Dandelion Mead Recipe (Dandelion Wine Made With Honey) (2024)

FAQs

How much honey for 1 gallon of mead? ›

We'll go over it in further detail later, but we recommend using between two and three pounds of honey per gallon of mead — 2 pounds if you want it on the dryer side, and 3 pounds if you'd like it to be sweeter.

The ratio of water to honey depends on the type of mead you want to make. For a dry mead, the ratio is 4 parts water to 1 part honey; a sweet mead is 2 to 1. Kluz likes his mead sweet, so he typically uses 1 3/4 gallons of honey and tops it off with 3 1/4 gallons of water.

Many manufacturers of high-quality mead prefer to use orange blossom honey because it imparts a refreshing citrus flavor to the mead. It's also a great base product which can be experimented with endlessly by adding some distinct subtle flavors to it.

Dandelion wine is typically made from the yellow petals of dandelion flowers. The petals are harvested and used as the primary ingredient in the wine-making process.

Especially if you are making traditional mead, if you simply dump a bunch of honey and water together and throw in some yeast, the yeast may get stressed and not fully ferment.

(Some recipes call for boiling the honey, which makes for a cleaner, quicker ferment. However, many of the aromatic oils that are characteristic of the different flower honeys are boiled off as well in this process. Either method will make you mead.)

Why did it fall out of favor? There were some new tax laws, as well as an increased availability of West Indian sugar in the 17th century that made honey harder and less necessary to obtain. But it was also the rise of other alcohols—namely beer and wine—that really did it in.

Use 1.5 to 5 pounds of honey per gallon, depending on your target for residual sweetness and alcohol content. The more honey, the more residual sweetness and the greater potential for a high, final alcohol content.

Just don't use the bulk cheapest "clover" honey that you see at every local supermarket. Spend an extra few dullars and get good honey: you will appreciate it years from now, and you will be giving mead a good name in a world where it is just not appreciated any more...

Many recipes call for a particular type of honey for mead but to purchase something like "clover" honey from supermarkets is almost impossible because most supermarket honey is a blend of raw honeys from different geographical areas.

What is the best yeast for mead? ›

Lalvin D-47

This white wine yeast is the primary choice for many mead makers. It ferments at a moderate to fast pace with little foaming and is good for medium to dry meads. It tends to accentuate the honey characteristics so it is a good choice for traditional varietal mead.

For centuries, dandelions have been prized for their medicinal qualities, often consumed in the form of dandelion wine or tea to aid in digestion. In New England, there's a long tradition of drinking dandelion wine as an early-spring medicinal tonic.

Dandelion wine is the classic flower wine, made with the bright yellow flowers of the plentiful and easy-to-find weed. Don't believe the hype of the manicured lawn lobby; dandelion is not only beautiful and tasty, but potent liver-cleansing medicine.

In fact, nearly the entire plant can be consumed in one way or another. The only inedible part is the stem, which contains a very bitter, milky substance. Let's start at the top: the flowers. Dandelion flowers are a great addition to pancakes or fritters.

1lb of honey in 1 gallon of mist should give you roughly 1.035 SG which of it ferments dry will give you 4.5-5% So a basic mead if you want 10%ish do 2lbs of honey then usually water to one gallon. Mix very well to ensure it's dissolved.

Honey is typically sold by weight rather than volume and is heavier than water (the standard for “fluid ounces”). That is why one cup of water is considered eight fluid ounces, but one cup of honey will actually weigh 12 ounces. A gallon of honey weighs approximately 12 pounds.

The fermenting process depends on various factors, like temperature, the amount of honey, the type of yeast, and the presence of additives and nutrients. Depending on how active the yeast is, it will take around 2 to 6 weeks.