DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[dangerdave]

Glad you got it going, wildvines. Patience is an important ingredient in wine making. I'm still working on mine.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Patience, i did not see that in the recipe ingredients...thats good, because i am all out....never had much to start with...lol

 

[jamesngalveston]

Dave...i have a new housekeeper, and when she came by saturday to meet me and look at the house, etc....I had a 6 gallon batch of original on the counter.....she asked what it was and I told it was dragon blood....
She looked at me and said, there aint no such thing as a dragon.
I told her, that not in the US but in Scotland, and you have to get a permit to hunt them.
I went on and on with her , finally i gave in and told her what it was, gave her a bottle, we opened a bottle and tasted.
She, looked at me real seriously, and said, Can you get more permits for scotland....LOL

 

[dangerdave]

Now that's funny right there! But you better hide your wine while she's cleaning!

 

[Terri]

Hi Dave,
We are on our first batch of DB. We completed step 4 added the sparkaloid 10 days ago, racked again 3 days ago. It is still quite cloudy. Is there anything else we should be doing to get it to clear or do we just need to be patient?

 

[dangerdave]

Terri, there are several reasons why wines do not clear. The most common reason is pectin haze, resolved by adding pectic enzyme. Even if you added it in the primary fermenter, another dose won't affect the wine at all. Excess gas (CO2) can also prevent clearing. If the wine is not degassed completely, it will not clear quickly. Check it for gas and degas again if necessary.

Also, sometimes certain batches will just take longer to clear. I've had batches clear in a few days, and others that too weeks. Who knows why! If all else fails (and you don't want to add anything else), it will clear over time all on it's own. You could just let it sit.

Good luck!

 

[jamesngalveston]

If not clear in a week I would add degass again, and add some pectin, if it still isnt clear, I would just let it sit...are add some super kleer....

 

[barbl72]

OMG Barb! I love it! Looks so good! Te colour is awesome and the labels are fab! Yours appears lighter in colour than my ruby red stuff do you use the triple berry blend? Congrats!

Yes - used the triple berry - the color is darker in real life!

 

[Terri]

Terri, there are several reasons why wines do not clear. The most common reason is pectin haze, resolved by adding pectic enzyme. Even if you added it in the primary fermenter, another dose won't affect the wine at all. Excess gas (CO2) can also prevent clearing. If the wine is not degassed completely, it will not clear quickly. Check it for gas and degas again if necessary.

Also, sometimes certain batches will just take longer to clear. I've had batches clear in a few days, and others that too weeks. Who knows why! If all else fails (and you don't want to add anything else), it will clear over time all on it's own. You could just let it sit.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info Dave. My husband Mark added another dose of pectin enzyme last night. Another thought that Mark had was he thinks he might have done the sparkalloid wrong. He added it to boiling water and stirred it and waited 15 minutes. He realized last night that he should have simmered it for the 15 minutes, do you think this may be the cause? If so, with time will it still clear?

 

[PAFruitWines]

Here is my first batch of Triple Berry DB. It is much clearer than it looks in this pic. There was a 4th gal but I'm not sure what happened to it ;-). I used 1 lb of fruit per gallon and 1/4 cup sugar per gallon to back sweeten and I'm happy with the results.

I want to start a 5 gal batch next week using real lime, 6 lb frozen strawberries and 4 lb fresh mangos. Any idea how much flavor these fruits will contribute compared to the berries?
Thanks!


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[jamesngalveston]

I have made a strawberry/mango and it was very good....
if you want to make a good batch..I would use 12 lbs of strawberrys, and at least 12 of mango...both are light on flavor just making a normal one fruit batch.
Mango is real light..
I did a 6 gallon batch with 50 lbs of mangos, and it still did not have the flavor i wanted..ended up using mango juice to get some flavor.
and with a mango/strawberry you will have a ton of lees.
a 5 gallon batch, will end up at about 4 are less.
The mango virtually will be all lees..

 

[PAFruitWines]

I have to rethink this. Not sure I want to lose that much wine and not get much flavor. Might just eat mangos 4 a few days. I have a week to decide.




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[jamesngalveston]

dont get me wrong, the mango wine was good...but i think this year, i will look for a mango puree, are mango juice...should not be as much lees that way.
mango,peach,pineapple...all throw out tons of lees, and it takes huge amounts of fruit to get the flavor.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Just thought I would update on my last batch of DB. I used 8 lbs of blackberries and 12 cans of Welches grape juice concentrate. It came out good...but not much of the blackberry flavor. So I put 3 lbs of blackberries in a 3 gallon car boy and filled it up and it has been sitting for 5 weeks. I just back sweetened the remainder and bottled it. So my patience finally evaporated and we tasted it....it is my best wine so far. I am going to try and duplicate it. Thanks, Dave, for your DB forum!

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Hey all, I just had a quick question about this recipe.

I've been putting little amounts of fruit into a container in my freezer for a while now and have enough put aside to make a slightly bastardized version of Daves Dragons Blood.

My question is this, do i have to nuke the must with campden for the initial 24hrs? or will this kill the pectic enzyme? maybe I should campden nuke the water 24hrs before making the must?

This will only be my 3rd fermentation and only my second wine. I'm assuming (I know the dangers of this lol) that a campden cleanse is necessary because it had to be done for the pee/ade recipe thats in secondary now.

Looking foward to your responses as I'm waiting on some clarification before I can start a batch. Thanks to all in advance!

 

[JetJockey]

Hey all, I just had a quick question about this recipe.

I've been putting little amounts of fruit into a container in my freezer for a while now and have enough put aside to make a slightly bastardized version of Daves Dragons Blood.

My question is this, do i have to nuke the must with campden for the initial 24hrs? or will this kill the pectic enzyme? maybe I should campden nuke the water 24hrs before making the must?

This will only be my 3rd fermentation and only my second wine. I'm assuming (I know the dangers of this lol) that a campden cleanse is necessary because it had to be done for the pee/ade recipe thats in secondary now.

Looking foward to your responses as I'm waiting on some clarification before I can start a batch. Thanks to all in advance!

Smokey,
I used 9 3/4# of fresh fruit instead of store bought frozen fruit. The fruit was frozen (helps to brake down fruit and cell walls). I thawed the fruit and then added a 1/4 tsp of kmeta to the fruit/juice mix, stirred up, and let stand 24 hours. This will kill the natural yeasties! I then poured the fruit/juice mix into a nylon straining bag with the juice pouring through into my primary. I then tied the bag of fruit and set it aside to continue with making the must according to DangerDave's recipe.

I noticed the word "nuke" and I assumed that you meant to kill the natural yeast on the fresh fruit. Maybe you meant thaw in the microwave? If so, thawing in the microwave also helps break down the fruit, so it's OK to microwave and use kmeta to kill the yeast.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Smokey,
I used 9 3/4# of fresh fruit instead of store bought frozen fruit. The fruit was frozen (helps to brake down fruit and cell walls). I thawed the fruit and then added a 1/4 tsp of kmeta to the fruit/juice mix, stirred up, and let stand 24 hours. This will kill the natural yeasties! I then poured the fruit/juice mix into a nylon straining bag with the juice pouring through into my primary. I then tied the bag of fruit and set it aside to continue with making the must according to DangerDave's recipe.

I noticed the word "nuke" and I assumed that you meant to kill the natural yeast on the fresh fruit. Maybe you meant thaw in the microwave? If so, thawing in the microwave also helps break down the fruit, so it's OK to microwave and use kmeta to kill the yeast.

Thanks for the quick reply brother.

By using the term "nuke", I meant to murder all the natural yeasts and bacteria on the fresh (frozen then thawed) fruit. I will also need campden to remove stabilized chlorine from my water so I may just add the fruit (in a bag) to the water (mixed with some frozen juice concentrate) and add the campden to the works. I've read other recipes that call for the pectic enzyme addition 12 hours after the campden, then the yeast 12 hours after the pectic enzyme (24 hours after the campden).

Sound like it should work?

 

[JetJockey]

I added both the kmeta and the pectin enzyme to a small primary. Then I added the thawed fruit/juice (in straining bag) , then waited a day. This allowed the pectin enzyme to start working on the fruit and the kmeta to kill the natural yeasties. I then removed the fruit bag and made the must according to directions. I didn't have a day between the kmeta and pectin enzyme. I don't think that adding an extra day between the kmeta and pectin enzyme will hurt anything. Patience is a virtue in wine making - something I'm trying to improve on myself!

I have spring water, so I don't know about how to get rid of the chlorine. I have also purchased 5 gallons of spring water at Wal-Mart to make my must. Neither had chlorine.

Good luck!

 

[Rosa321]

Well.......hopefully all is well!
Degassing was a PAIN! lol
But the SG was 0.990 for three days so I degassed and degassed and degassed some more...........for hours..........
And then transferred. Once I added the clearing stuff, it was like magic! It really started clearing right in front of me.

It's my first batch....I"m following the recipe to a T (or at least trying to!)
Hopefully all will be well and in a week or so I can transfer and bottle.....

 

[JetJockey]

Rosa,
How well does that KitchenAid degas for you ? It looks good!