Dandelion or wild fruit wines

[SallyDIY]

I have come across a book of old time wine recipes such as dandelion wine, blackberry wine and even blueberry wine. I'm considering giving some of these a try with things I can harvest myself this coming year but I'm wondering how they'll taste. Has anyone made old fashioned wines like these before? I'd especially like to try dandelion wine but am wondering what kind of flavor it might have.

 

[angeson]

I havent done dandelion yet but I've made many fruit and berry wines. They make some real nice wines. Most people enjoy fruit wines sweetened.

 

[treets]

I think I would try the dandelion first, it seems like maybe the easiest beginner one to start with. Blueberry from what I have read is a little tricky and you have to have a little luck on your side to pull it off.

 

[SallyDIY]

I plan on trying the dandelion this spring when I can get fresh greens on my own. I'm a little sketchy on how it will taste but I suppose I can always use it for cooking if I don't care much for the flavor. I wonder why blueberry would be trickier - do you know?

 

[Kimberly]

My aunt makes dandelion wine, and it is yummy! However, for her recipe you have to collect a ton of dandelions to even make it. My grandma, cousins, friends and I always have to scout our yards for the flowers.

 

[Georgie]

I have made dandelion, elderberry and blueberry. Of them all, I prefer the taste of elderberry as it's quite aromatic and not really like anything else I have tasted. It's great to make wines like this where the ingredients can be collected from the land for free!

 

[minsky]

When we were clearing my mom's house after she died, we found an old jug of wine buried in the basement. It is extremely sweet, but still drinkable. It needs to be mixed half and half with water in order to drink it. I believe it is elderberry.

 

[evilmanikin]

how on earth do you make a dandelion wine? i have never heard of this lol

 

[Georgie]

how on earth do you make a dandelion wine? i have never heard of this lol

You use lots of blossoms and lots of fruit juice. I found this recipe which looks OK to me although I'd leave out the cloves just from a personal taste preference.

 

[Spicedorangetea]

Dandelion wine sounds awesome! Has anyone used dandelion root for the wine? I know the root makes a delicious tea when roasted. If I could make a wine out of the root, I think I would be in heaven!

 

[Maverick]

I've always wondered what dandelion wine actually tastes like. Is it sweet? Sour? Somewhere in between? I'm not really as big on wine as others but I will try anything once.

 

[lab22]

My father-in-law made dandelion wine one year and it did take a lot of dandelions. We live on a farm so there are plenty of these weeds around. He made it that one time and enjoyed it but decided to stick to his regular red wine after that.

We also pick the leaves and add them to salad but you need to pick them early in the season or they are too tough and sour.

 

[BrewJen]

I've often wondered about dandelion wine myself. Elderberry wine is probably pretty good too; the syrup is a bit much for me but the wine would likely be nice.

 

[lab22]

I'm not fond of the dandelion wine but the rest of the family is. Grape wine, red or white, is what I prefer and we make that as well.

 

[Lenownema]

Ive only ever made appley turbo ciders and they take a long time to be ready. The fruity ones seem to be ready much quicker as the fruit flavours seem to make up the gaps in the flavour that are present early in an appley ciders development.
So I think a fruity syrupy tc will be ready as quickly as a kit...... I think