Matt Maples wrote:
>Has anyone out there done a dandelion mead? I have a recipe but is says not
>to get and of the green petals, just the yellow ones. My question is if
>anyone knows a good way to avoid getting the green petals without going mad.
>At two quarts of yellow petals per gallon it takes a lot of dandelions. How
>bad will it be if there are green petals in it?

A good way to avoid getting the green petals? Work! Work! Go Mad! It is
a pain. Try plucking the flower off, and then pinching the green petals
off without being too careful about leaving ALL of the yellow ones.
Sacrifice some of the yellow ones, and keep your sanity! I've not made a
dandelion mead before, but I did make a coltsfoot blossom mead. Yum!
You'll be pleased with the results, so go for it, and send me a bottle 🙂

Taste a green petal, and you will find out that you do not want them in
your mead. Bitter. Yuck.

Wolfram
wolf@netheaven.com

I've been toying with the idea of making a banana melomel. It strikes me
that banana might not act like other fruits in the fermenter (getting
gray
and icky, instead of the flavor of the banana meat steeping out). Has
anyone tried this? Is there a way to "extract" banana essence? Do I
need
to worry about this? (I know, I know, relax, etc…) Does banana melomel
sound good to anyone but me?

++++++++++++++

I've not done a banana melomel, but that does sound tempting. I do have
a banana lager that's ready to drink. I found banana flakes at a
homebrew shop that prompted the creation. I would suggest dried banana
slices like you find in the health food section of a grocery store with
the trail mix. I used two pounds of dried bananas in the boil for 5
gallons of beer. When I racked the beer to a secondary, I added another
three pounds of sliced, fresh fruit for increased aroma. [Hint: leave
the peel on when slicing. It's easier to slice that way, and the peel
slips right off so it won't end up in the fermenter.] I also added two
teaspoons of ginger. I would be interested in seeing a recipe and
tasting notes in a few months.

Neil Flatter Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Chemistry – Math (CMA) Department of Chemistry Stockroom Manager
Novell Supervisor 5500 Wabash Avenue 73
(812) 877 – 8316 Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999
FAX: 877 – 3198 Flatter@Rose-Hulman.edu

mattm@teleport.com (Matt Maples) writes:

>

> Has anyone out there done a dandelion mead? I have a recipe but is says not
> to get and of the green petals, just the yellow ones. My question is if
> anyone knows a good way to avoid getting the green petals without going mad.

I would suggest sipping an earlier product while plucking. 😉 Just
relax, enjoy the spring and pluck away.

> At two quarts of yellow petals per gallon it takes a lot of
dandelions.

Actually, I would use _three_ quarts. Dandelions don't have a very
strong taste. I'm planning a Dandelion mead myself and intend on using
processed clover honey inorder to not overwhelm the taste.

How
> bad will it be if there are green petals in it? Eagerly waiting a reply.

Taste the green petals and you'll understand the warning.

Cheers,

Chuck Stringer
cstringe@indiana.edu

Dan McFeeley was interested in the dadelion mead recipe I was talking about
in my last post so here it is. I would also like to hear from others that
have a good dadelion recipe.

7 cup Dandelion petals (yellow only no green)
1 cup simillon white wine concentrate
1 gallon hot water (about 140)
2 lb clover honey
3 tsp acid blend
.25 tsp tannin
.5 tsp yeast energizer
1 campden tab
cote de blanch yeast

Matt Maples
mattm@teleport.com

>I've been toying with the idea of making a banana melomel. It strikes me
>that banana might not act like other fruits in the fermenter (getting gray
>and icky, instead of the flavor of the banana meat steeping out)

Although I have never tied it I do have a recipe for bannana melomel.

I have been thinking of trying it for some time but never got around to it.
If you do try this recipe all I ask is for you to let me know how it turns out.

BANANA MELOMEL

3 Lb bananas
1.5 cup grape concentrate
7 pt water
2.25 lb honey
3 tsp acid blend
.25 tsp tannin
1 tsp nutrient
wine yeast

og 1.095
eg 1.000

Slice washed bananas (skins and all) and put into a nylon bag and tie. In
1.5 Qt water bring to a boil and simmer for 30min. Remove bag and pour hot
liquour over honey and grape conc. Add the rest of the ingriedients and
enough water to make 1 gallon. Pitch when at 70 deg. Keep me updated on its
progress

Matt Maples
mattm@teleport.com

I have made a banana wine once. I boiled a few bananas in a cheese

cloth and squeesed as much of the juice out as I could (yes I did get
a lot of sludge, but it settles out). I don't have the recipe with
me so I can't give you any specifics. This was one of my first wines
and it turned out surprisingly good except for one point… ALL of the
banana flavor/aroma fermented off. It smelled beautiful, delicious
(insert any number of flavorful adjectives here) while it was fermenting
but when it was finished it tasted like alcohol. My suggestion would be
to add the banana juice towards the end of the primary or in the
secondary.

On dandelion wine, I have made one batch that turned out not too bad

and it did take me a while to gather all of the dandelions. I tried
to get all yellow but some green inevitably got in. Just find a field
with tons of dandelions so you can grab just the yellow part and leave
the green and some of the yellow behind without having to worry about
running out. And most importantly, find some friends to help.

• -glen