DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[user 32114]

Initial SG was 1.110. On day #2 after squeezing bag it was up to 1.114. Finished at 0.988. Backsweetened with sugar, 1/2 cup/gallon, ending at 0.998 (so the sugar added 10 points). Not as sweet as you like them, and I did stop short of what I thought was just right, knowing it would improve. But I'm afraid it ain't gonna last that long!
My cherry/blueberry was almost the same, finished at 0.990 and backsweetened with 3/4 cup/gallon, ending at 1.004.

i love you man, but you're trying to murder my sweet tooth,, lol
Dawg

 

[KCCam]

i love you man, but you're trying to murder my sweet tooth,, lol
Dawg

Hahaha. Well, for me, I guess it's like eating a Big Mac with fries, and a diet Coke. But I do prefer my wine on the drier side. And whiskey neat. But my vices are Grand Marnier (for a treat, when I can afford it) -- very sweet, and Southern Comfort -- yum. Oh, and I like port, and I've been reading about limoncello on here too, I love that!

 

[user 32114]

Hahaha. Well, for me, I guess it's like eating a Big Mac with fries, and a diet Coke. But I do prefer my wine on the drier side. And whiskey neat. But my vices are Grand Marnier (for a treat, when I can afford it) -- very sweet, and Southern Comfort -- yum. Oh, and I like port, and I've been reading about limoncello on here too, I love that!

man a cobbler is kryptonite to me, lol
RRR

 

[Fencepost]

DDDB it calls for 48oz of lemon juice (but says any amount can be added).... I have made Blackberry with 48, 40 and 32oz.... and I seem to be liking it heading that direction (though I have enjoyed it all)... how low has anyone gone on the lemon juice? I am now doing a muscadine, and went back to 40oz, but was wondering, from a taste perspective, and experience of those on this forum, what has been the lowest amount of Lemon Juice added to a batch? and what did it taste like? (I guess one could add zero but not sure how that tastes). Any experience out there on this?

 

[user 32114]

i've only ever made one DDDB variant, i got my reduced concentrates from homewinery.com i used 1 blueberry high acidity, 1 black raspberry and 1 tart cherry, it started out extremely stringent, so i dialed the ph to 3.6, first week to much acid to enjoy, 2 to 3 weeks later gooood, so i hide it in my closet, and still got some aging in a carboy to bulk age, i plan on being very, very stingy with it ,,, lol, so i used no lemon but blueberry is almost as acidic , so, it made a good so deep a red wine that in the glass it looks all but black,
Dawg

 

[DizzyIzzy]

Are Ahmish people non-drinkers though?

I checked Bing, it typically goes both ways. Over indulge, and you're a sinner, expected!

I live within a large Amish community. Some drink, some do not..................some smoke, some do not.............Go figure!.............................Dizzy

 

[DizzyIzzy]

I had sun illuminating the glass as well as bright objects behind that can be seen through the wine. I was mistaken, however, about which wine it was. That one was my cherry/blueberry that got stirred up after clearing. It wouldn't clear again quick enough for my liking, so I used a 1/4 dose of sparkaloid as a test. It cleared up right away, but guess what? I am now finding "whispy" sediment in my bottles. Dang. Oh well.

This is my Saskatoon DB. It still has no sediment in the bottles. Still crystal clear.

View attachment 64823

That looks beautiful, just like mine with which I bewitched a local Amish man into learning how to create his own....................Dizzy

 

[DizzyIzzy]

i have had my beef, pork, goats, deer processed for the last 30 years, you can eat off their floors, they wear white clothes, without a spot on them, now the back half is the slaughter area, them wear dark clothes, but the front half has all window all the way the front, not on spot or smear in 30 years on the floor or there clothes, my forecart you can't buy better, anything the Amish do they do it right the first time, although some tend to be a little more costly, but you get what you pay for,, before i got into retail construction, i did all my own butchering, i have the grinders, a meat bandsaw with sliding stainless steel table, but work kept me away, and now being quite harshly disabled ( no pity for me please) i'm alive and i enjoy my life, if you treat them with respect and look them in the eye and honest with them they are mostly very good people,
Dawg

Dawg, I hate to disagree with you on some points, but I have had a different experience. As I have said earlier, I am surrounded by a large Amish community, and YES, many of them are quite fastidious about cleaning their homes, barns, personal appearance, THEN there are others that smell horrible, dirty/disheveled in appearance, the inside of their homes are dirty. Probably similar to us "English" (which is what they call us). Some of us are neat and tidy, and some of us are not! That said, they do work very hard, are competent in what they do. Right now I have two of them putting a metal roof on my barn, and I am sure it will be done very well. I am a "Driver" for the local Amish, so I have the opportunity to see them "up close and personal", so I speak with a 45 year experience with their community here in Ohio................................................Dizzy

 

[DizzyIzzy]

DDDB it calls for 48oz of lemon juice (but says any amount can be added).... I have made Blackberry with 48, 40 and 32oz.... and I seem to be liking it heading that direction (though I have enjoyed it all)... how low has anyone gone on the lemon juice? I am now doing a muscadine, and went back to 40oz, but was wondering, from a taste perspective, and experience of those on this forum, what has been the lowest amount of Lemon Juice added to a batch? and what did it taste like? (I guess one could add zero but not sure how that tastes). Any experience out there on this?

I add a 32 oz. bottle of RealLemon juice, and 16 oz. of RealLime, and the taste is divine........my motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it....................Dizzy

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I add a 32 oz. bottle of RealLemon juice, and 16 oz. of RealLime, and the taste is divine........my motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it....................Dizzy

Do you add the lime no matter what fruit you are using? The only time I've substituted or used lime is in my lime Skeeter Pee.

 

[KCCam]

DDDB it calls for 48oz of lemon juice (but says any amount can be added).... I have made Blackberry with 48, 40 and 32oz.... and I seem to be liking it heading that direction (though I have enjoyed it all)... how low has anyone gone on the lemon juice? I am now doing a muscadine, and went back to 40oz, but was wondering, from a taste perspective, and experience of those on this forum, what has been the lowest amount of Lemon Juice added to a batch? and what did it taste like? (I guess one could add zero but not sure how that tastes). Any experience out there on this?

I believe @dangerdave’s Dragonette is a version with acid blend instead of lemon juice, but I’m going from memory. And I’ve read about someone using rhubarb instead of lemon for the acid too. I personally have used 32 oz in the batches I’ve made.

 

[user 32114]

Dawg, I hate to disagree with you on some points, but I have had a different experience. As I have said earlier, I am surrounded by a large Amish community, and YES, many of them are quite fastidious about cleaning their homes, barns, personal appearance, THEN there are others that smell horrible, dirty/disheveled in appearance, the inside of their homes are dirty. Probably similar to us "English" (which is what they call us). Some of us are neat and tidy, and some of us are not! That said, they do work very hard, are competent in what they do. Right now I have two of them putting a metal roof on my barn, and I am sure it will be done very well. I am a "Driver" for the local Amish, so I have the opportunity to see them "up close and personal", so I speak with a 45 year experience with their community here in Ohio................................................Dizzy

wow,, i'd never dreamed of that, here in northeast Arkansas they are few and scattered, i drive up in missouri, to that butcher shop, all my experiences are very limited to just a few of them off a ways and mule drawn equipment i ordered online through like yourself, he does the computer thing then tells them what needs to be built, and they build it and he ships it from Ohio, i being older and broken down, all my mules are around 13 hands, but i use logging harness with trace chains, i just double the leather using buckles to fit my mules my forecast is for massive draft horses, but my shafts and tongues are for haflingers,,,, so as i said my 30 years has been with very few, back when i did retail construction in areas like Ohio i'd see many driving their buggies but had zero interaction, what you just told me stuns me to no end, wow, but i reckon all humans have good and bad, clean and filthy, you've learned me more, thank you
Dawg

 

[G259]

I have NO idea of what you are talking about Dawg (lol), but I'm not 'city folk' either, more rural, off city! I understand though, EVERYONE is different, no matter if you are Amish or anything else, for that matter. The human experience applies to all humans who dwell on the earth, the non-humans, well, we are not alone!

 

[Betty23]

Hi all-

First off, thanks to Danger Dave for his recipe and to all of you for the knowledge in this thread. I've successfully made my first batch of Dragon's Blood and it tasted great on my initial rack. It's currently clearing.

I'm hoping one of you gurus can help me with my ABV calculation. I didn't record readings during my ferment (as I should have).

Adjusted for temperature, starting SG without any fruit was 1.102 and ending SG was 0.993. (1.102-0.993)*133=14.5%.

I added 11lbs of fruit. Specifically, 8lbs of Costco frozen triple berry mix and 3lbs of Costco frozen blueberries. By the end of the ferment, all that was left were skins and seeds.

I wonder how much the fruit bumped up the starting SG or if any of you have any idea what my final ABV actually is?

Thank you!
betty

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Betty23, and welcome. My sense is that all anyone might provide is a ball park estimate of the sugar content of the fruit. Do you know the total difference in volume the fruit added? Berries probably contain the equivalent amount of sugar as to give you a reading of about 1.050 (could be a little more or less) so if you use that figure as your guesstimate then if you know the total amount of liquid the fruit added then we could estimate the true SG

You started with a volume of X gallons at a gravity of 1.100 (let's say) and the fruit JUICE added Y gallons at a gravity of 1.050. All you do is multiply the two lines and add them and then divide that sum by the total volume to obtain your starting gravity so if you had 4 gallons at 1.100 = 400 PLUS 1 gallon at .050 = 50 now you have 5 gallons at 450 and so the SG = 450/5 1.090. If the juice from the fruit added only say, half a gallon then that second line would be .5 X 50 = 25 for a total of 4.5 at 425 = 1.094 (in this case you are not diluting the 1.100 with as much liquid when you are adding only a half gallon at 1.050 than if you were adding a whole gallon at 1.050).

 

[sour_grapes]

I wonder how much the fruit bumped up the starting SG or if any of you have any idea what my final ABV actually is? (Emphasis added.)

I agree with @BernardSmith . We would need to know the volume of the wine to answer your question.

I am mostly chiming in to point out that the fruit would be expected to lower your SG and hence ABV by a little bit.

 

[Betty23]

@BernardSmith and @sour_grapes, thanks so much. I never thought about SG as you've described it, but I get it. I started off at 6 gallons without the fruit. At 6 gallons without the fruit I had a starting 1.103 SG reading.

How much volume did the juice add? I have no idea! I can only say that I added 11lbs of berries and that I was surprised at how much DB I had left in my primary when I racked off 6 gallons of it to my carboy at the end of the ferment. All that extra liquid had to have been because of the added fruit juice from the berries.

I guess not knowing the added volume doesn't get me closer to the answer, does it?

Thanks again!
betty

 

[sour_grapes]

@BernardSmith and @sour_grapes, thanks so much. I never thought about SG as you've described it, but I get it. I started off at 6 gallons without the fruit. At 6 gallons without the fruit I had a starting 1.103 SG reading.

How much volume did the juice add? I have no idea! I can only say that I added 11lbs of berries and that I was surprised at how much DB I had left in my primary when I racked off 6 gallons of it to my carboy at the end of the ferment. All that extra liquid had to have been because of the added fruit juice from the berries.

I guess not knowing the added volume doesn't get me closer to the answer, does it?

Thanks again!
betty

The volume added by the fruit is going to be close to a gallon. A gallon of water weighs ~8.4 lbs. So 11 lbs of fruit would have a volume of about 1.25 gallons, and we'll just subtract off a bit for the skins and seeds.


Bernards guess at 1.050 for the fruit is a good guess. So I would put your starting SG (as if fruit the fruit were added initially) as (1.103 * 6 + 1.050 * 1) / (6+1) = 1.095. This would put your ABV at about (1.095 - 0.993)*131 = 13.4%

 

[Betty23]

The volume added by the fruit is going to be close to a gallon. A gallon of water weighs ~8.4 lbs. So 11 lbs of fruit would have a volume of about 1.25 gallons, and we'll just subtract off a bit for the skins and seeds.


Bernards guess at 1.050 for the fruit is a good guess. So I would put your starting SG (as if fruit the fruit were added initially) as (1.103 * 6 + 1.050 * 1) / (6+1) = 1.095. This would put your ABV at about (1.095 - 0.993)*131 = 13.4%

Terrific. Thanks to both of you. Very helpful!

Though what confuses me is Danger Dave's admonition in his recipe-

Test SG with hydrometer (remember, you are looking for a SG around 1.075) Note: The natural sugars from the fruit (below) will slightly increase the final ABV, so be careful how high you drive up the SG at this point!


I suppose you're saying that the additional volume finally serves to decrease ABV more than the fruit sugars have raised it. I had always assumed that the fruit would have added to the alcohol in the end (which is what Danger Dave seems to be saying), and of course it has added alcohol, but you're saying that the volume increased by a factor so as to dilute that additional alcohol.

 

[sour_grapes]

Terrific. Thanks to both of you. Very helpful!

Though what confuses me is Danger Dave's admonition in his recipe-

Test SG with hydrometer (remember, you are looking for a SG around 1.075) Note: The natural sugars from the fruit (below) will slightly increase the final ABV, so be careful how high you drive up the SG at this point!

Well, it is a slightly subtle concept. Many people, including Danger Dave, don't pick up on this and don't think carefully about the concomitant dilution correctly.

I suppose you're saying that the additional volume finally serves to decrease ABV more than the fruit sugars have raised it. I had always assumed that the fruit would have added to the alcohol in the end (which is what Danger Dave seems to be saying), and of course it has added alcohol, but you're saying that the volume increased by a factor so as to dilute that additional alcohol.

Precisely. I could not have said it better.