That's my plan. i'm just trying to opinions on how to add each time. At 3/4 cup per gallon, that's about 7 teaspoons a bottle. I'm also concerned about if I can add stir and taste to get it right. Or do I need to add stir, wait a few days, and taste. People talk about how the sweetness and fruit flavors come out over a few months. I have noticed that. Will the wine have to go through that again?
With your 12 lbs. of Blueberry did you add extra lemon juice or add some acid blend? I'll be starting a peach (15 lbs.) DB variation in a few weeks and have been freaking out reading all these different posts about getting the Ph just right. I'm thinking I may need to add an extra 48 oz. of lemon juice or maybe some acid blend for my peach Db but am really clueless as to which and how much. Your thoughts?
I did not add any extra lemon juice or acid blend. Just from reading through all of the DB posts, I think people routinely add extra fruit (as much as double) without upping the acid. However, I am way too new to wine making to really know what I am doing...lol...so who knows if I did it "right".
First of all, Bill, great job fielding the DB questions. Your answers are spot-on!
The very first couple of DB's I ever made included more sugar and more lemon juice than I use now. At first, being patterned after Lon DePope's Skeeter Pee (thank you, Lon!), I use what he prescribed: being 96oz of lemon juice and six cups of sugar for a six gallon batch. But most of the time, Lon makes plain lemon Pee and flavors it with various colors of Kool Aid. I wanted mine to be more like a fruity blush (thus the fruit!) For me, it was both too sweet and too tart using Lon's recipe, so I first reduced the lemon juice to 48oz (and therefore the acid), then backed off on the sugar. This allowed the fruit to come forward (a problem Lon did not have to deal with). I finally got it adjusted to my---and my wife's---tastes, since she was who inspired me to start making wine. Dragon Blood was my attempt to make what she liked. Amazingly, I got it very near right the very first time.
Speaking of which, in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of my first batch of Dragon Blood, here's a picture of that very first batch...
First of all, Bill, great job fielding the DB questions. Your answers are spot-on!
The very first couple of DB's I ever made included more sugar and more lemon juice than I use now. At first, being patterned after Lon DePope's Skeeter Pee (thank you, Lon!), I use what he prescribed: being 96oz of lemon juice and six cups of sugar for a six gallon batch. But most of the time, Lon makes plain lemon Pee and flavors it with various colors of Kool Aid. I wanted mine to be more like a fruity blush (thus the fruit!) For me, it was both too sweet and too tart using Lon's recipe, so I first reduced the lemon juice to 48oz (and therefore the acid), then backed off on the sugar. This allowed the fruit to come forward (a problem Lon did not have to deal with). I finally got it adjusted to my---and my wife's---tastes, since she was who inspired me to start making wine. Dragon Blood was my attempt to make what she liked. Amazingly, I got it very near right the very first time.
Speaking of which, in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of my first batch of Dragon Blood, here's a picture of that very first batch...
Dave,
I'm a bit confused. Above you say you started off using 96oz. lemon and 6 cups of sugar. You say you reduced the lemon to 48oz and also backed off on the sugar but didn't give an amount however in the beginnig of the thread the recipe states 20 cups of granulated sugar! What is the actual current recomended sugar???
I just bottled my first batch and didn't bother to back sweeten since the residual sugar was pretty high after using the 20 cups.
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