Danger's lab---keep out!!!

[jamesngalveston]

better buy more buckets and carboys now.
I quit bottling all of mine...the first i draw off goes in recycled boxed wine for myself. the rest I bottle for friends and family.

 

[wineforfun]

Thanks for sharing the PDF file Dave, you're making it way too easy to convert more DB Addicts!

I prefer sweeter wines like your wife does, did you just add regular sugar into her batch at the end before bottling? Not simple syrup? And will this make the DB cloudy, or how long would I wait before bottling after adding the sugar?

I haven't started a batch yet, but I've been reading a long for a while now.

After stabilizing with K-Meta and sorbate, and added Sparkloid, then wait at least 1 week (per instructions), and add the sugar(plain table sugar). I have never had it cloud back up. I usually let it sit for another 5-7 days, then bottle.

 

[JoyofWine]

Thanks D.J.

 

[dangerdave]

DJ is correct. A real DB expert, there!

 

[dangerdave]

Out of town until Monday. Catch you all next week!

 

[dangerdave]

It's been a busy summer in the Lab. I made more wine this past winter than ever, giving me lots to bottle. Most of my racks are now full, but I'm having a hard time slowing down production. There's just so many wines I want to try!

Case in point: The batch I started yesterday was a variation on my Blue Macaw Tropical Fruit Wine. Using the presser method, I placed 8 lbs of mixed fruit (pineapple/mango/peach/strawberry) into a mesh bag for squeezing during fermentation. Instead of just the usual water/sugar base, I added 4 cans of frozen Old Orchard Pineapple/Orange Juice Concentrate plus enough water/sugar to bring it up to six gallons and a SG of 1.075. I pitched the 71B-1122 yeast this morning.

I also got some plain orange juice frozen concentrate, with the intention of making a DB variant with OJ instead of lemon juice. I've heard that is very good.

 

[jamesngalveston]

There is no keeping up with you...I just started a 3 gallon batch of strawberry /cantaloupe, and used orange juice instead of lemon also.

 

[dangerdave]

Very creative, James. Strawberry-cantaloupe. Interesting!

 

[dangerdave]

Out of town this week celebrating my 50th birthday. Keep wining, all! I'll catch up later.

<Ugh! Anticipating 500+ new posts to sort through upon my retrun>

 

[calvin]

Dave,

I just read this entire thread from start to finish. WOW! You make a lot if wine! Please keep it going as it is very interesting. I'd love to keep up with your rate of production but I don't think my wife would have it. I have my first batch of dragon blood clearing now. I would love to try another one of your recipes. What's your favorite??




Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[jamesngalveston]

all things db have been moved to here.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/dangerdaves-dragon-blood-wine-41825/index82.html#post492824

come join us.

 

[dangerdave]

Thanks for visiting the Lab, Calvin. And you, James, for fielding replies for me, as usual. I definately need to do a Lab update.

DB is certainly my favorate personal recipe. All the variations I have made have come out great. The straight blueberry or raspberry or blackberry are all good.

 

[dangerdave]

I haven't done much in the way of equipment or layout updates in the Lab since I got it set up the way I like it. By far, the two most useful items I have in here is my wonderful Allinone Wine Pump, and that handy Portuguese Floor Corker (which I use on the bench).

My red wines are running low, so I'm off to Luva Bella on Friday to pick up six buckets of juice. Camenere, Cab Sauv, Malbec, Zinfandel, Merlot, and one white for my wife---Gewurztraminer. I also recently ordered and recieved two buckets of frozen must: a Merlot and a Cab Sauv. These---with their grape skins and juices---will be used to enhance the body and flavor of the red juice buckets just like a grape skin pack in a high end wine kit. The Gewurztraminer will be enhanced with a 96oz can of Vintners Harvet Peach Wine Base, since my wife likes her wine more fruity. I've got oak and tannin on hand for further tweaking, if desired. This will also be my first adventure in blending red wines, so I've been researching ratios for my listed reds. I'll post more on those once I get to blending.

And I'm always making Dragon Blood. I just finished a triple batch...[yes, I know most of you have already seen these]...

The strange thing is that just last night I had a dream that I used a pack of the Merlot grape skins to enhance a batch of Dragon Blood. Supernal guidance? Perhaps. We shall see, because I am going to try it!

I got some brandy at the liquor store yesterday to top off my ports at their next racking (tomorrow). I'm excited about them---as they're my first ports. Orange Chocolate (from a kit) and the much anticipated Dragon Port (based on the DB recipe). Last time I tried them, they were both coming along nicely. I'll have to get some bottles set up for them soon. EZ Caps, maybe.

I'm going to try to keep things updated here more often. Just incase anyone is interested...

 

[the_rayway]

Wow Dave, those are some seriously beautiful carboys and wine bottles. The colour is fantastic!

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, here we go with the Chilean juices! One of my favorate times of year!

First off, in preperation for the Chilean juices, I wanted some grape skin packs to enhance flavor, tannins, and body. Doing a search online revealed nothing. Grape skin packs used to be hard to find. Now, they're virtually unavailable, literally. What I ended up getting was a couple of buckets of what is marketted as "frozen must" or "Frozen Italian Wine Grapes". I got mine through Midwest Supplies, under the name of Vino Superiore. I figured I would get mostly juice with some grapes, but what I got was two awesome buckets full of grapes and skins. Wonderful amounts of beautiful dark material in each bucket with some juice. I was very pleased at the appearence and smell of this product. These will be perfect for home made grape skin packs! I got a bucket of both Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It ended up being about $160 delivered for the two buckets, which took a couple of days sitting in the lab to thaw. A bit pricey, maybe? Let's see what I got for my money...

I stirred up the material and noticed some stems. Not too many, though. As I scooped out the skins into individual packs, I pulled out any and all sticks and stems. Don't want those in my packs, no sir! The measuring cup (below) shows all the stems I got from two buckets of skins. Less than I expected.

After I got it all devided up, here is what I ended up with. Six one gallon freezer bags (containing about 3/4 gallon each), with six more containers on the side about the same size, plus four big containers (about twice that size). Overall, I figure about 20 very generous grape skin packs for use with my wines! That's about $7.25US per pack! Far cheaper than the ones that used to sell on Ebay. I am very pleased! I kept five of the gallon baggies in the fridge for my Chilean juices, and commandeered one of our freezers for the remaining containers.

On to the Chilean juice buckets!

Ok, I returned home Saturday from Luva Bella with my aquired juice. Six buckets: Merlot, Carmenere, Malbec, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Gewurztraminer. I hauled them down to the Lab and left them until Monday (along with the baggies of grape skins) to reach room (Lab) temp. On Monday, I opened the buckets of juice and enjoyed the aromas. Perfect! I removed some of the juice from each of the red buckets to accommodate the skin packs and dumped this juice together into a three gallon fermenter (came up to about three gallons). I added two tsp of pectic enzyme to each of the reds, stirred and added the grape skin packs. The Carmenere, Cab Sav, and Zinfandel got cab sav skins, while the Merlot and Malbec got hearty packs merlot skins. The grape skins were placed into mesh bags and submerged in the buckets, gently stirred, and covered with their lids. The Gewurztraminer got a similar treatment. I removed some juice from it and put it in a one gallon jug to ferment separately, added some pectic enzyme to the must, and poured in a 96oz can of Vintners Harvest Peach Wine Base (juice and all, fruit in a bag). It smells great!

I clustered all the buckets together on the Lab workbench (sorry, no pics), covered the whole lot with an old electric blanket (to warm them up and kick-start fermentation), then an old comforter. It now looks like an ogre curled up, sleeping in the Lab. I also apologized in advance to my wonderful wife for the smell that was about to take over the house. I've never fermented this many buckets all at once. It should be epicly sinky!

My plan is to do some blending when these are done. A little research led me to some common ratios and some award winning blends using the wines I was making:

Smoking Cat: 66% Malbec and 34% Carmenere
Field of Poppies: 45% Cab Sav, 25% Carmenere, 10% each of Merlot, Malbec, and Zinfandel
Camelot: 50% Merlot and 50% Cab Sav

I'll do some more blends with what's left (any suggestions invited), and will bottle the remainder as straight varietals.

What a fun and rewarding hobby!!! Stay tuned for updates!

 

[Kraffty]

Keep updating on the juice buckets, I really want to do the same thing with california juices this sept/oct. Looks like a great start.
Mike

 

[ibglowin]

Dave, great idea if you can't get your hands on lugs of the real stuff to make your own. We are seeing grape packs currently on another site with a price tag of $20 ea plus shipping so well done!

 

[LoneStarLori]

This is a very impressive undertaking. I'll be anxiously awaiting updates. Great idea on the grape packs. Will you be selling those? lol

 

[bkisel]

I admire your industry and creativity. For me I just feel it is to late in life to even consider bringing my home wine making hobby to that level.

 

[Simpsini]

Dave – This is an excellent write-up on the juice buckets & the grape skins. Your working area looks really good. Obviously a lot of work went into it. I haven’t done a juice bucket yet, so I will be interested in how things turn out. Thanks for keeping us updated.