dessertmaker
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2012
- Messages
- 425
- Reaction score
- 86
I've done it before. Compared to real DB there's a lot of kinda odd esters and off flavors going on. It's drinkable, but pretty much hooch. Cheap alcohol worth less than the container it's in.
Dragons blood made the right way is drinkable basically as soon as its degassed and cleared. The flavor just improves over time up to a year and some say gets even better afterwards. My entire DB batch typically goes bottoms up somewhere before 6 months. A few bottles get held over for a year or so because they taste better for it.
I got into this hobby to make good wine. And I've made some that lives up to that goal. I certainly wouldn't call myself a vintner yet, especially compared to a lot of the people on here. Ive learned so much over the past year just watching how these experienced guys and gals respond to problems other people had. I've learned and experienced enough to throw out a little advice of my own every now and then. So here's mine:
Anybody can make a quick cheap hooch, and there are tons of shortcuts those of us outside of prison can take to speed up the process. But every time you shortcut, you lose something in your wine.
How is it even worth it to spend money on winemaking equipment if your end product consistently comes out inferior to a cheap gas station flavored malt beverage because you shortcutted it all to death?
I challenge you to make a "control" batch of real DB, no shortcuts, and compare the two of them in 6 months.
Start on a "big" batch every 3 months or so and build up an inventory of wine. Then waiting a year is like WHATEVER. My first kit wine took a year to come around, but I was drinking skeeter pee and dragon blood 3 months into the wait because I started it at the same time. And I kept it going.
Patience, not shortcuts, makes good wine.
Okay. I will climb down off of my soap box. That felt weird.
Dragons blood made the right way is drinkable basically as soon as its degassed and cleared. The flavor just improves over time up to a year and some say gets even better afterwards. My entire DB batch typically goes bottoms up somewhere before 6 months. A few bottles get held over for a year or so because they taste better for it.
I got into this hobby to make good wine. And I've made some that lives up to that goal. I certainly wouldn't call myself a vintner yet, especially compared to a lot of the people on here. Ive learned so much over the past year just watching how these experienced guys and gals respond to problems other people had. I've learned and experienced enough to throw out a little advice of my own every now and then. So here's mine:
Anybody can make a quick cheap hooch, and there are tons of shortcuts those of us outside of prison can take to speed up the process. But every time you shortcut, you lose something in your wine.
How is it even worth it to spend money on winemaking equipment if your end product consistently comes out inferior to a cheap gas station flavored malt beverage because you shortcutted it all to death?
I challenge you to make a "control" batch of real DB, no shortcuts, and compare the two of them in 6 months.
Start on a "big" batch every 3 months or so and build up an inventory of wine. Then waiting a year is like WHATEVER. My first kit wine took a year to come around, but I was drinking skeeter pee and dragon blood 3 months into the wait because I started it at the same time. And I kept it going.
Patience, not shortcuts, makes good wine.
Okay. I will climb down off of my soap box. That felt weird.
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