Quadberry Dragons Blood Skeeter Pee

[Dend78]

typical dragons blood receipe with a twist

Quad Berry Blend - Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Strawberry 6lbs
Lemonade concentrate to help reduce acid plus add sugar without adding sugar
Real Lemon Juice - 6-8oz didnt measure exact but far less than normal
Malto Dextrin - 2cups (to make up some extra body)
Pectic Enzyme - 1.5tsp (i ran out )
SG im gonna shoot for 1.100 then run it dry (I ran out of sugar as well )

Tonight I plan to pitch the yeast after adding some surgar to get to 1.1, one thing that may be noticeable is the fact that its cooler now so it may take a bit longer to ferment along with the added sugar, this is my first winter ferment. Will keep this updated.



okay I back sweetend 1gal with clover honey bringing the SG up to 1.020 once dry and i must say its amazing on 1/23/12 and i started this on 11/28/12 so almost 2 months i plan to age some in bottles to see how it turns out after a year if it lasts that long dang gremlins may get it

 

[dangerdave]

Excellent, Dend! You've got your own version going! It's amazing how many different versions of the DB that folks have come up with.

Good luck, and good wine!

 

[Dend78]

well something new i havent seen before, checked it stirred it the norm this morning. a large amount of yeast had gotten on top of the strainer bag somehow never had that before

 

[dangerdave]

It's all good! Stir it all back in just like normal. Those yeasties can be crafty!

 

[Sammyk]

I did the quad berry over a year ago. It is long gone and it was everyone's favorite. 6 gallons did not last very long at all.

 

[snowgirl812001]

I like this recipe, I just may steal it if ya don't mind! Lookin for a quick wine, running out of drinkable wine at the house lol

 

[cohenhouse77]

I'm fermented down to. 997 and the yeasties are still making foam and hissing at me. 20 other batches of things and never had that before. It's still acting like it's 1.07. I can't wait to try this and see what all the yeasties are fussing about!

 

[Dend78]

I did the quad berry over a year ago. It is long gone and it was everyone's favorite. 6 gallons did not last very long at all.

Yeah my first 3gal batch i made is down to 3 bottles left which im trying to push out to 6 months to a year.

I like this recipe, I just may steal it if ya don't mind! Lookin for a quick wine, running out of drinkable wine at the house lol

feel free! I will let you know how it turns out im about to start stepping up the sugar again to get the ABV up, i ran us out of sugar twice with this batch and only got up to 1.076 so i went ahead and let it start up im at 1.012 today, tonight I will check it again and add some more sugar and some nutrient to keep the drive alive.

I'm fermented down to. 997 and the yeasties are still making foam and hissing at me. 20 other batches of things and never had that before. It's still acting like it's 1.07. I can't wait to try this and see what all the yeasties are fussing about!

let em do their thing i would think they will be stopping in the next day or two. you will probably be down around .995 when shes all said and done. my first batch was great so i expect better this time around as I have made a few batches since.


12/03/12
added 8 cups of sugar which should get me up to 14% ABV started out at 1.075, down to 1.010, bumped back up to 1.046ish probably higher, but according to wine calc that should get me to 14%

12/04/12
checked SG 1.040 this morning my yeast seems to be going strong, gave it a lil taste test, wow so much different from the first batch i made, i mean different in a really good way, the fruit is so forward its amazing, the acidic burn is barely even there, i need to try more to verify for sure but I think the acid burn is knocked way back almost to nothing but you do get a little lemon flavor in the end.

12/05/12
SG - 1.022 moving like a freight train here, it wont be long now!!

 

[Dend78]

1.011 this morning probably gonna be making the transfer to carboy tonight because i wont have time over the weekend. I will k-meta, sorbate and sparkolloid it Sunday

 

[Dend78]

okay well I moved this to carboy on 12/6/12, added sorbate, sulfites, sparkolloid and degassed for a bit. I then took 2 gal out of my 6gal carboy on 12/11/12 and added 1/4 cup of honey to the mix with a bit of water to help thin it out. I stirred that into the mix and will be tasting and adjusting more possibly tonight. I will be backsweetening the other gallon with Dextrose as a test and then the 3 gallons with blueberry pomegranate juice or concentrate.

As a side note my first batch of DB was bottled 3 months ago i only have 3 1.5L bottles left of each type but they have survived 3 more months then im gonna crack them open

 

[geek]

I'd be interested to know the honey-add test...

 

[Dend78]

im taking it slow with the honey, 1/4 cup to start i dont want to kill the berry flavor

same with the dextrose i added 1/2 a cup there im just going to keep adding to both until i hit a flavoring i like then i will check the SG so i know where to take it if i do it again

 

[Dend78]

well if i were a little faster on sweetening i could bottle this already so that would put this at 19 days start to finish not a bad run just need to finish it out which i may do tonight

 

[Dend78]

an update with some observations:

1) added 1/2 cup more honey last night to the 1 gal honey test batch

the honey flavor was almost non-existent i want to be able to taste it

2) added blueberry pom juice to the 3 gal batch

3) added 1/2 cup more dextrose to my 1 gal dextrose batch


I drank some of #2 last night, things i have noticed it seems to stick to the glass a bit more, the alcohol is super forward in comparison to my last batch, but this is probably just an age thing, im rushing this one a bit more than the last cause well i want some for the holiday

 

[snowgirl812001]

so how is this going? was it ready for the holidays?

 

[Dend78]

umm well i had some that was a bit cloudy, im still messing with the honey and the dextrose batches the regular is bottled, funny thing about this batch once its in the bottle it actually seems to have picked up more of a lemon bite, but its crystal clear with nothing dropping out and looks great. I will just let it sit for a while and see what I end up with I need to get some pics though

 

[Dend78]

still sitting on my thumbs here I need to start tasting the honey sweetened and the dextrose sweetened and see how they are coming along the rest of it is coming out quite nicely now most of the bitterness has smoothed out to almost nothing

 

[Dend78]

okay I did some taste testing and what not, the batch with the Dextrose in it seems to be bitter, but it should be pretty sweet sitting at 1.022ish, the honey on the other hand wow its like a totally different animal, there is some bitterness there but nothing like the dextrose but flavor is all together different. im not sure on the sg but its less than 1.020, its in a 1 gal jug and it wont float my hydrometer (to lazy to pull a sample ) but the honey is trying to overpower the fruit flavor. more bench testing required!!

 

[Pumpkinman]

I used 5 lbs of honey to back sweeten 8 gallons of melomel and the SG is at 1.010, just sweet enough, not overpowering.
The honey will make a whole different wine for sure, I prefer this to sugar, and have been making melomels.

 

[geek]

Tom, where do you buy the honey in bulk and how much/pound?