DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[dangerdave]

My tastes slide with the sweetness of any given wine. I like my sweet wines chilled and my dry wines RT (room temp).

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

We have been drinking all the DB varieties chilled but I am going to leave a couple gallons of my elderberry batch dry and am hoping those will be good at room temperature. I generally agree with the sweet/chilled, dry/RT preferences but I have been drinking my sweet(er) meads at room temperature and really enjoying them that way.

 

[maurtis]

Labeled and shrink capped my blueberry DB last night. I went with backsweetening to 1.010. I think it tastes great, but not too different from the regular triple berry DB. Darker, though. It will be interesting to see if more of the blueberry flavor comes through over time. I am sure my wine drinker friends will still want it drier, so I will try 1.005 next time. But still so pleased with the DB recipe and being such a quick drinker!

I used 10 pounds of blueberries and added some oak to the secondary. I think next time I will oak in the fermenter.

Since all of my wines are pony themed, this one was "Daring Do and the Tart Berry Blue"... duhn duhn duunnnnnn

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Labeled and shrink capped my blueberry DB last night. I went with backsweetening to 1.010. I think it tastes great, but not too different from the regular triple berry DB. Darker, though. It will be interesting to see if more of the blueberry flavor comes through over time. I am sure my wine drinker friends will still want it drier, so I will try 1.005 next time. But still so pleased with the DB recipe and being such a quick drinker!

I used 10 pounds of blueberries and added some oak to the secondary. I think next time I will oak in the fermenter.

Since all of my wines are pony themed, this one was "Daring Do and the Tart Berry Blue"... duhn duhn duunnnnnn

My blueberry version has definitely gotten better after even a few weeks in the bottle. The color wasn't really darker with mine, just different than the striking red of the triple berry. I did leave some bottles in the 1.005 range when I made it and my red wine purist friends are enjoying my efforts...lol.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Posting an update on the tropical and berry versions that I added a couple pounds of plums to. These batches do not want to clear! I thought the berry one was clear so I bottled it and now I am finding a bit of sediment The tropical I could tell was still a bit hazy so I have left it in the carboy but it doesn't seem to be making much progress. Both are very tasty but I don't know if this fruit added enough character to the wine to make it worth the extra time it is taking to clear.

 

[willie]

Posting an update on the tropical and berry versions that I added a couple pounds of plums to. These batches do not want to clear! I thought the berry one was clear so I bottled it and now I am finding a bit of sediment The tropical I could tell was still a bit hazy so I have left it in the carboy but it doesn't seem to be making much progress. Both are very tasty but I don't know if this fruit added enough character to the wine to make it worth the extra time it is taking to clear.

Have never used plums in my wine's yet. Sounds like the sediment from them is taking longer than normal to drop. I have had sediment problems with some batches and not sure what cause's it exactly although I'm working on figuring it out. A couple of the batches I did not filter, also I use Organic Cane Sugar which is a light brown in color and you can see some dark specs in it. We buy this at the Amish store near us. These two things maybe the problem. What I have been doing with the last four batches is letting them bulk age longer to get that sediment to drop before we bottle.

Will

 

[RotGut76]

Dangerdave, forgive me if you have already posted this. I was looking at your original recipe on page 1 of this thread. I have been following this thread for a while and remember you saying that you have revised the recipe with the addition of oak chips/powder or tannins.

Unless I missed it the original doesn't have that in there. Can you elaborate one more time?:>

 

[bkisel]

Over the course of last night and the one before my wife and I enjoyed a bottle of our recently finished Dragon PEAch [

] variation. Happy to report that the flavour is growing on us but I'd still add more peach (go from 14 to 20 lbs.) and cut back on maybe half of the lemon juice. I will be making it again next year.

 

[agsimon]

I made a plum wine a few months ago, and it FINALLY cleared enough to bottle last week. I usually use Sparkolloid and have everything cleared withing 1-2 weeks, but this one refused. I then tried cold crashing in the fridge for 2 weeks and that didn't do much. I then waited another 2 weeks before I added some Super-Kleer and just let it sit in the basement and tried to forget about it. Another 2.5 months later it was finally clearing...maybe it's just a plum thing, but I also had a hard time getting it to clear too.

 

[maurtis]

I wonder if amalayse enzyme (or Beano) would help here? It is used to help clear starch haze from beer and I used it in my Skittle wine. Apparently without it the Skittle wine takes a long time to clear as well. I used 3 crushed Beano tablets for 5 gallons.

 

[beano]

I wonder if amalayse enzyme (or Beano) would help here? It is used to help clear starch haze from beer and I used it in my Skittle wine. Apparently without it the Skittle wine takes a long time to clear as well. I used 3 crushed Beano tablets for 5 gallons.

Huuu.....

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Beano Joe

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I made a plum wine a few months ago, and it FINALLY cleared enough to bottle last week. I usually use Sparkolloid and have everything cleared withing 1-2 weeks, but this one refused. I then tried cold crashing in the fridge for 2 weeks and that didn't do much. I then waited another 2 weeks before I added some Super-Kleer and just let it sit in the basement and tried to forget about it. Another 2.5 months later it was finally clearing...maybe it's just a plum thing, but I also had a hard time getting it to clear too.

Thanks for sharing your experience with using plums. I dosed it with SuperKleer a couple weeks back and it helped but didn't get it crystal clear. I have a good 10-12 pounds of plums still in the freezer and want to get them used up...looks like I will have to plan on my carboy being tied up for a few months when I do finally make something with them.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I wonder if amalayse enzyme (or Beano) would help here? It is used to help clear starch haze from beer and I used it in my Skittle wine. Apparently without it the Skittle wine takes a long time to clear as well. I used 3 crushed Beano tablets for 5 gallons.

I don't suppose it would hurt anything to give it a try, would it? I think I have some Beano in the cupboard...

 

[ou8amaus]

Finally bottled a dragonette version which I back sweetened with strawberry margarita concentrate... a hybrid similar to Dave's WMT winning recipe... wow does it ever pack a lot of flavour! Best version yet in my lowly opinion. Thanks again Dave!

 

[beano]

Finally bottled a dragonette version which I back sweetened with strawberry margarita concentrate... a hybrid similar to Dave's WMT winning recipe... wow does it ever pack a lot of flavour! Best version yet in my lowly opinion. Thanks again Dave!

Is this the kind that is frozen in the can? What was the rate per gallon that you used. I'm sure tastes vary. I would like to try this.

Beano Joe

 

[MrsJones]

Day two of my first dragon blood - smells delish!

 

[bkisel]

Looks like you're off to a good start MrsJones.

Thanks for the pic.

 

[willie]

Day two of my first dragon blood - smells delish!

View attachment 18509

Mrs. Jones your going to love this wine. Get ready to make another batch when this one is done. It goes mighty fast. And you will need more than one 6gal. carboy. At least I did. And your fermenter looks great.

Will

 

[ou8amaus]

Is this the kind that is frozen in the can? What was the rate per gallon that you used. I'm sure tastes vary. I would like to try this.

Beano Joe

It was the liquid concentrate they sell in all the groceries. Mr & Mrs T. 1 bottled added to 23 liter carboy.

 

[ou8amaus]

Correction. It was the Strawberry Daiquiri!