I always used to create a "starter" for the yeast in a small glass (200 ml) with apple juice and honey water. Covered the thing with cling film, poked some holes in it and kept it warm for a day or two... just to make sure the yeast culture is active and working before adding it to 10 liters of whatever wine I made. Might actually try this one out, maybe without the "green parts" like Matthew already mentioned. Good luck to your mead^^
Wow! That's a lot of dandelions. There has been so much development over all of the orchards and open land I remember around these semi-rural parts of the East San Francisco Bay Area where I'm from. Now the only dandelions I see here are those in my lawn, which I'm supposed to get rid of so that there will be enough water for the coming masses of developments (for which there will never be enough water, there's never been enough for any of us relatively recent settlers). I don't think I've ever appreciated or understood the value of dandelions. I remember in past times during the three months of the year California turns green, seeing the hills and fields of massive swaths of orange poppies, blue lupines, yellow mustard, purple vetch, and whatever the red blooms were, but I'm not even sure I would've noticed if there'd been swaths of yellow dandelions in the grass. I'd sure love to have a taste of this brew!
I love your vids you don't care what the algorithm likes and that makes you one of my favourate youtubers and is likly what allows me to be able to watch your videos for hours on end
I am working on my own dandelion mead right now. I am excited to see how itll turn out. I want to use roasted dandelion roots in mine for some special tannins. I am also doing the hard work of removing all green.
I'm was going through your old foraging and cooking videos when this popped up. Lovely surprise and great video. I've been thinking about making dandelion syrup this year...
Love to see you do more British recipes and also more of your vegetable and fruit foraging from everyday British plants. You seemed quite knowledgeable in that field (pun intended) in your "3 meals, one day with £1" challenge video. 👍👍👍
With all this talk of honey you should try the new Rowse Chocolate Spread, it is just set honey and cocoa. I don't think it's as tasty as Nutella straight out the jar but on toast with peanut butter it's delightful and I prefer it to conventional chocolate spread. Has a nice earthy taste if you're into that sort of thing and works a lot better with a brown seeded loaf than normal chocolate spread which I think is best suited to white bread.
@@InakaAdventure I switched to cheese making from brewing after I moved to Japan. It's only a tax infringement, so for citizens of Japan the consequences are essentially zero. Unfortunately, it can affect your immigration status (any tax infringement can), so please exercise due caution. Personally, I decided it wasn't worth the risk since I eventually want to get citizenship (though for some practical reasons I'm holding off from applying for a few more years).
I've been making mead/metheglin/melomel for 35 years and, well, I wish you the best of luck with this! Random ingredients, random honey... Mead is always a bit of a lottery, and I do hope you've chosen well. There's only one way to find out. A note about using caster sugar. Generally, what I do is split small portions of the must and try different wine yeasts with them, before choosing one for the fermentation. Your must isn't based on caster sugar, and what you really need is a yeast that will work with all those complex sugars (and also antiseptics) present in the honey. Honey is designed by bees NOT to ferment, and we're always fighting with nature to get a decent brew from it. I focus on fabricating dry meads with 16-18% ABV (much like dry sherry) and use a triple fermentation technique similar to that used by Trappist Monks for their beers. The finishing touch is a "flor" which I add courtesy of a particularly fortuitous bacteria which dropped in on one batch of my finished brew a few years ago. If you get a stuck fermentation, I will try to help you, if you wish. Enjoy the mystery of fermentation with natural ingredients. When it works, you get something amazing every time! When it works.....!
I've made home-brewed ginger beer a few times now, starting with a self-fermenting ginger bug. I am admittedly sloppy with hygiene. Cleanly rinsed has to do. No overtaking by unwanted bugs yet; the ginger bug is the bully on the yard. I had to grin when you mentioned straw thatched huts for brewing. There are anecdotes about the wild yeast fermented geuze beers of Belgium. Apparently at some sites the beer would come out right only if they set the butt with the wort in the right corner of the thatched house... On the sugars in the honey: Honey is slightly higher in fructose than sucrose, AFAIK, but still contains both fructose and glucose. I think the yeast will be happy with just honey for a starter. Now honey is said to have certain antimicrobial properties, but in diluted honey the yeast should be fine. There's a reason bees don't cap their honey before it has the right concentration that won't ferment anymore.
I imagine some wild yeasts will have survived from the honey (not fermenting in the concentrated form of the honey, but probably still there in dormant form).
Hey Mike! I've been following your channel for quite some time now, and one thing I've noticed about you is that you like to experience / learn stuff even though they might seem a little strange or useless to others - I must say that you've been an inspiration to me in that regard. I don't know if you speak any other language besides English, but as a content suggestion, I'd love to see you try to learn a constructed language like Espearnto in a limited time and share your thoughts on your learning process and the language itself afterwards. As a speaker, I'd be happy to be of help too. Cheers!
Love dandelion greens too. I recall trying to make this when I was a bit younger than the legal drinking age and I botched it and the blackberry wine I made from my grandmother's blackberry bushes by using...bakers yeast (sigh). It was certainly strong and yeasty let me tell you.
Love your videos! Dandelions haven't bloomed here yet in the Pacific Northwest of the states. I used to drink Dandelion Root Coffee when I was trying to quit coffee.... It was ok. Unfortunately coffee won my battle (takes a sip of morning coffee)
Maybe as a tipp. I have made honey with dandelion and fir tips(young ones). We always removed the green stuff completly from the dandelion. Press together the greenpart of the flower head to easily remove the yellow parts. So it should get a better taste and less bitter.
Lovely. Two things happened today before watching this video... 1. I said "nah probably not starting to brew anything else for now, I've got too much on already". 2. I looked at the dandelions on the communal gardens down stairs and thought how lovely they looked. This time tomorrow they will be boiling on the stove.
Maybe a couple of days later but now they're boiled and drained. Demijohn is sterilising, and I've just bought 4 lbs of honey from Aldi. I suspect that at most I'll be OneWeekBehindShrimp
When I first got into wine and mead making years ago, I found a book titled "First Steps in Wine Making" by the English author called C.J.J Berry. (Sadly no longer with us.) In his recipe for dandelion mead and wine, he was very insistent that all the green from the flowers are removed before boiling. His way of doing this was to pick the flowers into a tub, cover the tub with a towel, and then place the tub in a dark corner for an hour. The flowers close up making them easier to clean. Every time I made dandelion mead or wine I followed this practice and had very good results. I even made sparking dandelion wine one year which both my aunts loved. There is no bitter taste, and the wine is far easier to clear then if you have the leaves and a bit of stem mixed in. He also recommended adding a few cups of strong brewed tea in the recipe as it gives the yeast tannin.
Hey there Shrimp! Just hopping in on discussion you had on over sterilizing things in the mix. The biggest benefit to sterilizing things is consistency, quite often you don't need to worry too much about it being incredibly sterile, as you mentioned in olden days things were made in quite obviously non sterile environments, and bacteria and other things can impact the flavor of the brew, not always in a bad way. If your environment isn't clean, then you won't know exactly how the end result will taste and each time you make your mead it could end up being tasty or a bit off regardless of the steps you take. Keeping everything sterile means that each time you make it, you know the end result is dictated only by things you did.
Thank you for introducing me to the fact mead isn't too difficult to make, I've ordered all the equipment and I'm going to start my own first batch tomorrow 😂😁
Mike: "The Dandelions are in season now..." Me: *looks outside at snow* "Hey, honey, when do you think we'll have dandelions here?" Wife: "Mmmm... May, June?"
This looks like it will be great. Wouldn't have even thought of putting dandelions in mead. I'm wondering if I wanted to make a lighter colour mead of the same recipe, would distilling the dandelion extract a couple times in a basic still help to make it more colourless and the end mead product more golden coloured? It would of course be for purely aesthetic reasons.
you can make a sanitizing solution with iodyne. I use one brand they use for handling animals (wound desinfection and also to sanitize milking equipment).It kills most microorganisms and have no unpleasant taste. The only bad thing, is it tends to dye you plastic materials brown, like the airlock.
thanks Mike, I just bought a 5l bucket with airlock from Bigger Jugs since they were cheapest. Since pineapples are 'in season' I'm going to make Tepache and then I have bucket for home brewing. Please keep more coming, I want to get drunk from a cheap investment
I'm making melomel and metheglins with wild yeast.. To sterilise I just slosh kombucha vinegars (including raw apple cider vinegar) around in the containers. I've not had any trouble yet after about a year.. I reckon you could just dowse the dandelions in vinegar and then rinse them, then put them into your mixture (in my case I always add things to a base of 2 litres of juice and 1 jar of honey.). And you can take chemicals off fruit by washing/rinsing them in water with a little baking powder or baking soda.
In all the years i have made dandelion wine i have always cut the petals off & never left the green stalk head on! You can make sure there are no insects in there, it also keeps the colour bright. The yeast is what determines the strength & not the amount of honey.
Going to have to find a sample to taste first before I plonk down honey money (honey isn't cheap!). Thanks for the video...started a kombucha batch yesterday, perhaps i can try a dandelion kombucha when in season (we are a month behind you on dandelions)
10:55 the sugar is there to "wake up" the yeast and kickstart it. You could use literally any sugar but the regular white sucrose sugar is the cheapest, most common and readily available sugar people have and can find around so its used to measure stuff, you can replace white sucrose sugar with brown sucrose sugar, prob equal amounts considering the only real difference is its color, you can also use glucose(such as that honey that you got there),fructose, lactose, even starch but you will need different amounts for the same result and it might take a lot more time for the yeast to really start doing its thing, in fact i think you might stunt the yeast by giving it starch or lactose to process instead of whatever else
I've seen a lot of recipes calling for just the petals, and not the little green part at the bottom because apparently, it makes the final beverage really bitter. but I've already boiled a batch of flowers with the base of the flower included. Should I restart while I still can or just go ahead and see what happens?
A lot of people are saying that. I think it's going to be OK, but I'm not at the point where I can recommend this yet, so if you have the time, it might be worth redoing yours with just the petals. I'm happy if mine is a failure, not so much if it makes someone else fail.
@@AtomicShrimp ive never been opposed to a little trial and error, ill just do 2 batches!
Maybe taste the dandelion 'tea' before adding it to the mix. I probably should have done that.
That was what tipped me off that I was doing something wrong. Tastes like angry dirt.
My experience is that you don't have to ditch it-- you'll just have to do some things to "correct" the flavour after the first ferment.
When you go to bottling, give it a taste. If it is too bitter, add about twice the carbonating sugar, and ~1/8tsp salt/litre (salt counteracts bitter but can kill the microorganisms, so a light touch!).
Bottle it in a grolsch or other re-sealable so that you can open and re-taste in month or so. Add another tbsp of sugar(but no more salt) if still too bitter, and reseal. Repeat as needed until it tastes good enough for your palate.
YMMV, but I managed to turn an overly bitter/dry batch into a tastier brew this way.
honestly mike is such an inspiration; he doesn't care what the algorithm thinks, he makes what he wants to make. you go man
absolutely
He enjoys life as it comes. No greed
His name is Tom, that's why his channel is called aTOMic Shrimp.
@@hothothotmale is it actually or a joke
i didn’t know his name is mike
Your content really is some sort of antidote to the modern stay-at-home-all-day-depression.
I just wanna go outside now and appreciate the good things in life when you show them in your video.
Just lovely.
Great comment. Mike inspired me to make my own tart cherry mead which turned out really good.
One of my first memories was gsthering dandelions for my mother to make wine..circa 1957
Lol...when I was very young, my granny would pay me a penny a flower head...had to remove all the green though.
I thought I was a tycoon.
Same😂-but in the late 70s.
@@beeragainsthumanity1420 what a sweet memory!
Aww that sounds magical
This is probably most wholesome channel on youtube
Wholesome? Hey kids, make your own alcohol!
@@benholroyd5221 first of all, yes, get it out of your system early, second I'm talking about Mike himself as a content creator
@@vytasbaltrunas3548 as a position, "get it out of your system early" is perfectly legitimate. I quibble whether it's wholesome though.
12 year olds in the park drinking cider isn't what I'd call wholesome.
But that's just me being contrary.
Current Mike is wholesome. Can't comment on 12 year old Mike though.
I was allowed to drink wine with meals since about age 10. It took the mystery out of alcohol and although I was a bit stupid and reckless in my late teens, I pretty quickly realised that I don't like binge drinking, or getting very drunk. An occasional drink with a meal, or as a social lubricant with friends is not a bad thing at all
@@AtomicShrimp Exactly what i was going to say, drinking small amounts as a young teen in a controlled environment, takes away the mystery of alcohol. leaving it until 18 to be suddenly allowed to drink whatever you want can cause people to go a bit overboard which I'd imagine to bee the root of many drink problems.
Adam combines his background in journalism perfectly with his coocking channel, i absolutely agree.
Reminds me of the time I made mead with a flatmate once. We flavored it with berries during the fermentation. If you like to brew, I recommend you try doing Kvass, very easy and quick, and although there's not a lot of alcohol in it, it's a tasty refreshing drink for the summer. Taste is kinda between a cider and a lager
"Dandelions are at their peak right now", looking out my window and seeing a raging snowstorm and about one meter of snow still left on the ground haha. Looking forward to try this in june though, the recipe looks very promising. Greetings from north Sweden!
Eller hur?
I'm curious; do you get local honey up there, or is the summer too brief for bees?
Perhaps not as drastic but in Poland it - 1 at night up to 9 degree during day, so I guess the dandelions season is yet to come 🤔
@@rovcanada1 Yes, the summer season is short (I live at the polar circle) but we can get local honey, my neighbour is actually a bee keeper :) I'm guessing we don't get as much as locations more to the south though.
@@deniseandersson5413 That's good to know, as I always wondered how bees do north of 60
I have made this dandelion mead twice before and now starting my third batch, (2024). I have always left the green bits on, because frankly, the amount of work involved in separating yellow from green is more than i can be bothered to do! And the brew is not bitter at all. Its really quite easy to make if you follow these steps/instructions and not panic, (like i have) about the various stages. Turns out to be a very nice brew at the end! Thank you
This reminds me of my dad. He constantly had wine fermenting. He'd make it out of almost anything! Dandelions, orange rinds, apple peels, foraged berries. The process was so fascinating to me as a kid. Now I kind of want to have a go at it!
Try elderflower.
Do! I need to get back to wine making myself
My late Father used to make Elderberry wine in our bathroom, I used to hate the smell as a kid! But best believe I'll make some in that same bathroom when I'm retired. I don't like sweet things, watching you taste that Honey mixture made me pull a face :D
You should try Elderberry flower wine instead.
It is not sweet once it’s fermented and aged.
i dont even drink, i am here because i followed this channel when he made the nettle soup. I enjoy how natural and unique and earthy everything is in this video.
Mate that's was an awesome video.. you reminded me of a time from the late 80's early 90's when my father's shed was full of diabolical potions .. brought a smile and a tear to my face.
Greetings from Amsterdam
Thats beautiful
"diabolical potions" is just perfect for homebrews
"I'd be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a belly full of mead." - Guard
"Let me guess, someone stole your sweet roll?"
@@Mischief_Manager93 You tried mercenary work? It might suit you.
I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee.
Woah Woah watch the magic.
@@ninjawasabie565 hey I know who you are hail sithis
I'm a microbiologist and I'm really impressed with your knowledge of fermentation ☺️👌
I thought this was pretty basic.
That yeast is going to be very happy though.
I'm a microbiologist, and frankly I was rather bemused by his knowledge on fermentation, underwhelmed even. 🤨👎
I’m a microbiologist and I paid more attention to the comment section ☺️👌
Yeah its basic info, stop throwing your job title around douchebag
@Hyperion 666
Lol...ya gotta try...!...give it a shot.
Glad you brought up the sterilising debate. (Even though you sterilise everything!) I'm always amazed at how much people think that sterilisation is so vital in brewing. I read a book about 5 years ago that made an argument against sterilisation. Since then I have never sterilised a single thing involved in any brew I have made and nothing has ever gone off. Not once.
It is a statistics game, ive had a brew go bad despite thorough sterilising. The world is swarming with micro organisms, and excessive hygiene can just leave the field wide open to the first one that happens to stray in
Interesting. Its potentially not unlike the excess use of anti biotics which increases risk of bacterial problems in the long run.
New to this channel but this guy is one of the best and most interesting guy on TH-cam
What a coincidence. I was wanting to make some dandelion wine last year without much of a plan, but the rainy season started and I ran out of time to pick them. This came just in time to remind me!
I don't think he mentions it in the video but make sure the liquids are cooled to room temperature before adding the yeast! Water that is still steaming will kill your yeast!
Yes, anything that feels warm is too hot.
You are the most genuine guy on TH-cam. Thank you for the countless hours of entertainment. Found you from the scambaiting a while ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I appreciate the fact that your content is derived from what intrigues you, as that passion really translates into an entertaining experience.
You have a steady pouring hand, Mr Shrimp! I would have been cowardly and used a funnel.
I still can’t believe you have green grass and dandelions. It’s still freezing temperature here and snowing. Its impossibly difficult to start growing stuff indoors. I can appreciate the idea of smelling greens and pollen though. 😯
Its been incredibly sunny and pretty warm for over a week here in England, we've probably already had the majority of our summer now 😂 😂
I know here in Ireland dandelions are everywhere, local news are going crazy xD
You must live on the same latitude as I do. Our snow has only just barely melted in most places.
Even I've seen a dandelion! North of Oslo.. No stopping them..
No dandelions yet here either (western Siberia), but the snow is mostly gone and I saw the first coltsfoot flowers today, which look pretty similar.
Dang, I need to see about getting some brewing supplies because I LOVE mead and dandelion sounds like an interesting flavoring component.
I just wanted to let you know that I've been a fan of your channel since I saw the Ballad of John Warosa. I'm from the United States and generally enjoy most all of the content you produce. Scam baiting, unboxing, and foraging are all great.
Nice video, thanks. I always use meadowsweet in my mead. No idea why I've never thought of using dandelions; my mum made dandelion wine every year when I was young. I've found it much easier to sterilize my demijohns by simply putting them in a cold oven, turning it on at the lowest setting, leaving it for an hour and then turning it off again. While it's doing that you can get on with other stuff and once it's cooled down the demijohn's ready to use. Just don't put a cold demijohn in a hot oven and always let it cool down naturally because if you don't, in my experience, it WILL break!
I made blueberry mead last fall. It turned out great! I spiced it with nutmeg and cinnamon... It tastes like Christmas :P
Just a suggestion... try making ginger wine. I love the stuff... I wait until ginger is on sale and I buy a bunch of hands and cut them into matchsticks to stay in the fermentation until it's done then strain it out. Ginger has some antibacterial qualities that make it easy to not screw up... and the fermentation mellows out all of the ginger's heat. It was the first wine I ever made and I have always gone back to it when I don't know what to make.
I really appreciate that you link the videos for devices that are not card capable, thank you!
the fact that you know who Adam is really warms my heart
my fathers favourite homemade wines were ..banana wine [ ripest bananas only ] , and rosehip and raisin made with a sherry yeast ...both were amazing .
Makes me wish I had space to do my own brews at home. Your videos always make me want to own more rooms and gardens to practice these things.
I have 7 gallons of mead fermenting in my dining room. It doesn't require a lot of space to make.
This mans videos stun me every time. In his £2 for 2 days of food, he briefly explained the reason behind the challenges isn’t necessarily about thrift shopping or what have you, but being analytical, and facing challenges. Seriously I felt like I was 20 years old again on ecstasy listening to some philosophy or logic lecture.
Love watching your videos on a Sunday morning
dandelions usually come into season in late may to early june in finland. will have to try this in a month or so
I had no idea this was even possible, but now that I think about it, that makes sense.
You’re a very resourceful man. Can’t wait to see what you brew or cook next!
My family has been doing this for a few generations, probably longer.
He didn't remove the greens though.
It may be quite bitter. Fingers crossed.
@@beeragainsthumanity1420 it's ideal to add a bittering agent to mead anyway, many people hop theirs.
@@torianholt2752
Honestly, I've never meaded my dandelion wine. Not sure if I'd enjoy it that way.
I'll try a small, side batch this year to see if I like it.
Thanks for the hops tip...could be interesting.
I'm waiting for the episode where you make a set of tyres from Dandelion Latex.
I don't know if you've ever heard about it, but this is really similar to kefir. It's also made using yeast and lemon, and can get alcoholic if you let it ferment for long enough. I've never made it with dandelion or honey though.
It also seems to have the same type of granules as 12:13 and the making process is kind of similar.
So glad you talked about maybe going overboard with the sterilisation process. I've been brewing for years now and learned over time it's barely needed. A good wash under hot water has always worked for me and I've never had a brew go bad. The sterilisation products are way over the top and may leave residue. I'd rather a brew go bad than ingest that stuff. That's just one man's experience is all.
It also depends what you're brewing. I've had cider turn ropey when I was trying to ferment it entirely on wild yeasts, just because there must have been the wrong bacteria present, and I literally just pressed juice and started it fermenting. Most people shock it with sulphite to deal with that, or pasteurised the juice. For anything where the major components are cooked, it's harder to go wrong
@@AtomicShrimp That's a video right there, it's just such an Atomic Shrimp thing to attempt.
I want into his other videos. I subscribed for the scammers. But the second I watched this I’m now all into these videos. This is entertainment. And useful.
There’s Eva! I knew she’d be fine bless her. Fantastic video as ever :)
Brewed a bit of beer in my time but not done mead or wine.
Watched this morning and decided to give it a go! A short trip to wilko later (needed wine yeast and a demijohn) and my dandelions are steeping in water as we speak. Noticed some comments here that reccomended removing the green from the dandelions so have given that a go. Also bought some wine finings to help make sure it's not too sedimenty when drinking. Current plan is to put some more honey in half the bottles to see what it's like carbonated versus still!
Am pretty impressed with the selection of homebrew equipment in wilko, even the small ones!
thank you Mike, you're an inspiration for me. I have a second house with some trees in a grass field. Inalways wondered how I could use it to the fullest.
I'll make treasure of this and the stinging nettles soup recipes you made.
if anyone wants their dandelion liquid to look less like "pond water," if you remove the green part of the dandelion tops and use only the petals and you'll get a liquid the color of honey instead.
Interestingly, all of that green stuff has dropped right out of solution/suspension by now (about 5 days into fermentation) - the brew is now a nice golden beer-like colour anyway. I wasn't certain this would happen however.
@@AtomicShrimp good to know - it's a lot less work to leave it all on there, and I think personally I would prefer the herbal/grassy flavor it probably added while steeping.
@@Danny.._ we'll have see. There is a possibility that the green parts may have contributed a lot of bitterness to the brew. But if so, the end result could probably still be used like vermouth or something
@@AtomicShrimp
My grandmother always made me separate the greens from the flowers.
She did claim that it produced a bitter wine.
Fingers crossed for you.
@@beeragainsthumanity1420 Yes, you are supposed to remove the petals, the green parts of dandelions are quite bitter and astringent.
Just earlier today i thought: Man those beautiful dandelions. I heard you could make interesting stuff with them i wonder what recipes are out there and BOOM! Atomic Shrimp delivers. Thank you very much!
I absolutely love mead but never had it with dandelion, excited to hear about the results
That 'Wish" unboxing was the best decision I made a while back. Thanks for my Sunday breakfast interesting video viewing greetings from Amsterdam. Dandelion fritters!
Ive never tried them
@@gruffrossi5420 I think my ears deceived me
You can ferment a lot of things mate its good watching thoe
Thank you for another great video Mike 👍 Keep doing what you love, because we love it.
His name is Tom. That is why his channel is called aTOMic Shrimp. Plus his fingers are like prawns however he refers to them as Shrimp because it sounds better as Atomic Shrimp.
@@hothothotmale Sounds like you're itching to write some lore or fanfiction.
@@hothothotmale Actually him name is Tim because RIM in shRIMp rhymes with Tim
@@hothothotmale An anagram for a company he worked for in the past: Mario Smith PC, I once bought a modem from them.
Congrats! I've done both mead and dandelion wine. And have good and bad batches of both. With the dandelions, as you saw, the bugs make it quite time consuming to prep, and being that their long taproots can readily absorb pesticides and heavy metals you got to be thoughtful of where you harvest. I tend to just use a few roots from plants I find off the beaten path for an occasional roasted dandelion root "coffee" anymore. Berries mark the start of the brew season for me. Although I usually skip Strawberry, never had luck fermenting them. (maybe its all the little seeds?)
You have inspired me. I have pulling dandelions out of my yard for several days. But not knowing I could make mead out of them, they are no good now. Good news, I still have a lot (I have 1/2 an acre of mostly grass with dandelions). If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will be picking the flowers and getting them ready to make mead. I can't wait to see how yours turns out. Thank you for the inspiration.
the entire plant is edible too, and the leaves are considered a super food I believe. I'd stay away from the stem (not that theyre harmful, they just contain a very bitter sap) but the leaves especially are supposedly quite good to eat. the older the leaves the more bitter so young ones are generally preferred.
Loved the Adam Ragusea reference! Makes me wonder if our Shrimp has tried that pizza recipe too
I'm going to try his old dough idea next. It looks superb
Lovely video! Also Eva brought a big smile to my face 😄
I always used to create a "starter" for the yeast in a small glass (200 ml) with apple juice and honey water. Covered the thing with cling film, poked some holes in it and kept it warm for a day or two... just to make sure the yeast culture is active and working before adding it to 10 liters of whatever wine I made.
Might actually try this one out, maybe without the "green parts" like Matthew already mentioned.
Good luck to your mead^^
I'll start with my mead today - picked half a kilo dandelions and removed the petals for 4-5 l of mead :D
really looking forward to the next video!
Wow! That's a lot of dandelions. There has been so much development over all of the orchards and open land I remember around these semi-rural parts of the East San Francisco Bay Area where I'm from. Now the only dandelions I see here are those in my lawn, which I'm supposed to get rid of so that there will be enough water for the coming masses of developments (for which there will never be enough water, there's never been enough for any of us relatively recent settlers). I don't think I've ever appreciated or understood the value of dandelions. I remember in past times during the three months of the year California turns green, seeing the hills and fields of massive swaths of orange poppies, blue lupines, yellow mustard, purple vetch, and whatever the red blooms were, but I'm not even sure I would've noticed if there'd been swaths of yellow dandelions in the grass. I'd sure love to have a taste of this brew!
I love your vids you don't care what the algorithm likes and that makes you one of my favourate youtubers and is likly what allows me to be able to watch your videos for hours on end
Same here. Just pure relaxation and entertainment.
This has calming cottagecore vibes, I love ur channel
I love these type of videos, there's something to look forward to, like the chutney recipe. No rush, just good stuff...to be continued....
I am working on my own dandelion mead right now. I am excited to see how itll turn out. I want to use roasted dandelion roots in mine for some special tannins. I am also doing the hard work of removing all green.
I'm was going through your old foraging and cooking videos when this popped up. Lovely surprise and great video. I've been thinking about making dandelion syrup this year...
Love to see you do more British recipes and also more of your vegetable and fruit foraging from everyday British plants.
You seemed quite knowledgeable in that field (pun intended) in your "3 meals, one day with £1" challenge video.
👍👍👍
I've just watched your tasting vid and came here to see how it was made. Roll on next year when I'll be giving this a go. I enjoy a nice mead.
With all this talk of honey you should try the new Rowse Chocolate Spread, it is just set honey and cocoa. I don't think it's as tasty as Nutella straight out the jar but on toast with peanut butter it's delightful and I prefer it to conventional chocolate spread. Has a nice earthy taste if you're into that sort of thing and works a lot better with a brown seeded loaf than normal chocolate spread which I think is best suited to white bread.
I love making mead, just drinking a blueberry rosemary clove blend. Havnt tried using dandelion yet though
I hope you know brewing above 1% is illegal in the inaka...
@@donpalmera Not if you have a license or if you dilute it to 1%, some people forget to dilute it at the end ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@InakaAdventure I switched to cheese making from brewing after I moved to Japan. It's only a tax infringement, so for citizens of Japan the consequences are essentially zero. Unfortunately, it can affect your immigration status (any tax infringement can), so please exercise due caution. Personally, I decided it wasn't worth the risk since I eventually want to get citizenship (though for some practical reasons I'm holding off from applying for a few more years).
@@urouroniwa Japan is baka na, baka na, baka na onna no (urami bushi), I'd never ask her to hold my beer...
@@urouroniwa The restrictions on otherwise normal activities is definitely the worst part about living in Japan
This was really well received when I made a gallon last year.
I'm going to do a 5 gallon batch this year too
Yesss I was hoping you'd do something with dandelion, they're all over my yard right now
Yes, look up uses for them and they will all die. :) :)
Add the yellows to cakes it's my favourite or people make dandylion jelly
I've been making mead/metheglin/melomel for 35 years and, well, I wish you the best of luck with this!
Random ingredients, random honey... Mead is always a bit of a lottery, and I do hope you've chosen well. There's only one way to find out.
A note about using caster sugar. Generally, what I do is split small portions of the must and try different wine yeasts with them, before choosing one for the fermentation. Your must isn't based on caster sugar, and what you really need is a yeast that will work with all those complex sugars (and also antiseptics) present in the honey. Honey is designed by bees NOT to ferment, and we're always fighting with nature to get a decent brew from it.
I focus on fabricating dry meads with 16-18% ABV (much like dry sherry) and use a triple fermentation technique similar to that used by Trappist Monks for their beers. The finishing touch is a "flor" which I add courtesy of a particularly fortuitous bacteria which dropped in on one batch of my finished brew a few years ago.
If you get a stuck fermentation, I will try to help you, if you wish.
Enjoy the mystery of fermentation with natural ingredients. When it works, you get something amazing every time! When it works.....!
I've made home-brewed ginger beer a few times now, starting with a self-fermenting ginger bug.
I am admittedly sloppy with hygiene. Cleanly rinsed has to do. No overtaking by unwanted bugs yet; the ginger bug is the bully on the yard.
I had to grin when you mentioned straw thatched huts for brewing. There are anecdotes about the wild yeast fermented geuze beers of Belgium. Apparently at some sites the beer would come out right only if they set the butt with the wort in the right corner of the thatched house...
On the sugars in the honey: Honey is slightly higher in fructose than sucrose, AFAIK, but still contains both fructose and glucose. I think the yeast will be happy with just honey for a starter. Now honey is said to have certain antimicrobial properties, but in diluted honey the yeast should be fine. There's a reason bees don't cap their honey before it has the right concentration that won't ferment anymore.
I imagine some wild yeasts will have survived from the honey (not fermenting in the concentrated form of the honey, but probably still there in dormant form).
Hey Mike! I've been following your channel for quite some time now, and one thing I've noticed about you is that you like to experience / learn stuff even though they might seem a little strange or useless to others - I must say that you've been an inspiration to me in that regard.
I don't know if you speak any other language besides English, but as a content suggestion, I'd love to see you try to learn a constructed language like Espearnto in a limited time and share your thoughts on your learning process and the language itself afterwards. As a speaker, I'd be happy to be of help too. Cheers!
Love dandelion greens too. I recall trying to make this when I was a bit younger than the legal drinking age and I botched it and the blackberry wine I made from my grandmother's blackberry bushes by using...bakers yeast (sigh). It was certainly strong and yeasty let me tell you.
I really enjoyed this one. Great work. Thanks for sharing. Cheers from Melbourne 🇦🇺
Love your videos! Dandelions haven't bloomed here yet in the Pacific Northwest of the states. I used to drink Dandelion Root Coffee when I was trying to quit coffee.... It was ok. Unfortunately coffee won my battle (takes a sip of morning coffee)
I have a dandelion mead that's been going for about 3 weeks so far. I'm looking forward to racking and trying it. Good video mate
Brilliant video. I've not brewed anything in a while. I've ordered the honey and I'll be out picking dandelions tomorrow afternoon.
Maybe as a tipp. I have made honey with dandelion and fir tips(young ones). We always removed the green stuff completly from the dandelion. Press together the greenpart of the flower head to easily remove the yellow parts.
So it should get a better taste and less bitter.
Lovely. Two things happened today before watching this video...
1. I said "nah probably not starting to brew anything else for now, I've got too much on already".
2. I looked at the dandelions on the communal gardens down stairs and thought how lovely they looked.
This time tomorrow they will be boiling on the stove.
Maybe a couple of days later but now they're boiled and drained. Demijohn is sterilising, and I've just bought 4 lbs of honey from Aldi.
I suspect that at most I'll be OneWeekBehindShrimp
Cool video! Maybe in the follow-up video it'd be cool to explain what that airlock device is and what it does. It looks interesting.
I thought this might be boring, but its really amazing and you did a great job! Can't wait to see part 2
I've been wanting to do this for so long! I need to buy the materials
I can’t tolerate any amount of alcohol, but here I am too, quite engrossed in this wonderful video! Waiting for part two with my cup of herbal tea :)
I was actually thinking of making mead. Thanks for posting this video.
This is really great! I’d like to get into home brewing at some point.. there’s just something so cozy about making your own mead
When I first got into wine and mead making years ago, I found a book titled "First Steps in Wine Making" by the English author called C.J.J Berry. (Sadly no longer with us.) In his recipe for dandelion mead and wine, he was very insistent that all the green from the flowers are removed before boiling. His way of doing this was to pick the flowers into a tub, cover the tub with a towel, and then place the tub in a dark corner for an hour. The flowers close up making them easier to clean. Every time I made dandelion mead or wine I followed this practice and had very good results. I even made sparking dandelion wine one year which both my aunts loved. There is no bitter taste, and the wine is far easier to clear then if you have the leaves and a bit of stem mixed in. He also recommended adding a few cups of strong brewed tea in the recipe as it gives the yeast tannin.
My first memory of wine was making homemade cranberry wine. Delicious
Oooo mead is really delicious I’ve only had regular mead the dandelion will definitely make it taste more interesting!
Hearing "rack off!" Gave me flashbacks to when I used to watch Home & Away.
it's crazy that show is still being produced
The Neighbours version was "nick off" iirc.
What sort of a comment is that you 'flammin galah'? 😂
@@hothothotmale Alf Stuart - Is that you??? ;-)
Closer each day
Didn't expect an Adam Ragusea shout out in an Atomic Shrimp video. Just when you stop thinking that all youtubers must know each other .
Don't think of him as TH-camr but as viewer . It's very likely that any one who care about food would know adam
Looking good! yeast nutrient is a good idea if you have it to stop hydrogen sulphide building up but you can get away without it a lot of the time!
Hey there Shrimp! Just hopping in on discussion you had on over sterilizing things in the mix. The biggest benefit to sterilizing things is consistency, quite often you don't need to worry too much about it being incredibly sterile, as you mentioned in olden days things were made in quite obviously non sterile environments, and bacteria and other things can impact the flavor of the brew, not always in a bad way. If your environment isn't clean, then you won't know exactly how the end result will taste and each time you make your mead it could end up being tasty or a bit off regardless of the steps you take.
Keeping everything sterile means that each time you make it, you know the end result is dictated only by things you did.
True. It's like with cheese making. Apparently it's easy to make cheese; hard to make the same cheese twice
Thank you for introducing me to the fact mead isn't too difficult to make, I've ordered all the equipment and I'm going to start my own first batch tomorrow 😂😁
So how did it all go? Well I hope?
Mike: "The Dandelions are in season now..."
Me: *looks outside at snow* "Hey, honey, when do you think we'll have dandelions here?"
Wife: "Mmmm... May, June?"
Lol. Same here🌼
Pretty much all over the place where I am atm. Gonna collect the clocks when they come, so i can grow them in raised beds next year.
This looks like it will be great. Wouldn't have even thought of putting dandelions in mead. I'm wondering if I wanted to make a lighter colour mead of the same recipe, would distilling the dandelion extract a couple times in a basic still help to make it more colourless and the end mead product more golden coloured? It would of course be for purely aesthetic reasons.
you can make a sanitizing solution with iodyne. I use one brand they use for handling animals (wound desinfection and also to sanitize milking equipment).It kills most microorganisms and have no unpleasant taste. The only bad thing, is it tends to dye you plastic materials brown, like the airlock.
thanks Mike, I just bought a 5l bucket with airlock from Bigger Jugs since they were cheapest. Since pineapples are 'in season' I'm going to make Tepache and then I have bucket for home brewing. Please keep more coming, I want to get drunk from a cheap investment
Very cool! I was just thinking about how I wanted to make mead today
I'm making melomel and metheglins with wild yeast.. To sterilise I just slosh kombucha vinegars (including raw apple cider vinegar) around in the containers. I've not had any trouble yet after about a year.. I reckon you could just dowse the dandelions in vinegar and then rinse them, then put them into your mixture (in my case I always add things to a base of 2 litres of juice and 1 jar of honey.). And you can take chemicals off fruit by washing/rinsing them in water with a little baking powder or baking soda.
I love your and adam raguseas videos, nice to hear my fav youtubers know about each other
I don't know if he's heard of me, but he's definitely my go-to for grounded views on common food myths
I learned about the brilliance of methelglin from "The Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss
In all the years i have made dandelion wine i have always cut the petals off & never left the green stalk head on! You can make sure there are no insects in there, it also keeps the colour bright. The yeast is what determines the strength & not the amount of honey.
This is amazing! I can't wait to see the finished product! ♥
Going to have to find a sample to taste first before I plonk down honey money (honey isn't cheap!). Thanks for the video...started a kombucha batch yesterday, perhaps i can try a dandelion kombucha when in season (we are a month behind you on dandelions)
10:55 the sugar is there to "wake up" the yeast and kickstart it. You could use literally any sugar but the regular white sucrose sugar is the cheapest, most common and readily available sugar people have and can find around so its used to measure stuff, you can replace white sucrose sugar with brown sucrose sugar, prob equal amounts considering the only real difference is its color, you can also use glucose(such as that honey that you got there),fructose, lactose, even starch but you will need different amounts for the same result and it might take a lot more time for the yeast to really start doing its thing, in fact i think you might stunt the yeast by giving it starch or lactose to process instead of whatever else