Dandelion Wine Recipe

The short answer: dandelion wine is made by steeping freshly picked dandelion flower heads in boiling water for two days, boiling the liquid with sugar and thin citrus peel, then fermenting it with the citrus juice, a handful of raisins for body, yeast and yeast nutrient. A classic 1 gallon batch uses about 3 quarts of flowers, 2 pounds of sugar, 1 pound of raisins, 2 lemons and 1 orange. It is ready to taste after six months in the bottle and better after a year.

Dandelion wine is a country wine: there is almost no sugar, acid or body in the flowers themselves, so every one of those comes from what you add. That makes it a good recipe for learning, because each ingredient has a clear job. It is also strictly seasonal. You can only make it while the lawns are yellow, which in most of the US means spring.

Picking and Preparing the Flowers

When to pick

Jack Keller, the wine judge and author whose recipes are gathered in his Requested Recipes Collection (2020), calls the traditional version “Midday Dandelion Wine”, because the flowers are picked at midday when they are fully open. He also says to pick them just before you start, so they are fresh. Closed or wilted heads give less color and aroma.

Where to pick

Only gather flowers from ground you know has not been sprayed with weed killer or fertilizer, away from roadsides and away from areas used by pets. If you are not sure about a lawn, pick somewhere else.

Petals or whole heads?

Keller’s first recipe uses whole heads with the stalk trimmed off and says you do not need to pull off the petals. His second recipe strips as much green as possible and measures 2 quarts of prepared flowers. The green parts add a slightly bitter, grassy edge, so the more you remove, the cleaner the wine.

How many flowers is 3 quarts?

Measure them loosely packed in a quart jug or measuring pitcher, not pressed down. It takes a while to pick that many, so bring a helper or plan the batch around a lawn in full bloom.

What Each Ingredient Does

Sugar: the source of the alcohol

Dandelions contribute almost no fermentable sugar, so the 2 pounds of sugar per gallon is nearly all the alcohol you will get. Keller notes that whether 2 pounds makes a dry or a sweeter wine depends on the yeast: a yeast that tolerates more alcohol ferments more of the sugar and leaves the wine drier. If you have a hydrometer, take a reading once the must has cooled. The Virginia Tech guide Wine Making for the Home Gardener (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2024) explains that a starting gravity of about 1.090 gives roughly 12% alcohol, and NDSU Extension says 11 grams of sugar per liter raises gravity by about 0.004. Our sugar calculator turns that into a weight for your batch.

Lemons and orange: acid and aroma

Flowers have no real acidity, and a wine without acid tastes flat. The citrus juice supplies it, and the peel adds aroma. Peel thinly: the white pith is bitter.

Raisins: body

Keller describes dandelion wine as typically light and lacking body, and uses raisins as the body builder. He suggests dates, figs or rhubarb as alternatives, and golden raisins or golden figs if you want to keep the pale gold color. For a sparkling dandelion wine he would use no more than ¾ pound of raisins per gallon, so the body does not weigh it down.

Yeast nutrient

A must of flower water and sugar is short of the nitrogen yeast need. Virginia Tech notes that most fruit and vegetable musts lack some nutrients, and a flower must is even leaner, so do not skip it.

Which Yeast to Use for Dandelion Wine

Keller’s advice is simple: if you like a dry wine, use slightly less sugar or a champagne yeast. The obvious champagne strain is Lalvin EC-1118. On Lallemand’s product page it has an alcohol tolerance of 18%, a fermentation range of 10 to 30 °C (50 to 86 °F) and a neutral sensory contribution, which suits a delicate flower wine where you do not want the yeast to take over. If you prefer a softer, fruitier result, Lallemand lists 71B with a 14% tolerance and an ester-driven profile. Compare more strains in our guide to the best wine yeasts.

How to Make Dandelion Wine, Step by Step

Step 1: Steep the flowers

Put the flowers in a large bowl or bucket. Set aside 1 pint of the gallon of water for later, bring the rest to a boil and pour it over the flowers. Cover tightly with a cloth or plastic wrap and leave for two days, stirring twice a day. Keller is firm on the timing: do not exceed two days.

Step 2: Boil with sugar and peel

Tip the flowers and liquid into a large pot and bring to a low boil. Add the sugar and the thin peel of the lemons and orange, and boil gently for one hour. The boil extracts color and sanitizes the must, so this recipe does not need a Campden tablet at the start.

Step 3: Cool and add the citrus juice

Pour everything into a sanitized bucket and add the juice and pulp of the citrus. Let it cool to 70 to 75 °F. Yeast added to a hot must will die, so be patient.

Step 4: Add yeast and nutrient

Stir in the nutrient and add the yeast following the packet directions. Cover the bucket and keep it somewhere warm for three days.

Step 5: Strain into a jug and add raisins

Strain out the flowers and peel and pour the liquid into a 1 gallon glass jug. Add the chopped raisins and fit an airlock. Leave it until fermentation stops completely.

Step 6: Rack, top up and clear

Siphon the wine off the sediment into a clean jug and top it up with the pint of water you set aside, so there is no more than about an inch of air under the airlock. Leave it to clear, rack again and bottle. Our guide to bottling and corking wine walks through that last step.

Step 7: Wait

Keller says dandelion wine must age six months in the bottle before tasting and improves remarkably if left a year.

Scaling Up: 5 Gallon Dandelion Wine

The recipe scales in a straight line. The hard part is picking 15 quarts of flowers in one morning; if you cannot, make two or three 1 gallon batches over a week instead.

A 5 gallon batch needs a pot big enough to boil it, or you can boil it in two halves. The Lalvin EC-1118 sachets in the kit box below list one 5 g sachet as enough for 4.5 to 23 liters.

Common Mistakes With Dandelion Wine

Steeping the flowers too long

Keller is firm that the flowers should not steep for more than two days. Set a reminder when you pour the boiling water.

Leaving the white pith on the peel

It makes the wine bitter. Use a vegetable peeler and take only the colored zest.

Pitching yeast into a warm must

After an hour of boiling the must stays hot for a long time. Wait for 70 to 75 °F before adding the yeast.

Judging it too early

Young dandelion wine can taste harsh and thin. Give it the six months Keller asks for before deciding whether you like it, and see how long wine takes to ferment for the stages before that.

For other country wines, see our guide to making wine from fruit and the full recipe collection. Make and drink wine responsibly, and only if you are of legal drinking age.