DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[ou8amaus]

Based on recommendations from this forum i boiled down about a pound of fruit and then strained until i ended up with about a cup of concentrate. That along with a little extra sugar REALLY boosted the final flavor. I have a blueberry db in the works and plan on back sweetening with a blueberry concentrate they sell at ikea. Boosting the fruit while sweetening has produced great results...

 

[datcv]

My second batch of DB-ish wine is nearly done (3 gal). This is the "trash can" wine where I emptied all of the frozen fruit from my freezer (including apple cores, many berries, mangos, pineapple...).

I think my next batch will be a pure raspberry. I wish I could find frozen black raspberries!


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[bkisel]

Bentonite? I don't see Bentonite as part of the DB recipe. Did a search and on WMT read a whole lot about Bentonite but did not read anything that makes it clear to me whether using Bentonite (in the primary as I've done with all my kits) would be a good or a bad thing for making DB. Any opinions?

Thanx...

 

[ckvchestnut]

Bentonite is not in the recipe and not needed. You can clear with super Kleer (kieselsol & chitosan) or sparkolloid as specified. After fermenting is done.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Not sure you couldnt, most clear db at the end with sparkoloid are super kleer.
its your wine..do what you think is good for you.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Based on recommendations from this forum i boiled down about a pound of fruit and then strained until i ended up with about a cup of concentrate. That along with a little extra sugar REALLY boosted the final flavor. I have a blueberry db in the works and plan on back sweetening with a blueberry concentrate they sell at ikea. Boosting the fruit while sweetening has produced great results...

They sell blueberry concentrate at ikea? Cool! How much? Why don't you just make your own again with blueberries? That's what I was going to do for my blueberry peach port

 

[jamesngalveston]

Carolyn, bentonite really helps in clearing if used and mixed correctly.
some add at beginning of ferment, some after it starts fermenting.
but it does help.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Ya I know... But it's still not in the recipe and no one does both do they? It do they use bentonite before fermenting and then another fining agent after? I know people do this with kits and other wines but hadn't heard of ppl doing this with DB?

 

[JetJockey]

Dave did a study on using bentonite in the original thread. The results were that it was not needed in the primary, if I recall. You can search for his test.

 

[oreoman]

When did you add the fruit concentrate ? Can I add right before filtering-- or does it need to settle?


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[ckvchestnut]

Wow I read that whole thread and must have missed that. It's a lot of reading lol

 

[jamesngalveston]

jet jockey your correct....it is not needed at all, but .........
i have done both...bentonite in primary, and superkleer at end of ferment.
cleared faster then without, but i had a lot more lees left in primary.
which was fine for me..

 

[PoppaCork]

MAD MANGO fermenting.
Day 3. Listen to the bubbling...
Used 30 lbs. of frozen mango chunks to make 6 - gallons wine.
No lemon juice, using acid blend.
Day 1 the starting SG was 1.1, on Day 3 it is 1.086
EC-1118 yeast.
The smell is outstanding!
Only wish I had more mangos to start with(expensive around here)... if I need to back sweeten with a concentrate, then that's what I'll do.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUpmfcbilXk[/ame]

 

[jamesngalveston]

do you have 6 gallons of water in that must.

 

[PoppaCork]

do you have 6 gallons of water in that must.

Yes I do. 890

 

[ou8amaus]

They sell blueberry concentrate at ikea? Cool! How much? Why don't you just make your own again with blueberries? That's what I was going to do for my blueberry peach port

They sell a 500ml blueberry drink concentrate for about 4$. Contains 50% concentrated blueberry juice, sugar, water, and citric acid. I would make my own but i had the bottle lying around anyways... (Swedish mom so invariably i have way too much ikea stuff in the house...)

 

[ckvchestnut]

That's funny! Ya if I had it laying around I would have used it too. I looked around for bb concentrate online and it's far to expensive for my tastes. I'd rather pay $10 at Walmart for a 1.75kg bag of fruit.

 

[jamesngalveston]

you are so frugal...lol.
i love picking on you...lol

 

[ckvchestnut]

Haha! That's probably why I started making my own wine... I am frugal but NOTHING compared to my husband. I LOVE expensive wines but NOT the price. Then I figured out pretty quickly that I could make better wines at home than most cheap, yucky wines from the store. That coupled with being a creative type made me go down the winemaking route. FUN! You can pick on me all you want! I grew up in a teasy type family. I'm used to it lol

 

[jamesngalveston]

i know what you mean..ive been collecting fine port wines for many years..
and thought that it had to have been made some magical people.
I doubt i will be buying any more.