DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[wildvines]

More trials.


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[dangerdave]

Ok, back in the Lab with 30+ gallons of Chilean juice. Check the Danger's Lab thread to see how I'm handling them, if you like.

I see a lot of questions have been asked while I was out. I'm not sure which ones were fielded and which still need answering, so hit me with any questions again, if you please. I'll do my best to catch up. I want everyone to make DB they like. There arwe alot of variations to choose from!

 

[bkisel]

Started a RJS WS Australia Cabernet Sauvigon yesterday but up next is another 6 gallons of DB. Costco had 4 pound bags of mixed "organic" berries with, I think it was, 6 varieties of berries. I seem also remember seeing bags of mixed tropical/passion fruit chunks. Do you think that combining the two and otherwise following the DB recipe is a good idea? Again, my wife and I are very pleased with how our first batch of DB turned out... so stick with the original or throw caution to the wind and go for a Passion Berry wine?

Thanx...

 

[dangerdave]

Are you kidding? Go for it, Bill! You might be missing out on your new favorate!

Is that Passion Berry, or Berry Passion?

 

[bkisel]

Are you kidding? Go for it, Bill! You might be missing out on your new favorate!

Is that Passion Berry, or Berry Passion?

LOL

I was thinking if I just go with 2 bags of the 6 berry variety I could name the wine "Very Berry".

 

[keahunter]

I racked down and sweetened this weekend. I had a little unsweetened left in the gallon car boy so I chilled and added Splenda, it tasted really good. Has anyone ever back sweetened a whole batch with Splenda ?

 

[datcv]

I'm doing a raspberry passion right now. I just used a cup of fresh passion fruit juice in 1 gallon. It's in secondary now but I recently tasted and I think it's going to be pretty good!


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[bkisel]

I'm doing a raspberry passion right now. I just used a cup of fresh passion fruit juice in 1 gallon. It's in secondary now but I recently tasted and I think it's going to be pretty good!


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Sounds encouraging. Before my batch of DB I had only done kits and none of them - excuxe me - none of them that I tasted was anyting to write home about (or even post here

) until they both batch and bottled aged some. Coming out of secondary my DB also tasted good. The frugal in me just loves that I can now make a good tasting enjoyable to drink wine for ~$1.30-$1.50 a bottle (not counting glass, cork, shrink cap or label).

 

[dangerdave]

The frugal in me just loves that I can now make a good tasting enjoyable to drink wine for ~$1.30-$1.50 a bottle (not counting glass, cork, shrink cap or label).

Me, too, Bill. My goal was to make an inexpensive wine that was good enough to fulfill a wino's need while the good stuff aged. It also turned out to be cheap enough for bold experimentation and numerous variations, because if you messed it up there's not much money lost.

Now, there's people making it all over the world. Who'da thought?

 

[tshank]

Dave, your a genius! My first batch of DB came out perfect! I just racked your easy peesy lemon wine from primary and am thinking about flavoring options. Thanks for sharing these recipes!


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[Julie]

I racked down and sweetened this weekend. I had a little unsweetened left in the gallon car boy so I chilled and added Splenda, it tasted really good. Has anyone ever back sweetened a whole batch with Splenda ?

I believe there have been some who have used Splenda but wasn't happy with it. Not sure but I do know there are a lot who will sweeten with Slplenda when they open the bottle.

 

[dangerdave]

Excellent, tshank! I'm glad to hear it. Making smiling faces in Florida, huh?

As always, let's give a shout-out to Lon DePope and his original Skeeter Pee Recipe, the inspiration for all of this.

Thanks, Lon! Wish you'd come visit us more often.

 

[Elmer]

Blueberry + lemon juice + raspberry (not the issue) + 63 degree = SG from 1.080 to 1.040 in 10 days!!!!

This is going to be a low, slow ferment!


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[ShawnDTurner]

Elmer .... with this cool slow ferment you should get a more fruit forward wine. Cheers

 

[Lornahdune]

Ok, back in the Lab with 30+ gallons of Chilean juice. Check the Danger's Lab thread to see how I'm handling them, if you like.

I see a lot of questions have been asked while I was out. I'm not sure which ones were fielded and which still need answering, so hit me with any questions again, if you please. I'll do my best to catch up. I want everyone to make DB they like. There arwe alot of variations to choose from!

Yes Dave, I asked this whe you were off the forum, and no one replied so I'll try again:
Now, the REAL question here. Just what is it, that makes Dragon's Blood and Skeeter Pee process so quickly? As I think of playing around with the recipe, I wonder what part of the process or ingredient is causing the must to ferment so fast, and make very drinkable wine in such a short time as opposed to a grape, mead or other fruit wine? Does anyone know this? Dave way back (I read in a thread somewhere) you said it was science....can you clarify?
-lauren
************

 

[dangerdave]

I have speculated on this before. While I am certainly more of an artist than a scientist when it comes to wine making, the science of it all still fascinated me.

Ask yourself what the differnce is between DB and other fruit wines. Most fruit wine recipes call for fruit, perhaps some water and/or sugar, nutrient, energizer, tannin maybe, and yeast...and some form of acid, if required for balance. And I think that is the kicker here. I think it has to do with the citric acid as opposed to tartaric or malic acid. Of course, the powerhouse yeast (EC-1118) can't hurt.

 

[JDesCotes]

I made my first dragons blood about two months ago using:

1 large pinapple
1 large honey dew
6 cup mango
3 over ripe bananas

With the original recipe I added 2 tsp pectic enzyme.

I have racked this wine about 4 times and now nothing is settling and it has been 3 weeks since the last racking. My issue is that the wine still isn't as clear as my batches of Skeeterpee turn out.

Here is a picture of it with my drill placed behind so you can see the clarity.



And here is one straight on



What can I do to get this wine to clear?

I used sparkolloid for clearing originally just as I do with my Skeeterpee.

Should I add more pectic enzyme or maybe dose again with sparkolloid?

 

[cheesehead]

Started a RJS WS Australia Cabernet Sauvigon yesterday but up next is another 6 gallons of DB. Costco had 4 pound bags of mixed "organic" berries with, I think it was, 6 varieties of berries. I seem also remember seeing bags of mixed tropical/passion fruit chunks. Do you think that combining the two and otherwise following the DB recipe is a good idea? Again, my wife and I are very pleased with how our first batch of DB turned out... so stick with the original or throw caution to the wind and go for a Passion Berry wine?

Thanx...

you should go for it!!! i just transferred 7 gals of a pineapple-mango-peach-strawberry using a mixed variation of daves DB and pumpkinmans recipes- however, i doubled the fruit to 12 lbs and added an extra 2 1/2 lbs of strawberries and for the base i over did it with 109 oz of pineapple juice , 1/3 gal of O.J. and 24 oz of real lemon juice --OMG my house smells great!!!! and its already clearing nicely on day8

 

[Julie]

I made my first dragons blood about two months ago using:

1 large pinapple
1 large honey dew
6 cup mango
3 over ripe bananas

With the original recipe I added 2 tsp pectic enzyme.

I have racked this wine about 4 times and now nothing is settling and it has been 3 weeks since the last racking. My issue is that the wine still isn't as clear as my batches of Skeeterpee turn out.

Here is a picture of it with my drill placed behind so you can see the clarity.

View attachment 14878

And here is one straight on

View attachment 14879

What can I do to get this wine to clear?

I used sparkolloid for clearing originally just as I do with my Skeeterpee.

Should I add more pectic enzyme or maybe dose again with sparkolloid?

I would add the pectic enzyme first.

 

[JDesCotes]

I would add the pectic enzyme first.

How much pectic enzyme?