Black Dragon's Blood Blend #2

Notes

I needed a carboy, and still had 1 gallon of the Oaked Bourbon Bochet aging. I also had 3 liquor handles of leftovers from the Wedding Dragon's Blood - before stabilizing or backsweetening occurred - and 1 liquor handle from after stabilizing and backsweetening. These were varying levels of full / not.

Since so much of the Dragon's Blood side of this blend was dry, however, this blend ended up too dry as well. Originally, I tried adding just a cup of sugar, and I was going to let it sit for a day or two before checking in on it again. However, with only about 2 gallons total, and a 3 gallon carboy, I was either going to have to bottle it, or find another way to fill the headspace.

When I racked the Cherry Bomb, I ended up with about a miscellaneous 1/2 gallon leftover. It had quite a bit of cherry sediment and maybe some lees, but it was supposed to have finished about 1.050, so for lack of a better option, I figured "what the heck" and added it in. It didn't end up doing much to the flavor, but otherwise that excess brew would have been wasted.

Once balanced with some Laffort "autolees" tannin powder, this came out remarkably drinkable! The original had a much more acidic taste that made it more of a sipping beverage, whereas this balanced version is smooth and much more "crushable" in comparison. I'm definitely going to try tannin balancing the other Black Dragon's Blood batch until I can figure out a recipe modification to naturally introduce more tannins.