Yeast and Nutrients for Making Dandelion Wine

As I said above, choosing a good yeast for your dandelion wine can be a confusing task. For that matter, choosing proper yeast for any kind of wine making is daunting. Luckily, most of the guesswork has been taken out of the process by the very companies that make and distribute yeast. The biggest challenge, if you've never made a particular wine before, is matching up the right yeast to final product that you want. A trip down the ol' wine supply shop will present you with a vast array of different yeast strains to choose from.

For dandelion wine, yeasts that are generally geared towards white wines are your best bet. For example, a strain of yeast under the name Steinberg, which is produced by both Red Star and Wyeast (strain number 3237), is generally used for white wines with high amounts of residual sugar and slightly lower alcohol content. This is good for dandelion wine, because the flavor is delicate enough that a high alcohol content can readily ruin the flavor profile that you are wanting.

Rudisheimer (Wyeast strain number 3783) is another excellent choice for dandelions. It's most popular use is for making Riesling. It produces a very good balance between acidity and sweetness in a finished wine, and it can really bring out the floral bouquet of dandelion wine.

There is much more to choose from than the two yeasts mentioned here. Whatever yeast you choose, though, be sure to do a little research and asking around before you make the final call. Many strains of yeast have high tolerances for alcohol, and so will produce much more of it. As mentioned above, too much alcohol in the wine can overwhelm that flavor rather easily. Other yeasts have a lot of nutritional and environmental requirements that can make them difficult to work with and cause problems with the fermentation.

Also, make sure to follow the manufacturer's directions when activating your yeast. While most yeasts are easily brought into the action with a little soaking, others have a lengthy, involved activation process. If the yeast is not activated properly, you may have trouble getting the fermentation process started. The manufacturer's directions should supersede any directions found in a recipe.

There's a lot to learn about yeasts used in winemaking. I have really only grazed the surface of the different types of yeasts available to you. If you would like to learn more about which ones will be right for you and your wine, please visit The Winemaker's Inner Circle. This is a hugely informative resource that will teach about all aspects of wine making at home.

Now, if you've never had homemade sparkling wine, then you are in for a treat of a lifetime! Sparkling wines are well received in nearly all situations, especially when there is reason to celebrate. Making your own sparkling wine is a pretty easy process. The making is the same as regular wine, until it comes time for bottling. At this point, the winemaker will add a small amount of sugar to the bottle before filling it with wine. All wines, if made properly, are "alive" and have a few yeast cells in a dormant state. When they are introduced to the sugar in the bottle, these yeast cells become active again and begin a fermentation process in the bottle. The carbon dioxide produced in this way has nowhere to go, and so becomes dissolved in the liquid; hence, the carbonated nature of champagne.

Granted, there are a few more steps than that, but that is it in a nutshell. To achieve sparkling wine at home, you will need to choose a yeast that is up to the task. The yeast that comes most highly recommended for making sparkling wine is Lalvin EC-1118. This is the yeast strain that is used most commonly by home winemakers to make their wines sparkling. It has an aggressive nature and ferments much more quickly than other strains, and also produces higher alcohol content. This means that its tolerance for alcohol is higher and there will be more yeast cells in the bottle that will be able to produce the secondary fermentation needed to carbonate the wine.

On a side note, these aggressive characteristics make this a useful yeast to keep around. Its wide range of tolerances makes it much more resilient than other strains, and it can survive where other yeasts cannot. Point being, this yeast is ideal to add to a fermentation that has stopped or become sluggish.

Sparkling wine can be a rather advanced technique for the home winemaker. However, if you want to learn more about making sparkling wine, and what other yeasts will be good for doing so, please visit The Winemaker's Inner Circle. There, you will find more information about making wine at home than anywhere else! This resource will also provide you with much more information about what yeasts work well for any particular type of wine you could want to make.

One of the challenges of making dandelion wine is the fact that the flower petals and granulated sugar do not provide your yeast with the many nutrients they need to thrive and prosper. Yeast has need of a variety of different nutrients, but the most noted is nitrogen. There are two different additives you can use when making wine to supply the needed nutrition. The first is known as yeast nutrient and the second as yeast energizer.

Pretty much, every wine making supplier that you will find will have both of these substances available. However, picking the proper one can be confusing. This is due to the fact that the terms "nutrient" and "energizer" are often used interchangeably by both the manufacturers and the people that use them.

Yeast Nutrient, Defined
Yeast nutrient is usually composed of just Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) . The primary function of this compound is as a source of nitrogen for your yeast. It doesn't really do much else for the yeast.

Yeast Energizer, Defined
Yeast energizer is a more complex blend of different nutrients and compounds that are needed by your yeast. The components of the blend are usually spent yeast cells, nutritional compounds and a little DAP. Many energizers provide other additives, as well.

Ensure that you read the labels carefully before purchasing, because it is essential that the additive you use aligns with what your yeast needs in your must.

There are two main reasons to use nutrients and energizers. The first reason is to prepare your must and set the stage for a flawless fermentation. If the must contains the proper levels of nutrition, the yeast will set to work right away and give you an aggressive ferment. The second reason, which you hopefully will not encounter, is to help out a batch of yeast that has stopped fermenting or has slowed down dramatically for some reason or another. If the problem with the fermentation is merely a nutritional deficiency, then you can add nutrients and energizers and the yeast will pop right back into action.

How Much To Use
There are many, many ways to measure the different levels of nitrogen and other nutrients that are present in your must. However, the testing is often tedious and requires equipment that most people do not have laying about their home. It is not really necessary to know exactly how many parts per million of nitrogen is present in your wine.

As a good rule of thumb, the average home winemaker will need to use about 1 teaspoon of nutrient and/or energizer per gallon of liquid. This ratio will serve well for your dandelion wine, as well.

Unfortunately, I can only include so much information on a small page such as this... For more in-depth knowledge of how to provide a good environment for your yeast, please visit The Winemaker's Inner Circle. You will find a lot of detailed resources about what different nutrients and additives will serve you and your wine well.

When Making any kind of wine, you are going to come across information about many kinds of additives, nutrients and other things that just have to have in your must. While many are helpful, and can help you make some outstanding wine, not all of them are strictly necessary. In this text module, you will find info on two of the most common ingredients that you will encounter when making wine.

Pectic Enzyme
Pectin is the substance that can make a wine cloudy. It originates naturally from a wide variety of fruits and many honey varieties. It's actually long strands of sugar and starch that your yeast cannot break down. It is perfectly harmless, and affects only the presentation of you wine, with little impact on flavor. However, if you intend to show off some of your wine, you may be interested in getting rid of the pectin.

Pectic enzyme is how you achieve this. The enzyme digests the long strands of starch and turns them into simple sugars. In turn, these simple sugars are consumed by your yeast and turned into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The end result is a more complete fermentation, and wine with stunning clarity. Sounds like a win, win situation!

Campden Tablets
This is the most common form of sulfites found in commercial and homemade wines. Campden tablets are used to sanitize your must, and ensure that it is free of any wild yeasts and bacteria that might ruin your wine. They can also be used to stop fermentation prematurely if you are making a lower-alcohol wine.

To use them, simply crush them up and stir into your must or wine. Over the next twenty four hours, they will eliminate any microbes living in your wine. If you are using this method to sanitize your must, be to wait twenty four hours before adding your yeast into the must.

Many people, like me, are sensitive to sulfites. Other people have a strong allergic reaction to them. For this reason, most of the recipes you will find on my lenses call for using heat to sanitize the must rather than chemicals.

There are other additives and strange things to add to your wine out there. If you want to learn more about using Pectic enzyme, Campden tablets and other additives, please visit The Winemakers Inner Circle. There, you will learn all the tips and tricks you will ever need to make great wine!