DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[cheesehead]

Pam, thanx for the reply! I am all on board with the sorbate after clearing, i just wanted to follow Daves Winning recipe to the "T" and ran into this problem. Right now its still at .998 for the 3rd day and still foaming slightly into airlock but not out of it. so i guess i will wait and see what happens.
I do have another question regarding re-fermenting, when this occurs does the final ABV change? I started at 1.090 and dried out to .992 then added the daiquiri mix , sorbate and kmeta. SG went to .998 , Assuming it all goes well , i was shooting for 12.5-13% ABV

 

[vernsgal]

when I add fpaks to my wines I do the math of my starting and finishing before adding fpak.So my math says you're in your target area at about 12.8. The ABV you get at the end(after adding the daiquiri mix ) will let you know how sweet or dry it is. There is a math equation you can do called "simple weighted average" if you wanted to do the math for the exact ABV but you would need the SG and amount of the daiquiri mix

 

[Val_Capone]

I have a large can of pineapple that needs to get used up and I was thinking a dB might be a good use for it....I have never made it before though so I was wondering could I do straight pineapple or should I add other fruit to it?

 

[gaboy]

Pineapple in DB is VERY Acid, and hard to clear!

 

[wineforfun]

I have a large can of pineapple that needs to get used up and I was thinking a dB might be a good use for it....I have never made it before though so I was wondering could I do straight pineapple or should I add other fruit to it?

Do a search in the DB thread for "Tropical Daze". It uses pineapple, mango, strawberry, if I remember correctly. It turns out pretty nice. I did one a couple of years ago and substituted lime juice for the lemon juice.

 

[Ctmaro]

I have a large can of pineapple that needs to get used up and I was thinking a dB might be a good use for it....I have never made it before though so I was wondering could I do straight pineapple or should I add other fruit to it?

I have actually thought about a straight pineapple DB also. The question is how much pineapple?

Mark

 

[Val_Capone]

I was thinking of doing mango in with it too but I have only ever made one batch of wine from a kit (which I just bottled yesterday lol) so I'm a little nervous to stray from the kits but also really excited to and I don't want to spend a whole lot if I don't have to just in case. The can of pineapple I have is the giant Costco sized one and is approaching it's expiration date at the end of the year and I would hate to have to turf it

 

[Val_Capone]

Pineapple in DB is VERY Acid, and hard to clear!

If it's very acid in the DB should I cut down on the citrus juice? Sorry for the noob questions I've only been making wine for a month

 

[wineforfun]

I was thinking of doing mango in with it too but I have only ever made one batch of wine from a kit (which I just bottled yesterday lol) so I'm a little nervous to stray from the kits but also really excited to and I don't want to spend a whole lot if I don't have to just in case. The can of pineapple I have is the giant Costco sized one and is approaching it's expiration date at the end of the year and I would hate to have to turf it

Val,
Trust me, if you follow the dragon blood directions as written, you will be just fine. I had only been making wine for a few months when I first made some. I have only made two kits since I started making wine as I like to experiment with things.
I would make the DB with the triple berry to start with and then branch off to other fruits and maybe lime juice instead of lemon juice and maybe oak and maybe............possiblities are endless.

 

[gaboy]

If it's very acid in the DB should I cut down on the citrus juice? Sorry for the noob questions I've only been making wine for a month

Check ph level in primary, should be 3.3 - 3.6 and you'll be fine!!

 

[Val_Capone]

Awesome thanks

 

[cdevrard]

Hey All,

I've got a blueberry batch going on right now. It has been a real slow fermenter. 1 month as of tomorrow. From an initial SG of 1.088 it is down to 1.003. I like the sweetness of it at this point.

Can I arrest further fermentation by sulfiting and adding my clearing agent at this point?

Thanks

CE

 

[maurtis]

If you want to stop fermentation, sorbate will do it. Pretty sure k-meta will not. You will want to add a little k-meta as well, but sorbate to stop the fermentation.

 

[sour_grapes]

Actually, you are unlikely to be able to stop this even with sorbate. You will likely need to let it go dry, then rack, clear, add sorbate and sulfite, then backsweeten.

 

[cdevrard]

Thanks guys. I've never had been able to stop a ferment with Sorbate, only keep one from restarting.

Was just wondering if k-meta would do it. If I got an enthusiastic YES I thought I'd try it. Guess I'll just let it slug along until the end and back sweeten. No big deal was just getting tired of waiting for it to finish! I have a cherry batch to start!!

Thanks

 

[wineforfun]

Pretty sure the only way to stop the ferment would be to fortify it with some sort of liquor.

 

[JetJockey]

One way to stop the fermentation is to, as quickly as possible drop the temperature several degrees below that in which the yeast strain can survive and keep it there. The yeast packet or website will provide the temperature range for the yeast.

 

[JetJockey]

If I remember correctly, sorbate slows or keeps the year colony from growing, i.e. multiplying. It doesn't kill the yeast. The remaining yeast continue to convert the sugar to alcohol, albeit at a much slower rate.

 

[maurtis]

After doing some reading online, you guys are right as usual. K-meta and sorbate together make an inhospitable environment for yeast to reproduce and can help prevent re-fermentation, but cannot stop an active fermentation. But I found this warning concerning:

"Lastly, and most importantly, paper or cloths that have absorbed potassium sorbate may spontaneously ignite! So be very careful when cleaning up sorbate spills in your wine making area."

 

[sour_grapes]

But I found this warning concerning:

"Lastly, and most importantly, paper or cloths that have absorbed potassium sorbate may spontaneously ignite! So be very careful when cleaning up sorbate spills in your wine making area."

Wow, that is news to me!