DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Is 82 degree must too high. Today is day 3 and the temp is up to 82. I put a bag of ice in it to bring the temp down. Did I panic? My other 2 batches stayed in the low to mid 70s the whole time.

You probably were okay with 82 but in the future if you do need to cool your must I've heard that sitting your bucket or carboy in a shallow pan of water and then wrapping a wet towel around it will do the trick. Let the towel hang in the water as it will wick up more moisture as needed.

 

[Tuffvine]

Update on my first wine making attempt:

Racked last Friday according to the directions into a carboy after the SG stabilized at .990 from the starting point of 1.080. Took 9 days in total, the last three the SG was stable, at a temp of 70deg. Degassed, added chems and clearing agent and the wine cleared brilliantly in 1-2 days.

A few small pieces of fruit came out of the bag at some point and I do have some floaters at the top of the Carboy in addition to the sediment at the bottom. There fore I am thinking about filtering the wine on the next racking when sweetening is required. Interested to know the gear required. I was thinking about using a nylon paint strainer bag over the siphon inlet.

Any better suggestions?

 

[gotbags-10]

Yup I've strained wine and beer through paint strainer bags when racking

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I have been gifted tons of fruit for wine making in the last couple months, to the point that there is no more room in my freezer! So I decided to start an "everything but the kitchen sink" dragon blood this morning. I threw in raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, plums, currants, and rhubarb...probably close to 16 pounds in all. This could be interesting...lol.

 

[gotbags-10]

So just started an all blackberry batch. I used only 32 oz of lemon juice as some of the berries were kinda tart. I haven't pitched yeast yet. I have ec-118 which I normally use for DB. But I've ben reading up on blackberry wine and it seems most people use 71b-1122 which I also have. It seems that is a good yeast to kinda round over the tartness and harshness of blackberries. I'm thinking I will try that one. I have 12lbs of berries in a 5.5g batch.

 

[SwampDog35]

Just wondering is the 12lbs enough berries? I've read to use at least 6lbs per gallon. Just wanted to make sure before I start a BlackBerry batch.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Just wondering is the 12lbs enough berries? I've read to use at least 6lbs per gallon. Just wanted to make sure before I start a BlackBerry batch.

That's the beauty of the Dragon Blood recipe...you can make it with as little as 6 pounds for the whole 6 gallon batch. People will double it to 12 pounds, but believe me, it will turn out with only 6

 

[Ants_Elixirs]

Worked dogs last night. When I came in this morning, I started what will be my first batch of Dragon's Blood.

On the stove is about 6 gallons of water with 7#'s of frozen mixed raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, black berries and cherries with 32 ozs. of lemon juice and 10#'s of sugar.

It tastes magnificent.

Wish I didn't have to wait a couple months to enjoy it.

C'est la vie!

 

[maurtis]

Couple of months? In a couple of months from the start of a batch, mine is gone, LOL.

Mine takes right on two weeks to be ready to bottle. A little green but still quite tasty even that young. One more month from that and I find it smooth and giftable.

 

[billyPre]

From my very first batch made by me and my girl. Its 100% Dragons Blood but we're calling it Face First. We are planning on making many more batches, each with a unique name. The next batch will be called Two Timers, the batch after that will be 3rd base or 3rd degree or something.

I love this wine but the hangovers are intense; are there any things I could do different to reduce the hangover, like a different yeast or less chemicals?

 

[wineforfun]

Not sure what to tell you about the hangovers. Fortunately I don't suffer from those and DB. I also make my DB 13+% ABV.
Top those bottles up some more, you are cheating someone out of an extra sip.

Nice label too.

 

[cheesehead]

Well Ive come to the conclusion that my strawberry tart wine is not going to clear on its own after 2 1/2 months and counting. 2 weeks ago i filtered through a 5 & 1 micron filter 8x and it did look better but only dropped a fine mist of sediment barely covering the bottom of the carboy during the next 2 weeks. I even brought the temp up to 75 with no luck ( was at 70 degrees). I think i will try the filtering again this weekend, if that doesnt work , I am almost apt to proceed with the backsweetening and just go ahead with the bottling. Maybe i will call it "cloudy with a chance of drunkeness"-- It smells great and actually tastes good as is but Dang it! , it just wont clear

 

[maurtis]

Billy, I LOLed at the label, love it. Not sure about the hangovers, my reaction to DB is no worse than any commercial wine or beer. But if you and your girl both get strong hangovers from it, it does not sound like a personal sensitivity issue. How much k-meta did you use and when? I am wondering if it is a sulfite issue?

Cheesehead, "cloudy with a chance of drunkeness"... awesome!

 

[willie]

Well Ive come to the conclusion that my strawberry tart wine is not going to clear on its own after 2 1/2 months and counting. 2 weeks ago i filtered through a 5 & 1 micron filter 8x and it did look better but only dropped a fine mist of sediment barely covering the bottom of the carboy during the next 2 weeks. I even brought the temp up to 75 with no luck ( was at 70 degrees). I think i will try the filtering again this weekend, if that doesnt work , I am almost apt to proceed with the backsweetening and just go ahead with the bottling. Maybe i will call it "cloudy with a chance of drunkeness"-- It smells great and actually tastes good as is but Dang it! , it just wont clear

Thanks for the update. I guess Luck was with me that the problem with my Straw.cleared using Peptic Enzyme. I'm too new at this wine making that I don't have an answer for you. But I do remember someone saying that eventually it will clear. I don't think I would bottle a cloudy wine. Hopefully you will get some more input from some others. Also may I suggest you might want to post on another like the General Wine Making Forum if you haven't yet. There are some very good veteran wine makers that lurk there. Good Luck.

Will

 

[billyPre]

How much k-meta did you use and when? I am wondering if it is a sulfite issue?

Cheesehead, "cloudy with a chance of drunkeness"... awesome!

Well.. I am sure I went by my directions of .25 tsp. k-meta. I want to say that the hangover is worse than what I get drinking commercial wines but its hard to compare since all I have been drinking is dragons blood!

I suppose I could just be drinking too much

Any other factors that might affect hangover like the type of yeast or perhaps I stressed out my yeast with fluctuating temperatures?

 

[SwampDog35]

Got my 3rd batch of DB (Strawberry, Blueberry, Pomegranate) going we call it "Wine Shine" cause it is pretty strong.
Waiting to pick some BlackBerries to do a pure BlackBerry DB.

 

[calvin]

Well Ive come to the conclusion that my strawberry tart wine is not going to clear on its own after 2 1/2 months and counting. 2 weeks ago i filtered through a 5 & 1 micron filter 8x and it did look better but only dropped a fine mist of sediment barely covering the bottom of the carboy during the next 2 weeks. I even brought the temp up to 75 with no luck ( was at 70 degrees). I think i will try the filtering again this weekend, if that doesnt work , I am almost apt to proceed with the backsweetening and just go ahead with the bottling. Maybe i will call it "cloudy with a chance of drunkeness"-- It smells great and actually tastes good as is but Dang it! , it just wont clear

Try adding another dose of pectic enzyme and let it sit for another week

 

[maurtis]

Well.. I am sure I went by my directions of .25 tsp. k-meta. I want to say that the hangover is worse than what I get drinking commercial wines but its hard to compare since all I have been drinking is dragons blood!

I suppose I could just be drinking too much

Any other factors that might affect hangover like the type of yeast or perhaps I stressed out my yeast with fluctuating temperatures?

True, I guess it depends on how much you are drinking in a night. I can have a bottle to myself and not feel much in the morning. Two bottles and I am definitely dragging until lunch.

How high did you let the temps go? If you used EC-1118, it seems to be really resilient, unlike beer yeasts that fart off flavors if you just look at them sideways. (I have a belgian blonde that tastes like bandaids because I was not as careful as I should have been)

 

[billyPre]

How high did you let the temps go?

I doubt the temperature got too high but it fluctuated, ~73 during the night and ~80 during the day.

We all know that if you drink the cheap stuff, whiskey or wine, you hang over is worse. What is it about the cheaper spirits that give you a worse hangover?

 

[gaboy]

I doubt the temperature got too high but it fluctuated, ~73 during the night and ~80 during the day.

We all know that if you drink the cheap stuff, whiskey or wine, you hang over is worse. What is it about the cheaper spirits that give you a worse hangover?

Long chain hydrocarbons that are not completely broken down to the desired ethyl alcohol. Edited for omitted and incorrectly spelled words!!