03/20/2024
When my uncle moved to FL last year, I was gifted my great-grandfather’s 30 gallon crock that he used to make dandelion wine. They had a decent sized farm in upstate NY dairy country so I assumed there must have been lots of dandelions to pick. My uncle still had the original family recipe which I thought would be fun to keep around with family historical items. Since I’ve been in a groove of similar projects lately and found our backyard covered in dandelions this weekend…I’m making a quarter-batch! It’s exciting making something made generations ago in my family that probably hasn’t been made in 40-50yrs. I’m curious if I’ll like it; I’m mostly a dry wine and cider guy and this, even in a quarter batch, has 16 lbs of sugar! If I don’t wreck it, it’s going to be sweet and very boozy 🤭.
Fingers crossed!!🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽
Full 20gal batch: 10 qts dandelions, 2 doz oranges, 2 doz lemons, 65 lbs sugar (not a typo, yes SIXTY FIVE POUNDS), yeast, fill crock to 8” from the top and ferment 2 weeks.
Original recipe said “24 cakes fleischmans yeast.” I used Lavin champagne yeast.
