How to Distill Dandelions

In England, it is a tradition to pick the dandelions for the first gallon of wine on 23 April, St George's Day. Don't mess with tradition. Pick your own dandelions and bottle some spring for yourself.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Pick 4 pints of dandelion flower heads. You should pick only those that are growing in a place not visited by dogs, cats, cows or any other animals.
2. Remove any greens from the flower. The greens would make the wine taste bitter and could impede fermentation.
3. Chop 1/2 pound of sultanas, or seedless raisins. Peel 2 oranges and separate them into segments.
4. Place the dandelion flowers, chopped sultanas and orange segments into a large container. Pour 5 pints of boiling water over the contents, beginning the distillation process. Leave the contents in the covered container for 2 days. Stir the contents twice a day.
5. Add 1 teaspoon of wine yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar to a half-cup of warm water. Add the yeast/sugar/water mixture to a pint of water, and bring the water to a boil. After the resulting syrup cools, add it to the dandelion/sultana/orange mixture on the third day. Stir thoroughly.
6. Fit a funnel that's been lined with a filter, or has a strainer in the bottom, into a demijohn (a glass container made for wine making and available at any wine making shop). Pour the contents of the container through the funnel and into the demijohn to distill the dandelions. Add 1 teaspoon of acid to the demijohn. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient in water. Add it to the demijohn.
7. Top the demijohn to its shoulders with cold water. Vigorously shake the demijohn and fit it with a rubber bung and an air lock that's half-filled with water. Leave the demijohn in a warm place, shaking it daily, until the fermentation completes.
8. Transfer the dandelion wine into a clean demijohn, fill the demijohn to the shoulders with apple juice, and throw in a crushed Campden tablet. Add a clean rubber bung and airlock. Let the wine mature in a cool place for at least 9 months. Shake only every 3 months. For a better taste, leave the wine for a year.