Dragon Blood in 15 days!!!

[keena]

Be careful, anytime I've seen sediment in a wine that started clear when bottling it has meant refermentation had begin!

 

[Dend78]

update to my dragons blood variant - yeast pitched 8/11/12 the entire batch is now drinkable as of 9/4/12 so just short of a month

 

[southlake333]

update to my dragons blood variant - yeast pitched 8/11/12 the entire batch is now drinkable as of 9/4/12 so just short of a month

Yep, that sounds about right. It'll smooth out more in time but that first month is key.

 

[southlake333]

Be careful, anytime I've seen sediment in a wine that started clear when bottling it has meant refermentation had begin!

Definitely not refermentation. I used kmeta and sorbate and none of the bottles are carbonated at all. Its just stuff falling out of what I had thought was clear. From now on, everything stays in carboys for at least 2 months. I'm also going to start filtering everything to make my wine shine.

My skills get better with every batch but dang...there sure is alot to learn.

 

[FlashJT]

Just bottled my first "dragon blood" batch last night. 3 weeks to the day of starting it. I wanted to get it in the bottle this week because i'm going on a sailing trip next week and want to bring some along. It looks pretty darn clear so I'm hoping mine doesn't put out a lot of sediment over the coming weeks/months. I did rack each week (once to carboy, and once last week). There was still a fair amount of sediment in the carboy yesterday, but I was VERY careful when racking to a cleaned/sanitized bucket for sweetening/bottling. I'm usually not in such a hurry and have no problems leaving things sit for 2-3 months (or more) before bottling, so hopefully this time doesn't burn me.

Here's a picture of the leftovers from last night that didn't get bottled:

 

[tatud4life]

That stinks! Mine ended up just under a month from pitching the yeast to bottling. No sediment in mine still. Mine cleared after the 15days but I didn't have time to bottle it until later. One thing that may be an issue is I try to rack the wine off the sediment once it clears and let it sit another week or so before bottling. If you try to bottle with the sediment still in the carboy it is very easy to stir up the sediment and end up bottling some.

I agree. This happened to me. I should have known better, but, since it was my first attempt at this recipe, I'll chalk it up to rookie mistakes. Lol. The next batch will sit for a month longer once I rack after clearing.

 

[southlake333]

That stinks! Mine ended up just under a month from pitching the yeast to bottling. No sediment in mine still. Mine cleared after the 15days but I didn't have time to bottle it until later. One thing that may be an issue is I try to rack the wine off the sediment once it clears and let it sit another week or so before bottling. If you try to bottle with the sediment still in the carboy it is very easy to stir up the sediment and end up bottling some.

I was really careful when racking and it was completely clear when I bottled it. Let me know how yours ends up looking in another month. BTW, the pic I took was after picking up the bottle from laying on its side. So all sediment got mixed back in. If I let it sit on a table for a while, everything would just settle to the bottom. Still, its something I want to avoid in future batches.

 

[dessertmaker]

Nate, you can still add bentonite, there are some winemakers who argue that bentonite is actually more effective when added later. I don't know personally because I always use bentonite first but I'll bet if you research it further you'll find some instructions on adding bentonite after primary.

 

[dessertmaker]

Anybody ever try dragons blood with fermentis cotes de blancs yeast?

I've got a bunch of packs left over from making hard cider and I'm thinking about using it, but I want my wine ready in 15 days and drinkable in a month like some of these posts.

 

[smack]

Anybody ever try dragons blood with fermentis cotes de blancs yeast?

I've got a bunch of packs left over from making hard cider and I'm thinking about using it, but I want my wine ready in 15 days and drinkable in a month like some of these posts.

i've made it with yeast other than EC1118. it'll still turn out great. EC1118 is a notoriously fast fermenter, so if you used cotes de blancs, it may or may not be ready in the same record breaking time. as you're seeing from some posts, even using EC1118 doesn't guarantee the "15 day" process. other things are involved like temperature, and acidity. your water source will affect your ferment, so even if you do everything "right," 15 days may not (and probably won't) be the right time for you to bottle. I'd say use the cotes de blancs, and then just monitor your SG, observe for clarity, and practice all your other good wine making technique. remember, extra time is almost always a good thing, dont rush.

 

[dessertmaker]

I know extra time is supposed to be a good thing, but I'm actually OUT of drinkable wine right now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smack]

I know extra time is supposed to be a good thing, but I'm actually OUT of drinkable wine right now!!!!!!!!!!!

well shoot, you can drink it in a week! it's just about as alcoholic as its going to get after about that long. it just wont be clear. clarity is really just a nuance, and an unnecessary nicety. you can make lots of drinkable stuff in two weeks or less, just dont enter it into any competitions. pm me if you'd like my grandfather's malt liquor recipe, ready in two weeks or less and requires no carboy.no but seriously, you should let your wine clear. if you're out of drinkable wine, go buy some thirteen-dollar-per-gallon carlo rossi or similar brand and then when its done, you've also bought yourself a nice 1 gallon glass jug which will pay for itself over and over again in one gallon batches, experiments, or times when you cant exactly fill up your other larger carboys...like this

 

[dangerdave]

JJ, sorry you're having sediment problems. It is the big issue with rapid bottling. I see you are wise enough to let it sit a bit longer to clear out more. It does make a difference. The original post, here, was when I was in a hurry, and it all got consumed before anything fell out in the bottle. It's nice to know that you can whip up a batch in a few weeks if necessary, but it's best to let it sit and clear thoroughly.

Perhaps I should have stated this as a disclaimer real on...

 

[bobrap]

Just wondering about how days you guys are leaving the fruit in before you pull it?

 

[smack]

Just wondering about how days you guys are leaving the fruit in before you pull it?

Personally, I've been fermenting to dry in the primary, and leaving the fruit in and stirring daily the whole time. Once its dry, I pull the fruit, wait a day or two for the solids to settle, and then rack to a carboy. That's just me.

 

[dangerdave]

Just wondering about how days you guys are leaving the fruit in before you pull it?

I usually pull mine out after five days, or when the fruit becomes emaciated like a bag of dry raisins. I've left the fruit in before, as smack says, but have noticed no difference in body or flavor after this point. Personal choice.

 

[smack]

I usually pull mine out after five days, or when the fruit becomes emaciated like a bag of dry raisins. I've left the fruit in before, as smack says, but have noticed no difference in body or flavor after this point. Personal choice.

Very true. I have been hoping that every extra day might in some way affect the color to some deeper shade.

 

[bobrap]

Ok, thanks guys. It's been in primary for almost a week and still bubbling like crazy. Really looking forward to this first batch. Made a batch of Skeeter Pee using a slurry a friend had. He grew some "local Tennessee grapes", as he called them. It was a mix of white and red. Skeeter Pee came out looking and tasting like pink lemonaide!

 

[tucson]

Carbonate and use beer bottles

Getting ready to do my first batch and my son in law bottles beer and has a ton of bottles (he now kegs his beer). Was wondering if I Bottle and cap like beer would it work and what would I do to give it a little fizz?

 

[Boatboy24]

Getting ready to do my first batch and my son in law bottles beer and has a ton of bottles (he now kegs his beer). Was wondering if I Bottle and cap like beer would it work and what would I do to give it a little fizz?

It's an expensive option, but you could use a Sodastream machine.

I'm curious about these too, but haven't tried them:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006CQ4ERG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20