DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[willie]

DB wine makers,. I am new. Doing 5gal.batch..frozen strawberry, pineapple, White grape concentrate, strawberry jam and preserves.Brown sugar sweetened.
Taste is good.

Welcome aboard Certified.
Got to say I haven't heard of that combination before. Have you bottled it yet?

Will

 

[Jared Durham]

I'm making this and a bit confused. I have removed the bag as instructed as I've fallen below a SG of 1. The instruction say to not move forward until you reach a negative gravity but then also say not to proceed until the gravity is stable at the same number for 3 days.

My reading just came out .990, my hydrometer doesn't go any lower than that. It's been below 1 for 4 days but not at a consistant number. Should I keep waiting or just put it into a secondary?

I'm just confused. Thanks for the help.

P.S. what's the harm at this point degassing and putting it into the carboy IF the SG hasn't remained the same for 3 days?

 

[sour_grapes]

If your SG is 0.990, you are safe to go into "secondary" now. (FWIW, it would ALSO be okay to wait the two additional days to make it 3 days in a row.) You are fine whichever way you decide to go.

 

[Jared Durham]

Thank you so much. I'll get it moved over tonight!!!

 

[detlion1643]

So it's been about 3 months since I've posted about my strawberry batch. If memory is correct I used 8 lbs of strawberries and about 5 - 5.5g of water. It finally became clear, so I decided to bottle tonight... Or I thought I could. The #8 corks I have I couldn't fit into the bottle via hand (have a floor corker ready for me as soon as I can come get it) so I ended up with about 15 bottles from a 5g secondary. I drank way too many glasses tonight so I end up with "less wasted".

The batch was backsweetened to about 1.010 - 1.015ish. The overall taste is still very "thin" to me. By "thin" I mean flavor wise, it seems to taste more tart and watery than strawberry. This is with even with a bunch of strawberry extract in the secondary. I'm not sure I'll be doing another strawberry again, this is about the 3rd-4th batch that has always ended up "not good".

 

[meadmaker1]

8 lbs is about a third of the amount of berries i would expect to use as a minimum for five gallons.

 

[willie]

So it's been about 3 months since I've posted about my strawberry batch. If memory is correct I used 8 lbs of strawberries and about 5 - 5.5g of water. It finally became clear, so I decided to bottle tonight... Or I thought I could. The #8 corks I have I couldn't fit into the bottle via hand (have a floor corker ready for me as soon as I can come get it) so I ended up with about 15 bottles from a 5g secondary. I drank way too many glasses tonight so I end up with "less wasted".

The batch was backsweetened to about 1.010 - 1.015ish. The overall taste is still very "thin" to me. By "thin" I mean flavor wise, it seems to taste more tart and watery than strawberry. This is with even with a bunch of strawberry extract in the secondary. I'm not sure I'll be doing another strawberry again, this is about the 3rd-4th batch that has always ended up "not good".

Yeh as Meadmaker said you need more strawberry's. I use 15 lbs of strawberry's and also add about 90 oz. or so of Daly's Strawberry Cocktail Mix that comes in 64 oz. bottles at our Kroger store. It's great to use not only for it's great flavor but it contains no seeds that you don't want. The strawberry's are just a little weak in giving the wine the flavor that you want. The extract is a good thing to add too if you desire. And a few drops on red food coloring before bottling will take that orange look out and make the wine nice and pink to a nice red color. Don't give up making it. Our Strawberry wine is a big hit with our friends and family.

Will

 

[DriftlessDoc]

So far I've made 3 kits, a couple fruit wines from concentrates, skeeter pee, and dragons blood. My DB is the only one that I felt was undrinkable. It had a weird leather/tobacco taste to it. I tried to overpower it by increasing the sweetness and it did not work. I'll try again probably over the winter. We win some and we lose some.

 

[detlion1643]

Yes, the 8lb's was light on the fruit I know, but it was given to me so essentially it was a free batch for experimental purposes if the extract can boost it back up enough in flavor. Not to my liking it didn't. The color has subsided and it is not orangeish but very a very light see through reddish.

 

[abrewkat]

Just sweetening my first batch of DB. Had a bunch of frozen mango and strawberries in the freezer, so am calling it a Dragon's Blood Tropicale... Started with 2L of unsweetened pineapple juice, some banana juice (5 bananas simmered in 1L of water for 30 min, then filtered), 3 lbs frozen mango, and 3.5 lbs frozen strawberries. Went from SG of 1.085 down to 0.098, stabilized and just sweetening tonight after I filtered it. Adding 3.75 cups of sugar (calculated 0.75 cup per gallon for 5 gallons, but I will have about 6 I think) dissolved in some Sovereign Opal wine, which has an almost mango flavour to it- I'm hoping it will complement the batch. It's very clear after the filtering, and has a nice peachy blush colour to it. Excited to try it!

 

[willie]

We want to make a Peach version to DB and plan on freezing the peaches before using in fermenter. Does anyone know if it's ok to use Balls Fresh Fruit to the peaches before freezing? I'm just not sure if any of the ingrediencies in Balls Fresh Fruit would cause a problem in the fermentation.

Will

 

[Johnd]

We want to make a Peach version to DB and plan on freezing the peaches before using in fermenter. Does anyone know if it's ok to use Balls Fresh Fruit to the peaches before freezing? I'm just not sure if any of the ingrediencies in Balls Fresh Fruit would cause a problem in the fermentation.

Will

According to the website, Balls Fruit Fresh contains:
Ingredients: Dextrose, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Citric Acid, Silicon Dioxide (Anti-caking). Contains no sulfites.

Dextrose is a form of glucose and is OK, Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant used in winemaking to prevent browning of wines that are color sensitive and it’s OK, citric acid is naturally occurring in fruits anyway and inhibits browning and should be fine. Don’t know about silicon dioxide.

Sounds like a sugary powder that fights oxidation and browning, doesn’t sound problematic to me, but maybe someone else has some experience to share.

 

[willie]

Ok thanks John

 

[michael-s]

Has anyone every used DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine recipe and instead of placing the fruit in a bag and removing and squeezing it every day during primary fermentation but instead
pressing the fruit using a 'grape/fruit press" right at the beginning and then placing that fruit into your fermentation pail, along with the required amount of water. I would enjoy to hear how it
worked out. I just bought a grape/fruit press and I am going to go ahead and try pressing the fruit in the press for the 1st time to see how the wine turns out.
Looking forward to all your replies........... and any pictures you care to share. Thank you in advance.

 

[dangerdave]

This is my x3 Batch operation going on this morning.
The first batches I made, I simply tossed the fruit into the primary. It was quite “messy. When I started shooting for more flavor, I decided to use the bags and squeeze daily. Definitely, if I had a press, I would squash the fruit, then add skins and all to the primary. I think I would still use a bag for the skins to keep it clean. Definitely worth a go.
Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[michael-s]

Thanks for your reply. I am going to go ahead and see how it turns out. I would assume it will be just fine having the squeezed juice available right at the beginning, just like regular wine making.
I will probably toss in the skins too, contained in a bag.
In your picture you posted I see that large plastic container. Am I correct in assuming you did primary fermentation for all 3 batches at the same time in that container and you are now transferring to carboys to finish
up secondary fermentation?
Great idea if that is the case.

 

[dangerdave]

That’s a food grade Brute trash can, 32 gallon capacity. I got tired of making so many single batches that now I stir them up three (18 gallons) at a time with nearly the same effort. Per the DB recipe, I let it go dry in the primary, then transfer-degass-fine-clear all in the final step. Did that today. In a couple of days it will be clear. I’ll then back sweeten, filter, and bottle. Arouund 12 days start to finish!

 

[michael-s]

I wrote down the name of your trash can and will see what I can find up here in Canada.

 

[Jennifer Patterson]

Hi All, I am new to winemaking, but I think I would like to give this one a try as one of my first. But in a 1-gallon batch, as currently I only have equipment for one gallon. I have read through the directions, and have a question, how do you handle the fruit fly issue. I see that he does not recommend snapping down the lid on the primary or using an airlock. Right now at this time of year, anything sweet or fruity in my home left out in the open is covered in fruit flies! I know that putting a cloth over the primary bucket would help, but I don't trust it.

I have my first gallon of wine in the secondary right now, and those little suckers are squeezing through the holes in the airlock and drowning themselves! When I was fermenting in the primary bucket for it, I used the cloth, then put the lid on over it, the cloth around the edge outside the lid was covered in fruit flies all week.

Also for the six-gallon recipe, he recommends one packet of yeast, does anyone know how much I would use for just one gallon?

Thank you
Jenny P

 

[Ajmassa]

Hi All, I am new to winemaking, but I think I would like to give this one a try as one of my first. But in a 1-gallon batch, as currently I only have equipment for one gallon. I have read through the directions, and have a question, how do you handle the fruit fly issue. I see that he does not recommend snapping down the lid on the primary or using an airlock. Right now at this time of year, anything sweet or fruity in my home left out in the open is covered in fruit flies! I know that putting a cloth over the primary bucket would help, but I don't trust it.

I have my first gallon of wine in the secondary right now, and those little suckers are squeezing through the holes in the airlock and drowning themselves! When I was fermenting in the primary bucket for it, I used the cloth, then put the lid on over it, the cloth around the edge outside the lid was covered in fruit flies all week.

Also for the six-gallon recipe, he recommends one packet of yeast, does anyone know how much I would use for just one gallon?

Thank you
Jenny P

Well if the fruit flies were around the edges but not in the bucket then it sounds like it did its job no?
I get flies in the air locks occasionally too, and I just replace the water/solution.
You can ferment under airlock just fine too. And just remove it every time u stir and squeeze the fruit bag. Just easier not to, but sometimes ya gotta call an audible.
The yeast question, instead of adding 1/5th the packet I’d say your cool using about half the 5g packet for 1 gal batch. Good luck