DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[mwulf67]

Personally I would pull the fruit out after giving it one last squeeze. I'd then lock it down and wait about a week to take the next reading with the new hydrometer. If I got 0.998 or lower I'd move on to the next phase.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get a near unbreakable plastic hydrometer?

Funny you say that…I didn’t say so, but I did pull the fruit this morning, after one last good squeeze…like I say, I have to be close or at that stage, figured it couldn’t hurt…

 

[wineforfun]

To all,
Remember to squeeze those bags with approx. 1 day lead time of racking to secondary or you will bring a ton of unwanted lees with you.

 

[Ctmaro]

I've found that the SG drops about .01 per day at this point.

Mark

 

[maurtis]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get a near unbreakable plastic hydrometer?

Yes, but it would have to cost about $100 to make up for the lost profits from us constantly replacing broken hydrometers! LOL. So far I have only broken a hydrometer if I do not have a spare. Once I bought extras, none have broken (fingers crossed).

 

[Jimyson]

Got my first batch of DB in last night! Pitched some slurry of K1V-1116 that I just racked off. Also used a blend of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

 

[quiltertoo]

ready to bottle

I started my mixed berry DB on 1/29. I racked to primary on 2/8. Added kmeta and potassium sorbate. Degassed and added super kleer. 2/22 racked off lees and added sugar and 3 cans mixed berry concentrate. 3/14 racked off lees again. The wine is now crystal clear and I am ready to bottle it. Do I need to add anything to the wine before bottling. I rinsed my bottles with kmeta and they are ready.

Mary Lou

 

[Jimyson]

You got to love pitching fresh slurry. I pitched about 6 hours ago and it's already rolling.

 

[JSquared]

I started my mixed berry DB on 1/29. I racked to primary on 2/8. Added kmeta and potassium sorbate. Degassed and added super kleer. 2/22 racked off lees and added sugar and 3 cans mixed berry concentrate. 3/14 racked off lees again. The wine is now crystal clear and I am ready to bottle it. Do I need to add anything to the wine before bottling. I rinsed my bottles with kmeta and they are ready.



Mary Lou

How much flavor does the mixed berry concentrate add to the Dragon Blood?

 

[Winenoob66]

your good to go Mary

 

[quiltertoo]

How much flavor does the mixed berry concentrate add to the Dragon Blood?

I think it added a little flavor and the sugar helped too. It doesn't taste as tart as before the additions. But if 3 cans of concentrate were added to 6 gallons of water there wouldn't be much flavor so I'm thinking it didn't add a lot of flavor. I don't have any before wine to compare it to. The wine tastes great so all is good.

Mary Lou

 

[Ctmaro]

When I did my version of "Dave's Strawberry Tart," I made juice from 2# strawberries,and added before sweetening. It gave the wine a distinct strawberry flavor right up front. With my regular strawberry wine, you taste the strawberries on the end. I wonder if it's the same when you add concentrate?

Mark

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I was a little worried about my Sweet Strawberry Tart clearing after reading all of the comments but this is one day after adding SuperKleer! I did throw a bit of extra pectic enzyme in at the start and also added a product called Lallzyme C-Max...don't know if that was the difference but it is looking good so far

 

[JSquared]

I was a little worried about my Sweet Strawberry Tart clearing after reading all of the comments but this is one day after adding SuperKleer! I did throw a bit of extra pectic enzyme in at the start and also added a product called Lallzyme C-Max...don't know if that was the difference but it is looking good so far

It looks great! It seems to be clearing nicely. I have the Sweet Strawberry Tart on my "to do" list of wines. Strawberry season is coming up here in the south!

 

[cheesehead]

I was a little worried about my Sweet Strawberry Tart clearing after reading all of the comments but this is one day after adding SuperKleer! I did throw a bit of extra pectic enzyme in at the start and also added a product called Lallzyme C-Max...don't know if that was the difference but it is looking good so far

I am going on 8 weeks with my strawberry tart in the carboy and still not clearing or clearing very very very slowly. I racked and ran thru a 5 micron filter on sunday with very little lees on the bottom, this is after hitting it with a 3rd dose of clearing agent ( 2 super-kleer, 1 sparkalloid) and extra enzyme 2 weeks ago, smells great and tastes ok , very aromatic just not clearing- hope it wakes up and drops a ton cuz it still looks like fruit punch , anyone with suggestions plz feel free

 

[JSquared]

I started my mixed berry DB on 1/29. I racked to primary on 2/8. Added kmeta and potassium sorbate. Degassed and added super kleer. 2/22 racked off lees and added sugar and 3 cans mixed berry concentrate. 3/14 racked off lees again. The wine is now crystal clear and I am ready to bottle it. Do I need to add anything to the wine before bottling. I rinsed my bottles with kmeta and they are ready.



Mary Lou

I had an extra 1 gallon of regular DB waiting to be bottled and I added 1/2 of a 12 oz can of mixed berry concentrate last night to do a taste test. Both wines are sitting at 3 wks since they were finished. The regular DB has less aroma and more lemon taste up front. The DB w the berry concentrate has a slightly stronger berry taste but the lemon taste was masked someone. I think I'm going to add the concentrate to about 1/2 of my batch before bottling to give me a fruitier variate. Thanks for putting the idea out there!

 

[JSquared]

I bottled my first batch of Dragon Blood! The bottle labeled Dragon Blood Bold has a Fpack in it for added flavor so it's slightly darker in color! I'm really pleased with the Dragon Blood Bold. I'm hoping another week will mellow the original a little more but it is good as it sits.

 

[wineforfun]

View attachment 21514 I bottled my first batch of Dragon Blood! The bottle labeled Dragon Blood Bold has a Fpack in it for added flavor so it's slightly darker in color! I'm really pleased with the Dragon Blood Bold. I'm hoping another week will mellow the original a little more but it is good as it sits.

Do you have a misprint on the regular label? March 2014?

Nice labels, I like the dragon.

 

[dangerdave]

Nice, JSquared, very nice!

 

[willie]

I am going on 8 weeks with my strawberry tart in the carboy and still not clearing or clearing very very very slowly. I racked and ran thru a 5 micron filter on sunday with very little lees on the bottom, this is after hitting it with a 3rd dose of clearing agent ( 2 super-kleer, 1 sparkalloid) and extra enzyme 2 weeks ago, smells great and tastes ok , very aromatic just not clearing- hope it wakes up and drops a ton cuz it still looks like fruit punch , anyone with suggestions plz feel free

Our Strawberry Tart will be 7 wks. old this Friday. I used Super Kleer once and it did clear except the carboy had a bunch of lees on the bottom. Racked it again and sweetened it and now it's not clear after 6 days. So I guess for the next couple of weeks I will just wait to see if it clears again. I don't want to use any more Chems if I don't have to. This is my first time having a slow clearing experience. Keep us posted Cheesehead on how your batch is doing.

Will

 

[JSquared]

Do you have a misprint on the regular label? March 2014?



Nice labels, I like the dragon.

Oops! Yes, I didn't change the label from the previous one, good catch, I haven't printed the rest yet, I'll change it. My computer was giving me grief yesterday!