DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[ckvchestnut]

Hi Rosa, in my own experience I have not had any issues with fruit flavor at that abv level. Some others might have different experiences to share.

 

[bkisel]

Just back from a shopping trip with my wife at Costco's. Went to check out what they had for frozen berry blends. WOW, was I impressed. The had mixed berry blends and fruit blends in 3, 4 and 6 pound bags. There was one six-blend that included, I believe, cherries and cranberries.There were frozen bags of by themselves blueberry, strawberry, pineapple chunks and a few others I can't remember. Some of the stuff was marked as being organically grown which seemed important to my wife. Very impressive variety of potential stuff for making DB variations. All seemed to me seasonably priced.

Also, checked the price on sugar... If I'm not mistaken a 5 pound bag at Costco was about two dollars less than 5 pounds at Super Stop and Shop.

Spending the time I did in the food section with my wife started to make me feel faint. Thankfully I was able to make my way to the other side of the store to bring myself back to normal by smelling the tires.

Food and clothing shopping is definitely not my thing.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Just reading some posts about alcohol by volume and fruit wines...........
I had an old DB recipe (somehow I found an old one....don't ask me HOW!) and it said to get closer to 1.085 - 1.090
to start. So I did!
And now my jet blue will have an abv around 13.4%. Is that high for a fruit wine?
Should I try adding an f-pack/extract to lower the alcohol level?
I don't mind waiting for it to age, but I'd really like the fruit flavor to come through........

I would wait and see. My 2 cents on the blueberry is that it may take a touch longer than other DB's. I recently started a straight blueberry on 3/2 starting at 1.084. This took longer to ferment dry than any of the other DB's I've made, but it did get to 0.992 and when I tasted it I didn't have quite the blueberry flavor, so I am going to just let it sit for a while. A quad berry I made is 13.3%, I did have to back sweeten a little, but I still taste all the berries!

 

[ckvchestnut]

Just back from a shopping trip with my wife at Costco's. Went to check out what they had for frozen berry blends. WOW, was I impressed. The had mixed berry blends and fruit blends in 3, 4 and 6 pound bags. There was one six-blend that included, I believe, cherries and cranberries.There were frozen bags of by themselves blueberry, strawberry, pineapple chunks and a few others I can't remember. Some of the stuff was marked as being organically grown which seemed important to my wife. Very impressive variety of potential stuff for making DB variations. All seemed to me seasonably priced.

Also, checked the price on sugar... If I'm not mistaken a 5 pound bag at Costco was about two dollars less than 5 pounds at Super Stop and Shop.

Spending the time I did in the food section with my wife started to make me feel faint. Thankfully I was able to make my way to the other side of the store to bring myself back to normal by smelling the tires.

Food and clothing shopping is definitely not my thing.

Haha, shopping not your thing huh? Lol Did you see straight blackberries? I'll be making my way over there on Monday or Tuesday it's an hour's drive for me. My husband told me though that he just picked up a 20Kg bag of sugar for $14 that's cdn though. But that's good here I think. Walmart charges $2.49/2Kgs unless it goes on sale.

 

[jojabri]

I don't have a Costco or Sam's membership. We do Have a GFS (Gordon Food Service) close which doesn't require a membership. They have sugar 25LB for $11.99 USD and frozen quad-berry blend 5LB for $14.49. I think both are very reasonable prices. This explains why I make so quadberry DB.

Meijers once again has strawberries $1/LB. I am SOOOOOO Tempted!

 

[jamesngalveston]

i agree with the wisdom of the white weasel....13.5 abv does not take away any of the fruit flavor in my wine...Maybe its just a tastebud thing.
Not for refrence.
Not advising.
Just saying.I make my wine two ways....either a high abv like 14 percent.
I also like to start out at 1.130 and use a yeast that lets me finish the wine with out adding sugar are flavor pack at the end.
I prefer the latter....no sorbate then....

 

[ckvchestnut]

Good price for strawberries! If you have enough freezer space you could buy them and freeze til you're ready to start a batch!

 

[ckvchestnut]

I somehow feel a sense of relief!!

 

[jamesngalveston]

That is so weird...how come they just dont sale it in 50 lbs...lol
i hate metric,,,even though it is more accurate, 1/3 of the uss cant even do simple math, god knows what would happen if we went metric.

1 out of three can not read a tape measure in 16ths.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Ahhhh... But there's an app for that! Here's a screenshot of a good conversion tool I have - here I plugged in 20kgs

 

[ckvchestnut]

So I got just over 44lbs of sugar for $14.55

 

[bkisel]

That is so weird...how come they just dont sale it in 50 lbs...lol
i hate metric,,,even though it is more accurate, 1/3 of the uss cant even do simple math, god knows what would happen if we went metric.

1 out of three can not read a tape measure in 16ths.

Getting into this wine making hobby is helping me get a feel for metric volume measurements. You know, 750ML and 1.5L bottles, a 23L batch and such.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Honestly I just wish that gallons were an even 4 liters!!

 

[jojabri]

So I got just over 44lbs of sugar for $14.55

Excellent deal! I'm jealous!

 

[sour_grapes]

i hate metric,,,even though it is more accurate, 1/3 of the uss cant even do simple math, god knows what would happen if we went metric.

But that is the POINT of metric -- you only have to do very simple math!

1 out of three can not read a tape measure in 16ths.

Hmm, 1 out of 3 cannot read tape measure you say? Isn't that close to 21/64?

 

[Rosa321]

lol good discussion! As a science teacher, these are the conversations I have with students all the time! haha

Quick question.... Tonight I racked, degassed, and stabilized my jet blue. When I added the second packet of the'super kleer'....... I dissolved it in warm water, and added it like it said. Only last time it all fell to the bottom right away. This time, I have lots of spongy floaters! This is only my second DB ever, and my first Jet Blue. Is something wrong, is this normal? Will the crud fall to the bottom?

 

[barbl72]

Hubby drinks bourbon not wine. Do you think I could use his big bourbon bottles with screw on lids to store the DB? I drink it fast enough... thoughts anyone?

 

[China-Clipper]

First batch bottled!

Well, bottled my first batch of DB last week. Made some labels tonight and opened a bottle. Not bad at all! My wife loves it; I back-sweetened with 3/4 cup of sugar/gallon like Dave does. I'm already going out to get more berries for the next batch. My wife and I like the Moon, and have several weathervanes and decorations around our yard so we made up the whole La Luna Winery thing; I'm trying to make my wines include the word "moon" somewhere in the name. But....it's still Dragon Blood!

 

[jamesngalveston]

very nice china clipper...true db color for sure.

 

[Fordguy]

Hubby drinks bourbon not wine. Do you think I could use his big bourbon bottles with screw on lids to store the DB? I drink it fast enough... thoughts anyone?

I think you would be fine with that. I bottle mine in mason jars and have never had an issue. But we go through it pretty fast as well.
If you want to store some back for a good while you may want to bottle it in wine bottles.

Others are much more knowledgable than I am, but that is my 2 cents.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making