Dragon Blood: Triple Berry Skeeter Pee

[rigger197]

dangerdave
For a six gallon batch. Do I need 6 pounds of raspberry 6 pounds of strawberries and 6 pounds of blueberries ?
For the dragon blood

 

[Pumpkinman]

jrupjr:
On the FVW website search the following:
Tannin - Part # 6300A
Yeast Nutrient - 7357A - I Use Fermaid K exclusively, but this will work
Yeast Energizer - 6365A
Pectic Enzyme - 6382

Longtrain - back Sweeten to taste, but i'd start with 1.010, it is a dry to semi sweet wine at that

rigger197 - I don't mean to answer for Dave, but no, we usually buy the frozen bags of berry blend, 6 lbs total combined, if you add more, the fruit flavor will be a bit more pronounced.

 

[ttimmer]

Dave - I just wanted to let you know that this recipe is my first attempt at winemaking. So far, so good. The must is beautiful, smells amazing and will be leaving the primary fermenter any day now. My husband wants me to try an apple/cinnamon wine next; but I will be back to revise the recipe into a tropical blend very soon down the road. Thanks for your excellent instructions.
Tammy

 

[dangerdave]

Thanks, Tom! You may definately step in at any time.

@ttimmer: You are very welcome. As this recipe took shape, many people asked questions, which added to the detailed instructions. My goal was to provide enough specification so that even a beginner could follow along and make Dragon Blood, but I couldn't have done it alone. Welcome aboard, we've got a great group of folks, here!

 

[dangerdave]

*Added a few extra notes to recipe regarding sediment in the primary and SG readings in Step 4.*

Wow! The picture of the bottled Dragon Blood really gets ya, don't it!
How about a full carboy, ready to bottle! This was the first batch I ever made, more than a year ago. Somehow, I knew it would be a hit!

 

[suecasa]

Oh dear. All the lees got racked and stabilized. I expect clearing will take longer now. Other than that am I in trouble?

 

[Throwback]

Dangerdave,

its been a few weeks, but I followed your directions on the dragonblood and let me tell you everything worked out great. I backsweeten the dragonblood and let it seat for a few weeks. This stuff is great and let me tell you the dragon blood never had a chance to be bottled. =)

I will have to make some more this week hopefully.

Thansk for all the help on dragonblood.

~Throwback

 

[dangerdave]

Oh dear. All the lees got racked and stabilized. I expect clearing will take longer now. Other than that am I in trouble?

I'm very sorry, Sue. I should have covered that point in the recipe before now. I think you'll be fine. Keep us post on how long it takes to clear. Are you using Sparkolloid, bentonite, both, or something else as cleaing agent?

 

[dangerdave]

Dangerdave,

its been a few weeks, but I followed your directions on the dragonblood and let me tell you everything worked out great. I backsweeten the dragonblood and let it seat for a few weeks. This stuff is great and let me tell you the dragon blood never had a chance to be bottled. =)

I will have to make some more this week hopefully.

Thansk for all the help on dragonblood.

~Throwback

Excellent! I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time someone succeeds with this recipe---or maybe that's the wine.

 

[suecasa]

thanks dd

I used isinglas . got some with starter chemicals.. there is a lot if sediment but still quite cloudy the weird thing is when I move it or tap the side there are tiny bubbles rising to the top...lots of them but they aren't enough to make the airlock "burp " .. SG has dropped another .002 to 994. need lifesaving advice I think!!

(Yes I degassed thoroughly)

 

[suecasa]

now i'm reading more (dumb ... read then do) .. and see isinglas was the exact wrong thing to use with sediment still in there! it does have a kind of astringent flavor now ... is there any rescue? or just lesson learned and start over??

 

[PrincessVintah]

Here's my label for my Dragon's Blood Wine. Thanks Dangerdave for the recipe. I finally racked again and back sweetened on Saturday (Jan. 5). I only added 4 c. sugar. I liked the slight tartness of the lemon, and after reading other comments about back sweetening the Dragon's Blood, I thought it was sweet enough. I'm trusting that the sweetness of the berries will come out more soon.

I have to say that after all the stress of the foamies on top of my wine in the secondary, I am quite proud of this one. This is my first wine made from scratch, so I was a little nervous- especially when things didn't go exactly the way I thought they would. But thanks to DangerDave for the amazing recipe and assistance in troubleshooting my issues. And thanks to everyone else who chimed in with their words of wisdom.

I will be bottling this baby on Thursday or Friday. Not quite a week after back sweetening, I know. But these are the days I have the time to do it, and the help of my good friend who's helping me make this wine. I'll post pics of the finished product when we're done!

 

[dangerdave]

now i'm reading more (dumb ... read then do) .. and see isinglas was the exact wrong thing to use with sediment still in there! it does have a kind of astringent flavor now ... is there any rescue? or just lesson learned and start over??

I honestly have to say, I really don't know, Sue. I have never given up on a batch.

If you have the carboy to spare, just let it sit and see how it turns out. I'm sorry to hear it's giving you fits.

Maybe someone else can give some much-needed advice on this one.

 

[suecasa]

i do have a carboy i can spare for a bit ... should i try to add anything else? since it was "fizzing" again do i need to add more sorbate or sulfate? (not sure what does what) ... i'm thinking about trying one of the "natural" clearers like egg white or gelatin .. thoughts??

leave it to me to break the unbreakable!! i will persist though if not with this batch there will be another!!

 

[ttimmer]

For those of you who have made Dragon's Blood... I will be moving the wine into the secondary tonight. I sneaked a little taste this morning out of pure curiosity. Wow it really tastes strong right now. Please tell me it will taste more like wine and less like hard liquor once it sits for a while and is backsweetened. Holy cow!!

SG was 1.080 before adding fruit. .992 yesterday and .990 this morning

 

[Pumpkinman]

Tammy,
You have to remember, that nice sweet must that we all start with changes once we add yeast and it starts to ferment, the yeast turns all of that sugar goodness into alcohol and produces CO2.
when the Dragon Blood (or any fruit wine for that matter) is fermented to dry, it will be much stronger, and obviously have an alcohol content that is a direct reflection of the starting SG.
Your Dragon Blood should be in the neighborhood of 11.53% ABV based upon the Starting and finished SG.
You will need to rack it to the secondary, back sweeten to your taste, most like it back sweetened to 1.010, we like it a bit sweeter around the 1.020 range.
Just remember, don't sweeten too much more than that, within a week or two, the sugar and berries will "marry" and you will be very much pleasantly surprised.

Keep this in mind when making the Apple wine, that will be much more on the tart and hot side when fermented to dry, it also takes a bit longer to age, I have a batch of hard cider/Apple wine that has been aging for a few months and still is a bit "hot", in a few months I'll bottle, and let it sit for another 6 months.

I have a batch of Tropical Daze Dave's Blue Macaw variant that has fermented to dry, I'll be racking, back sweetening and clarifying today, I've altered the recipe based upon the fruit that I used, it is real nice, but again, the must right now is very tart due to the lack of sugar.

 

[wineforfun]

Tom,
I also wrote this in my Tropical DB thread. Did you just substitute the pineapple juice for lemon juice and then stick to all the other chemicals, ie: acid blend, pectic, tannin, etc.? Also, did you use the same yeast as DB?
Thanks.

 

[Pumpkinman]

I substituted 2 cans of Pineapple Juice for the Lemon Juice, I used a mix of sugar and honey since I was just about out of honey.
Here is my variation based on Dave's recipe:

Tropical Daze

Ingredients

• 1 bottles (48 oz each) 100% Lemon Juice (Rea Lemon in the green bottle)
• Water to about six gallons
• 20 cups of white granulated sugar (looking for a SG btw 1.085-1.090)
• 8 cups Honey use to bring SG up to desired amount
• 2 – 48 oz Cans Dole Pineapple Juice
• 1 tsp. tannin
• 4 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. yeast energizer
• 3 Tsp Acid Blend
• 3 tsp. pectin enzyme
• 12 lbs. of Mixed Fruit Blend (Pineapple/ Peach/Mango/Strawberry/Grape) I put the fruit in a nylon drawstring bag or two if necessary, this will make for a much cleaner brew. I take a spring clamp and hold the drawstring in place so I don’t have to fish for them later.
• Yeast, 1 gram of yeast per gallon of Must. Lalvin 71B-1122 & ICV D47 blend,( you can use any of the following as well. DV10, QA23 - (Saccharomyces cerevisiae bayanus
• Go Ferm – 1.25 Gram per each gram of yeast used
• ½ -1 Oak Infusion spiral stick
• 2 oz untoasted oak.
• 20 oz. Raisins, chopped & re-hydrated
• Add 1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite
• Add 3 tsp. Potassium Sorbate
• Sparkolloid
• Sugar or honey for Back sweetening - 4 cups

Preparation: Add to Fermenting bucket

• 20 Cups of Sugar
• 2 gallons of hot water, stir until completely dissolved
• Add Honey, take SG reading, add until you reach 1.090
• 2 - 48oz Cans of Dole Pineapple Juice
• 3 Tbl acid blend
• 1 tsp. tannin ( I prefer Tannin riche, it imparts a nice sweetness to wine)
• 4 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. yeast energizer
• 3 tsp. pectin enzyme
• Stir well to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
• 12 lbs of Mixed Fruit Blend (Pineapple/ Peach/Mango/Strawberry/Grape), thawed. I put the fruit in a nylon drawstring bag or two if necessary; this will make for a much cleaner brew. I take a spring clamp and hold the drawstring in place so I don’t have to fish for them later.
• ½ - 1 Oak Infusion Stick
• 2 oz untoasted Oak – helps reduce any vegetal flavors – I add in nylon drawstring bag or grain steeping bag.
• 20 oz chopped and re-hydrated raisins placed in Nylon drawstring bag
• Add the remaining water up to the 6 -6.5 gallon mark, taking into consideration the volume of the mesh bags.
• Take an SG reading, you want the must to be between 1.075 – 1.090

I let this sit overnight, with a heat mat wrapped around the fermenter, a brew belt would do too, just until it reaches 85°.

This yeast can handle 80-85° with no problems.

The following Day:

I take my selected yeast, 1 gram per gallon of must and rehydrate as follows:
I heat a half cup of water to 120° and add 7.5 grams of Goferm (1.25 g per gram of yeast used), add to the water and mix it in. When the water cools to 110-115° add the yeast, just sprinkle on top and let it rehydrate, let sit for 15 minutes or until you see it starting to foam (reproduce), then add ¼ cup of the must. This will give it a source of food to continue to reproduce and multiply, and it will get the yeast acclimated to the temp of the must.
Let sit for 5 mins and add to the primary.

Stir Primary Vigorously!

Every Day:

Check temp
Check specific gravity
Squeeze juices from fruit pack into fermenter---remove fruit pack: Temporarily place in sanitized bowl bucket.
Stir primary to introduce a little oxygen into must, the yeast will need it.
Replace fruit pack
Cover primary
When specific gravity (SG) reaches <1.000, do the following:
Squeeze juices from fruit pack into fermenter---remove fruit pack: Discard fruit.
Rack to cleaned and sanitized six gallon carboy
Add 1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite (stir)
Add 3 tsp. Potassium Sorbate (stir)
Degas very thoroughly: I cannot emphasize this enough!
Add Sparkolloid* as per package. Add hot mixture to carboy.
Allow to clear undisturbed for about 1 week

When wine is clear:

Carefully rack off of lees into cleaned & sanitized six gallon carboy

Back sweeten, if you are going to use sugar, I would make a simple syrup, 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, heated just shy of a boil, you will see it turn to a syrup, make sure you stir constantly, you will probably need double that amount.
Back sweeten to your own taste

Remember! The sugars will blend with the fruit flavors over time, and the sweetness will come forward.
Do not over-sweeten!
Allow wine to clear free of all sediment: This may or may not require more racking over the next few weeks.

 

[ttimmer]

Tom,
You have confirmed that I am on the right track. I figured apple wine would need much more time to age, hence the reason I started with DB and will probably try your variation after the apple. Figured I would have the tropical ready to drink before the apple. My primary will be empty tonight, so it is time to go grocery shopping!

 

[wineforfun]

Awesome Tom, thanks.

Hopefully my last questions.
I noticed you still used lemon juice, is that correct? Because you stated that you substituted pineapple for lemon.
Could I just stick with the D47 yeast like regular DB or do you recommend that I use a blend?
Also, do I need the GoFerm or what exactly is it/ does it do?
Thanks for all the help.