DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[TasunkaWitko]

This looks great, and I believe I will give it a shot - it looks great!

This will only be my second wine - my first is a chokecherry wine that I recently transferred over to secondary. Since I am still very new at this, I have a couple of questions as I prepare to attempt this in the coming days:

1. Has anyone scaled it down to 1 gallon? I know that one only needs to "do the math," but I'd appreciate it if someone could help me check my nembers. Perhaps there is a link to a post where this has been done?

2. If I have a bunch of lemons, will their juice work? Being that it is a 1-gallon batch, it looks like I'll only need a little more than 1 cup of juice.

3. I have a frozen four-berry medley (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries); it should work perfectly for this, but the amount I have is 36 ounces. If my math is right, I only need about 20 ounces. Would adding the whole amount (36 ounces) harm the final wine or through it wildly out of balance?

Thanks in advance. I will report on progress (hopefully with a few photos), and I very much appreciate any and all advice -

Ron

 

[Winenoob66]

1 lb per gallon is what ya start at. A lot of people on here like to go 1.5 lbs per gallon so the 36 oz will work fine being just over 2 lbs. the cup of lemon juice might be a little low being the recipe calls for a concentrate but you can always add more at the end if it isn't acidic enough for you.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thanks, Winenoob - I appreciate the advice.

I actually did find that I have an unopened bottle of RealLemon that my wife got over the weekend, so I'm good to go there. As long as the extra fruit won't harm anything, I'll go with it.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Okay, I apologise for my confusion and lack of experience, but how does one convert the recipe "down" to a gallon when teaspoons are involved? Simply go with a quarter teaspoon and call it good, or get out the digital scale?

Last question (I hope) - will Montrachet yeast at about 70-72 degrees work with this? It is the only yeast I have, and it is unlikely that I will get my area much warmer than that. Theodore Roosevelt was president when my house was built.

I think I should be in good shape, assuming the above. Thanks to all.

 

[Winenoob66]

All the chemicals just follow label directions. (Label directions are by the gallon.) The Montrachet wouldn't be my first choice but will work in a pinch.

 

[AdamDubeau]

Using a Champion Juicer instead of the Presser/Squeezer Method?

So I'm a pretty new wine maker...

But in the last 2 months I've started with a kit wine, which I used to make a batch of Skeeter Pee, which prompted me to make 15 gallons of Raspberry Skeeter Pee, and now I'm eyeing up the DB recipe.

My Skeeter Pee (Batch 1) came out great, I degassed it with a vacuum pump, added sparkolloid, it cleared in a week. The 15 gallon Raspberry Pee I didn't add the sparkolloid so it took a little longer to clear, but I filtered it and backsweetened, and it kinda tastes a little "light" on the flavor to me... Like a really light White Zin.

So I'm looking for something with a little more flavor and kick, which brought me to the DB recipe. After reading it over, I got thinking that would it be possible to take the "triple berry" mix and instead of straining it through the bag, could I run it through my Champion Juicer?

Would there be something missing by juicing it, as in, would the wine be missing out on the steeping of the skins from the berries? Would it take longer to clear?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

@Winenoob66 - many thanks for the direction; I'll proceed and see how it goes!

@AdamDubeau - I am still quite new at this, but my guess is that you will miss some body and "richness" in the wine if you skip the actual fruit. When I was researching my chokecherry wine recipe and procedure, this seemed to be the general consensus. If I am wrong, others with more knowledge and experience will correct me.

 

[MrsJones]

I'm wondering if anyone has added coconut to any of their DB blends?

My mom finds my quad berry a bit bitter, but typically enjoys an orange or pinacolada cooler, so I thought trying to fuse those flavours in DB could be good.

I would love to hear if anyone has used these flavours - what worked and what didn't.

Thank you!!

 

[Johnd]

So I'm looking for something with a little more flavor and kick, which brought me to the DB recipe. After reading it over, I got thinking that would it be possible to take the "triple berry" mix and instead of straining it through the bag, could I run it through my Champion Juicer?

Would there be something missing by juicing it, as in, would the wine be missing out on the steeping of the skins from the berries? Would it take longer to clear?

I don't think you need to juice it, the pectic enzyme and yeast do a pretty darn good job. My first batch of this is finishing up in secondary right now. Started with 6 pounds each of blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry and only 3 gallons of water. I put all my fruits/grape in loose, when I strained the fruit out to press it, there was little left of the blackberries or raspberries, but the blueberries were quite plump. After pressing what was left of the 18# of fruit, I had a disk of pomace 5" in diameter and about 2" thick. Point being, let your enzyme/yeast do the heavy lifting, want better flavor, add more fruit. This mix yielded 6.25 gallons after straining and pressing, pretty nice for only a 3 gallon water addition.

 

[Winenoob66]

I'm wondering if anyone has added coconut to any of their DB blends?

My mom finds my quad berry a bit bitter, but typically enjoys an orange or pinacolada cooler, so I thought trying to fuse those flavours in DB could be good.

I would love to hear if anyone has used these flavours - what worked and what didn't.

Thank you!!

Hi MrsJones
I haven't ever tried coconut before but it seems to me the oils might be a problem. But as for the bitterness I found my first batch to be overly tart myself. I now cut the lemon juice back to about 32oz for a 6g batch and love the difference it makes especially at the 3 month mark.

Hope that helps

 

[bkisel]

Adam, have you read through this thread?... http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52684

 

[TasunkaWitko]

@Winenoob66 - one more question, if I may ~

I was converting the recipe over to one gallon last night and think I have a good plan ready to go. One thing I noticed is that there is no campden in the primary. Most recipes I see include one for one gallon. My question is, will adding one to the primary help, hurt, or have no effect with this recipe and method for Dragon's Blood?

Thanks much - I am looking to get this done Saturday or possibly even Friday night.

 

[bkisel]

If I were doing a 1 gallon DB recipe I would not add any campden to the recipe that does not call for it...

Maybe the DB recipe doesn't call for any campden/k-meta is because you're not concerned about wild yeast coming from the frozen berries or perhaps the lemon juice takes care of any wild yeast that might be there. All my other fruit wine recipes do call for campden/k-meta with a 24 hour wait before pitching the yeast. My guess is that if you use just a small amount of k-meta and wait the 24 vs. the 12 hours before pitching the yeast the k-meta will have dissipated and cause no issues.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

If I were doing a 1 gallon DB recipe I would not add any campden to the recipe that does not call for it...

Maybe the DB recipe doesn't call for any campden/k-meta is because you're not concerned about wild yeast coming from the frozen berries or perhaps the lemon juice takes care of any wild yeast that might be there.

My instincts tell me the same; with that in mind, I'll leave it out and follow the recipe. The conversion to one gallon went well and appears to look good, so I will try to get this going in the next couple of days.

 

[MariusTitulescu]

I agree. All in all recipe's are not set in stone (maybe just stone-age ones). It's a guideline, not a rule.
________________________________
Marius
champagne tours Ludes

 

[freqflyer]

Low alcohol version

I have made many batches of DB. I have my favorite variation. It's not a whole lot different from the original. I add 10 pounds of sugar.

I would like to make a lower alcohol version. 7-8% or so.

Has anybody made it before?

 

[Winenoob66]

my last batch of original I made it with only 32oz of lemon and lowered the ABV to 10% and it drinks like cool aid

 

[freqflyer]

How much sugar did you use to get to 10%

 

[Winenoob66]

Looking at my notes , I started at 1.072 so actually it was around 9% .

I use this to go by and get a rough idea what my abv is
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/Potential-Alcohol-Content-from-Original-Gravity

 

[AdamDubeau]

So just a follow up....

My DB is on rack 2, I did a vacuum degas and it looks like it's almost dry. In the primary, I ran the 6 lbs of 4 berry mix from Walmart thru my Champion Juicer, and then strained the whole shot thru a pair of nylons that I sanitized. After 10 days of the "squeezer" method, I finally removed the nylons, because all that was left was seeds. The pectic enzymes pretty much worked their magic. I also took 2 cups of raisins and soaked them in Welch's grape juice overnight, then boiled them on a low boil for 5 minutes. In a couple days I'll give it one more vacuum degas and then add the stabilizer to let it rest for two weeks while I'm on holidays.

Right now I'm drinking some raspberry base skeeter pee out of a Mason Jar. I'm usually a beer drinker but this stuff is damn good.