Dragon's Blood

[TimmyT]

All my stuff came in but all I could find at the store was strawberries. Could I just use strawberries with the same recipe and get decent results?

 

[wildhair]

If all you have are strawberries, then I would use a strawberry wine recipe instead of the Dragon's Blood. This one uses frozen strawberries -
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request162.asp

I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the Dragon's Blood recipe. but with just strawberries, which have a weaker flavor profile - I would make a much smaller batch and increase the fruit.

 

[olusteebus]

you could add five or more bottles of seedless strawberry jam. Actually you may want to double that. Maybe someone would chime in.

 

[wildhair]

I'm not so sure about adding jam. You ADD pectin to jam to make it jell - not sure how that would work in wine where pectin can cause a haze.

 

[PandemoniumWines]

It’s fine to use jam or jelly to make wine, you just use a lot of pectic enzyme.

 

[wildhair]

Good to know, I've wondered about that. I suppose you could also dissolve it with a little water - like a syrup almost - and using it for boosting flavor in the late stages of the ferment.

 

[olusteebus]

I used blackberry jam with two cans of alexanders Cabernet Sauvignon and it was great.

 

[wrongway]

I have been holding off with making Blackberry wine as the blackberries are expensive here! Never crossed my mind to use jam! Thanks

 

[meadmaker1]

Wild black berries are invasive weeds where i live.
They are given credit for 70% of honey production from hives not involved in commercial pollination.

 

[wrongway]

Very interesting! I guess I will just have to visit Oregon!

 

[wildhair]

Wild black berries are invasive weeds where i live.
They are given credit for 70% of honey production from hives not involved in commercial pollination.

Are those the HUGE blackberries with the nasty thorns? My daughter lives in WA - they have those all over the place. Very tasty, very juicy, VERY big berries. I wish we had those here in WI.

 

[TimmyT]

Must has been below 1.0000 for 3 days, should I rack it now or wait longer?

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Must has been below 1.0000 for 3 days, should I rack it now or wait longer?

If it's been steady for 3 days it's time to rack it.

 

[dangerdave]

For the summer, I make a strawberry version of DB called Sweet Strawberry Tart. I use some extra lemon juice, and—as implied above—add some flavor at the end. I like using natural strawberry extract to give it that nice berry kick. When finished, it tastes much like strawberry lemonade. My wife, Johnna, loves it!

 

[Arne]

Are those the HUGE blackberries with the nasty thorns? My daughter lives in WA - they have those all over the place. Very tasty, very juicy, VERY big berries. I wish we had those here in WI.

Give you an excuse to go visit her during blackberry season. I have to go to the daughters for chokecherries, wild plums, pears and other goodies. Course they only live about 60 miles away. Easy to get there. Arne.

 

[Arne]

For the summer, I make a strawberry version of DB called Sweet Strawberry Tart. I use some extra lemon juice, and—as implied above—add some flavor at the end. I like using natural strawberry extract to give it that nice berry kick. When finished, it tastes much like strawberry lemonade. My wife, Johnna, loves it!

Hi Dave,
Havn't seen ya around in quite a while. Might of just missed your posts, but good to see ya again. Arne.

 

[meadmaker1]

Are those the HUGE blackberries with the nasty thorns? My daughter lives in WA - they have those all over the place. Very tasty, very juicy, VERY big berries. I wish we had those here in WI.

If you've been West of the cascades in Oregon or Washington you've seen them. If you gotten off the trail here then yes the thorns are huge. They make good jelly because sugar makes every thing good. But they taste a bit flat and sort of dull. Marion berries are actually a little bigger and have a sharper taste, my guess , and I'll test it this year, is the acid and or ph is higher in Marion berries. But the others are free for the picking every where by the ton.

 

[TimmyT]

Hi Dave,
Havn't seen ya around in quite a while. Might of just missed your posts, but good to see ya again. Arne.

That's kind of what I'm hoping it comes out as haha.

 

[willie]

For the summer, I make a strawberry version of DB called Sweet Strawberry Tart. I use some extra lemon juice, and—as implied above—add some flavor at the end. I like using natural strawberry extract to give it that nice berry kick. When finished, it tastes much like strawberry lemonade. My wife, Johnna, loves it!

Hey Dave happy to see you on here. We made 2, 6 gal. batches of your Sweet Strawberry Tart last month.
Hope you are enjoying your retirement. I know I sure am. Been 5 years now. It's the absolute truth that time goes faster as you age. lol

Will

 

[TimmyT]

Hi Dave,
Havn't seen ya around in quite a while. Might of just missed your posts, but good to see ya again. Arne.

I used 9 pounds of strawberry and 60 oz of lemon juice, I racked it over to secondary yesterday anything I can do to maybe make it more like this or it is what it is at this point.