DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

Muscadine Triple Berry Wine...

JSquared said:

Avonjour, you must have red muscadines. We have golden muscadines on our property here in South Carolina. I think they have a slightly milder flavor. How much lemon juice did you use?

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JSquared,

I used 24 oz. of Real Lemon Juice.

Thanks for all the info!! I have 6 muscadine vines, both white and black, so I need to try this!!!

Muscadine - Triple Berry Dragon Blood Wine Recipe

Muscadine - Triple Berry Dragon Blood Wine Recipe

This is what I did with Dave's wonderful Dragon Blood recipe...
08-10-15

Sanitize ( Star San ) all that will come in contact with Must...

1 bottle ( 24 oz ) 100% Lemon Juice
Water to four ( 4 ) gallons
10 # or 22 cups of Granulated Cane Sugar
1 tsp Tannin ( stir )
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp Yeast Energizer
3 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp Bentonite, rehydrated in 1/2 cup hot water, cool before adding
Original SG 1.095

6 lbs. of Triple Berry Blend, thawed, placed in filter bags and press, place juice and bagged skins into fermenter.

1/2 cup of Untoasted American White Oak Powder into one of the five gallon paint filter bags of fruit and tie up, place into fermenter.

8 # Muscadines, frozen, thaw, destemmed, into one - five gallon paint filter bags and tie up, and press, place juice and bagged skins into fermenter.

Top water to six ( 6 ) gallons and stir well
Let sit undisturbed for 12 - 24 hours... Temp should be around 70 – 80 F

Pitch Yeast, Lalvin EC 1118, Rehydrated in 1 C warm water with 2 t Sugar for 15 min.

Cover fermenter with lid, cover with a towel, don't snap down or add an air lock.
Add Brew Belt if needed.
Sanitize ( Star San ) all that will come in contact with Must...

Halfway through the fermentation I added,
3 tsp Pectic Enzyme
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient

When the SG drops to <1.000, I did the following:
( This wine's Final SG 0.990 )

08-21-15 - Press F Packs, place juice back into fermenter, discard fruit packs.
Bring water level up to 6 gallon mark, and let rest a week.

08-28-15 - Racked to a 6 gallon Carboy, Degassed, added K Meta & K Sorbate,
Add 1/4 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite, dissolved in half cup cool water and stir
Add 3 tsp Potassium Sorbate, dissolved in half cup cool water and stir
Back Sweeten with three cups Cane Sugar, add one oz. of Glycerine.
Add part one of Super Kleer, stir, wait 1 hour and add part two, stir
Add Airlock.
Let rest one month.

09-29-15 - Bottle... Enjoy

Avantjour, thanks for posting the recipe! I saved it on my iPad until I can get some muscadines to try it. I always love hearing about variants of Dragon Blood. I'm making the Tropical Daze variant now.

Muscidine Triple Berry Dragon Blood Wine...

JSquared said:

Avantjour, thanks for posting the recipe! I saved it on my iPad until I can get some muscadines to try it. I always love hearing about variants of Dragon Blood. I'm making the Tropical Daze variant now.

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Bienvenue, I to like to see all the variants to Dave's Dragon Blood. It's amazing how one recipe can be so versatile to so many wine makers.

Your Tropical Daze looks very interesting. I may have to try that one.

I've recently put together a Beer Keezer. I'll have to post about it soon.

My daughter came over this evening and pulled a glass of Coopers Irish Stout and splashed some Dragons Blood in it.
It was good. Lol

Take care...

Two questions on original recipe:
1. No bentonite to start?
2. Can you omit all the lemon/citrus at the start and add some later after sample tasting (before bottling)?

Well, I just did the last racking for the 2015 Christmas Dragon's Blood.
12 gallons total!

I left one 6 gallon carboy as is and just backsweetened with a half quart of honey.

For the second 6 gallon carboy I added an additional 1/2 stick ceylon cinnamon, 3 cloves, 2 star anise, and 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped). I backsweetened this one with the other 1/2 quart of honey.

They are both really, really good.
I'm not noticing a decline in flavor at all.
Next week we will bottle and then let them do their thing for a couple of months before they go out for Christmas.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the recipe and the tweaks, though I am thinking that Christmas 2016 batch will have just a tad more elderberries added.

mforney12 said:

Two questions on original recipe:
1. No bentonite to start?
2. Can you omit all the lemon/citrus at the start and add some later after sample tasting (before bottling)?

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It's your wine. You can do whatever you want to it.


Bentonite is generally used to aid in producing a crystal clear wine.
DB comes out pretty clear after using Sparkoloid or SuperKleer, you won't be aging it for a very long time, etc, so bentonite isn't strictly needed. You can add it if you want, just probably a waste of time and effort since normally you go from primary to all gone in under 6 months.

You can omit the lemon/citrus, but you won't be making DB. If you decide to go that route, you will probably want to up your fruit content. Using so much citrus/lemon juice up front is what gives DB it's main flavor base, the fruit usually just plays backup/harmony to the lemon.
Take away the lemon and you are left with a 6 gallon batch of wine made using 6 lbs of fruit. Not very appealing.
I have made DB using half of the lemon amount called for and it came out fine, just know that if you omit it, you will want to add in something for the main flavor profile.

Started this on 9/8/15. This is a glass from the backsweetening, filtering, and racking tonight:





Amazingly, this is drinkable just as it is. I can't wait to see what a little age will do to this batch. Probably a good thing I have thirteen gallons, because this is going to go fast. Had a little difficulty with the filtering aspect of my AllInOneWinePump, but I have a few ideas about what the problem might be. If I can't figure it out, I'll call Steve!

@CGish

Please look and review this post -
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37737

Are you using the recommend filter housing - this one does not have the release button on top.

You know if you have any questions you can PM me and I will get back with you

vacuumpumpman said:

@CGish

Please look and review this post -
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37737

Are you using the recommend filter housing - this one does not have the release button on top.

You know if you have any questions you can PM me and I will get back with you

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I will give you a call if I cannot figure it out. I have the housing without the bleeder valve. However, I could not stop air from coming in on the inlet side. I think the issue is that the barbs threaded all the way into the base of the housing by hand - even with Teflon tape. I may need to add a nipple, buy a different set of barbs, or just wrap a lot more tape around the threads. I'll work with it a little more tomorrow. On the bright side, the wine sure is clear. Hopefully the vacuum kept the air from affecting the wine too much. I added an extra dose of K-Meta just to make sure. I am sure it is something simple.

Dragonblood or Strawberry Tart

If I can squeeze in either a Dragon Blood or Strawberry Tart this fall what would be be my best choice for first time doing either of these brews?
Which has a bit more body that may fit with winter better?
Thanks for your input.
Cory

JSquared said:

I plan to use EC 1118 so I'm thinking it can handle the higher alcohol level. It can handle up to 18% ABV and I shouldn't go over 15%ABV. It wasn't my plan to go that high but I guess I'll let it ride.

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It will ferment dry. The SG is not that high. Also you are using 1118 yeast. It nay just take an extra day or two. Just let it ride.

Hordak said:

If I can squeeze in either a Dragon Blood or Strawberry Tart this fall what would be be my best choice for first time doing either of these brews?
Which has a bit more body that may fit with winter better?
Thanks for your input.
Cory

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Hello and welcome. I did the Original 3 Berry the 1st 2 6 gal. batches of D.B. I made. I would say to do the 3 or 4 Berry recipe a couple of times first to get the process down. The Strawberry Tart can be a little tricky and having some experience with the original recipe will definitly help you out learning how the process works. Don't hesitate to ask for help. There are some great wine makers on here and there are no stupid questions.

Will

Hordak said:

If I can squeeze in either a Dragon Blood or Strawberry Tart this fall what would be be my best choice for first time doing either of these brews?
Which has a bit more body that may fit with winter better?
Thanks for your input.
Cory

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I would do the DB. If you want something a bit more rich, you can throw in several bananas to assist with body and maybe a handful of dried elderberries(not too much or it will need some time to age out).

My batch will be ready to bottle next Monday, but there is a problem. I keep going down to the top up bottle and pouring glasses of this stuff. I only have 13 gallons and my top up bottle is all ready empty. If I keep this up, I'll be siphoning glasses out of the carboy. Any advice on how to deal with this problem?

CGish said:

My batch will be ready to bottle next Monday, but there is a problem. I keep going down to the top up bottle and pouring glasses of this stuff. I only have 13 gallons and my top up bottle is all ready empty. If I keep this up, I'll be siphoning glasses out of the carboy. Any advice on how to deal with this problem?

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Start another batch ASAP.

just finished bottling a batch of Dragon Blood and Sweet Strawberry Tart. I have a batch of Tropical Daze in secondary clearing now!

Has anyone ever done a Christmas variant of Dragon Blood? I would love to do a Christmas wine this year, if I still have time. Dragon blood would be the fastest to drinking wine to use. Any ideas???

JSquared said:

Has anyone ever done a Christmas variant of Dragon Blood? I would love to do a Christmas wine this year, if I still have time. Dragon blood would be the fastest to drinking wine to use. Any ideas???

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Yes. I'll be bottling 6 gallons today and another 6 of it tomorrow.

@Wineforfun made some as well, and I think Val did too if I remember correctly.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=569565&postcount=3192

ETA: I decided to spice up one of the carboys and leave one the same as what I did last year. I back sweetened both with a 1/2 quart of honey. I added an additional 1/2 stick ceylon cinnamon, 3 cloves, 2 star anise, and 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped) to one of the carboys and so far I think I like it best.