Dragons blood sulfur smell

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Interesting, i have an acid test kits, can i test and adjust acids when im nearing the end of the primary or am i too late?

I didnt even think about testing acid levels because this recipes so well used on this site.
 
Or if that lime squirt works on a glass, then the equivalent should work on the whole thing. Thanks for the tip zintrigue. I know you've done a few of these at this point. And the lime juice balancing out the medicinal taste (caused by the lemon?) somehow just seems to make sense.
This ones gonna be all about adjusting by taste for me.
 
Zintrigue, I only used 1 32oz bottle of lemon juice. I will try the lime and see what she thinks. thanks
 
Or if that lime squirt works on a glass, then the equivalent should work on the whole thing. Thanks for the tip zintrigue. I know you've done a few of these at this point. And the lime juice balancing out the medicinal taste (caused by the lemon?) somehow just seems to make sense.
This ones gonna be all about adjusting by taste for me.

So mine finished just shy of .990, im happy with that, has a nice smell now and deep color, hope it keeps its color after clearing.

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So mine finished just shy of .990, im happy with that, has a nice smell now and deep color, hope it keeps its color after clearing.

Rock and Roll!

I was also right about .990 and racked last night.
Though I ran into a few surprises. During my transfer, even though I went dry, the yeast was still active rising and dropping, and the lees was not at all compact. Long story short, after fighting all the junk, I just racked it ALL over. Figuring I'd let it settle and rack again in a day or so.
Even in the carboy I was still seeing all the activity and yeast doing its thing. This morning it had stopped and settled which was comforting. I suppose I rushed the transfer. But even at .990 It was still surprisingly active the rest of the night.

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The activity is probably c02. You might consider some serious degassing if you want to bottle in the next month or two. It'll also help it to clear. Did you add bentonite?
 
With the lees/sediment/yeast rising and dropping I just assumed it was more than just CO2. And No bentonite.
I re-racked tonight since it had compacted nicely. Still some fine lees. Left me with some headspace which I'm fine with. In carboy and in 1.5 L bottle.
And currently sitting. Will have to degas and add the chems this weekend because of free time. And I'll be using dual fine (chitosan & keilosol) to clear.
 
With the lees/sediment/yeast rising and dropping I just assumed it was more than just CO2. And No bentonite.
I re-racked tonight since it had compacted nicely. Still some fine lees. Left me with some headspace which I'm fine with. In carboy and in 1.5 L bottle.
And currently sitting. Will have to degas and add the chems this weekend because of free time. And I'll be using dual fine (chitosan & keilosol) to clear.

I vaccuum racked mine off the lees, vaccum degased and then degased again with the drill and whip, added the KC dual clear as well, looks and smells great, ill be seperating it in a week into 2 3 gallon carboys, sweetening one half, put the other half away in the dungeon to bulk age for a bit
 
I have a 6 gallon batch going as well, SG should drop below 1 tomorrow so I can remove the fruit pack. Am I the only one who stops to sniff my buckets every time I hit the kitchen?
 
I have a 6 gallon batch going as well, SG should drop below 1 tomorrow so I can remove the fruit pack. Am I the only one who stops to sniff my buckets every time I hit the kitchen?

Haha nope, this threads named after smelling our buckets everytime we hit the kitchen, i have a LE16 grenache cabernet w/skins and a rhubarb/strawberry wine in the primarys in the kitchen as we speak.
 
I have a 6 gallon batch going as well, SG should drop below 1 tomorrow so I can remove the fruit pack. Am I the only one who stops to sniff my buckets every time I hit the kitchen?


Haha. You are not alone. Tho DB is def a new type of smell to me and not what I'm used to. But I still love the smell of any primary
I decided to do this batch upstairs so I wouldn't be a ghost to the family on nights I worked on it. Ulterior motive was to get them to help too. Alas, no help. And They didn't love the smell like I do. I also commandeered my daughters bathroom and stained the rugs so that didn't help matters. They just don't get it.
 
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?

I pulled a small sample from my carboy today and id have to agree with the hot/medicinal taste, i didnt have lime juice but i added a few drops of lemon juice and it completely went away. Thank you for the tip.
 
I pulled a small sample from my carboy today and id have to agree with the hot/medicinal taste, i didnt have lime juice but i added a few drops of lemon juice and it completely went away. Thank you for the tip.


Hmmmm. So when we end up with a medicinal taste we know that a small addition of lime juice is a remedy. And now know lemon juice works as well.
So is it feasible to think that adding a dose of citric acid after primary might be a useful tweak in the recipe? Or is the fix coming from the natural sugars and it's just being sweetened a tad more? Are you able to do that same bench test with a touch of sugar also? Im curious to what part of the juices are actually making it happen.
I didn't plan to adjust for taste until after cleared and sweetened. As it sits now it doesn't smell like anything I'd consider drinking yet and I could see someone deeming it "medicinal". But I can't make any adjustments based on taste since i don't know what I'm working with yet.
 
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Haha. You are not alone. Tho DB is def a new type of smell to me and not what I'm used to. But I still love the smell of any primary
I decided to do this batch upstairs so I wouldn't be a ghost to the family on nights I worked on it. Ulterior motive was to get them to help too. Alas, no help. And They didn't love the smell like I do. I also commandeered my daughters bathroom and stained the rugs so that didn't help matters. They just don't get it.

What's with family not understanding our needs? Haha
 
Yo @Smok1 , how'd you make out with that DB sweetening? Did you end up leaving half dry and sweetening the other half? I've been clearing for a week and might sweeten tomorrow after our game (2nd round of girls 10u south jersey softball league!---no big deal)
I'm curious what you think of each.
 
Yo @Smok1 , how'd you make out with that DB sweetening? Did you end up leaving half dry and sweetening the other half? I've been clearing for a week and might sweeten tomorrow after our game (2nd round of girls 10u south jersey softball league!---no big deal)
I'm curious what you think of each.

Haha nice, we just finished 2nd place in boys u10 soccer tournement last weekend, i filtered and then bottled 12 bottles dry and then transfered the remaining to a 19 liter carboy and added 1 cup of lime juice and 1/2cup of simple syrup
 

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