DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[RocketBee]

In my locale, it is a bad year for fruit tree production. I have two cherry trees with about a dozen cherries between them...what few apple blossoms I got were polished off by the velociraptors (aka mule deer) who made it through my Jurassic Park fence. The one item that is quite prolific this year is my one Red Lake Currant bush. I bet I have about 30 lbs. of currants ripening on it. Has anyone done a currant version of DDDB? Red Lake Currants are VERY tart, not sweet like a lot of black currants. Maybe it would be a replacement for the lemon juice? I'm going outside to cover my currant bush with a bird net before they maul the only produce I have at this point.

 

[user 32114]

@hounddawg, I saw a while back you started a sour cherry blend as your first Dragon Blood. Besides the saskatoons I picked last year, I got 11 lbs of Evans cherries from my neighbour's tree from just the branches that were hanging over the fence into my yard. I think the Evans cherry was developed locally. It's about the only cherry that will grow in our central Alberta climate, and it grows very well, producing a HUGE amount of cherries. They are sour, but not extremely so, and almost sweet when very ripe, sweet enough to eat right off the tree. But nothing like an actual sweet cherry. I had 4 lbs of frozen fresh blueberries in the freezer, and since l was less sure of how the cherries would ferment than the saskatoons, I added them to the Cherry Dragon Blood (still trying to come up with a good name). I see lots of comments about how bananas can help and we always have frozen bananas on hand for banana bread, so I threw a few of those in as well. It is fermenting almost identically to my Toon Blood though very slightly slower. It's a little darker which surprises me, and currently tastes very similar too, again, which surprises me. I can't wait until I can start clearing it. Dragon Blood is soooooo beautiful when clear! What quantities did you use in yours?
View attachment 62898

YEP, same batch, got to many irons in the fire, on my DDDB variant , i got concentrates from homewinery.com i used a half gallon of each type, they say that a half gallon concentrate is good for 5 gallons but i think that's to lite, so i used 3 concentrates. 1 of each and got them in two 6 gallon carboys, i had a little extra so i put that in a 5 gallon carboy and topped that off with strawberry, when i use concentrates from homewinery.com i usually use 4 & 1/2 gallons water per half gallon concentrate, so with a half gallon water and the concentrate , i use the extra for topping off, today i bottled 30 bottles of skeeter pee port, going to bottle 60 bottles tomorrow of my variant DDDB, can't wait to try it, i'd never got around before to trying DDDB, but after reading his post, and his free will of using most any of 3 types i thought that that should be good,,, i have 3-6's of banana, 2-6's of strawberry and 4-6's of elderberry/blackberry all of which will bulk age for a couple years, and from the way my black elderberry bushes look i hope to have 6 or 7, 6's of elderberry, for long term bulk aging, my plants are loaded, oh and i have 3 more 6's of skeeter pee to bottle but i ran out of 190 proof ever
clear or PGA, , unlike most i use 6 quarts of lemon concentrate per 6 gallons water for my skeeter pee come bottling time i put a fifth of 190 proof PGA in a 6&1/2 carboy k-meta and 6 gallons skeeter pee, back sweeten to 1.040, taste just like lemonade but kicks like a mule, the meds i'm on make me a insomniac so skeeter pee port puts me down for the night, well most nights anyway,
dawg

 

[user 32114]

@hounddawg, I saw a while back you started a sour cherry blend as your first Dragon Blood. Besides the saskatoons I picked last year, I got 11 lbs of Evans cherries from my neighbour's tree from just the branches that were hanging over the fence into my yard. I think the Evans cherry was developed locally. It's about the only cherry that will grow in our central Alberta climate, and it grows very well, producing a HUGE amount of cherries. They are sour, but not extremely so, and almost sweet when very ripe, sweet enough to eat right off the tree. But nothing like an actual sweet cherry. I had 4 lbs of frozen fresh blueberries in the freezer, and since l was less sure of how the cherries would ferment than the saskatoons, I added them to the Cherry Dragon Blood (still trying to come up with a good name). I see lots of comments about how bananas can help and we always have frozen bananas on hand for banana bread, so I threw a few of those in as well. It is fermenting almost identically to my Toon Blood though very slightly slower. It's a little darker which surprises me, and currently tastes very similar too, again, which surprises me. I can't wait until I can start clearing it. Dragon Blood is soooooo beautiful when clear! What quantities did you use in yours?
View attachment 62898

yep it's been aging all this time so much for a quick wine, shucks my skeeter pee has set longer, up there is it like here the more wine you make the me people wanna be friends,, lol thanks for telling and showing what them were. i'd never heard of them before, they look tasty,i got a few mulberry trees, but between the birds and me eating them i've never made wine from them, dang them look nice,,,
dawg

 

[user 32114]

In my locale, it is a bad year for fruit tree production. I have two cherry trees with about a dozen cherries between them...what few apple blossoms I got were polished off by the velociraptors (aka mule deer) who made it through my Jurassic Park fence. The one item that is quite prolific this year is my one Red Lake Currant bush. I bet I have about 30 lbs. of currants ripening on it. Has anyone done a currant version of DDDB? Red Lake Currants are VERY tart, not sweet like a lot of black currants. Maybe it would be a replacement for the lemon juice? I'm going outside to cover my currant bush with a bird net before they maul the only produce I have at this point.

hey rocketbee where is your local?
dawg

 

[KCCam]

... up there is it like here the more wine you make the me people wanna be friends,, lol
dawg

@hounddawg - I don't know... I haven't made enough to give much away -- probably only about 2 or 3 batches a year since I started a few years ago. (Maybe THAT's why I don't have many friends! LOL). Until last year it's all been kit wines, which I probably gift a few per batch. I've only completed 1 batch of DDDB, and I drank that all myself. Maybe if I give my neighbour a couple bottles so they can see what their cherries are REALLY good for, I'll get some from their side of the fence this year!

 

[Darrell Hawley]

yep it's been aging all this time so much for a quick wine, shucks my skeeter pee has set longer, up there is it like here the more wine you make the me people wanna be friends,, lol thanks for telling and showing what them were. i'd never heard of them before, they look tasty,i got a few mulberry trees, but between the birds and me eating them i've never made wine from them, dang them look nice,,,
dawg

Mulberry trees are nice, never had enough to make wine either. BUT the birds eating the mulberries and the purple poop on my white siding doesn't look that great.

 

[RocketBee]

@Darrell Hawley a bird net over the tree could help though they are a bit cumbersome to handle.

@hounddawg Colorado, east of Denver though can still see the front range of the Rocky Mountains. It's a semi-arid region. Difficult to grow stuff here...you can do everything right and the critters eat up your stuff (rabbits, squirrels, mule deer and birds). What the critters don't get, the late freezes in the middle of May will take care of. If something else survives all of that...then there are the hailstorms in Springtime. It's definitely a challenge. The bees are struggling to find nectar to fill my honey supers too. Rough year. Oh, and if that wasn't enough look what my lovely bride found in one of our trees this week:

 

[user 32114]

@Darrell Hawley a bird net over the tree could help though they are a bit cumbersome to handle.

@hounddawg Colorado, east of Denver though can still see the front range of the Rocky Mountains. It's a semi-arid region. Difficult to grow stuff here...you can do everything right and the critters eat up your stuff (rabbits, squirrels, mule deer and birds). What the critters don't get, the late freezes in the middle of May will take care of. If something else survives all of that...then there are the hailstorms in Springtime. It's definitely a challenge. The bees are struggling to find nectar to fill my honey supers too. Rough year. Oh, and if that wasn't enough look what my lovely bride found in one of our trees this week: View attachment 62914

dang egg thief and chicken killer, i hope you popped it,
dawg

 

[MustyMike]

Just pitched the yeast in my 6g batch of DB last night. Came home to find her bubbling like mad already. Gonna be a good batch I can feel it! Also racked my strawberry/banana and degassed then added bentonite(damn my shoulder hurts from all the stirring )I can see it clearing already. I can taste good wine on the horizon

 

[user 32114]

Just pitched the yeast in my 6g batch of DB last night. Came home to find her bubbling like mad already. Gonna be a good batch I can feel it! Also racked my strawberry/banana and degassed then added bentonite(damn my shoulder hurts from all the stirring )I can see it clearing already. I can taste good wine on the horizon

you are stirring your must correctly ain't you, you tie a boat paddle to your light fixture with just enough string so the paddle sits just inside your must, then go outside grab the corner of your home and run in circles, i messed mine up,,, i ran in squares,
Dawg
PS
good thing i 'drink,

 

[MustyMike]

you are stirring your must correctly ain't you, you tie a boat paddle to your light fixture with just enough string so the paddle sits just inside your must, then go outside grab the corner of your home and run in circles, i messed mine up,,, i ran in squares,
Dawg
PS
good thing i 'drink,

Got a good laugh outta me dawg. the k1v I used ran her up a little higher than I thought lol after one glass I couldn’t run if I was wet ink on dry paper

 

[user 32114]

Got a good laugh outta me dawg. the k1v I used ran her up a little higher than I thought lol after one glass I couldn’t run if I was wet ink on dry paper

then i've done my good deed for the day, a lot on here are wound to tight, life's short, i can make wine and joke all at the same time, now you got me grinning, , yup i only keep 2 yeasts, K1V-1116 & EC-1118, as long as you use plenty of fruit it tastes great and ambushes you all at once,,,
dawg

 

[DizzyIzzy]

Just pitched the yeast in my 6g batch of DB last night. Came home to find her bubbling like mad already. Gonna be a good batch I can feel it! Also racked my strawberry/banana and degassed then added bentonite(damn my shoulder hurts from all the stirring )I can see it clearing already. I can taste good wine on the horizon

Mike, Take the plunge and get an AIO. In the meantime, try degassing using a large whisk. It degases quicker and much easier than stirring........................Dizzy

 

[user 32114]

Mike, Take the plunge and get an AIO. In the meantime, try degassing using a large whisk. It degases quicker and much easier than stirring........................Dizzy

Amen to that,
Dawg

 

[MustyMike]

Mike, Take the plunge and get an AIO. In the meantime, try degassing using a large whisk. It degases quicker and much easier than stirring........................Dizzy

Duly noted!

Mike, Take the plunge and get an AIO. In the meantime, try degassing using a large whisk. It degases quicker and much easier than stirring........................Dizzy

Duly noted! I will eventually splurge on one. I have a degasser that goes into a drill, however the drill I borrowed from my buddy got about 1/4 of the way through the process and died

 

[MustyMike]

Just wanted to update, I’m sitting in my kitchen with my fermentation bucket and I would swear up and down it is raining outside... it’s just the DB fermenting lol down almost .2 sg in a day. The wife is not fond of the smell...

 

[DizzyIzzy]

Just wanted to update, I’m sitting in my kitchen with my fermentation bucket and I would swear up and down it is raining outside... it’s just the DB fermenting lol down almost .2 sg in a day. The wife is not fond of the smell...

I love that sound, AND the smell.......................Dizzy

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Just wanted to update, I’m sitting in my kitchen with my fermentation bucket and I would swear up and down it is raining outside... it’s just the DB fermenting lol down almost .2 sg in a day. The wife is not fond of the smell...

I think the DB smells awesome when it first start to ferment. Then as you progress, it definitely goes through a period of just smelling yeasty or alcoholly (I'm sure there's no such word but...). When it's all clear and ready to bottle, it smells yummy again!

 

[KCCam]

TOON BLOOD
That baby finished fermenting real slow. So did my sour cherry & blueberry, almost exactly the same. I had to keep reminding myself of all the times I’ve told others to just be patient... But 0.001 or less drop every day for 10 days? Oh well, I finally added the K-meta and Sorbate, and degassed (man, Siri doesn’t know ANY of these words ). Thanks again Steve, @vacuumpumpman ! It took a day, but you can get almost every bubble out under vacuum. A day after adding DualFine, my top-up vessels are perfectly clear,

and the carboys aren’t far behind.

 

[KCCam]

That’s a better look at the difference in colour between my Toon Blood (9.7 lbs Saskatoon, also known as Juneberry or Serviceberry) on the left and Berry Cherry Dragon Blood (4.2 lbs Blueberry & 11 lbs Sour Cherry) on the right. It's hard to see in the thumbnail, but the Cherry is more like a pale orange than red. The saskatoons and cherries are home-grown. I also had a few lbs of store-bought blueberries in the freezer I wanted to use. I figured the cherries would benefit more from the blueberries than the saskatoons, even though there were more cherries by weight. I would say I was right. This year I think I'll try one with just the cherries to see how much difference the blueberries made. The cherry one is a little lighter on flavour than the saskatoon one too.