DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[Medic8106]

If you haven't started your strawberry wine yet I would highly recommend Dave's sweet strawberry tart. It is delicious with lots of strawberry flavor.

Everyone keeps mentioning this sweet strawberry tart but I am unable to find the recipe. Can anyone help me out? It's time to start another batch soon!

 

[calvin]

I've been out of town celebrating my birthday, so I've was incommunicado at the finish of the contest.



Thank you all very much! My wife (Weeping Willow Wines, Manager of Quality Control) said it was a winner. The SST was one of the first few variations I made from the Dragon Blood Recipe. Johnna has been begging me for years to make another. Everyone knows I hate working with strawberries, and I was expecting to be edged out by someone. You are all very good wine makers, and I appreciate you all very much. What a great competition!



Now for the recipe...<drum roll>



<font color="red">Sweet Strawberry Tart

5/31/14 - To a 7 gallon fermenter, I added...20 cups of granulater sugar, 1 cup medium toasted French oak, 3 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 3 tsp pectic enzyme, 1 tsp wine tannin, 96oz of Real Lemon Juice, and water up to 5 gallons. Stirred vigorously until all was dissolved and well mixed. Attached brew belt for warmth. SG = 1.085. Added 15 lbs of thawed frozen strawberries in two mesh bags. Total volume came out a little over 6 gallons. Squeezed and stirred every day per DB recipe. Notes: I used more lemon juice than I normally do in my DB recipe because I wanted the final product to be nice and tart.



6/1/14 - Pitched 71B-1122 yeast.



6/7/14 - SG = 0.992. Added 1/4 tsp sulphite, 3 tsp sorbate, and 96oz ("Big Bucket") Strawberry Daiquiri Mix. Topped up with about 750ml original Dragon Blood. Added Super Klear



6/23/14 - Racked. After tasting, added 4 cups of sugar and 2oz Watkins Strawberry Extract. Added two drops of red food coloring. Note: I wanted a fuller strawberry flavor than I got with the fruit and mix, thus the added extract. I also wanted a deeper hue of pinkish-red, so added a little bit of color.



6/30/14 - Racked, filtered, and bottled, only to watch most of it disappear over 4th of July weekend.



Once again, thank you all very much! It has been a pleasure!

 

[calvin]

That was a copy and paste from one of Dave's post in the dragon blood variant contest thread. You can find the recipe there also

 

[gaboy]

As a 1st time maker, as I started today I realized I did not have any Energizer. Is it absolutely necessary, as the mix is now started? ASAP Thanks!! GaBoy

 

[maurtis]

I usually use Fermax which contains DAP as well as yeast nutrients. Some at the beginning and another tsp at the 1/2 sugar break.

I was finding that if I did not add some nutrient partway through that I was getting some sulfur smells when I rack to the secondary, telling me that I had stressed out the yeast. It would dissipate by the time I racked to the bottling bucket, but I find that if I add some Fermax at the 1/2 sugar break that I was not getting the sulfur smell.

Others can chime in, but I would think that you would be fine to drop some in when you get a chance to grab some from your LHBS or from online. You may just have fermentation take a little longer to take off otherwise?

 

[go_mustangs]

stabilized / still fermenting

Thanks to all for this great wine (and it's variations) and this great thread. I am on my 5th batch. This one is half the lemon and all blueberry. This morning I did everything like normal...once the time was right I racked, stabilized, stopper/airlock...but the strange thing is that it's still bubbling the airlock....should I be alarmed? Any action I should take?

Thanks for your help

 

[Ctmaro]

If you haven't started your strawberry wine yet I would highly recommend Dave's sweet strawberry tart. It is delicious with lots of strawberry flavor.

I thought about doing a strawberry DB, but I needed to get another dry strawberry going so I don't run out later. It takes 5 to 6 months to be drinkable.

Do you use the regular DB recipe? Just wanted to know for future DB.

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[auggydoggy502]

Just bottled a 1 gallon batch. Its a little tart. I didnt use as much lemon in my 6 gallon batch. Will this mellow out a little over time? I started it at the end of sept. Seems that i read that about 3 months and it mellows down amd the fruit flavors come out is that right? Thanks

 

[calvin]

I thought about doing a strawberry DB, but I needed to get another dry strawberry going so I don't run out later. It takes 5 to 6 months to be drinkable.

Do you use the regular DB recipe? Just wanted to know for future DB.

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

Look back a few posts. I posted the recipe. It's Dave's winning recipe from the dragon blood variant contest

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Thanks to all for this great wine (and it's variations) and this great thread. I am on my 5th batch. This one is half the lemon and all blueberry. This morning I did everything like normal...once the time was right I racked, stabilized, stopper/airlock...but the strange thing is that it's still bubbling the airlock....should I be alarmed? Any action I should take?

Thanks for your help

Had it fermented dry before you racked and stabilized? Did you use both sorbate and potassium metabisulfite? How long has it been since you treated and racked?

With one of my initial batches, I used one Campden tablet thinking it was the same as 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite and I had continued/renewed bubbling...as soon as I added the right dose, that stopped almost immediately. Also, I recently had a batch that was taking a long time to clear and was starting to look odd and getting some bubbles so I re-dosed with sulfites and that took care of it pronto.

 

[willie]

Just bottled a 1 gallon batch. Its a little tart. I didnt use as much lemon in my 6 gallon batch. Will this mellow out a little over time? I started it at the end of sept. Seems that i read that about 3 months and it mellows down amd the fruit flavors come out is that right? Thanks

Wow those are some pretty cool bottles you got there.
I have been letting my DB bulk age for a few extra weeks after it clears and gets filtered. So far it seems to be working out just fine that way as for as it tasting good to us. Just experiment and have fun with it.

Will

 

[willie]

Well I have an update on the Blue Blood batch we bottled last week. Before we bottle we did a taste test to see what we think of it. It had been 90 days sense I started the fermenter. My wife and I both thought it was good but was missing something as far as a blueberry taste goes. So it dawned on me that I had stashed a bottle of blueberry extract and it seemed like a perfect moment to give it a try. So I mixed 2 oz of the stuff in the six gallon carboy and gave it a stir and that did the trick. Then we bottled. YumYum

Will

 

[dangerdave]

Excellent job, Willie! I keep a selection of extracts around for just such an occasion.

 

[wineforfun]

Just bottled a 1 gallon batch. Its a little tart. I didnt use as much lemon in my 6 gallon batch. Will this mellow out a little over time? I started it at the end of sept. Seems that i read that about 3 months and it mellows down amd the fruit flavors come out is that right? Thanks

Awesome bottles. I have 5 cases of those I received from a local winery. I hadn't seen anyone else using them.

 

[funjoh]

After two months I bottled my strawberry triple berry lemon pineapple batch. It was backsweetened with juice concentrate to 1.005. I am planning my next batch cause this will not last long! Mmmm

 

[barbl72]

Anybody every use Champagne yeast for Dragon's Blood? It's all the one wine shop had. Haven't used it yet, so was wondering if it is ok. Thanks!

 

[wineforfun]

No I haven't but I am sure it will work fine. Many others have tried different strains of yeast.

 

[calvin]

Lalvin 1118 is champaign yeast. That's what I use

 

[GreginND]

Started a 100 gal batch of blueberry dragons blood tonight. Well, I I've mixed 175 pounds of sugar and 34 liters of lemon juice with water to about 60 gal so far and will wait until the sugar dissolves. I'll add 140 pounds of blueberry purée tomorrow, top it up to 100 gal and inoculate it with 71b on Friday morning. Woohoo. Here we go.

 

[calvin]

Wow that is awesome Greg! Did you do a smaller test batch first with the same recipe and yeast. My biggest batch to date was 12 gallons and I switched up the yeast. Wish I would have stuck with 1118