Dragons blood sulfur smell

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Thank you for your post, it was informative but what are the 7 p's lol, i got

Ph

Nutrients

Temps

Haha


Glad I'm not the only who had no idea what that meant. Maybe it was a typo. Remember the 7 p's = remember the 70's. And then assume The 70s was when home winemakers started experimenting with yeast strains and figured out ph thresholds and temps and nutrients. It was the Age of Enlightenment for yeast.
Otherwise we only got 1 out of 7 p's from the wiseman.
Also careful with not sweetening some DB. Different strokes for different folks. But that's a new one to hear. Psychological sweetness?! Haha. Use the force! I like it. And creative. "If you think it, it will sweeten". I planned on bringing it to 1.008 ish and then taste from there. Or I could use the force.
And @zintrigue, the copper on the spoon is a good idea, but can that also hurt the wine in any way? And did you ever find out what caused that oil spill film?
 
"Anyway, your ferment sounds like its gone well. Don't rush it or worry too much,

, i never back sweeten my db or fruit wines. I dont mind dry wine, but i find the fruit flavor comes through even after a month in glass and creates a psychological sweetness (which probably sounds ridiculous but its true for me)."
Theres a qute from pip here

Ive noticed that wine that manages to last a while seems sweeter as time goes by, I back sweeten often, and prefer sweeter wine, but wish id added less on a couple.
It also seems no matter how many batches I have going or have finnished, I can t cant learn the effects of aging with out actually waiting for it to age.
And with that said im not certain if the wine is changing or if its me. Learning how to taste, what to taste for and what to drink when.
Ive started bottling some dry before back sweetening now, to compare.
 
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Well if more fruit comes through in about a month after sweetening, I would deduce the same thing happens if left dry too. Do you know what the SG was when you sweetened that ended up being too much ?
That's been my big bugaboo, not wanting to accidentally oversweeten. But I'd be very hesitant to leave it dry given the endless DB threads I've read.
 
Shot for 1.010 with apple but got 1.014. 1.010 would have been plenty
Cranberry was bottled without testing. Had good sweetness before I blended a gallon with lees from jaom. The blend was amazing but the hole that was filled took away the need for sweetness. Forgot to test last time I opened a bottle. But I expect its similar
The lesson I got here was, more car boys for bulk aging are in order. Saving some back to dilute with.
 
Thanks. That's some great info. This seems to be a guessing game, not knowing how much more sweetness will come forward later.
I've never done fruit wine or had to backsweeten until this batch.
The consensus seems to be make a few batches until you find your own "sweet spot" and recipe to your liking.
 
I gave a friend a bottle of my DB from a second 3 gallon batch i made with double fruit. It was bottled about a month ago. He told me he did not like it at all, that it was too fruity sweet and harsh. I then opened a bottle and i have to agree. I really do not like it at all either. I really cant put my finger on it right now, but to me it was harsh but not too sweet. I think i back sweetened to about 1.006 but i have to review my notes to make sure.

My first batch I made with the original recipe i think was better and i got a lot of good reviews of it. I still have a few bottles of that one, so i will have to crack one open and compare them. Has anyone else had that problem when they added more fruit to the batch?
 
I gave a friend a bottle of my DB from a second 3 gallon batch i made with double fruit. It was bottled about a month ago. He told me he did not like it at all, that it was too fruity sweet and harsh. I then opened a bottle and i have to agree. I really do not like it at all either. I really cant put my finger on it right now, but to me it was harsh but not too sweet. I think i back sweetened to about 1.006 but i have to review my notes to make sure.

My first batch I made with the original recipe i think was better and i got a lot of good reviews of it. I still have a few bottles of that one, so i will have to crack one open and compare them. Has anyone else had that problem when they added more fruit to the batch?

...still sitting here waiting for you to crack that bottle open and tell us which ones better

Im hoping mines not harsh, i only added sugar to 1.080sg, so it should only end up 9% abv or so im thinking, im thinking making a strawberry simple syrup to backsweeten half and leave the other half dry.
 
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I was under the impression from reading some oher forums that doubling the fruit would make it less harsh as youd have more of the natural fruit sugars and less of the white sugar you have to add to get the sg up.
 
...still sitting here waiting for you to crack that bottle open and tell us which ones better ��

Im hoping mines not harsh, i only added sugar to 1.080sg, so it should only end up 9% abv or so im thinking, im thinking making a strawberry simple syrup to backsweeten half and leave the other half dry.

Wow! You really sweetened yours!
 
So I have a question for all, I just finished bottling a 5 gal batch of DB. Color is beautiful, smells awesome, to me tastes perfect, like the label says, Triple berries. My wife however says there is a medicinal or metallic taste which I can't pick up. Any ideas or are her taste buds a bit off?
 
So I have a question for all, I just finished bottling a 5 gal batch of DB. Color is beautiful, smells awesome, to me tastes perfect, like the label says, Triple berries. My wife however says there is a medicinal or metallic taste which I can't pick up. Any ideas or are her taste buds a bit off?

Of course it taste good to you, you made it haha, my wine always taste great to me. Not sure about the metallic taste but as for the medicinal taste my doctor always tells me a glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away, so it is medicinal as far as im concerned, and being the health nut i am i always double up on what my doctor recommends, he recomends one... i go over and beyond for my health and have two, or a few.
 
Ok @Smok1, what's it gonna be. This thread is filled with all different ideas on the sweetening front.
I'm down to 1.002. And in a happy accident I ended up with about 5.75 gal instead of 5 gal So I'll be able to play around with the overage. I'll probably yield another 2.5 liters. I like to use old chianti bottles (with the wicker around them) when I can and this will work out well with a 1.5L bottle and 1L bottle likely.
I can experiment the sweetening with those. Did you add any lemon juice to your primary ? I used only 32 oz. and at this point I have absolutely no clue how much or how little I plan to sweeten.
Originally planned on 1.008. May go higher on one of the overage bottles and leave dry on the other. But now this thread has me second guessing everything.
 
Ok @Smok1, what's it gonna be. This thread is filled with all different ideas on the sweetening front.
I'm down to 1.002. And in a happy accident I ended up with about 5.75 gal instead of 5 gal So I'll be able to play around with the overage. I'll probably yield another 2.5 liters. I like to use old chianti bottles (with the wicker around them) when I can and this will work out well with a 1.5L bottle and 1L bottle likely.
I can experiment the sweetening with those. Did you add any lemon juice to your primary ? I used only 32 oz. and at this point I have absolutely no clue how much or how little I plan to sweeten.
Originally planned on 1.008. May go higher on one of the overage bottles and leave dry on the other. But now this thread has me second guessing everything.

A chianti bottle, interesting, i have one of those as well, i might just clean it up. I also only used 32oz of lemon juice, looks like our recipes are pretty bang on except for the different yeast i started out with, wish we could swap a bottle after to tatse the difference. I ended up with about 6 gallons, i think im gonna stabalize and clear the whole batch first and wait it out a couple weeks in a 6 gallon carboy, then im gonna tranfser 1/2 into a 3 gallon carboy dry and let it sit in my wine dundgeon for a month or so, the other half i have a 4 gallon carboy ill transfer it into and use a raspberry f-pack i have left over from one of those mist kits. Im hoping to get my sg down below .995 before taking it out of the primary, ill check it today as soon as im off work. Ill probly sweeten it to 1.000 or slightly above and then put it in the wine dungeon for a few weeks and give it a taste.
 
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So just checked the sg, im at 1.000 right now, i removed the fruit bag, stirred it up real good and now ill leave for a couple days to finish up the fermentation without stirring to hopefully settle out the lees before racking. And the smell i was smelling is completely gone now, just smells like wine now. Its possible i just paniced due to only ever being familiar with the smell of fermenting concentrated grapes from kits up to this point.
 
I think we will both be able to go below .995 with the EC-1118 pitched. I'm about to do the same thing with my fruit as well, which is not much of a fruit bag after a week of primary and daily squeezing.
Did u use any lemon juice?
 
I think we will both be able to go below .995 with the EC-1118 pitched. I'm about to do the same thing with my fruit as well, which is not much of a fruit bag after a week of primary and daily squeezing.
Did u use any lemon juice?

Yep 32oz, same as you. The only other thing i didnt add from the recipe was the tannin, i bought it, thought about it, and decided not to use it. I dont know alot about the science behind using tannin and ive never hesitated to use it in my red kits if they came with it but i do know the word tannin comes from oak tree and somthing about oaking my berry wine didnt feel right to me And yeah my fruitbag went from "how the hell am i gonna fit all this fruit in this bag" to about the size of a softball

Oh one more thing, ive decided not to add sorbate yet either as i dont want sorbate in my dry half. So ill rack, clear, let sit a few weeks, then split it into 2 smaller carboys, let the dry age a bit in the carboy. And ill add sorbate at that time to the other half and backsweeten the other half.
 
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So I have a question for all, I just finished bottling a 5 gal batch of DB. Color is beautiful, smells awesome, to me tastes perfect, like the label says, Triple berries. My wife however says there is a medicinal or metallic taste which I can't pick up. Any ideas or are her taste buds a bit off?

I've noticed this as well, she's not crazy (and apparently I'm not either).

I had someone suggest using less lemon juice during primary, but it's not the acid level I'm tasting, it's something else. And, interestingly, I found that adding a squirt of lime juice to a glass of dragon blood smooths the medicinal taste away. So perhaps that's indicative that more acid is needed?
 

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