Two days after the fruit was added to the wine, it looked like it was about to grow right out of the crock. The golden raisins swelled immensely, and the yeast got a little crazy with the bubbles. I was a little concerned I was going to end up with a big mess. It stayed covered with a clean flour sack towel, and after a few more days it settled back down. By the time I was ready to bottle, it was back near where I had started.
I waited around two weeks before bottling, even though the original recipe said two days to one week, because I could still hear the wine actively fermenting. A friend gifted me some lovely bottles, which I washed and drained and left bake in a sunny window for a few days before using.
I ladled the fruit into my jelly strainer to drain, trying to keep as much sediment as possible out of the bottles.
After filtering, I funneled the liquid into the wine bottles.
In the bottom of the crock there was a fair amount of yeasty sediment, or dregs.
In Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz recommends substituting these dregs for one quarter of the liquid in a French onion soup recipe. They are very high in B vitamins (think “nutritional yeast”). I didn't do this, as I am the only one in my family who likes French onion soup, but I may try this at sometime in the future.
After bottling, the top of each bottle was covered with a balloon to accommodate additional fermentation. When the balloons stop inflating, they can be corked. (Use a wine corker to make this a snap.) Here's a shot of my bottles, in the morning sun( for photo purposes only) before they were moved down into the cool, dark basement food storage room to ferment for at least six months. I'll let you know how it turns out. 🙂 As for the fruit, it's sitting in my fridge. Anyone have a good recipe for using up some mixed fruit with a powerful kick?
Coming soon, I'll be talking about water kefir. I just ordered Full Moon Feast, so I'm looking forward to combining my kefir with healing herbs (I've heard there are recipes for this in this book) and I've made contact with some water kefir fans on Facebook, so I'm hoping to get some tips from them to spice up my kefir brewing and get my grains growing.
Note – This is the second post of three about making dandelion wine. See the recipe and getting started post here, and the end result – tasting the wine – here.
This made me think of the wine my daughter in Alaska was making. I forget which wild berry they used…low bush cranberry or what. She has some brewing when we were up there. But she also had some already bottled up and on the counter. Crazy this was she had it in the same bottles she had her kombucha that was flavored with wild berries and the color was the same and she never gave a thought to the fact that they looked the same and were lined up together. I had no idea there was some homemade wine on the counter. Up one morning I decided to have a glass of her berry flavored kombucha while I cleaned up her kitchen. Had myself a glass and thought my of my her kombucha is strong with the berries.
We had a really good laugh later when we found out I had a glass of the wine not kombucha.
She quickly separated the bottles and put the wine in another area.
Your wine looks lovely Laurie! I just might have to try this next year.
I cannot wait to hear about your water kefir adventures. Cuz I need help with mine!!
I'd love to hear how it turns out, once you sample it!
I'm thinking winter fruitcake as well…how fun to follow this progress! At the back of Wild Fermentatin (or maybe in the kefir chapter) Sandor mentions a yahoo group for kefir enthusiasts which is very active but you will get a ton of info on there. I'm sure it's much more active than any facebook page.
I’m just newly embarking on adventures in fermentation and that danelion wine sure sounds fun! Dont know if i could down the dregs though. I’m not that brave yet.
When I was a kid my dad would start a rumpot for Christmas. When it was ready he’d spoon that beautiful ‘kickey’ fruit over some vanilla ice cream. It was lovely!
Can I bottle the wine in resealing bottles like the old grolsch beer bottles? Or do you have to cork it?
Because of the extended storage time of wine, using grolsch style bottles is not recommended as the gaskets will degrade over time.
How long can they be stored if they’re corked properly?
Years? I think we found some in mom’s basement that were over 10 years old. The flavor profile will change over time.
I have used the leftover fruit (i.e., raisins) in Christmas fruitcake. Now, before anyone makes a face, homemade fruitcake is not like store bought. It’s much better, and one can use preferred dried fruits instead of citron, which is most of the fruit in store bought fruitcakes. Using the fruit from the dandelion wines eliminates soaking the dried fruit in bourbon. The flavor contributes nicely to the fruitcake, makes a moister cake that mellows beautifully.
If you have family or friends that will eat fruitcake, that sounds like an excellent use for the fruit.
How many bottles does this recipe fill?