The problem here is that we are your only support group, but there is not a single one among us that is not an enabler.
DangerDave's Dragon Blood Wine
- Thread starter dangerdave
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The problem here is that we are your only support group, but there is not a single one among us that is not an enabler.
Well.. Thank you, it's entirely my pleasure!
We will have to "up our game" a bit so that next time you actually do pee yourself!
OH OH OH (yelling) .... I have a nice foam top fermenting. The smell is awesome and the color is not a blush but a darker red.
I started with a 1.076 sg and we are now at 1.048 so its making Dragons Blood triple berry wine! I feel more like a vintner tonight than I ever did with the Island Mist wine kits. Exciting times for my first Dragons Blood.
OH ... its about to get real at my house! Pitched the yeast on my Dragons Blood on 10-27 at 1.076 sg and today 10-31 we are at 1.012 sg. Things are moving right along with fermentation and I'm guessing it will be less than 7 days now. I started re-reading this forum (at page 145 now) and hope not to return to the days of Island Mist fruit wine kits or last least for a long while. The triple berry will be great but the possibilities of just a blackberry or raspberry by adding fruit and some extract have peaked my interest.
Also working on my Dragons Blood bottle etched and vinyl labels.
Also working on my Dragons Blood bottle etched and vinyl labels.
Interesting. I started mine on the 23rd and as of yesterday it was 1.020. Although I did try to keep the house cooler to slow it down. It's been 62-65 degrees most of those days. The DB has been fermenting right around 70 degrees. What's been your temp?
Edit: Actually, that reading was on Saturday. I pulled the berries and oak and capped it. It's bubbling away now until I check it next weekend.
Right at 78* wrapped up in a blanket. I am doing a hard stir and a lighter stir one time per day 12 hrs apart. 8lbs of triple berries from Sam's and it smells amazing.
My last raspberry kit from Island Mist did not turn out very well. I had a lot of sediment in the bottle although it was bottled clear. Probably started fermenting again in the bottle and its obvious I made some mistakes along the way. I'm anxious to try another Dragons Blood with raspberry and adding the extract for added flavor. We are headed to warmer weather at the end of Dec so another DB has to wait until 2023.
Last night and today my ferment has been at .992 ... think it would be ok to start the next process of K-meta, Sorbate, and Degas? The other option is to wait one more day but I'm not sure there is value in waiting.
I would carry on and get it into secondary.
Probably, but It's hard to say without a couple of details. Did you remove the fruit bag and discontinue stirring to let the lees settle? That way when you rack into the carboy, less gunk will get transferred. The other main main consideration at this point is the degassing part. You can't rack it all into the carboy and degass, you'll overflow. You can rack half and half into 2 carboys and degass each of those, then fill up one with the other. When I was low on carboys, I racked it off the lees into the carboy, rinsed the pail really well, racked it back into the pail and degassed there. Then racked back into the carboy for clearing.
One point about degassing that you probably already know, but it's worth mentioning since the weather is getting cooler. Your wine will degass better at higher temperature. If you have a brew belt or some other warming device, you may want to bring the temp up to around 70 something.
I don't find degassing to be much to worry about. The drill attachment works well and time does the rest. Its a good point not to Degass in a full carboy unless you enjoy mopping.
This might be something to consider with a quick wine like DB. I got the idea from another member. I was waiting to set up a filter, and now my back is out so I'm not lifting a carboy till it smartens up. the bottling I started last week is on hold. Because I have excess headspace from racking and tasting I have my carboys under vacuum. You can get a little hand pump for 30 bucks. If you start your degass with a drill and put the wine under vacuum for a week you will have no concerns with excess co2. I had the pex valves in my plumbing supplies. I just stuck them in a regular stopper with a hole, pump up some vacuum, shut the valve and it will hold. As it degasses the vacuum will fall a bit, I pump them back up once a day for the first week.then they settle when gas is no longer released.
This might be something to consider with a quick wine like DB. I got the idea from another member. I was waiting to set up a filter, and now my back is out so I'm not lifting a carboy till it smartens up. the bottling I started last week is on hold. Because I have excess headspace from racking and tasting I have my carboys under vacuum. You can get a little hand pump for 30 bucks. If you start your degass with a drill and put the wine under vacuum for a week you will have no concerns with excess co2. I had the pex valves in my plumbing supplies. I just stuck them in a regular stopper with a hole, pump up some vacuum, shut the valve and it will hold. As it degasses the vacuum will fall a bit, I pump them back up once a day for the first week.then they settle when gas is no longer released.
I bought the All In One Wine Pump a couple weeks ago plus I use my food saver to degass so between the two I hope to be ok. This has been so exciting making wine from a recipe. I had to order chemicals, buy berries & sugar at Sam's and a few other things! Today and tomorrow is about degassing. Thank you so much for the responses and listening to me carry on.
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That's brilliant. I never thought of the food saver.
I have the one with the vacuum hose on it and it never even crossed my mind. Another thing that's going in the wine room! I'm gonna go try right now. 
Well that's my favorite thing of the day. That baby pulls 18 inches Hg of vacuum. Perfect for degassing. No more hand pumping for this guy.
You're so smart!
You're so smart!
Pretty sure I stole the idea from someone else. Between the both they appear to do a pretty good job for me.
What!? That's just awesome! I wonder if I still have the hose thing for mine.
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I use a hand pump that looks just like you show in the picture. Since I only make one wine batch at a time I don't use a valve. I have found that the one way valve in the pump is sufficient to hold the vacuum. As you noted, as the wine degasses the vacuum drops so I have to pump a little more until it stops degassing.
