DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[willie]

I use a towel and bungee cord helps me keep the fruit fly's out. I have a bowl of wine out but they really like this new Strawberry. Can't say that I blame them it does smell pretty darn good.

Will

 

[JSquared]

I'm fermenting the Strawberry Tart in the primary right now too. And yes it smells fabulous!

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I use a towel and bungee cord as well...keeps cats and fruit flies out of the mix !

 

[redneckwinedude]

Just started a half batch of this on Tuesday. We'll see how it goes!

 

[JSquared]

Sweet Strawberry Tart question, I'm following Dave's recipe and on day 6/7/14 from his notes he said "SG .992 he added stabilizers, the strawberry daiquiri mix, Superkleer and topped off w Dragon Blood" my question, he didn't actually say that he racked the wine into a secondary carboy, was all this done in the fermenter and allowed to clear there for 2 wks or did he rack it to a carboy to clear? All of his other steps start w racking. Appreciate any help! Jackie

 

[wineforfun]

Sweet Strawberry Tart question, I'm following Dave's recipe and on day 6/7/14 from his notes he said "SG .992 he added stabilizers, the strawberry daiquiri mix, Superkleer and topped off w Dragon Blood" my question, he didn't actually say that he racked the wine into a secondary carboy, was all this done in the fermenter and allowed to clear there for 2 wks or did he rack it to a carboy to clear? All of his other steps start w racking. Appreciate any help! Jackie

I haven't made this but can guarantee, once dry, you need to get it out of the primary and off all those gross lees for it to clear properly.

 

[JSquared]

I was thinking the same thing and my plan was to rack to a carboy but his notes didn't say to, so I was wondering.

 

[jumby]

Definitely rack it to a carboy.

 

[willie]

Sweet Strawberry Tart question, I'm following Dave's recipe and on day 6/7/14 from his notes he said "SG .992 he added stabilizers, the strawberry daiquiri mix, Superkleer and topped off w Dragon Blood" my question, he didn't actually say that he racked the wine into a secondary carboy, was all this done in the fermenter and allowed to clear there for 2 wks or did he rack it to a carboy to clear? All of his other steps start w racking. Appreciate any help! Jackie

Dave's instructions on the strawberry is kinda brief. I believe he was saying when the SG reading read .992 3 days In a row rack and add chems as per original recipe.

Will

 

[JSquared]

I ended up racking it to a carboy. Now I'm watching my beautiful strawberry smoothie looking carboy and hoping in clears into a beautiful clear wine!!!!

 

[willie]

Well after 5 days our Strawberry cleared. It has some particles floating around so I will rack it again this next week and let it stabilize another week before back sweetening the wine adding the Strawberry Extract and Red Coloring. And after that I will filter and bottle.

Will

 

[cheesehead]

Well after the clearing issues I had with the strawberry tart recipe I decided after numurous filterings that I would bottle it for my daughters Grad / b-day & army induction party, IT WAS A GIANT HIT!!!! And after a trip to the Fawn Creek winery up in the Wisconsin Dells area to pick up a bottle of their strawberry wine to compare to , it wasnt even close. Strawberry tart blew away that stuff they bottled. Theirs smelled and tasted like a basic sweet white colored and flavored with a ton of extract and simple syrup. The only thing about mine was the color wasnt quite right as in almost pinkish/ orange and slightly cloudy but no sediment at all in any of the bottles. Gonna have to start another batch soon as I am down to 3 bottles left and orders for more are flooding in. So while Dave is on his Sabbatical I would like to thank Him and all others for the recipe and help in adding another hit to my collection , Cheers to all!!!

 

[Ctmaro]

Well after 5 days our Strawberry cleared. It has some particles floating around so I will rack it again this next week and let it stabilize another week before back sweetening the wine adding the Strawberry Extract and Red Coloring. And after that I will filter and bottle.

Will

I just rack, stablized, and Sparkolloid a 10 gallon batch of Strawberry DB. I don't like the artificial flavors in the Sweet Tart recipe.

It was clear the next day. Last time it took weeks to clear.

This time I ended up transferring from the primary to secondaries before stablization. I had 2 week trip planned and couldn't keep an eye on it as I usually do (more like following the Skeeter Pee recipe).

Now I am wondering if this extra step is what helped it to clear?

On top of everything else this was made with Strawberry Cubes (FlavorPak), so I didn't use strainer bags.

It will probably sit for 3 to 4 weeks before back sweetening because I am very busy this time of year. I am thinking of using Splenda to sweeten half of it.

Mark

 

[willie]

Well after the clearing issues I had with the strawberry tart recipe I decided after numurous filterings that I would bottle it for my daughters Grad / b-day & army induction party, IT WAS A GIANT HIT!!!! And after a trip to the Fawn Creek winery up in the Wisconsin Dells area to pick up a bottle of their strawberry wine to compare to , it wasnt even close. Strawberry tart blew away that stuff they bottled. Theirs smelled and tasted like a basic sweet white colored and flavored with a ton of extract and simple syrup. The only thing about mine was the color wasnt quite right as in almost pinkish/ orange and slightly cloudy but no sediment at all in any of the bottles. Gonna have to start another batch soon as I am down to 3 bottles left and orders for more are flooding in. So while Dave is on his Sabbatical I would like to thank Him and all others for the recipe and help in adding another hit to my collection , Cheers to all!!!

Happy to here yours turned out good. The Strawberry can be a little difficult but well worth it.

Will

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I just rack, stablized, and Sparkolloid a 10 gallon batch of Strawberry DB. I don't like the artificial flavors in the Sweet Tart recipe.

It was clear the next day. Last time it took weeks to clear.

This time I ended up transferring from the primary to secondaries before stablization. I had 2 week trip planned and couldn't keep an eye on it as I usually do (more like following the Skeeter Pee recipe).

Now I am wondering if this extra step is what helped it to clear?

On top of everything else this was made with Strawberry Cubes (FlavorPak), so I didn't use strainer bags.

It will probably sit for 3 to 4 weeks before back sweetening because I am very busy this time of year. I am thinking of using Splenda to sweeten half of it.

Mark

Please keep us posted if you experiment with Splenda. It is still on my list to try but I haven't made a batch of DB in a while!

 

[ou8amaus]

Slightly off topic, but has anyone ever tried making a dragon blood with beer as the base? My wife prefers beer (match made in heaven, she does not drink all my big reds), but she also likes DB... so I was thinking of doing a beer kit and adding a nylon bag of thawed triple berry to primary? I figure I will need to toss the fruit with pectin enzyme to make sure I do not get a haze... any other suggestions?

 

[wineinmd]

What style beer are you planning on doing? Generally fruit additions are done in secondary (or anytime after primary fermentation has finished) to help retain the fruit flavors.

 

[ou8amaus]

I already have the beer kit ready to go, a very light pilsner style. I know she likes fruity/sweet wines, ciders, and mostly beer... I also have 4 lbs of triple berry in the freezer and thought why not combine the process of DB on the "back" of a beer kit instead of lemon juice. If I add the fruit in the primary I still have the opportunity to squeeze the fruit daily per the original DB recipe... Hopefully creating a light, fruity, dry pilsner. I have not made beer in a long time so correct me if I am wrong, but adding the fruit to the secondary would just kick the yeast back into action, at a point where you want them to calm them down prior to bottling. Unless you use the sugar present in the fruit to substitute Dextrose as the base for bottle carbing... which would seem unreliable to me.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Things have been quiet around this thread for a bit so I thought I would pop in and say hi! I have been making quite a few kit wines lately but just started another batch of DB last week. This one is for a friend who wanted a special wine for her anniversary coming up in September. She provided the fruit...blueberries, raspberries and a few tangerines thrown in just to make things interesting. I had a bag of the cranberries that are soaked in blueberry juice and I put those in just for fun as well. So that was Tuesday of last week...it was fermented out on Monday so I racked, degassed, treated, and added SuperKleer. Today it is beautifully clear already! I can't believe how quickly everything is going. I will be backsweetening today and then hopefully filtering and bottling by the first of next week...it looks like this will be my quickest Dragon Blood to date!

 

[willie]

Things have been quiet around this thread for a bit so I thought I would pop in and say hi! I have been making quite a few kit wines lately but just started another batch of DB last week. This one is for a friend who wanted a special wine for her anniversary coming up in September. She provided the fruit...blueberries, raspberries and a few tangerines thrown in just to make things interesting. I had a bag of the cranberries that are soaked in blueberry juice and I put those in just for fun as well. So that was Tuesday of last week...it was fermented out on Monday so I racked, degassed, treated, and added SuperKleer. Today it is beautifully clear already! I can't believe how quickly everything is going. I will be backsweetening today and then hopefully filtering and bottling by the first of next week...it looks like this will be my quickest Dragon Blood to date!

I'm sure the wine will be delicious.