WMT (Unofficial) Dragon Blood Variant Contest

[fabrictodyefor]

Congratulations to all! It was fun to participate.....now I see I need to get a few more batches started to taste the winning wines!

 

[Kraffty]

I want to thank the judges for taking this little contest both in fun and in seriousness at the same time. Congratulations to Master Dave, of course, and to everyone who entered and gave it a shot.

What's next? A wine made only from berries naturally grown and harvested from along the Appalachian Trail?

I need to adjust my signature!
Mike

 

[Rodnboro]

Congratulations to DangerDave. You just can't beat him with Dragon Blood. Thanks to the judges and tasters for taking time to judge this. I will add my recipe here and submit a better one on the Recipe thread. All I did was make an original DB and back sweeten/flavor for the finish.

I made a 3 gallon batch of DangerDave's Dragon Blood with the following tweaks: 1. Used 32 oz. of lemon juice. 2. Starting gravity to 1.085. 3. Used RC-212 yeast. 4. Used Super Kleer.
All else followed his recipe.
I divided the 3 gallons to 3ea 1 gallons at this point to flavor each differently. The flavoring below is for 1 gallon.
At bottling: Remove 2 cups of wine from carboy.
Heat the 2 cups of wine and stir in 3ea. 6oz. boxes of Red Hots candy for 2 minutes.
Add the wine back to the carboy and stir. This will give the wine a bright red color.
Check the specific gravity. (at this point, mine was at 1.020, which is way too sweet for me, so I didn't try to flavor any further.) To give the wine a more "hot cinnamon" flavor, I would ferment as dry as possible and double the candy amount or shorten the mixing time. The candy added a lot more sugar than I thought it would. This was my first attempt so more experimentation is needed.
That's it. Just make an original DB like you like it and back sweeten/flavor with Red Hots candy.

 

[jensmith]

Hey I got 10 out of 10, thats really good right???
I have never made the original draggons blood. Maybe Danger Dave should have sent us all a sample bottle as a starting point.

I forgot there was a southerner on the judges pannel I guess I should have sent a stalk of rubarb with the wine. After one bite you would have thought my wine was sweet with no pucker power !
Rubard is a pernial northern early spring vegetable. Big thick stalks with huge poisonous leaves. Looks kinda like a burdock. We make rubarb pies and also mix it with strawberries and rasberries. It does have that mouth puckering ability. Usually cooked with lots of suger

I make 15-20 galleons of rubarb wine every year. For this wine I just blended the original BD with my basic rubarb wine. And used fresh squeezed limes instead of lemons. ( I like limes better note to self, strain the lime juice before adding! Those little lime peices escape all efforts of racking. However they are fun to watch bouncing up and down during fermentaion. I also was out of super kleer and was not able to get any. Rubarb is the one wine that refuses to clear for me on its own.

It was a fun event!


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[Boatboy24]

Congrats everyone.

 

[drumlinridgewinery]

Congrats everyone. Thanks for the feedback and the wonderful knowledge this site brings.

The label has a funny long story. I will make it short. I work for a corporate farm whose ownership is in Europe. About 3-4 years ago They were looking for an acronym for the farm I run for the computer program. I was suppose to go to the short meeting. I was busy and told my boss in Europe I did not care what it was. Glad I didnt go it was a 4 hour meeting and the acronym is WTF. The farm is in Watertown WI. We laugh every day about it. The Eupopeans get it now but then they did not. Several years later I came across the WTF post its and had to get some. I save them for special occasions like this.

 

[dangerdave]

I've been out of town celebrating my birthday, so I've was incommunicado at the finish of the contest.

Thank you all very much! My wife (Weeping Willow Wines, Manager of Quality Control) said it was a winner. The SST was one of the first few variations I made from the Dragon Blood Recipe. Johnna has been begging me for years to make another. Everyone knows I hate working with strawberries, and I was expecting to be edged out by someone. You are all very good wine makers, and I appreciate you all very much. What a great competition!

Now for the recipe...<drum roll>

Sweet Strawberry Tart
5/31/14 - To a 7 gallon fermenter, I added...20 cups of granulater sugar, 1 cup medium toasted French oak, 3 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 3 tsp pectic enzyme, 1 tsp wine tannin, 96oz of Real Lemon Juice, and water up to 5 gallons. Stirred vigorously until all was dissolved and well mixed. Attached brew belt for warmth. SG = 1.085. Added 15 lbs of thawed frozen strawberries in two mesh bags. Total volume came out a little over 6 gallons. Squeezed and stirred every day per DB recipe. Notes: I used more lemon juice than I normally do in my DB recipe because I wanted the final product to be nice and tart.

6/1/14 - Pitched 71B-1122 yeast.

6/7/14 - SG = 0.992. Added 1/4 tsp sulphite, 3 tsp sorbate, and 96oz ("Big Bucket") Strawberry Daiquiri Mix. Topped up with about 750ml original Dragon Blood. Added Super Klear

6/23/14 - Racked. After tasting, added 4 cups of sugar and 2oz Watkins Strawberry Extract. Added two drops of red food coloring. Note: I wanted a fuller strawberry flavor than I got with the fruit and mix, thus the added extract. I also wanted a deeper hue of pinkish-red, so added a little bit of color.

6/30/14 - Racked, filtered, and bottled, only to watch most of it disappear over 4th of July weekend.

Once again, thank you all very much! It has been a pleasure!

 

[calvin]

Thanks again Dave!

Where did you get the strawberry extract and daiquiri mix?

 

[jojabri]

View attachment 17773

Thanks again Dave!

Where did you get the strawberry extract and daiquiri mix?

I'm pretty sure most Wal-Marts (and most other grocers) carry the strawberry daiquiri "big buckets" in their mixers aisle with club soda, etc. I can't think of the brand, but I know my local Wally world carries it.

Watkins extract should be with the spices. It's a very common extract brand, so there shouldn't be any problem finding that.

 

[dangerdave]

Gina is correct. Walmart carries the strawberry extract, as well as many others. I find keeping a selection of extracts around makes certain flavor adjustments easy. Some wines are harder to get that flavor profile you want.

The "Big Bucket" was a last resort, as I could not find the Daily's Strawberry Daiquiri Mix I wanted. The Daily's is a much better quality. If I had it, I might not have had to add the extract to boost the flavor. Worked out well, anyway.

 

[jojabri]

The postman says there should be goodies arriving Thursday or Friday.

Just sayin'... keep an eye out...

 

[calvin]

Hope this works

 

[dangerdave]

I keep some of the Brewers Best varieties around, too. Quality products.

When you go to flavor at the end (if need), you are shooting for balance. Just like your sugar, start with a little (like 1 oz in six gallons) and work your way up. Ignore the label doseage. Go with what taste best to you.

Good luck!

 

[dangerdave]

Now what will we do? Any suggestions for the next contest?

 

[jojabri]

Now what will we do? Any suggestions for the next contest?

So many options....

"candy" wines, skittles, candy canes, jelly beans, etc.
"Taste of Summer" contest - to be judged in the dead of winter
Half concentrate/half fruit blend
Jams & Jellies
Coffee/Tea
Made with bread yeast
Made with slurry yeast
"Shooting for Boone's Farm"
Veggie wines

I'm sure I could think of more. Sorry about being so "out there," but I totally dig creativity.

Creativity is sexy... just look at Einstein.

 

[jensmith]

How about a wild picked wine? I just started a wild elderberrie wine and a wild cherry wine. Picking autumn olives and gone wild grapes next.

Or better yet, what type of wine do the judges like? Or want to try? It would really suck to judge a wine contest of a style you hated....


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[dangerdave]

I have never met a wine I couldn't appreciate for what it was. I'm just not a particular guy, even being a particular guy.

It would be a good time of year for wild varietals, but I don't know how much access our city friends would have. We could go with Gina's take and have a Creativity Contest, looking for wine "outside the norm".

Just rolling with the ideas.

 

[calvin]

The candy wine contest sounds the most interesting to me. I have never attempted one, but I would be a sport and give it my all.

The wild sounds good but I don't know where I would get enough wild fruit. Most of the berries are done around here. We have already had a couple hard frosts.

 

[drumlinridgewinery]

Wild I would be into.

 

[Rodnboro]

I'm open to anything. The above ideas sound good. I assume we need a wine that wouldn't need a year or more of aging.
Some more ideas:
Fresh Berries (would have to wait for next spring/summer)
Your official state fruit (also would have to wait)
Mist style kit tweaked to your liking
Tropical
Citrus
Holiday (Thanksgiving/Christmas)