DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[M38A1]

Quick question or two as I prepare for my first batch of this....

If I want to make straight blueberry, I have 10lbs of fresh blueberries. Would you use all 10lbs for a full batch?

And on the acid addition, the directions say everything from 48oz to none for lemon juice with some benefits for the full amount down to a different taste profile yet acceptable for none. Is it reasonable to follow the instructions up to just before yeast pitch and do the lemon juice/acid last, then simply do the taste test to see if it's where I'd like? Whatever the approach I'll still try to keep the pH in the 3.4-3.6 range simple for the yeast efficiency.

Thoughts?

 

[meadmaker1]

If you are doing the original recipe and making six gallons definitely use all 10 lbs.
I think without the blend of the other fruits you end up with dark wine light on blueberry flavor.
Still drinkable but not fruity.
I would double the berries to at least 20lb for straight blue berry
But not my wine so
Look at a few blue berry wine posts then adjust for what you think will turn out like you want

 

[M38A1]

I suppose I'm confused on the recipe on page 1 then with it saying 6lbs of "Triple Berry Blend" for the batch. That seemed light to me so was that supposed to read 6lbs/gallon or 36lbs for a 6gal batch? Or 6lbs of each type of berry? I'm just not understanding that part.

In any case, I'll use the full 10lbs and I bought a bottle of the IKEA Blueberry syrup today on a whim. I suppose I can use that as a flavor enhancement? Or I'll run back to SAM's and get another 10lbs of blueberries.... Or more.

 

[meadmaker1]

So you question was
Thoughts?
My thoughts are that the three berries compliment each other along with the acid from the lemon juice.
Dave states that it is a light wine intended to be a quick drinker.
I welcome contradiction but as a blue berry, i would expect a future post commenting on lack of blue berry flavor.
Jackkeller.net will have some recipies. Generally his recipies are the minimum fruit most folks will use.
Im not certain about blue berries but 3 lbs per gallon didnt impress me. It wasnt bad but just wine. However 3lbs per gallon following this recipiec
otherwise as a triple berry and using rhubarb for the acid in place of lemon has been one of my best creations.

 

[M38A1]

So you question was
Thoughts?
My thoughts are that the three berries compliment each other along with the acid from the lemon juice.
Dave states that it is a light wine intended to be a quick drinker.
I welcome contradiction but as a blue berry, i would expect a future post commenting on lack of blue berry flavor.
Jackkeller.net will have some recipies. Generally his recipies are the minimum fruit most folks will use.
Im not certain about blue berries but 3 lbs per gallon didnt impress me. It wasnt bad but just wine. However 3lbs per gallon following this recipiec
otherwise as a triple berry and using rhubarb for the acid in place of lemon has been one of my best creations.

That's what I love about this forum - real world experience and honest/open responses. So thank-you for the reply.

There's a little backstory I didn't share with this. My Dad is 93 and generally in good health yet we can see a decline in his mental health. He's been asking a ton of questions about my new wine making adventures and I thought it would be a wonderful thing to make a batch of something. Since he loves blueberries I thought I would do a blueberry, yet virtually every recipe indicates a year start to finish to fully achieve super results. I was pointed to this option as a 'quick drinker' and thought I could do blueberries to have a quicker turn time as we really don't know if there's a year left in this late season of his life. What I'm now coming to realize is, it's not the recipe/process that makes it a quick drinker. Rather, it's the choice of fruits used which lend itself to a quicker drinking time. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[meadmaker1]

Faced with your situation. I have new thoughts.
Go get the other berries and make the dragons blood. This should give you nice balanced base to work with. Then use the syrup you mentioned to back sweeten, this should boost the blue berry flavor.
Using a heavier fruit percentage will add clearing time.
Were available time is an undetermined factor i would be far less concerned with how clear it is and focus on taste. Unfortunately it takes a few miss steps to drive home the lesson of ballance so i wouldn't get to far away from the original receipe as it is tried and true.

 

[M38A1]

Faced with your situation. I have new thoughts.
Go get the other berries and make the dragons blood. This should give you nice balanced base to work with. Then use the syrup you mentioned to back sweeten, this should boost the blue berry flavor.
Using a heavier fruit percentage will add clearing time.
Were available time is an undetermined factor i would be far less concerned with how clear it is and focus on taste. Unfortunately it takes a few miss steps to drive home the lesson of ballance so i wouldn't get to far away from the original receipe as it is tried and true.

Ok, I'll give it a go with your guidance.

So for berries, I'm still not clear on fruit volumes....

I have 10lbs of fresh blueberries at the moment. Am I to go get 6lbs of of frozen raspberries, 6lbs of frozen blackberries and use my 10lbs of fresh blueberries for the six gallon version?

 

[Johnd]

Just get the 6 lbs of triple berry and add your 10# to it, it’ll be fine. FWIW, the DB recipe I’ve settled on uses 18# of the 3 berry mix, much better flavor. So you could double or triple the fruit if you like, comes out great.

 

[M38A1]

Just get the 6 lbs of triple berry and add your 10# to it, it’ll be fine. FWIW, the DB recipe I’ve settled on uses 18# of the 3 berry mix, much better flavor. So you could double or triple the fruit if you like, comes out great.

Thx John. I would up buying 6lbs of varying raspberries, blueberries and blackberries since the "triple blend" shelf was empty last night. I'm thinking I'll go pick up two more single pound bags and go with the 18# too!

 

[meadmaker1]

Of course you won't have anything to compair to but you ll be happier in the end with the added fruit

Thx John. I would up buying 6lbs of varying raspberries, blueberries and blackberries since the "triple blend" shelf was empty last night. I'm thinking I'll go pick up two more single pound bags and go with the 18# too!

 

[Johnd]

I’ve made DB by the book, with double fruit, and triple fruit, the latter being the best. My next endeavor with this triple berry mix will be straight fruit with no added water. Plan on doing that towards the end of the year once the 2018 grapes are in the barrel. Probably let it mellow in a neutral barrel for a few months as well.

 

[Jennifer Patterson]

Day 4 of my second batch of wine, which is the Dragons blood, but only 2 gallons. I am at the point where I removed the fruit, the SG is, .994. But what the heck is "degassing" and how do I do it? Plus It turns out I don't have any potassium Metabisulfite, I do have the Potassium Sorbate. What does the Potassium Metabisulfite do? Can I move on without it? I also do not have the Sparkolloid or any clearing agent.

 

[iridium]

So I made my first batch of Dragon's blood and wanted to share the experience here. It is a 3 gallon batch of wine. i followed the original recipe exactly only halved the quantities. The only exception was I used the full 4 pounds of the triple berry mix.

This was a fun wine to make. My OG was 1.076 and final SG was .992 so I have an estimated ABV of 11%. This wine cleared beautifully and is a beautiful red coloring. The other change was that life happened so it aged about 3 weeks instead of the recommended two. I think that helped the wine actually.

The taste is really good. I didn't over backsweeten, and everyone who has had it has enjoyed it. This includes in-laws, wife and parents. So definitely a crowd pleaser. Also this was one of the first wines I used the all-in-one wine pump and that made the racking and bottling much easier. Heartily recommend that useful tool.

Changes for the future:
1. I would back sweeten a little more as I like a sweeter wine
2. i would use less lemon juice. The taste pretty acidic still, for my palette, and I would like to have more fruit flavor in the wine.

Overall a great success and will definitely be making again.

Thank you all for sharing your batches of this recipe.

 

[iridium]

Jennifer,

To answer your questions:
1. Potassium Metabisulphite (k-meta) adds free sulphite to the wine. That is necessary to protect the wine from over oxidization during the aging and storing process. if you don't add sulphite to the wine you will ave vinegar relatively quickly. I would recommend getting some from your local homebrew store (LHBS) and adding when you can. Wine can go for a little time without it, but really should have it as soon as fermentation is done. The general recommendation that I have found on these boards is 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of wine for three months.

The clearing agents help settle out any suspended particles that might be in the wine. If you are looking to quickly bottle this wine then these agents will help ensure that you are bottling clear wine. When I am making a fruit or grape wine and know that I will be aging for months, I don't always use the clearing agents as time will also clear. They help speed up that process.

Hope that helps.
Iridium

 

[Jennifer Patterson]

Jennifer,

To answer your questions:
1. Potassium Metabisulphite (k-meta) adds free sulphite to the wine. That is necessary to protect the wine from over oxidization during the aging and storing process. if you don't add sulphite to the wine you will ave vinegar relatively quickly. I would recommend getting some from your local homebrew store (LHBS) and adding when you can. Wine can go for a little time without it, but really should have it as soon as fermentation is done. The general recommendation that I have found on these boards is 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of wine for three months.

The clearing agents help settle out any suspended particles that might be in the wine. If you are looking to quickly bottle this wine then these agents will help ensure that you are bottling clear wine. When I am making a fruit or grape wine and know that I will be aging for months, I don't always use the clearing agents as time will also clear. They help speed up that process.

Hope that helps.
Iridium

Thank you! I do have some Campden tablets, can they be used like K-meta? I seem to remember reading that the tablets had K-meta in them.

 

[iridium]

Thank you! I do have some Campden tablets, can they be used like K-meta? I seem to remember reading that the tablets had K-meta in them.

Yes you can use campden tablets. Use one per gallon to get an equivalent amount of sulfates. Make sure to crush them before hand to get them to dissolve better.

 

[Jennifer Patterson]

Yes you can use campden tablets. Use one per gallon to get an equivalent amount of sulfates. Make sure to crush them before hand to get them to dissolve better.

Whew!! Then I am set, and can decide on the clearing agent later. Thank you

 

[meadmaker1]

Clearing agents aren't necessary, they may speed clearing but may change or add taste elements. gravity is as good a clearing agent as any. I like to add bentonite to my starting batches, it is clay, not a mixture of chemicals, it helps the fines to clump together and fall out. And its cheap

 

[M38A1]

Kicked off my first batch of DB last night and had to think a bit on the 'how' part as I progressed. The OP calls for a 7gal or larger PF vessel and mine is 6.9. When I got to the part about adding the fruit I looked at what volume was left in the PF and the bucket of fruit that needed to be added and thought to myself no-way that's going to fit. Since the 'stock' was all done short of fruit, I simply halved what I had prepared into another PF then added half the fruit to one and half to the other. I'll have a double gross lees scenario with this resulting in some minor additional loss, but hey - I got it in both PF's with room to spare. I wound up with 8lbs of blueberries in one and 8lbs of triple-blend mixed berries in the other. Seemed like an 'opportunity' to try two versions at that point. If this is as good as all 219 pages indicate, I guess I'll be looking for a 10gal PF so I can do it all in one shot. Yeast pitch is tonight!

 

[Jal5]

It is a favorite with myfamily and friends this summer. Joe