DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[DizzyIzzy]

Thanks Will. I did rack it a number of days ago and I’m probably up to that much PE at this point. Temp is holding around 75F now. Maybe marginally better since yesterday. I’m in a holding pattern right now...

Can you tell me what is.....PE?

 

[hounddawg]

Update - Ok, DDDG Nation, I pressed this morning. 16 gallons of fruit was reduced by the Lallzyme EX-V to four cups of grey pulp. I think I was successful in extracting everything from the fruit, lol. Gravity down to .999 from a start of 1.113. Can anyone say "rocket fuel"? Fermentation has been steady throughout. Under airlock now.

I'll let it die out and settle. I'll hit it with KMeta and Sorbate in a couple of weeks before racking for a long nap.

adding lemon or pineapple hides the rocket fuel taste, and it dont take much,,
Dawg

 

[sour_grapes]

I don't think your clearing problem has anything to do with the Super Kleer not doing the job. If you have 1 1/4 inch of sediment I would rack it again and add 3 or 4 more teaspoons of peptic enzyme. We had a stubborn batch of Raspberry that we had to put in 8 tea spoons in it to finally get it to clear this summer. Peptic enzyme will not hurt your wine in the least. Will not harm the taste. The only wine we have had peptic haze issues with is Strawberry, Raspberry and Peach.

Will

Thanks Will. I did rack it a number of days ago and I’m probably up to that much PE at this point. Temp is holding around 75F now. Maybe marginally better since yesterday. I’m in a holding pattern right now...

Can you tell me what is.....PE?

Dizzy, context is your friend.

It is actually "pectic enzyme."

 

[dangerdave]

I've made a couple of batches of Dragons Blood and must say I love this stuff. Looking to try a different version I picked up 3 packs (12#) of mixed fruit (Pineapples / strawberry / peaches /mangos.) I thought I had read it was recommended to double the fruit if going with something different. This is still very new to me so I was curious if I should make any other changes to the recipe before starting this batch. I am very curious as to why the changes should be made (if any) so I will understand what to do in the future with other versions.
Thanks to DD and everyone for all the info I'm attempting to sort thru in this thread.

I have used this fruit blend before to make a tropical version. You should like it. Good luck!

 

[abrewkat]

@wannab1 Sounds good! I've actually only made the tropical blend, and I swap out some of the lemon juice for pineapple. It's always turned out really well and was well received by friends. I have used mango and strawberry, and mango, strawberry, and tropical fruit blend. I also "cooked" up some banana in water and added that too. The theory was for mouthfeel, but it added a hint of banana to it as well. One day soon I'll try the original, though at present some friends only make the original, and we swap back and forth. Have my first batch of SP on the go. Seems to be a bit slow starting up, but I'm being patient!

 

[willie]

I've made a couple of batches of Dragons Blood and must say I love this stuff. Looking to try a different version I picked up 3 packs (12#) of mixed fruit (Pineapples / strawberry / peaches /mangos.) I thought I had read it was recommended to double the fruit if going with something different. This is still very new to me so I was curious if I should make any other changes to the recipe before starting this batch. I am very curious as to why the changes should be made (if any) so I will understand what to do in the future with other versions.
Thanks to DD and everyone for all the info I'm attempting to sort thru in this thread.

If the mixed fruit you described is Wally World's Great Value brand I have 2 of the 4# bags along with a big bottle of Juicy Juice Apple Peach that is going to dry in the fermenter now. I meant to put a few bananas in the bag but forgot this time. This tropical version turns out great and is a nice change up verses the mixed berry's. Great for summer too.

Will

 

[wannab1]

If the mixed fruit you described is Wally World's Great Value brand I have 2 of the 4# bags along with a big bottle of Juicy Juice Apple Peach that is going to dry in the fermenter now. I meant to put a few bananas in the bag but forgot this time. This tropical version turns out great and is a nice change up verses the mixed berry's. Great for summer too.

Will

It is the great value brand. So you find 2 bags to be sufficient? If so I may try that and if it's to my liking I'm ready to start another batch Also I'll pick up a bottle of the Apple peach this weekend, 64oz?

 

[Medic8106]

I just racked a strawberry, peach, mango, pineapple, banana batch to secondary. Cleared fairly quick but if you look closely, there are a lot of suspended particles. About 7 lbs of fruit.

 

[DizzyIzzy]

Dizzy, context is your friend.

It is actually "pectic enzyme."

Sour grapes..................Dah, it's tough growing older and losing one's mind. Thankyou

 

[DizzyIzzy]

Dizzy, context is your friend.

It is actually "pectic enzyme."

sour_grapes......yes, I am in Ohio.....context?.....I think that is in the US of A. LOL

 

[hounddawg]

DangerDave i am making my first DDDB but i used,, blueberry ,black raspberry and sour cherry,and lemon juice,,i already had the sour cherry and beings, and wish to know if it is ok to put your handle on it,

( DD's Dragons Blood, ) i see where you have done the same recipe but at times you change up the type juices,, after this one i plain to make your original to the T,,,
Dawg

 

[Chuck Price]

Hello everyone! I’ve been making wine since 2013 (started with kits) and progressed to fresh fruit (vitis vinifera) at harvest. I’ve been reading this thread for a while and thought I’d try my hand at Danger Dave’s Dragons Blood since (a) I’d never made a wine like this before, and (b) this is such an amazing, vibrant community I thought I’d try to contribute! The DB turned out wonderful and my wife says I’ll definitely be making it again in the future...!

Thanks in advance to DD and everyone here whom I’ve read that’s helped me get to this point. This is a bit of a read so I’m happy to answer any questions along the way...

Enjoy!
~Chuck

Ingredients used:

1. 16#’s Kirkland’s Mixed Berry Blend ($10/ea) - Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry
2. Granulated Sugar, 20 cups
3. Lallzyme EX (.6g), Cellar Science
4. Italian Volcano 100% Organic Lemon Juice (50 oz), from Costco
5. FT Rouge (7.8g), Cellar Science
6. EC1118 Yeast (5g), Lalvin
7. Go-Ferm Protect Evolution (7.5g), Cellar Science
8. FermFed (DAP Free) (9g), Cellar Science
9. Fermaid K (6g), Cellar Science
10. Super-Kleer K.C. (2.2 oz), Liquor Quik (Kieselsol and Chitosan for fining)
11. Potassium Metabisulfite (.5 tsp), Cellar Science
12. Granulated Sugar (6#) boiled in 2 cups water until clear to make Simple Sugar

Notes:

1. Started on Saturday evening, April 25th;
2. Ready to begin enjoying on May 16th (4 weeks after start); it was really good at this point after back-sweetening, but I’m sure it will get even better over the next few months as everyone says (and “regular” wines do)
3. All additions were based on starting w/6 gals of juice; ended up with a little over 4.5 gals of wine
4. I decided NOT to add Potassium Sorbate to sterilize any potentially remaining yeast before back-sweetening. My primary reasoning was that I filtered using a sterile filter so assuming that will eliminate the remaining yeast. I also didn’t want to do this because K-Sorbate actually starts to add vegetative flavors as the wine ages. Also, I plan to keg mine for easier access by the glass, so if it does start to ferment more then I’ll be fine with a little “Sparkling Dragons Blood” That said, if you plan to drink all your wine within a year then I wouldn’t worry too much about that, and rather lean more toward short-term protection with K-Sorbate regardless of filtration.
5. Left lid sitting loosely on top of fermenter (not snapped down) and no airlock/bubbler in the lid grommet during active fermentation.

4/25 - Sat. Evening:

• Mixed all these ingredients together in 7 gal fermenting bucket to start

1. (A.) 16# frozen fruit in a mesh bag
2. Water to about 4.5 gals
3. (B.) Sugar, (C.) Enzyme, (D.) Lemon Juice

• Measured starting Specific Gravity (B-SG) @ 1.090
• Notes:
  • did NOT add K-Meta at this point;
  • did NOT add tannin or yeast nutrients at this point as called for in original DD recipe; rather, added those with yeast a day later

4/26 - Sun. Morning

• Added the following, stirring well

1. (E.) Tannin powder, (F.) Yeast, (G.) Yeast Nutrient

… stirred twice a day until…

4/29 - Thur. Evening

• Measured SG and noticed I was about halfway through ferment and it seemed to be slowing. So I added the following:

1. (H.) and (I.) Yeast Nutrients (note these are additional yeast nutrients at about 1/3 to 1/2 through ferment that are not called for in original DD recipe)

… see video from 5/2 (Sat.) — nutrients obviously helped kick up the ferment and ensure completion!
… continued stirring twice a day until…

5/6 - Wed. Evening

• Noticed that ferment was pretty much done w/SG @ 1.000
• Removed fruit bag — it was TINY! Clearly the enzymes had helped to extract all the fruit we were going to get in this batch.
• Added (K.) K-Meta to help protect since ferment was done (and yeast no longer providing CO2 blanket to protect from oxidizing)
• Snapped down fermenting bucket lid and added Bubbler
• Stopped stirring to let it settle so I could rack to carboy on Saturday

5/9 - Sat. Evening

• Measured finishing SG (F-SG) @ 0.990 — ferment is done!
• Racked off of gross lees to carboy
• Added (J.) fining agents, stirring the heck out of it to help degas
• Let sit and clear for a week

5/16 - Afternoon

• Nice, small layer of fine lees at bottom of carboy; wine looking very nice and clear already!
• Filtered with .5 Micron filter using small Buon Vino filter
• Performed tests for:
  • pH (3.01) @ 71.8F;
  • TA @ .62% tartaric;
  • SO2 @ 3.2ppm;
  • F-SG @ 0.990 so ABV = ~13.5% (Whew! That’s hot!)
• Added (L.) 6# Simple Sugar to back-sweeten

The resulting wine is a beautiful, clear and brilliant ruby red. (My wife said it looks like a beautiful ruby jewel!) We enjoyed a couple glasses on ice and it’s yuuuumy already!

Closing thoughts and observations:
It’s obviously very young as I’m making these observations, but the week I was letting it clear I was tasting it along the way, adding granulated sugar to a glass to test how the sugar might offset the tartness (which was, WOW, super-tart!) It had a VERY pungent/funky nose! So much so that, after sweetening the glass with some sugar, I actually asked my wife and my cousin to NOT smell it before they each tasted it. They loved the taste! Then I asked them to nose it and they both were like, “Oh my gosh! What is that?!” Needless to say, the nose and the taste experiences weren’t lining up well. After filtering and sweeting with the simple sugar that small has definitely waned quite a bit, so I’m hoping that it’ll continue to blow off whatever that funky odor is. One thought I have about the odor is that it’s so strong because I added so much fruit — notice almost 3x what DD’s recipe calls for. But, I also think that the reason it’s such a deep ruby color is exactly because I added so much fruit as well. It really does taste great.

About the amount of fruit: when I make regular wine from fresh fruit (vitis vinifera — my daughter likes to call them “wine berries” <grin>), I use 100# to make about the same six gallons of wine but I obviously don’t add the water. This was curious to me so it just seemed like I “needed more fruit” in this wine. I’m wondering, however, if this almost 3x more fruit than DD’s recipe called for isn’t the reason for the strong pungent (raw berry?) smell at this young age of the wine? I’m optimistic that this smell will “blow off” with age, as it certainly mellows as the wine opens up. Meaning, as I decant this wine now for about 30 minutes that smell is almost gone. I also think one positive benefit from using 16# of fruit (vs 6#) was to give the wine more body, making it less “watery”. So, the mouthfeel of this one is akin a little more to a Pino Noir rather than a Rose or blush wine. Maybe that’s good for some folks, or maybe that’s bad — just depends on your individual preferences and goals with the type of target wine you’re trying to make. That’s one of the many beauty’s of this art we call winemaking!

Cost: The wine berries I buy from the Grand Valley AVA here in Colorado cost ~$1/lb. Whereas, the Costco Mixed Berries on a $/lb basis come out to about $2.50/lb! So, one might think it would be cheaper to make vinifera wine (I typically make Merlot, Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Riesling); but since the original DD recipe calls for only 6#’s of Mixed Berries, the total fruit cost is ~$10 (or free if you have it in your back yard!) vs $100 to make the same volume of wine (# bottles).

About taste and that 6# of simple sugar for back-sweetening… That certainly is a lot of sugar to add, but this wine is actually not a viscous as an dessert/ice wine, as you might imagine adding that much sugar. It is sweet, for sure, but I did a number of taste tests (with my wife is the primary “approver”, of course — how else do you think I get to keep spending money on this hobby! LOL ) using varying amounts of sugar from 5g sugar/50ml of wine to 15g sugar/50ml of wine and it really needed a bit more sugar to balance both the tartness and the alcohol level (”hotness”). So, I ended up at about 8g/50ml (or 15-16% RS) which is around a German Auslese style Riesling level of sweetness. It currently has a very nice sweet/acid/alcohol balance, with a nice, soft mouthfeel and a little longer finish. It definitely hits the tongue sweet at first, with very noticeable fruit in the mid-palate, and the slightest “zing” due to the high alcohol has you breath in after swallowing. It’s definitely not your normal one-dimensional blush/fruit wine! One final interesting note on taste here is that I get no hint of bitter tannin at all. So, I’m confident the FT Rouge contributed to the mouthfeel, but there’s definitely no “rip your teeth off tannin’s” if you’re worried about that at all. I think you’d have to add a lot more tannin powder before you’d feel that…which, you may if that’s your thing!

About the amount of sulfite: I prefer a lower sulfite wine in general and this wine ended up at about 3.5 ppm. I think this will be fine and provide enough protection due to a few factors: lower pH @ 3.01 (see graph), higher ABV of 13.5% and an on-point TA at ~ .62% tartaric.

Thank you Danger Dave for all your generous contributions!
~Chuck

 

[Chuck Price]

Ingredients used:

1. 16#’s Kirkland’s Mixed Berry Blend ($10/ea) - Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry
2. Granulated Sugar, 20 cups
3. Lallzyme EX (.6g), Cellar Science
4. Italian Volcano 100% Organic Lemon Juice (50 oz), from Costco
5. FT Rouge (7.8g), Cellar Science
6. EC1118 Yeast (5g), Lalvin
7. Go-Ferm Protect Evolution (7.5g), Cellar Science
8. FermFed (DAP Free) (9g), Cellar Science
9. Fermaid K (6g), Cellar Science
10. Super-Kleer K.C. (2.2 oz), Liquor Quik (Kieselsol and Chitosan for fining)
11. Potassium Metabisulfite (.5 tsp), Cellar Science
12. Granulated Sugar (6#) boiled in 2 cups water until clear to make Simple Sugar

 

[wannab1]

Finally bottled my DDDB and SP and thought I would try these bottles for an upcoming camping trip. Nothing long term so hoping it'll be ok.

 

[sour_grapes]

Finally bottled my DDDB and SP and thought I would try these bottles for an upcoming camping trip. Nothing long term so hoping it'll be ok.

Plus it looks VERY innocent!

 

[RocketBee]

I started my second batch of DB about five days ago. Only one tweak so far: I added an extra 3 lbs. of fruit. I'm in the active fermentation phase, original gravity was 1.084 and after testing today, S.G. is at 1.042. One thing I'd like to point out is that in my first batch the early bottles I broke out after bottling seemed way too sweet, but three months later, the sweetness seems much less pronounced. Someone on this thread told me that, but I don't remember who...thank you whoever you are.

 

[hounddawg]

I started my second batch of DB about five days ago. Only one tweak so far: I added an extra 3 lbs. of fruit. I'm in the active fermentation phase, original gravity was 1.084 and after testing today, S.G. is at 1.042. One thing I'd like to point out is that in my first batch the early bottles I broke out after bottling seemed way too sweet, but three months later, the sweetness seems much less pronounced. Someone on this thread told me that, but I don't remember who...thank you whoever you are.

ah,,, TIME the winemakers secret ingredient ,,,,
Dawg

 

[Fulmor]

Made a batch of this eight or so months ago. It does not taste like any wine that I drink, more like Kool-Aid with a distilled spirit added. Kinda like the jungle-juice kids put together as an alternative to beer at college parties but takes much greater effort. I cannot foresee it improving much with any amount of tweaking.

My question is: What does your batches flavor / taste compare too? Thanks in advance

 

[RocketBee]

I agree it doesn't taste like any wine that I drink either and I'm not trying to compare my DB to anything, just dial it in to my friends' and family's preference. They like it, so I'm going to try to improve it to their taste and hopefully, have them like it even more. I never drank any "jungle-juice" in college and I haven't been a wine drinker for very long, so I'm probably just blissfully ignorant...but I am having fun and so are the people I care about.

 

[Aeludor]

I'm working on my first DDDBW and was wondering how sweet is it? Dave back sweetens with 3/4 cup of sugar per gallon, is that still fairly dry? Or if I like a dryer wine should I be using 1/2 a cup per gallon? (I know, add until i like it, but does it get sweeter as it ages?)


Edit: Found my answer in this thread from a few years ago.