Cherry/Lemon/Lime Dragon's Blood

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DirtyDawg10

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Since the wine smells and looks great to this point I decided to start my own thread instead of clogging up Dave's original thread with this stuff.

My Wife wanted me to try a Cherry flavored wine so I figured what better way then to experiment with a Dragon's Blood skeeter pee. I decided to go with a Cherry/Lemon/Lime. My original go around with the Dragon's Blood I added the full 96oz of citrus juice to the mix and the acid was a bit too much for me. I decided to cut the citrus back a bit and bump up the added fruit. On day one (10/25/12) here's what I added to my primary in order...

32oz of ReaLemon
16oz of ReaLime

Since I dropped the citrus juice I decided to add some cherry juice to make up for it. I went with...

64oz of 100% black cherry juice

I added water up to the five gallon mark and then bumped up the SG with granulated sugar to 1.085 stirred until fully dissolved. I then added the following...

1 tsp. tannin (stir)
4 tsp. yeast nutrient (stir)
2 tsp. yeast energizer (stir)
3 tsp. pectic enzyme (stir)

I brought the final level of the must up to the 6gal mark with water and then added more granulated sugar to keep the SG at 1.085. I wanted to bump up the fruit a bit more this time so in a mesh bag I added...

8.5lbs of frozen then thawed pitted dark sweet cherries

I added the bag to the must and squeezed and stirred it in. Then let it sit over night.

On day two (10/26/12) I pitched the hydrated EC-1118 yeast and stirred it up with the must. The extra fruit brought the level of the must up high in my primary so I wasn't able to snap down the lid as it was bubbling up into the airlock so I just set the lid on top this time. Here's what it looks like right now :D

dscf0001ug.jpg


I can't wait to try this one out. Today (10/29/12) I checked the SG and it's down to 1.050. Every day I stir up the must and squeeze the mesh bag a bit to keep things fermenting strong.
 
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I used Stop & Shop's Organic Nature's Promise 100% black cherry juice. They come in 32oz bottles.
 
Thanks for the info....although it'll be no help to me. There are no Stop & Shop stores in my area.
 
I never realized until I was searching for juice for this wine that many "cherry" juices are actually blended with other fruit. I'm guessing you could find it in a local grocery store but it may take some searching and/or calling around.
 
I've heard of that brand. I'll be on the look out. Thanks.

Yeah, apple juice is much cheaper so they cut the cherry with it.
 
RW Knudsen black cherry is at my Walmart $3.88 for 32 oz.

Please keep us up to date on this one.
 
Awesome, Derek! Looks like it's going well.

When I made the first batch of my Le Mon Cher (lemon cherry wine), I used dark sweet cherries (with the Dragon Blood Recipe) in place of the triple berries. The outcome was that I discovered the cherries do not impart very much---what we would call---"cherry" flavor. It came out more like a dry red wine, with moderate to heavy tannins. My wife, who hates dry red wines, said it tasted "buttery". To give it more of a standard "cherry" flavor, I backsweetened with some sugar and added a single packet of cherry Kool Aid. Johnna still doesn't like it, but I love it! It balanced out nicely.

I'm interested to hear how yours turns out. Good luck!
 
Awesome, Derek! Looks like it's going well.

When I made the first batch of my Le Mon Cher (lemon cherry wine), I used dark sweet cherries (with the Dragon Blood Recipe) in place of the triple berries. The outcome was that I discovered the cherries do not impart very much---what we would call---"cherry" flavor. It came out more like a dry red wine, with moderate to heavy tannins. My wife, who hates dry red wines, said it tasted "buttery". To give it more of a standard "cherry" flavor, I backsweetened with some sugar and added a single packet of cherry Kool Aid. Johnna still doesn't like it, but I love it! It balanced out nicely.

I'm interested to hear how yours turns out. Good luck!
That's interesting because I have a 6 month old mead 3 gallon batch with 2 lbs of dark cherries and 2 lbs of pineapples that I just sampled yesterday. The smell and taste of the cherries definitely have a major presence. It took a while for it to come forward but it eventually did.
 
Thanks for the input. I'm looking forward to trying this one. I'll let you know how it comes out.
 
That's interesting because I have a 6 month old mead 3 gallon batch with 2 lbs of dark cherries and 2 lbs of pineapples that I just sampled yesterday. The smell and taste of the cherries definitely have a major presence. It took a while for it to come forward but it eventually did.

Perhaps a result of my impatence. I'm working on my first mead right now. Yours sounds good!
 
I racked this to secondary tonight because it was at 0.998 SG. I'm gonna probably wait and stabilize and add the clearing agent tomorrow. I can't believe how dark this one is. I guess it is dark cherry but it is almost as dark as the merlot I'm making. Maybe that will change a bit during clearing. It smells super good!!
 
Today I added 1/4 teaspoon of k-meta and 3 tsp of sorbate. Stirred it up real well and degassed then I added the sparkolloid. OK so it's not as dark as the merlot but much darker than my original batch of Dragon's Blood. The merlot is on the right and in my son's old winter coat is the Cherry Dragon's Blood.
dscn5953z.jpg
 
I had a batch of Skeeter Pee that I made with 32 oz Key lime juice and 64 oz lemon juice. I added 32 oz Knudsen Just black cherry to a gallon jug and topped up with unsweeted SP. SG should be 1.016 but I haven't checked yet. It is really dark. The rest of the batch got regular back sweetening treatment.
 
Sg was 1.016. Wife says it's a little to tart. I added one ounce of sugar which should bring sg up to 1.019.
 

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