skeeter pee help/advice

So I have been in touch with lon who has the skeeter pee website and asking him questions. But he doesnt always get back to me right away so I thought I would try here. I made a 6 1/2 back of pee. It's been about 3 days now since I have put in my yeast. Champagne wet yeast WLP715. I asked the hit at my LHBS and he said don't need a starter just to pitch it in there. So after all initial steps tool my reading which was about 1.075. And put my yeast one and of.course whipped it up before hand. And have been since I pitched it. And third day is I haven't seen any signs of anything , nothing at all just lemonade with some aditives. Lol. I added a tiny bit more energized and nutrient today. But my question is, is am I just impatient or am I out of luck. I have never made wine before and I think this is supposed to be a small type of it. Any help would be great.

did you use lemon juice with preservatives? if you did then you are going to need to make a yeast starter, skeeter pee can be difficult to get going, if its been three days then you are almost for sure stuck, most ferments will take a max 48 hours to show signs, yeast starter will cut that time in half...

How do I so a starter?

I am about to do a SP and here is what I would do for a starter.

1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
5 chopped raisins
1 100mg B6 tablet crushed

Mix all that well and either pour wet yeast or sprinkle dry yeast and do not stir. Cover with paper towel and rubberband.

Wait 6 hours, there should be some definate signs of fermentation. After the 6 hours slosh the mix a little and add in 1/2 cup of SP must. Wait 1 hour and add in another 1/2 cup. Do that one more time and wait 1 hour after that 3rd addition, then pitch the yeast.

That should start the yeast strong and acclimate it to the high acidity level.

Arpolis said:

I am about to do a SP and here is what I would do for a starter.

1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
5 chopped raisins
1 100mg B6 tablet crushed

Mix all that well and either pour wet yeast or sprinkle dry yeast and do not stir. Cover with paper towel and rubberband.

Wait 6 hours, there should be some definate signs of fermentation. After the 6 hours slosh the mix a little and add in 1/2 cup of SP must. Wait 1 hour and add in another 1/2 cup. Do that one more time and wait 1 hour after that 3rd addition, then pitch the yeast.

That should start the yeast strong and acclimate it to the high acidity level.

Click to expand...

Very steady fermentation for two days, checked today smelt bad. So I whisked the **** out of it amd added some nutrient and splash racked to a carboy with the other bottle of lemon juice. How easy is it to get bad sp from bacteria like you can beer. Does anyone see a problem with what I did?

No you did the right thing. When did you transition from bucket to carboy? Was the smell similar to rotten eggs? "Because of the high acidity and low nutrition, lemon has a higher propensity to developing the sulfur-dioxide rotten egg smell."...per the SP recipe.
I don't know how many times or how much nutrient or energizer you have dosed it with, but too much of it can cause problems. Are you following the recipe or just winging it when it to adding the nutrient/energizer?
What is your SG currently?

saramc said:

No you did the right thing. When did you transition from bucket to carboy? Was the smell similar to rotten eggs? "Because of the high acidity and low nutrition, lemon has a higher propensity to developing the sulfur-dioxide rotten egg smell."...per the SP recipe.
I don't know how many times or how much nutrient or energizer you have dosed it with, but too much of it can cause problems. Are you following the recipe or just winging it when it to adding the nutrient/energizer?
What is your SG currently?

Click to expand...

I made a 6 1/2 gallon batch but I haven't added.more then the recipe calls for. But I did stray away from the adding lemon at 1.050. I added at 1.060 because I transferred to carboy and whipped the **** out of it because of the smell

Reading through a lot of accounts of SP fermentation and the rotten egg smell is common. The best thing is to whip-it/degass it twice daily for the first week. As long as you followed the recipe & keep your equipment clean then contamination is not that likely. Keep whipping the **** out of it and it will most likely submit to being a good drink.

Does this same principle of aerating and degassing apply to hard lemonade? Sorry for thread Jack...

So leave it in primary for about a week then switch to secondary?