Dandelion Wine: An Experiment

Witchy Wisdom
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Please be aware that this post explores herbal homebrewing and references alcohol.

Merry meet!

In a burst of Beltane energy, I spent a chunk of time yesterday out in the gardens collecting plants. The yard is yellow with dandelions right now - they’re really thriving this year.

There’s some old wisdom that says to not take the dandelions before Beltane as the bees rely on the dandelions for food in early spring. Once Beltane comes around, there’s usually enough in bloom to support the bees :tulip: :honeybee:

While many consider them to be a weed, dandelions are wonderful plants. They have a host of benefits both medicinal and magickal. They’re bountiful, hardy, and fun to work with.

Spells-with-Dandelion-Spiritual-Uses
Dandelion Magickal Properties

There are many ways to extract and enjoy the properties of a plant. I love a good tea/infusion, and I’ve experimented with herbal concoctions and tinctures before - recently I’ve been doing some research into homemade herbal wines.

The recipes I’ve found for dandelion wine tend to follow the same basic path. It’s essentially making dandelion tea and then adding wine yeast to start fermentation.

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I got started by collecting dandelion blossoms. That only took about 15 minutes - no problem there! The tricky part was taking just the yellow petals from the flower heads. It didn’t look like much in the bag. Little did I know, I was in for the long run.

After a whopping three hours of picking dandelion petals from the flower heads, I finally had the 4-5 cups of loosely packed petals I needed for a gallon of wine. Oof! :laughing:

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I poured a gallon (16 cups) of boiling water over the petals and covered them to steep. They’re going to infuse for the next two days to get a strong brew. Once they’ve infused, it’ll be time to add in a few more ingredients, including the yeast. That’ll kickstart fermentation.

I’ll be keeping track of the process here - both to leave a recipe for anyone who’d like to give it a try, and also to keep myself accountable (although the time I invested in picking petals is a pretty big push to finish this project haha. I’m invested now!)

I hope you had/are having a lovely sabbat! Blessed be :heart:

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Wow! I figured it would take long to just get the yellow petals but that’s really long! I bet your hands hurt too! You’ve really put a bit of yourself into your future wine! I hope it turns out well!

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My hands were completely yellow by the time I was done, but most of the ache is in my back. I was really focused! I guess I can write it off as a meditative experience, but still… oof :joy:

Thank you, I hope so too! :heart: :blush:

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Oof da! That’s awful! I hope your back gets to feeling better! And your hands return to normal!

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According to my mother, my father made dandelion wine at some point in their few years together. She never said how it tasted. I feel like I am there with both you and my father. Thank you for this connection!

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The Green Witch has a video making Lilac wine, if you have a lilac bush and want to do another one!

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@BryWisteria - This sounds like a fun project - I’ll be following along side your journey.

Those dandelion petals look beautiful - I don’t doubt that your hands were stained yellow, they look very lush.

My husband made wine a couple of times when we lived in the SE USA. He and a friend were canoeing and came across some wild muscadine grapes that are indigenous down there (they are purple, and the white ones are called scuppernongs), and it was tasty.

Excited to see your progress! Good luck with it, and have fun!

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looks so much fun please keep us all updated.

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