DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine

[willie]

Yes we have drank the Dragon Blood right after bottling but we think it starts to get real good on the 3rd and 4th month. Just Back sweetened a Peach variation this morning at 42 days old. I figure by Christmas the wine should be very good. We got the peaches from an orchard from a near by town Utica, Oh. It's our 3rd year doing this. I wanted to do something different to the wine so I added a liter bottle of Sky Peach Vodka to enhance the flavor.
Will

 

[artooks]

Hi, which clearing agents do you use ? if I decide not to use any clearing agents would chilling the wine and waiting for a longer duration help ? what do you recommend ?

 

[QuiQuog]

I've always used Super-Kleer. It only adds 10-13¢ per bottle. It makes more sense to me to just be done with it rather than waiting for it to clear naturally, especially given that it doesn't benefit much with age. I haven't tried to let it clear naturally, but I suppose it would, given enough time.

 

[Jovimaple]

I use Super-Kleer, as well, and for the same reason - this isn't a wine that benefits too much from bulk aging, so I would rather have it clear faster than it would naturally.

 

[Shurt1073]

Not asking for an exact time for making DB but an approximate time on a 6 gallon batch if everything goes "right". I'm leaving town for a couple months after Christmas and wonder if there is enough time to make this for the first time? Needs to be bottled by Dec 29th to take with me. Can it happen?

 

[cmason1957]

It can happen. I think the quickest I have heard of someone bottling DB is about 4 or maybe 6 weeks.

 

[Jovimaple]

There's an old thread where they discuss bottling at 15 days, if you use clearing agents.

If you start now, you should have plenty of time for it to clear and be ready for bottling before you leave.

 

[Jovimaple]

Found the thread: Dragon Blood in 15 days!!!

 

[vinny]

I made mine (1 gallon) Jan 27 with an SG of 1.070, moved to secondary on the 29th at 1.010, february 9 at 0.994 I degassed, added k-meta, sorbate, and sparkoloid. Feb 28 racked and back sweetened. It was a long clear because I don't think I degassed enough. I let it sit until the 7th of March to ensure no new activity, but easily ready to bottle after 1 month, no sediment or floaties in the bottle. Tasted significantly better after a couple weeks in bottle.

Not asking for an exact time for making DB but an approximate time on a 6 gallon batch if everything goes "right"

Not six gallons, but details never hurt. If you want to take some with you, do it. You have plenty of time. I used EC-1118.

 

[artooks]

Has anyone tried to carbonate DB ?

 

[artooks]

How dos the DB tastes dry ? İs it any good or should it really be backsweetened ? I am aware that it is a personal taste at the end but still wondering if keeping it dry would alsi be as good as the original recipe ?

 

[willie]

How dos the DB tastes dry ? İs it any good or should it really be backsweetened ? I am aware that it is a personal taste at the end but still wondering if keeping it dry would alsi be as good as the original recipe ?

We never was able go acquire a a taste for dry wine of any kind. But somewhere in this Thread there are a few folks that said they liked the D.B. dry. I would suggest trying it dry after it clears to see if you like it. Danger Dave's recipe I believe calls for 4.5 c. of sugar and comes out to taste med. sweet to me. Not too sweet and not too dry to my wife and I. A number of people who has tasted my wine thinks its just right and I did have 2 people I gave a bottle to say it was too dry. I always suggest folks new to this Thread start from the beginning page 1 and read the whole thing thru because you will learn so much.

Will

 

[Shurt1073]

Danger Dave's recipe I believe calls for 4.5 c. of sugar and comes out to taste med. sweet to me. Not too sweet and not too dry to my wife and I. A number of people who has tasted my wine thinks its just right and I did have 2 people I gave a bottle to say it was too dry.

I needed to order tannin, yeast energizer, & pectic enzyme which arrives at the end of this week. Going to Sam's for my 3 berry bags and sugar tomorrow, so I'm going to make this next weekend. Its exciting because this is my first wine without a kit plus its a blush and we have no blushes in our wine racks. I love the idea of back sweetening to taste. I've spent hours reading the DB posts and I'm ready! (maybe)

 

[vinny]

How dos the DB tastes dry ? İs it any good or should it really be backsweetened ? I am aware that it is a personal taste at the end but still wondering if keeping it dry would alsi be as good as the original recipe ?

I like dry wine. I HATE sweet wines, not dislike, despise. I was surprised how much sugar a wine can take without becoming sweet. I liked DB, the lemon makes it tart and bright and the sugar brings out the berries.

The nice thing about wine is it isn't done until you decide. You can split it in 2 batches and sweeten half, leave half dry. You can back sweeten after you have bottled before serving if you like the back sweetened version more. It will be better after a month or so, you can leave it in secondary, taste, then decide whether to back sweeten.

I will say though that I was on the lower side of the sweetening. I think it was half a cup per gallon. The sugar didn't sweeten it so much as balance it.

 

[vinny]

I needed to order tannin, yeast energizer, & pectic enzyme which arrives at the end of this week. Going to Sam's for my 3 berry bags and sugar tomorrow, so I'm going to make this next weekend. Its exciting because this is my first wine without a kit plus its a blush and we have no blushes in our wine racks. I love the idea of back sweetening to taste. I've spent hours reading the DB posts and I'm ready! (maybe)

I read and prepared and I still messed up. The wine was fine, but step 4 should be squeeze and remove fruit back and step 5 should be when SG stabilizes at 1.000

• Uncover primary
• Rack (siphon or drain) the wine into a cleaned and sanitized six gallon carboy, leaving the gross lees (the stuff in the bottom of the primary) undisturbed.
• Add 1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite (dissolved in half cup cool water) and stir
• Add 3 tsp. Potassium Sorbate (dissolved in half cup cool water) and stir
• Degas wine very thoroughly: I cannot emphasize this enough! Gas in the wine will prevent it from clearing quickly.
• Add Sparkolloid* (or other clearing agent) per package directions (stir for 2 minutes): *1 tbs in one cup of water simmered (boiled) for about 5-10 minutes. Add hot mixture directly to carboy and stir.
• If the carboy is not full, add enough cool water to bring the level within two inches of the top opening: Adding a like wine rather than water is preferred. A cheap white zinfandel will work well.
• Add a bung and airlock (filled half way with sulfite solution)
• Allow to clear undisturbed for no less than 1 week.

I pulled the fruit pack and glanced over the instructions and carried right on along with the list above BEFORE I hit 1.000. This is why I had a long clearing time. Just something to consider. Wine is very forgiving, but it is also easy to get excited and get ahead of ourselves.

 

[vinny]

Has anyone tried to carbonate DB ?

Tried successfully. I just used a soda stream which is easy to make a mess with because it can foam excessively. I believe some use corny kegs

I did it for my neighbour and she loved DB carbonated. They went and bought a soda stream just for sparkling their wines the next day.

 

[Shurt1073]

I read and prepared and I still messed up. The wine was fine, but step 4 should be squeeze and remove fruit back and step 5 should be when SG stabilizes at 1.000

I'm just wanting to make a very tolerable berry wine that is semi sweet or sweet. Somewhere around 11% abv .... start my SG at 1.080

 

[QuiQuog]

How dos the DB tastes dry ? İs it any good or should it really be backsweetened ? I am aware that it is a personal taste at the end but still wondering if keeping it dry would alsi be as good as the original recipe ?

I felt that the berry flavor wasn’t there until I backsweetened. On my first attempt I did it with 6 cups of sugar. It was cloyingly sweet, especially after a couple of weeks, so I made another batch and mixed the sweetened one with the unsweetened one. That one was about right, which is 1/2 cup per gallon. I’m making another now and I may use invert sugar so I don’t have to worry about it getting sweeter over time.

 

[QuiQuog]

I needed to order tannin, yeast energizer, & pectic enzyme which arrives at the end of this week. Going to Sam's for my 3 berry bags and sugar tomorrow, so I'm going to make this next weekend. Its exciting because this is my first wine without a kit plus its a blush and we have no blushes in our wine racks. I love the idea of back sweetening to taste. I've spent hours reading the DB posts and I'm ready! (maybe)

I’m not sure I would call it a blush, I it’s more vibrant red.

 

[Jovimaple]

I double the fruit so mine ends up a dark purplish red.