I'm just here for Derica's expression when she is humoring Brian by letting him flick out every petal. And it is NOT the first time I've seen that expression!
"dandelions don't grow here" - me shocked, knowing they grow in Chicago despite the terrifying winters and horrible summers i always thought those evil weeds could endure anything
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” ― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
The recipe I have calls for 7 cups of petals per gallon. You take the petals and make a tea then pour it in with the sugar or honey. I did 2 gallons. Used 3.5 lb of honey and 2 lb of sugar. Was the most beautiful yellow color and tastes like a riesling only way better. Best I have ever made.
Ireland in the Spring time is FULL of Dandelion. Definitely gonna try this in a few months and combine it with your Irish mead recipe. Great to see you back Brian!
Different honeys contain different sugars. I have bees. My honey is more tree honey. Due to the combination of different sugars I only need about 2.5 lbs for 1.120. I mixed my first batch with 3.5 lbs and had the same issue you arrived at.
I had a lawn of very thick St Augustine grass and the only thing that could invade was dandelion. Fortunately the Chinese lady across the street kept them picked for salad greens
Dandelions generally enjoy cooler climates, in South Carolina for example they will grow throughout the winter into spring and then die off in summer. Where I am in Pennsylvania they begin to show up in spring and by mid to late summer they have seeded and become dormant by fall into winter. If she wants to grow them there it would be quite some work, if it were me, you would want to dig about 1-2 feet into the ground so as to keep the plants cool, and then cover with shade cloth at all times. If in Florida, I would probably sow the seeds in mid to late fall so that they will begin to flower in winter and by early spring they would probably either start to seed, or die from the heat
As I’m watching this it’s ten to midnight... on the eve of my birthday. I’m sipping a glass of 2-year old mead and this is like a birthday present to me. Thank you! 😍 A few days back I was a bit sad because I’d finished binge watching myself through all your brewing videos and now I had to wait for you to bring out a new one. After a long day I decided to console myself with a bit of my own brew and I grab my tablet... what do I spy with my little eye? A notification. A new video and it’s on a brew I’d been wondering about. Yay! My birthday is getting off to a good start! Dandelions grow in abundance here from Spring deep i to the Fall and most years I behead quite a few of them for dandelion jelly (it’s amazing on freshly baked bread). This spring there won’t just be dandelion jelly on my mind... Great video! Can’t wait for the follow-up to come out!
I make dandelion wine and that stuff will kick your a**! Bless the lady that sent you the flowers!! It's quite a job and an act of kindness! Not sure why the ABV is so high?? I now need to try dandelion mead! And I put the dandelions in cheese cloth to keep them out of the air lock. I poke at it every few days with a sterile spoon to make sure it mixes well.
CS mead and more. ACT 400 or so seen Dandelion MEAD! I saw the notifications bell! One I started the watching it looked smooth. then a voice called for SPOON OF UNUSUAL SIZE! Hurdy gurdies kick in and song begins . Add the whole packet of dandelions , SRAPETH THE ZEST FROM A HALF AN ORANGE MAYBE A LITTLE LESS. THREE LB's OF HONEY MIX AND MATCH! DUBBLE DUBBLE toil and TROUBLE IN THE DANDELION MEAD!!! love this one keep it up great place of info...
I made dandelion mead and it ended up being one of my favorites. Aren’t you lucky to have them sent to you. I sat at my kitchen table for hours picking petals. I made my mead a little different, I made a tea that I let sit for 48 hours and then strained the petals before adding the tea to the honey and water. I did have about 4 cups of petals.
I'm super excited to see how this turns out. Looking forward to try it myself. I'm in FL (near you two) but have family in MD where I can get all sorts of dandelions.
I have made Dandelion wine (not mead) in the past. I have learned to place the flower petals LOOSELY in a cheesecloth bag with 5-6 sterile marbles to help them sink and keep them away from the air trap. The open weave of the cheesecloth allows the must to flow through the petals to get all of the flavor elements. Then, once the racking is done, I squeeze the bag of soggy petals to get every last drop of goodness, cut the cloth to release the marbles for reuse and add the bag (with petals) to the compost pile. It works every time.
Last March I harvested some from a nearby park (hoping that the township doesn't use lawn chemicals there). I never got around to making the mead yet. They're sitting in a plastic bag in the freezer. I might just wait until spring rolls around to harvest some more to make a big batch.
I made a dandelion mead but didn't film it dang it! I read that you need to use 2.5 cups of flower petals, and then infuse them in water for a few days... I need to try that mead, it's been sitting for some months now... excited to see how yours turns out!!!
I have froze mine and didn't have any problem. Still had a lovely light color.This year I'm doing wine instead of mead. Then I'll see which I like the best.
Both those honeys were given to you so therefore were unlikely to be watered down. It would be interesting to get a refractometer reading on the honeys you use. Great video, looking forward to watching the follow ups.
Thanks for the video. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Since you decided to go with D47 for this brew, would you consider making a yeast comparison video that uses the same mead recipe with different yeasts to get an idea about how the mead flavor, smell, clarity, fermentation time etc. is affected by the type of yeast?
This was awesome intelligence cuz I do in fact have 2lbs of dandelion head i picked this last summer and put them in the freezer. When its time for me to make some mead out of them ill be sure to join yalls group again. I just had to get caught up on some bills in order to enjoy what I love most in this world is making mead watching and interacting with all of you.
do want to say i loved how it went from the spoon of unusual size to the spoon of minute size to finish mixing, hope it works out with the higher than normal sugar content.
I until I was 5 lived in a Idaho town called Bloomington next too Paris Idaho and an hour away from the Bear Lake, but during spring and summer pretty much the entire yard and pastures is just covered in dandelions, when the Mormon settlers first settled the area and saw the amount of flowers and dandelions they called the area Bloomington. Maybe next time I go down there to see family I may just have to pick a bunch to try this, as well as try Dandelion root coffee, where you dry then roast then grind the roots to make a coffee subistute also apparently it's also good for you.
Super late I know, but this is very true! Some plants thrive in poor soil and don't do well if it's too rich. Learned this personally with my Morning Glory flowers
I have made a dandelion liqueur a couple of times with vodka and let it steep for a couple months then added simple syrup. Considered adding orange zest or vanilla but did not. It tasted alot like honey. It was wonderful and didn't last long once I started sharing it around
My wife makes a dandelion muscle cream up here in NY. But, the mead sounds interesting! Insane to know they don’t grow down there though. Most people spend millions to rid them of lawns every year! Lol!
My thought on your spg being so high was perhaps when the honey jar was full it crystallized and you used the half jar and you added water and shoke it made simple syrup. Just a thought?? I make all your stuff thanks for the ideas to create works of consumable art.
Trying to get this gravity thing figured out. Is there a FG # that tell if a mead is sweet or dry? My last two meads started out with 6 gal. total, with 4 of spring water and 2 gal plus a pint of honey. FG of 1.024 & 1.030. Both sweet enough. 1st was 6% and 2nd was 7% ABV. Could have gone to 15% for the yeast used. If I make my must at 1.125 instead of the 1.135 should I get a higher ABV and not as sweet? Then back sweeten after it is finished.
A lower starting gravity will mean either lower ABV or less sweetness depending on yeast. This video might help... th-cam.com/video/6aLlJUMBEN0/w-d-xo.html
I’m interested in the unexpected gravity reading. Have you checked if the hydrometer is properly calibrated with two specific points, like pure water and water with sugar dissolved for a particular gravity? It would allow for detecting issues of not only constant offset (hydrometer always reads five points low, per se) but also issues in linear scale (hydrometer measures one and two tenths points gravity per actual point of gravity).
I have 6 bottles of 71b dandelion mead aging , just tasted one a week ago at 6 months. the flavor profile was like an effervescent fresh cut lawn. Wasn't a fan , hoping more age bring out a better profile. Lilac mead was a great success though!
Ooooohhh... lilac mead...😍 From fresh flowers? I’ve got two ENORMOUS lilacs in my garden. Their scent is intoxicatingly gorgeous when they.re in full bloom. Never thought about brewing with them.
Wow...Charleston, SC has plenty of dandelions. We have mild winters here. Interesting!
4 ปีที่แล้ว +10
Really want to try this one. Dandelions are like weeds where I live :D By the way, at the end of the video, after shaking it all.... Presure got bubling backwards!!! see at minute 18:20
I made a dandelion wine a few years ago. It was my second wine made. I hated it, my older brother loved it. And it came out over 18% alcohol on red star classique. My highest alcohol brew yet. Might have gone higher but I stopped feeding it sugar and eventually added sorbate and sulfite.
Question: could you use weight(s) of some kind in the brew bag to keep it from floating atop the brew? Maybe some glass marbles or something just to keep it down a bit. I know it would take up some volume, but if it would save some fiddling, might be worth it.
I used to feed dandelions from my yard to my lizard Cuddles, they were one of his favorite snacks and they smell great! Kinda sticky though from the nectar...considering Cuddles had a massive sweet tooth, so I'd assume the flowers are indeed pretty sugary since he was so crazy about them
The part about the hydrometer is funny, I just mixed mine yesterday and got 1.14. About the only thing different I added was about half a cup of orange blossom water. The yeast I used was EC-1118. Only about a day later did it start to bubble, but I use a five gallon container, so, maybe it took longer due to it having more space? well, here we are about 30 days later, and I decided to bottle it. The taste is so hard to describe, it has two distinct tastes. It has an upfront taste that is nearly impossible to describe, and then a soft sweet one that hits the back of your mouth. I wonder how the aging will go.
I tried dandelion wine for the first time this year and mine didn’t ferment. I pitched more yeast, waited and ended up adding blueberry juice to it because honestly, I gave up on pure dandelion and had some blueberry juice to use up. I’d say I would try dandelion again, but it took me over an hour to pull the petals from the dandelion- and there are so many other easier meads/wines to try. Lol. I do look forward to tasting this to see if the blueberry has some floral dandelion notes. This is what I enjoy about making mead and wine, the plan can change and sometimes it ends up even better than we thought. 😁
You should check your hydrometer against water to see if the scale has moved within the glass. Have seen it happen which could explain the high gravity.
I’m new to the channel and this is very interesting. I wonder if the flowers should have been steamed or something to kill any bacteria and wild yeast before going into the sanitized fermenter. Thanks!
17:38 An idea not sure how it would affect the flavor but what if you put something like ceramic, glass weights, marbles or stones in the bag to weigh it down to prevent it from rising and blocking the vent? You wouldn't nessicary need to fully sink it to the bottom but make it heavy enough that it won't fully float up.
My daughter helped depetal the flowers. I was talking to someone who freezes the petals for jam. There are actually still a few popping up, but I noticed they get more bitter in the fall and winter. Spring and early summer made the best mead and wine so far. I can't wait for the tasting! I made another mead around the time you started this and it came out so much better than the first! I didn't use orange zest, I'm curious what that's going to do to the flavor.
Bless you Fawn for picking all those flowers and depetaling them for Brian and Derica! As frost decided to travel over my little corner of the world the dandelion flowers have disappeared from the gardens and fields. They’ll return in a month or two and I’ll be itching to brew with them. Do I understand correctly that you liked the late flowers better for your brew than the spring dandelions? I’m really interested to know. What is the difference? A more floral flavour? I’ve only made my dandelion concoctions with the early flowers.
@@eddavanleemputten9232 The early ones are way better! They got more bitter as it got later in the season. I had made 3 batches of wine and 2 meads. The first wine I made earlier in the spring/summer about the time they were plentiful enough to collect. I messed up on that mead I think, I had frozen some of the petals, it came out almost vinegar tasting. After it finished out it was so good I wanted another. That was midish summer. About the time I mailed the ones for CS. The wine was good but not as light and floral in flavor as the first. Then in the fall the temps went up and Dandelions popped out for a week, I decided to make another wine and try the mead again. The mead turned out really good. But the wine is almost bitter.
If I wanted to grow dandelions I would put down expensive weed preventer. It always worked for me. The harder you try to keep them out the more they show up.
So does honey add points of gravity per gallon of water or gallon of fermentation (water + honey). You did not use a gallon of water, that could be why the gravity was so high.
When I made dandelion wine I used exactly one gallon of water and had to split it between two pots bc of this. The flowers will take up a lot of room. Mine of course turned out sweeter then a moscato and I got the worse heart burn almost instantly. I threw both bottles away :( was only my second time making any wine and both times was dandelion. And yes I did the juice of orange, also the zest, juice of lemon. Bunch of sugar and I threw some raisins in there. Lol I used bread yeast too bc I didn’t have anything else and didn’t want to freeze the petals and they were ready then. I did a nice tea in the sun with them first. They smelt so good. I wish I had don’e some things different
Any idea on making a base Mead like 5 gallons then splitting to flavour slash age? Like make 1 gallon Irish 1 gallon dandelion etc. Is there any flavouring difference by adding the flavourings in secondary vs primary?
Hello stumbled upon your video and watched it. Ty for this. Just wondering though where can I get the dandelion honey and goldenrod honey I would truly appreciate it to know would love love to buy some. Here in NY you dont find these honeys.thank you🙏
I have made honeysuckle wine from a tea and I've made it with the flowers (warm/mildly hot water > flowers > let sit overnight > add sugar > rest of the water > yeast). I find that the best wine - for honeysuckle, anyway. I haven't experimented as much with the other flowers I've brewed with - brewing on the flowers and leaving it in primary for MONTHS (I forgot my first batch in a closet for 5 months, and it was one of the best I've made - was good to drink after one racking on bottling day).
I currently have 3 gallons of honeysuckle tea frozen that I'm planning to just add honey to and brew as soon as I get the fermentation vessels freed up!
Given that the flower pedals were not dried, I don't expect them to balloon up much. I'm thinking the rumble jar would have been ok. And yeah brew day sleepiness makes strange things happen...like 1.162 OG :P
I've made dandelion wine for 2 years now. Separating the petals from the green is a pain. Freezing the flowers or the petals works fine, esp if you need to wait for more blossoms. They've never turned dark for me.
Honestly, I've got 2 acres of clear yard. I could send you literal pounds of dandelions every year, and still have PLENTY left for myself. Also, most of the recipes I've seen that call for excess orange/citrus juice usually do so to cover up the bitter taste of the sepal (the green base that the pedals grow from), because most (not all) recipes are too lazy to actually bother to separate the two components. The person who sent you these must have infinite patience on that front. I did a solid gallon of these last year and it took the better part of a day, and my sanity.
I decided to see what would happen if I fermented orange juice. Yeah, it was barely palatable at the time. But I am aging it now and we'll try it again.
Turns out it will be a month old on my birthday. We had it before with actual orange juice. Since it was made with champagne yeast, I called them auto-mimosas!
My house tends to be on the cooler side as it's old and breezy. Thought about making my first mead. Would it work to put it under a blanket covering the heating vent???
Hi guys. Great video, love the personalities. I've never made this before and just wondering what the flower to water ratio is? Another recipe said 8 cups of flowers to 8 cups of water. That does not look right time at all...oh and 3 lbs of honey. Please help, what am I doing here?
Can you make a type mead with orange juice and honey? If so which yeast would you recommend? I really enjoy watching the interaction between you two and have tried making a few of your brews. Thanks for the information and entertainment love you guys
OK. I watched it. So I do understand gravity's. So using a 15% yield yeast and only getting 7% ABV would you say that was a stuck fermentation? I know I didn't leave it on the primary long enough. Was told not to leave it on the yeast very long because of an off flavor. Now I know that is not true. I do appreciate your tolerance for my learning experience. Have been marathon watching your videos. Keep up the good worl.
I've recently discovered that honeys can have different moisture contents. Once collected in the honeycombs, the honey has around 30+ percent moisture, and the bees fan the honey till it goes below 20 percent. And then they seal the comb. So maybe the difference in gravity calculation and measurement attributes to the actual moisture content in honey. Let me know what you think about it.
wow, you can't grow dandelions? want me to ship you some concrete sidewalk and driveway? they seem to love it...
😂
🤣🤪😂
Lol, he is not kidding
Its the climate
I'm just here for Derica's expression when she is humoring Brian by letting him flick out every petal.
And it is NOT the first time I've seen that expression!
Thwack every packet
"dandelions don't grow here" - me shocked, knowing they grow in Chicago despite the terrifying winters and horrible summers
i always thought those evil weeds could endure anything
They are just everywhere!
except Florida man hahaha
They're not weeds they are God's gift to man
@@golden3192 I know but for landscaper, they gave _way too much._ 😅
These things will grow in CONCRETE CRACKS and flower huge in the midwest!
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
As someone who used to keep bees, they definitely have a smell. And oftentimes colonies will smell differently from one another.
Great quote, from one of my favorite Authors.
The recipe I have calls for 7 cups of petals per gallon. You take the petals and make a tea then pour it in with the sugar or honey. I did 2 gallons. Used 3.5 lb of honey and 2 lb of sugar. Was the most beautiful yellow color and tastes like a riesling only way better. Best I have ever made.
I have a recipe that calls for 7 cups of petals too, but in mine you leave the petals in like they did. Haven’t tried it yet.
7 cups?? That’s a lot of dandelions!
I'm trying mine with 12 cups of dandelions....boy I'm confused. Too many conflicting recipes.
Ireland in the Spring time is FULL of Dandelion. Definitely gonna try this in a few months and combine it with your Irish mead recipe. Great to see you back Brian!
Different honeys contain different sugars. I have bees. My honey is more tree honey. Due to the combination of different sugars I only need about 2.5 lbs for 1.120. I mixed my first batch with 3.5 lbs and had the same issue you arrived at.
So thats the problem i had
Dandelion honey is a man-made honey using lots of table sugar.
I love how excited you get about dandelions. My Italian grandfather used to pick all kinds of wild greens to eat
I was thinking about picking the greens to try. I've been looking for recipes but not that many available.
I had a lawn of very thick St Augustine grass and the only thing that could invade was dandelion. Fortunately the Chinese lady across the street kept them picked for salad greens
Til, dandelions don't grow in florida. That's mind-blowing to me. There are still some dandelions here in the pnw in January.
I live in Tallahassee and we have dandelions here.
Bloody dandelions grow through concrete in the UK haha
@@nialls2142 I was about to say that. Dandelion should grow everywhere and even punch through asphalt road.
Dandelions generally enjoy cooler climates, in South Carolina for example they will grow throughout the winter into spring and then die off in summer. Where I am in Pennsylvania they begin to show up in spring and by mid to late summer they have seeded and become dormant by fall into winter. If she wants to grow them there it would be quite some work, if it were me, you would want to dig about 1-2 feet into the ground so as to keep the plants cool, and then cover with shade cloth at all times. If in Florida, I would probably sow the seeds in mid to late fall so that they will begin to flower in winter and by early spring they would probably either start to seed, or die from the heat
As I’m watching this it’s ten to midnight... on the eve of my birthday. I’m sipping a glass of 2-year old mead and this is like a birthday present to me. Thank you! 😍
A few days back I was a bit sad because I’d finished binge watching myself through all your brewing videos and now I had to wait for you to bring out a new one. After a long day I decided to console myself with a bit of my own brew and I grab my tablet... what do I spy with my little eye? A notification. A new video and it’s on a brew I’d been wondering about. Yay! My birthday is getting off to a good start!
Dandelions grow in abundance here from Spring deep i to the Fall and most years I behead quite a few of them for dandelion jelly (it’s amazing on freshly baked bread). This spring there won’t just be dandelion jelly on my mind...
Great video! Can’t wait for the follow-up to come out!
I hope your birthday was lovely!
@@buttonsf3293 - It was! Thank you!
I make dandelion wine and that stuff will kick your a**! Bless the lady that sent you the flowers!! It's quite a job and an act of kindness! Not sure why the ABV is so high?? I now need to try dandelion mead! And I put the dandelions in cheese cloth to keep them out of the air lock. I poke at it every few days with a sterile spoon to make sure it mixes well.
CS mead and more. ACT 400 or so seen Dandelion MEAD! I saw the notifications bell! One I started the watching it looked smooth. then a voice called for SPOON OF UNUSUAL SIZE! Hurdy gurdies kick in and song begins . Add the whole packet of dandelions , SRAPETH THE ZEST FROM A HALF AN ORANGE MAYBE A LITTLE LESS. THREE LB's OF HONEY MIX AND MATCH! DUBBLE DUBBLE toil and TROUBLE IN THE DANDELION MEAD!!! love this one keep it up great place of info...
I made dandelion mead and it ended up being one of my favorites. Aren’t you lucky to have them sent to you. I sat at my kitchen table for hours picking petals. I made my mead a little different, I made a tea that I let sit for 48 hours and then strained the petals before adding the tea to the honey and water. I did have about 4 cups of petals.
I use stainless steel "ice" cube normaly use for colding drink to keep the bag in the bottom of my mead.
I'm super excited to see how this turns out. Looking forward to try it myself. I'm in FL (near you two) but have family in MD where I can get all sorts of dandelions.
I have made Dandelion wine (not mead) in the past. I have learned to place the flower petals LOOSELY in a cheesecloth bag with 5-6 sterile marbles to help them sink and keep them away from the air trap.
The open weave of the cheesecloth allows the must to flow through the petals to get all of the flavor elements.
Then, once the racking is done, I squeeze the bag of soggy petals to get every last drop of goodness, cut the cloth to release the marbles for reuse and add the bag (with petals) to the compost pile.
It works every time.
Well, yeah, Brian, but if you have the lid on the jar when you shake it, where does the bejeezus go?
It's bejezus permeable plastic.
Thanks for sharing your dandelion mead recipe 😋🤩!
Whenever I hear you say "bejesus" I always hear it as "Bee-jesus". Because y'know, Honey and all that. xD
"Dandelions doesn't grow here" - cries in swedish.
Same here but in finnish. Glad I can bribe my kids to pick them up.
In my country (quebec canada) its consider to be invasive bad plant because it grow incredibly fast
Don’t cry. There are thousands of invasive things that grow in Florida that are worse than dandelion.
*cries in Ontario Canada*
@@allendunwoody3505 can’t use a lot of them cuz they get sprayed with -cides
Perfect! I cannot wait for Springtime in North Dakota so that I can make this myself.
Great Video I can't wait for spring to come along so I can try to recreate your dandelion mead!
I love the versatility and accessibility of the wide top gallon fermenter as apposed to the carboy. I'll have to get a few and try it out.
Last March I harvested some from a nearby park (hoping that the township doesn't use lawn chemicals there). I never got around to making the mead yet. They're sitting in a plastic bag in the freezer. I might just wait until spring rolls around to harvest some more to make a big batch.
Nice. My dad and i made dandelion wine in 1987, first experience making wine. It was delicious
howdy from central Arkansas here. each spring/summer, I pick as much dandelion, western daisy, and honeysuckle as possible for winemaking :D
I made a dandelion mead but didn't film it dang it! I read that you need to use 2.5 cups of flower petals, and then infuse them in water for a few days... I need to try that mead, it's been sitting for some months now... excited to see how yours turns out!!!
Yes I did like 3 cups or more in my jugs for wine. I sat them in the sun for 2 days frequently swishing them around. They smelt so good.
I have froze mine and didn't have any problem. Still had a lovely light color.This year I'm doing wine instead of mead. Then I'll see which I like the best.
Both those honeys were given to you so therefore were unlikely to be watered down. It would be interesting to get a refractometer reading on the honeys you use.
Great video, looking forward to watching the follow ups.
Thanks for the video. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Since you decided to go with D47 for this brew, would you consider making a yeast comparison video that uses the same mead recipe with different yeasts to get an idea about how the mead flavor, smell, clarity, fermentation time etc. is affected by the type of yeast?
This was awesome intelligence cuz I do in fact have 2lbs of dandelion head i picked this last summer and put them in the freezer. When its time for me to make some mead out of them ill be sure to join yalls group again. I just had to get caught up on some bills in order to enjoy what I love most in this world is making mead watching and interacting with all of you.
We welcome you back anytime, you know that!
BTW, I made your Viking’s Blood 3.0 mead. Wow. Fantastic. Thank you!
do want to say i loved how it went from the spoon of unusual size to the spoon of minute size to finish mixing, hope it works out with the higher than normal sugar content.
I until I was 5 lived in a Idaho town called Bloomington next too Paris Idaho and an hour away from the Bear Lake, but during spring and summer pretty much the entire yard and pastures is just covered in dandelions, when the Mormon settlers first settled the area and saw the amount of flowers and dandelions they called the area Bloomington. Maybe next time I go down there to see family I may just have to pick a bunch to try this, as well as try Dandelion root coffee, where you dry then roast then grind the roots to make a coffee subistute also apparently it's also good for you.
Honestly the worse the soil the more they love it
Super late I know, but this is very true! Some plants thrive in poor soil and don't do well if it's too rich. Learned this personally with my Morning Glory flowers
Thank You for sharing this one. Everyone who tastes this loves it. I did not add nutrients (didn’t have any). But still amazing and ended at 15.39%
I have made a dandelion liqueur a couple of times with vodka and let it steep for a couple months then added simple syrup. Considered adding orange zest or vanilla but did not. It tasted alot like honey. It was wonderful and didn't last long once I started sharing it around
My wife makes a dandelion muscle cream up here in NY. But, the mead sounds interesting! Insane to know they don’t grow down there though. Most people spend millions to rid them of lawns every year! Lol!
I wS just thinking of doing this when spring arrives. You should have the final results video up by then. Perfect timing!
Was glad to see this. I've been wanting something to do with the grand spring flush of dandelions.
have you ever made a Blaand medieval mead
My thought on your spg being so high was perhaps when the honey jar was full it crystallized and you used the half jar and you added water and shoke it made simple syrup. Just a thought??
I make all your stuff thanks for the ideas to create works of consumable art.
Trying to get this gravity thing figured out. Is there a FG # that tell if a mead is sweet or dry? My last two meads started out with 6 gal. total, with 4 of spring water and 2 gal plus a pint of honey. FG of 1.024 & 1.030. Both sweet enough. 1st was 6% and 2nd was 7% ABV. Could have gone to 15% for the yeast used. If I make my must at 1.125 instead of the 1.135 should I get a higher ABV and not as sweet? Then back sweeten after it is finished.
A lower starting gravity will mean either lower ABV or less sweetness depending on yeast. This video might help... th-cam.com/video/6aLlJUMBEN0/w-d-xo.html
I’m interested in the unexpected gravity reading. Have you checked if the hydrometer is properly calibrated with two specific points, like pure water and water with sugar dissolved for a particular gravity? It would allow for detecting issues of not only constant offset (hydrometer always reads five points low, per se) but also issues in linear scale (hydrometer measures one and two tenths points gravity per actual point of gravity).
I have a bag of frozen dandelion petals from when I picked them in the summer. Hoping they’re still okay but was eager to make this kind of mead.
Have you guys considered a Pineapple Weed (wild chamomile, tastes as named) wine or mead?
We have dandelions year round here in Washington state. I didn't know they don't grow in Florida.
I have 6 bottles of 71b dandelion mead aging , just tasted one a week ago at 6 months. the flavor profile was like an effervescent fresh cut lawn. Wasn't a fan , hoping more age bring out a better profile. Lilac mead was a great success though!
Ooooohhh... lilac mead...😍
From fresh flowers? I’ve got two ENORMOUS lilacs in my garden. Their scent is intoxicatingly gorgeous when they.re in full bloom. Never thought about brewing with them.
Wow...Charleston, SC has plenty of dandelions. We have mild winters here. Interesting!
Really want to try this one. Dandelions are like weeds where I live :D
By the way, at the end of the video, after shaking it all.... Presure got bubling backwards!!! see at minute 18:20
I used to live in Polk county in Florida and it was the bane of my lawn for years hahaha
Can not wait to see how this one turn out! Cheers!
Part 2 and the initial racking is not going to be fun. All those bits getting stuck in the syphon, unless you pop a bag over the end to stop them.
We have ways....
I want to try this when they are growing again around here
You have you guys tried using butterfly pea flower petals? It makes a blue tea. If you add lemon juice to it, it turns purple:)
I will once everyone else gets it's out of their systems, lol.
cant wait to make this as soon as my dandelions sprout up by the thousands!!!
I made a dandelion wine a few years ago. It was my second wine made. I hated it, my older brother loved it. And it came out over 18% alcohol on red star classique. My highest alcohol brew yet. Might have gone higher but I stopped feeding it sugar and eventually added sorbate and sulfite.
Question: could you use weight(s) of some kind in the brew bag to keep it from floating atop the brew? Maybe some glass marbles or something just to keep it down a bit. I know it would take up some volume, but if it would save some fiddling, might be worth it.
I'm in Florida and rarely have dandelions. Planting chicory didn't go well either.
I used to feed dandelions from my yard to my lizard Cuddles, they were one of his favorite snacks and they smell great! Kinda sticky though from the nectar...considering Cuddles had a massive sweet tooth, so I'd assume the flowers are indeed pretty sugary since he was so crazy about them
I'm highly recommending the Bouncer Junior Filter for these brews. I have one and it is amongst one of my most priced prosessions.
The part about the hydrometer is funny, I just mixed mine yesterday and got 1.14. About the only thing different I added was about half a cup of orange blossom water. The yeast I used was EC-1118. Only about a day later did it start to bubble, but I use a five gallon container, so, maybe it took longer due to it having more space?
well, here we are about 30 days later, and I decided to bottle it. The taste is so hard to describe, it has two distinct tastes. It has an upfront taste that is nearly impossible to describe, and then a soft sweet one that hits the back of your mouth. I wonder how the aging will go.
I tried dandelion wine for the first time this year and mine didn’t ferment. I pitched more yeast, waited and ended up adding blueberry juice to it because honestly, I gave up on pure dandelion and had some blueberry juice to use up. I’d say I would try dandelion again, but it took me over an hour to pull the petals from the dandelion- and there are so many other easier meads/wines to try. Lol. I do look forward to tasting this to see if the blueberry has some floral dandelion notes. This is what I enjoy about making mead and wine, the plan can change and sometimes it ends up even better than we thought. 😁
I didn't see dandelion as being that amazing myself either.
You should check your hydrometer against water to see if the scale has moved within the glass. Have seen it happen which could explain the high gravity.
The dandelions are blooming! Imma make some dandelion mead
im surprised you didnt transfer it to a bigger fermenter.. cant wait to see part 2.. 😊
I’m new to the channel and this is very interesting. I wonder if the flowers should have been steamed or something to kill any bacteria and wild yeast before going into the sanitized fermenter. Thanks!
I was wondering if a bag to keep the petals in, with a fermentation weight in it to hold the bag down, would work
Sort of. The bag will fill with gasses and try to float anyway.
17:38 An idea not sure how it would affect the flavor but what if you put something like ceramic, glass weights, marbles or stones in the bag to weigh it down to prevent it from rising and blocking the vent? You wouldn't nessicary need to fully sink it to the bottom but make it heavy enough that it won't fully float up.
Sounds fine and dandy
Lion?
My daughter helped depetal the flowers.
I was talking to someone who freezes the petals for jam.
There are actually still a few popping up, but I noticed they get more bitter in the fall and winter. Spring and early summer made the best mead and wine so far. I can't wait for the tasting! I made another mead around the time you started this and it came out so much better than the first! I didn't use orange zest, I'm curious what that's going to do to the flavor.
Bless you Fawn for picking all those flowers and depetaling them for Brian and Derica! As frost decided to travel over my little corner of the world the dandelion flowers have disappeared from the gardens and fields. They’ll return in a month or two and I’ll be itching to brew with them.
Do I understand correctly that you liked the late flowers better for your brew than the spring dandelions? I’m really interested to know. What is the difference? A more floral flavour?
I’ve only made my dandelion concoctions with the early flowers.
@@eddavanleemputten9232 The early ones are way better! They got more bitter as it got later in the season. I had made 3 batches of wine and 2 meads. The first wine I made earlier in the spring/summer about the time they were plentiful enough to collect. I messed up on that mead I think, I had frozen some of the petals, it came out almost vinegar tasting. After it finished out it was so good I wanted another. That was midish summer. About the time I mailed the ones for CS. The wine was good but not as light and floral in flavor as the first. Then in the fall the temps went up and Dandelions popped out for a week, I decided to make another wine and try the mead again. The mead turned out really good. But the wine is almost bitter.
@@julietardos5044 no problem! Hope you enjoy yours as much as I did. This year I'll be making more in the spring/summer.
If I wanted to grow dandelions I would put down expensive weed preventer. It always worked for me. The harder you try to keep them out the more they show up.
lol, good to know!
@@julietardos5044 um, uh, um, it was a joke.
So does honey add points of gravity per gallon of water or gallon of fermentation (water + honey). You did not use a gallon of water, that could be why the gravity was so high.
IN a gallon of must, not TO a gallon of must, but the petals did take up some space.
When I made dandelion wine I used exactly one gallon of water and had to split it between two pots bc of this. The flowers will take up a lot of room. Mine of course turned out sweeter then a moscato and I got the worse heart burn almost instantly. I threw both bottles away :( was only my second time making any wine and both times was dandelion. And yes I did the juice of orange, also the zest, juice of lemon. Bunch of sugar and I threw some raisins in there. Lol I used bread yeast too bc I didn’t have anything else and didn’t want to freeze the petals and they were ready then. I did a nice tea in the sun with them first. They smelt so good. I wish I had don’e some things different
Thanks
Any idea on making a base Mead like 5 gallons then splitting to flavour slash age? Like make 1 gallon Irish 1 gallon dandelion etc. Is there any flavouring difference by adding the flavourings in secondary vs primary?
I’m very interested to see what the final gravity is! 🤘💪
Hello stumbled upon your video and watched it. Ty for this. Just wondering though where can I get the dandelion honey and goldenrod honey I would truly appreciate it to know would love love to buy some. Here in NY you dont find these honeys.thank you🙏
They were sent to us by fans.... I'm sorry, but I don't know where to purchase them. You can however use wildflower honey instead.
@@CitySteadingBrews is there a way of asking them where they purchased it please
Dandelions grow in compacted soil. Im new to the channel. Love your vids👍
I have made honeysuckle wine from a tea and I've made it with the flowers (warm/mildly hot water > flowers > let sit overnight > add sugar > rest of the water > yeast). I find that the best wine - for honeysuckle, anyway. I haven't experimented as much with the other flowers I've brewed with - brewing on the flowers and leaving it in primary for MONTHS (I forgot my first batch in a closet for 5 months, and it was one of the best I've made - was good to drink after one racking on bottling day).
I currently have 3 gallons of honeysuckle tea frozen that I'm planning to just add honey to and brew as soon as I get the fermentation vessels freed up!
Given that the flower pedals were not dried, I don't expect them to balloon up much. I'm thinking the rumble jar would have been ok. And yeah brew day sleepiness makes strange things happen...like 1.162 OG :P
I've made dandelion wine for 2 years now. Separating the petals from the green is a pain. Freezing the flowers or the petals works fine, esp if you need to wait for more blossoms. They've never turned dark for me.
Honestly, I've got 2 acres of clear yard. I could send you literal pounds of dandelions every year, and still have PLENTY left for myself.
Also, most of the recipes I've seen that call for excess orange/citrus juice usually do so to cover up the bitter taste of the sepal (the green base that the pedals grow from), because most (not all) recipes are too lazy to actually bother to separate the two components. The person who sent you these must have infinite patience on that front. I did a solid gallon of these last year and it took the better part of a day, and my sanity.
I decided to see what would happen if I fermented orange juice. Yeah, it was barely palatable at the time. But I am aging it now and we'll try it again.
Turns out it will be a month old on my birthday. We had it before with actual orange juice. Since it was made with champagne yeast, I called them auto-mimosas!
Lol
Orange mead needs about 4-5 years in my experiments. The wait is worth it.
fresh dandelion tea tastes like sunshine.
My house tends to be on the cooler side as it's old and breezy. Thought about making my first mead. Would it work to put it under a blanket covering the heating vent???
Makes sense, dandelions like poor compacted soil. Most of Florida soil is loose and sandy.
Dandelions grow like mad in the field opposite my house, mostly where the dogs urinate lol 😂
This would be a great basis for a metheglin [medical mead], combine with golden rod & all heal flowers & other spices you would have a great tonic
We've done metheglins, but hadn't done dandelion, so wanted to keep it more true to the dandelion.
We and try and get rid of dandelions here as they grow like crazy. Derica deliberately tries to go grow them... Mind blown!
Nice i need to do this and i wanna try and do a gorse mead as i live gorse in a cordial not sure you guys get gorse over there
dandelion petals actually contain quite a bit of sugar. I used to pick them as sweets as a kid ;)
How do you feel about adding in a few pineapple chunks for a hint of that tropical sunshine flavor?
If you want to... but, that makes it more than a simple dandelion mead :)
Hi guys. Great video, love the personalities. I've never made this before and just wondering what the flower to water ratio is? Another recipe said 8 cups of flowers to 8 cups of water. That does not look right time at all...oh and 3 lbs of honey. Please help, what am I doing here?
Can you make a type mead with orange juice and honey? If so which yeast would you recommend? I really enjoy watching the interaction between you two and have tried making a few of your brews. Thanks for the information and entertainment love you guys
OK. I watched it. So I do understand gravity's. So using a 15% yield yeast and only getting 7% ABV would you say that was a stuck fermentation? I know I didn't leave it on the primary long enough. Was told not to leave it on the yeast very long because of an off flavor. Now I know that is not true. I do appreciate your tolerance for my learning experience. Have been marathon watching your videos. Keep up the good worl.
Why did the airlock have negative pressure after the “swirl”?
I've recently discovered that honeys can have different moisture contents. Once collected in the honeycombs, the honey has around 30+ percent moisture, and the bees fan the honey till it goes below 20 percent. And then they seal the comb. So maybe the difference in gravity calculation and measurement attributes to the actual moisture content in honey. Let me know what you think about it.
City Steading just wouldn't be the same with a Spoon of Reasonable Size.
I know, right?
Well just come out here to MO in about two months I’ve got two acres of yard that has plenty. lol