My First Dragon Blood!

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Pumpkinman

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I had to try it out, every time
I read a post telling us how good it is, my mouth watered!
I am following DangerDave's recipe, but I have a few questions:

The Recipe is as follows:
Step 1: To a cleaned and sanitized seven gallon primary, add---in this order:
2 bottles (48 oz each) 100% Lemon Juice (ReaLemon in the green bottle): if you want to recude the acid level use one bottle.
Water to about five gallons
20 cups of white granulated sugar (looking for a SG btw 1.085-1.09 after filling to 6 gallons*): use less sugar for lower final ABV. Stir sugar until completely desolved.
1 tsp. tannin (stir)
4 tsp. yeast nutrient (stir)
2 tsp. yeast energizer (stir)
3 tsp. pectic enzyme (stir)
Top water to six (6) gallons* (looking for a SG btw 1.085-1.09) and stir well



  • For Yeast Nutrient - is GoFerm acceptable?
  • For Yeast Energizer - will Fermaid K work?
  • Also, just to be clear, add both of them before the yeast?
  • The Recipe states to let sit undisturbed for 12-24 hrs, is this to let it come up to temp before pitching the yeast, or is there another reason?
    (I'm not questioning the recipe at all, just curious if I could pitch the yeast when temps reached 75°-80°, this heat mat will have it up to temp within 2-3 hrs.

That Nylon bag was hard to pull closed before I squeezed it a few times.
The bottom pic shows how I bring thing up to temp fairly quick and maintain 75° - 80°, I use a Seedling Heat Mat these are obviously used in the gardening industry to germinate seeds, but they work real well for fermenting buckets and carboys. The main difference between these and the belts is the size, these heat the entire bucket or carboy. I used a network patch cable to keep it tight against the bucket, that's just what I had laying around, you can use anything, when it gets up to temp, I'll take the cable off so it just maintains the temp that I want.

IMAG0853_resize.jpg

IMAG0863_resize.jpg
 
Nice picture.

Goferm is rehydration nutrient. Not really what you want to be using for the long run I dont think. However, your fermaid K will work great for nutrient. As far as energizer I am not so sure. BTW r hydrating the yeast with go ferm is always a good idea. ( :
 
Holy lord! Fermenting activity after 4 hrs of pitching Yeast and Goferm slurry! 83° seems to be a Sweet spot for this batch of dragon Blood. I think I'll remove the heat mat for a few hrs so we don't get it fermenting too fast...hmmmm....could we get Dragon Blood in 14 days...LMAO...ONLY JOKING!!!!
 
Pumpkinman said:
hmmmm....could we get Dragon Blood in 14 days.....

Hahaha! I see we are both instigators.


It looks awesome. Love the seed mat idea. Time to pull mine out of the shed.
 
Thanks! Those seed mats rock, I had to remove mine for a few hrs...any more than 89° and the yeast I'm using (Lalvin QA23) will be very unhappy.

Tom
 
I'm sure it will work out fine, Tom. It looks good! To answer one of your questions, the 24 hour period of rest before pitching the yeast has two purposes. It gives time for the pectic enzyme to start working on the fruit, and it gives the preservatives in the lemon juice time to dissipate before the yeast goes to work.

You are going to love this stuff! Good luck! :br
 
Dave,
Thanks for the reply, I didn't even consider the preservatives in the lemon.
It smells amazing, as of this morning, the SG dropped from 1.090 - 1.070, of course I had to "text" it.....it is nice!
 
The Dragon Blood is smoking along at a fast pace, I started on the 17th with an SG of 1.090, today it is at 1.030, it is really wild, it is ferment so strong that it almost looks like it is at a low boil! DangerDave hit it on the head with the temps, I am maintaining a constant 80°-83°, the only addition to the recipe that I made were:

  • I used GoFerm when I Hydrated the yeast, 1.25 g per gram of yeast.
  • The Yeast I used is Lalvin QA23 & Lavlin 71B -1122 blend, 5g to 1g ratio
  • I added 1 tsp Fermaid K, split into 3 applications, once daily after the initial drop in SG

At this rate I should be able to rack it off to a carboy in a day or two, and start clarifying it.
 
Dragon Blood SG at 1.000, racked, degassed best I could by hand...Yeck!, meta, sorbate, sparkolloid added.
one week or so to go! Not bad for 5 days!
 
I use my seedling mat underneath my buckets and carboys and it maintains 75-80 constant depending on the room temp. I use a thermostat on mine so not sure if it would go above 80 this way or not. took 14 hrs to bring 18 cans of frozen concentrate must up to 75, after starting at 58.
 
The seedling mat I used on this is a rather large one 48" x 20", I wrapped the mat around the bucket. I have 2 of them that big, I used it on the juice buckets to bring them up to temp a bit faster as well.

If anyone is interested in them, I can see what kind of pricing I can get them at from my distributor.
Tom
 
It's going great! It is very clear, Sparkolloid rocks, much faster than Super Kleer KC.
I'm waiting on the full week as per your instructions (3 more days) before I back-sweeten and bottle it up!
9 days so far, I can't wait to try it back sweetened!
Tom
 
Dave, my lord! we opened the Dragon Blood last night, it was amazing, my wife loves it, heck, I love it!
It's time to make another batch, I am considering a batch of the version you made with honey, replacing the sugar, is it that much better than the original?
Can you post the link to the recipe, I'd like to check it out.
Thanks!!
 
Another convert! Glad you like it, Tom. Make sure you stash a few bottles, and try them in a couple of months. It only gets better!

Yes, the DB melomel is remarkable! I think you'll like it. I've tasted mine several times since back sweetening several weeks ago, and am going to bottle it this week, I think. My wife likes it very much. She's my chief taster! ;)
 
Dave, a few questions:
Did you back sweeten you Melomel with sugar or Honey?
What are your thoughts on adding re-hydrated raisins to the fermenting bucket? This would add a bit more mouth feel and another flavor to the melomel.
I look forward to your reply.
Tom
 

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