DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[dangerdave]

How many kg's/lbs of blueberries do you have in your batch Dave? I added some strawberries also just because I had them ;-)

I have a blueberry farm right down the road from me, but have yet to buy blueberries from them. They charge too much for fresh. I get frozen blueberries from Walmart (3lbs bag or 1.3kg) for around $10.

I have made the blueberry version several times. It gets very smooth after about six month in the bottle. This time, I wanted to really amp up the blueberry flavor, so I used the standard 6lbs in the primary, but after it had cleared, I added another three pounds of berries to the carboy---along with some oak powder. It has been soaking there for a month, and has gotten much darker, and a whole lot fruitier. I'm about to rack it off the fruit and give it another sit before bottling next month. It should be a really good one for the coming spring.

After nearly running out last Spring, I have decided to produce DB on a six month advanced schedule. [Don't tell the folks in rehab!] So, I've got several versions going for next Spring already. There's the blueberry I mentioned, plus a tropical, a raspberry, a concord grape, and getting ready to start another 18 gallons of original. And i need to fit in some time and money to make that Dragon Port I'm dreaming of....

...and a few kits. I just need more money than I've got!

 

[iVivid]

Ooooooh, that sounds awesome... (thinking of adding some to secondary fermenter now).
At least your blueberries are a little cheaper too. 3kg cost me $42 but I'll get 30 bottles so all good!
I've also added a bottle of Barkers unsweetened blackcurrant juice to every batch of this so far.
(This is a 750ml bottle of pure squeezed blackcurrant juice - no additives or sugar).
I have some nice oak lying around waiting to be useful also! MMMMMmmmmm.
I'm making as much of this as budget allows as possible; so that I will not have to buy wine all winter, and trying to build up a big stash so that it will get aged more and more (my brother will come for Christmas and demolish most of it for sure!

I'm on batch 5 of your DB; unfortunately (not sure how) batch 1 is all gone apart from 2 bottles (ageing).
Batch 2 stuffed up and had the sediment from the ribs on the carboy interfere with bottling.
So I've uncorked them all and threw it into batch 3 and 4 as top ups and they're happily sitting.
And batch 5 blueberry is in primary. Lovin it!

Six other wines on the go also; so been pretty damn busy! Yeah!

 

[michael-s]

Thanks for this recipe dangerdave.
Just to let you know I printed out your recipe instructions for future use, hopefully in the very near future. I started with wine kits to enable me to become familiar with the wine making process and I definitely do, like everyone else here, want to make wine from scratch.

Thanks again.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Dave the blueberry sounds amazing....I wish I could get fresh here in Texas.
I do am making some original, (Now) for next summer. I am not running out of the original next year....
I give alot of it away....actually most of it.
But i do keep back my private reserve for my rehab buddies..lol
I was making a db peach port, but missed my time of adding the brandy.
Got to busy and wasnt watching my critical sugar level,and missed it.
So i cleared and bottled as just a peach db.
Starting another peach port sunday.

 

[reefman]

James, did you post your recipe for the peach dragon blood, or do you just substitute frozen peaches for the triple berry blend?
Thanks,

 

[dangerdave]

Likes for everyone! You are a great group of wine makers! Dragon Blood junkies, all!

 

[fabrictodyefor]

I'm such a newbie....I've only made one batch so far...used the quad berries as that is what my grocery store had! Going to town today to get more berries....the only thing I can't figure out....why did I bottle all that wine? Should have just bottled a few to try and hide so they could age for more than a week or two and put the rest in gallon jugs with screw tops! Thanks for the recipes and suggestions dangerdave.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Its hard to hide it away....I like mine chilled...not enough room in my fridge for my dragon blood and food....Food most go.

 

[Winenoob66]

Its hard to hide it away....I like mine chilled...not enough room in my fridge for my dragon blood and food....Food most go.

Dragon's Blood contains fruit, so you are just changing what kind of food is in your fridge

Also has anyone got the recipe up for the DB Peach port up?

 

[fabrictodyefor]

lori, it was made from welches white grape peach frozen concentrate.

So how much did you use, jamesngalveston? I plan on making a concord grape/blackberry. I do like the idea of more fruit.... So I got frozen concord grape concentrate and frozen blackberries....was planning on a 50/50, but I would LOVE your input, how many cans and how many pounds of blackberries? I went to Wal Mart today and they had five 1 pound bags of blackberries, so how many cans of concentrate would you add to that? THANK YOU for your help

 

[jamesngalveston]

If you use 5 lbs of fresh frozen berries i would use 8 cans of concentrate for a 3 gallon batch.
that should give u a good blend of both flavors.
one should not over power the other...
you should get a taste of concord with a finish of blackberry...should be good.

 

[boozehound]

James. I gots 8lbs of frozen raspberrys. Wud u recommend a straight batch of that or blend with something else?

 

[Fordguy]

I am not James but I've made several batches of this with different fruits, lime juice and lemon juice.
I would think you could go with that, see how it turns out and tweek it to your liking.
Just my opinion...

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Thanks, james, we do have a local mini store, so I'll hope they have grape concentrate! I only got 6 cans....one of my favorite wines is a wine from Talon Winery in Grand Junction, CO, they say it is 50% concord grape and 50%blackberry, that is why I wanted to try making it, gets a little pricy to have it shipped up here! Maybe I'll get to start it tomorrow! I do plan on adding the lemon juice????????

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Well, since I was kind of following the Dragon's Blood recipe, bought more stuff....combined 8 lbs frozen blackberries, 12 cans frozen concentrate grape juice, 48 oz lemon juice...added the 3 tsp pectin enzyme and will add sugar and pitch the yeast tomorrow!

 

[fabrictodyefor]

So took an initial sg reading, before the sugar and it was 1.064, made a simple syrup of 2 lbs sugar and 2 cups water, added only 1 1/2 cups of the syrup and the sg is at 1.078....haven't pitched the yeast yet.. Is this high enough? Or should I add a touch more of my syrup? I feel as though I have strayed quite a bit from the original recipe, but I learned the hard way not to add too much sugar!

 

[jamesngalveston]

First off, you dont have to make a simple syrup when your in the primary , I use just white sugar..
you should have an sg of 1.095 are close.....

 

[SoCalGuy]

What tannin do you suggest for DB recipe?

 

[SoCalGuy]

What tannin do you suggest for DB recipe?

Also type of yeast.

 

[jamesngalveston]

what ever you have on hand, i used pasteur red yeast, and just an wine tannin....