lemonade/skeeter pee?

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SmokeyMcBong

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Smoking weed with your grandma...
So, with my first batch of HB doing its thing in the spare bedroom I decided that I'd give the hard lemonade a go.

I went to my HBS and got another fermenter bucket and airlock. I mentioned to the clerk that I was gonna make the lemonade said I would need some yeast. He got me a pack of US-05 and said that this should be the one. But from my reading now it seems most are using champagne yeast even though some have claimed good results from others, should I be ok with the yeast I have?

Also, through research, I've found that some people have problems getting the yeast to take because of the acidity. And have read of some who only add a little lemon to the water and sugar to begin fermentation then either add more lemon bit by bit over the period or add all the lemon after fermentation is complete. Any down side to either of these scenarios?

And lastly, I much prefer real lemons to concentrate or frozen. Can I just boost my liquids gravity to 1.060 or 1.070 (don't really want it to knock me on my ass too hard), add lemon to taste and then ferment?
 
Your yeast should be fine. It is true a lot of us like the wine yeasts. My preference for lemon wine is Lalvin 71b-1112. But most any brewing yeast should be ok if the must is cared for properly.

You can follow the skeeter pee instructions and proportions from the web site:

http://www.skeeterpee.com

If you follow that then you will be fine. You could not use any lemon up front and start the yeast going in the sugar water/nutrients/tannin and add the lemon later. It is up to you. If you want the results everyone raves about in the skeeter pee thread then follow the site above. But if you are like me then feel free to experiment as you like.
 
cool, thanks bro.

I've read the skeeter pee site before and lots of great reviews online. I'll probably make a slightly bastardized version of it. Truth be told, I was hoping for something carbonated. Would I be correct in thinking that I could leave out the kmeta and the sorbate, ferment it as dry as it will go, back sweeten with splenda and bottle carb with corn sugar?

thanks again for the help.
 
My first batch of skeeter or I did exactly that... It never fermented further?!? But mine sat in secondary over 6-8 months and with the high acid I just don't think the yeast was strong enough to pick back up. US-05 is a pretty aggressive yeast so it may be better. Not sure though. Next batch I try to carbonate I am just going to use sugar to back sweeten like normal and when it starts to carbonate I will pasteurize with heat once the bottles are where I want them.
 
Use Red Star Premier Cuvee or the 1118 yeast. It'll ferment it fine. Prep it with a starter...

It is true those yeasts have a good reputation with skeeter pee but the OP has already purchased his yeast and unless it is a train wreck of an idea lets support how he can make a great wine with what he has.

In future batches you may try one of the two above or my favorite 71b-1112. But I did not mention above as to why I think your yeast should be fine. Most beer yeasts are known for low ABV tolerance and many give distinct flavors that work for beers but not for wines. US-05 has a low diacetyl production which has a buttery flavor and lots of beer yeasts do produce plenty diacetyl. US-05 also is known for making good big beers or winter warmers with ABV ranges between 10% - 12%. So this yeast should handle the 1.07ish gravity you want to shoot for with ease. I say go for it and you may be so happy you never want to change the yeast. If you start the wine with no lemon up front with a lower gravity like 1.06 - 1.07 then I don't even think a starter is needed. Just go a little overboard on the nutrients and add your lemon in steps. It should be fine.
 
Thanks guys. As for the yeast, once I started to read about fermented lemonade I realized I had the wrong yeast but I seen some vids of guys making lemonade with bread yeast. They "claimed" it wasn't too bad so I don't think the us-05 will be terrible, as long has it can handle the PH.
 
So, just to update this. I went to purchase the frozen concentrate to do a batch of Yoopers hard lemonade. To my shegrinn, they didn't have any frozen lemonade! So I bought a mixture of what they had anyway. I basiclly followed her recipe and am making a starter with alittle must right now. My recipe was:

3 cans frozen limeade
4 cans pink lemonade
3 cans frozen 5 Alive
3kg white sugar
6tsp yeast nutrient
6 gallons water
11.5g Safale US-05

Yoopers recipe called for 7 cans for 3 gallons so I got 13 cans as that's all they had that was compadible. I dissolved the sugar in some water but wish I had used less, so I could have used more concentrate. SG is 1.070. I hoping for something that's not too strong. My plan is to ferment dry, backsweeten with splenda or crystal light and prime to bottle carb.
 
Truth be told, I was hoping for something carbonated. Would I be correct in thinking that I could leave out the kmeta and the sorbate, ferment it as dry as it will go, back sweeten with splenda and bottle carb with corn sugar?

Yup!

My skeeter-pee drinking friends and family prefer xylitol back sweetening to splenda - 'round these parts, works out to be cheaper, too.

I second the folks who say EC-1118 for a complete, dry ferment. I've used it in skeeter pee and a few meads, and it finishes bone dry, lets you back sweeten to where you like it, not just as sweet as the yeast feel like making it.
 
i'm thinkin that i didn't do enough reading before i started to make the lemonade. seems like you need at least 24hrs after adding the campden to the water before adding the yeast. i only got 13-14hrs between campden and yeast and now its 4 days later and nothing, gravity is the same.

at first, not knowing about campden wait time, i thought lack of aeration was my problem so i poured it back and forth between the fermenter and my bottling bucket a few times but i doubt that'll do anything if the campden was still in there when i pitched.

so i'm gonna pass by the hbs and get some lavlin ec-118 packs and double pitch into my must as i read of many doing in Yoopers lemonade thread.

should i add more campden to the must and wait for dissipation before repitching or should i just repitch right into the must as it is??

thanks for any advice guys.
 
I think using campden at this point would be detrimental to the yeast.

Exactly. I'm gonna re-pitch with 2 packs of EC-1118 so should I add campden and wait 24hrs before I add the EC-1118, or should I skip the campden and just repitch with the new yeast?

Does the must need to have campden again to clean it because its been sitting for 4 days or so with no fermentation? Or should it still be good to go? Don't wanna end up with an infection.
 
Use the 1118, but make a yeast starter. Hydrate first, then get it going for about 12 hours on 70 gravity sugar water, and then pitch. It'll go!
 
Another way to do a decent starter is rehydrate your yeast in 2 cups water with a pinch of sugar and a 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient. Then add in 1/4 cup of the wine after about 30 minutes. Then wait a couple hours. Add In another 1/4 cup. Repeat this ever couple hours for 12 hours all together. That should gradually acclimate the yeast to the wine. Once you pitch that it should ferment really well.
 
No more Campden tabs, they will not allow the yeast to work, and you'll be stuck in the same position you are now. Make a yeast starter and pitch that
 
Ok... first off, thanks everyone for the coments and tips.

I went a little earlier to my hbs and grabbed the ec-1118 (4 packs to be exact, figured it wouldn't hurt to have extra.

What I did was take some of my must, maybe 1 liter or so and watered it down, built up the gravity to 1.050ish with table sugar and pitched one pack of the ec-1118. That was 4 hours ago and there is a nice head on the starter must now.

I shook the starter a few times through the process and am thinking that I should probably add a cup of must now? Sound like a plan?
 
Yup sounds good. Just add a cup of must every couple hours or until what ever container you have the starter in is full. After 12 hours if you pitch that I think it will ferment just about anything.
 
nice, i left the starter over night. i added a cup of must before i went to sleep and another cup when i got up. it had a nice thick layer of foam on top and smelled delicious. i pitched it into the fermenter after it had been starting for about 16 hours and saw signs of fermentation in the bucket within an hour. she's got a pretty nice head on her now and im happy!

so, should i continue to aerate the must twice a day or do i sit back and let fermentation take over? also, its covered with a kitchen apron held tight by a saran wrap hobo's belt. should i go ahead and put on a sanitized lid and air lock or leave the apron and hobo's belt for the one week suggested in Yoopers lemonade thread (im loosely basing this on her recipe)?

thanks again all for the tips and advice!
 
The apron and hobo belt is fine for this first week or until fermentation slows to a crawl at least. I like to aerate/degas a couple times a day for at least the first 3 days. That keeps the yeast happy with plenty of O2 which is needed to grow and it keeps the dissolved CO2 down which helps control PH swings.
 
Thanks for the advice Arpolis.

I forgot to mention that I added a handful of raisens (boiled in water for 30 mins) and rasin water to my starter when I built it. These rasins ended up in my fermenter. I read somewhere that the yeast can use rasins as nutrient?

Anyway, when I rack to secondary should these rasins come with or be disguarded? Also should there be much sediment at the bottom of the primary to avoid during transfer?

"Thanks" is getting pretty repetitive but thanks all!!
 
Hi all brewers, I am a newbie from India ( the land where brewing supplies are impossible to come by ). All brewing experience that I have under my cap is a "red wine" from 3 liters of tropicana red grape juice and one kg of sugar with a litter of filtered water. The red wine turned out to be better than many cheap bottles that I used to have during my stay in Boston. My current adventure is a skeeter pee: juice squished out of 140 lemons ( approximately 1 ltr ) 1.5 kg sugar , 3.5 liters of ground water (decided against the filtered water to supply the minerals needed for the yeast ). And gloripan bread yeast. I did not use airlock just plain white cheese cloth. Now my question is since I am brewing in high temperatures 30 to 35 degrees will it be safe to drink or I will get undrinkable amount of fusel oil in the brew?
 
Hi all brewers, I am a newbie from India ( the land where brewing supplies are impossible to come by ). All brewing experience that I have under my cap is a "red wine" from 3 liters of tropicana red grape juice and one kg of sugar with a litter of filtered water. The red wine turned out to be better than many cheap bottles that I used to have during my stay in Boston. My current adventure is a skeeter pee: juice squished out of 140 lemons ( approximately 1 ltr ) 1.5 kg sugar , 3.5 liters of ground water (decided against the filtered water to supply the minerals needed for the yeast ). And gloripan bread yeast. I did not use airlock just plain white cheese cloth. Now my question is since I am brewing in high temperatures 30 to 35 degrees will it be safe to drink or I will get undrinkable amount of fusel oil in the brew?

i'm new as well and am unable to answer your question, someone may come along who can but i suggest that you start a thread in the wine section and ask your question specifically. also a thread in the introduction section is usually a nice way to let people know who you are and you conditions.

welcome aboard and good luck in your fermentations.
 
Thanks. I will go to the introduction section then.

Sent from my Micromax A116 using Home Brew mobile app
 
Thanks for the advice Arpolis.

I forgot to mention that I added a handful of raisens (boiled in water for 30 mins) and rasin water to my starter when I built it. These rasins ended up in my fermenter. I read somewhere that the yeast can use rasins as nutrient?

Anyway, when I rack to secondary should these rasins come with or be disguarded? Also should there be much sediment at the bottom of the primary to avoid during transfer?

"Thanks" is getting pretty repetitive but thanks all!!

I used to put raisins in my starters as additional nutrients back in the day. But i left those out a few times because I had none on hand and got out of the habit when those starters did just fine. The raisins are usually left in the primary. After a couple weeks they are not providing any benifit/flavor at that point.
 
Done 6 batches of SP in various flavors, and never had a problem with yeast getting started.
Heres what i do
1) Use EC 1118. Its fierce
2) Make a 1 gallon starter as shown below
make invert sugar with 2 cups sugar, quart or less of water
Dump into gallon jug with half gallon of 100% juice (your choice, any flavor works, just remember the color may affect final color of your SP)
top w cold water to slightly less that 1 G
Throw dry yeast in when it gets down below 80, shake like crazy, put airlock on

Day 1- Make starter
Day 3- Make SP as instructed (remember that you'll need 1G of space in carboy for starter, I make 5-5.5gallons SP in 6.5G carboy to make it easy) cover w towel
Day 5- Dump entire contents of starter into carboy, cover w airlock
Follow SP instructions from here

5-7 days seems to give the yeast time to get going, and the mix of sugar water and Juice creates a favorable environment for it to get rolling so it can handle the preservatives in the lemon juice.

Also, I make 6-6.25 Gallons of SP in a 6.5 Gallon carboy, ratehr than 5 liek the recipe calls for. Unlike beer, it doesnt foam up and blow the airlock, so headspace has never been an issue. As fast as you will drink this once its done, youll be glad you added that little extra sugar water to make 6.5 instead of 5.

Good luck, love SP, easy, inexpensive and fun recipe to experiment with
 
thanks for all the replies again guys.

i asked in a different thread but seeing as it involves this batch, maybe i'll ask here too. about sparkolloid, will it strip enough yeast out of my wine that it wouldn't bottle carb up with just the addition of sugar at bottleing time or would it need yeast as well as sugar at bottling time?

again, i appreciate all the help and advice.
 
It should not strip too much yeast out. As long as your yeast strain is well under it's ABV limit then it should be fine. Slow but fine.

However when I tried to do this on my first SP batch I tried to bottle carb and I used lalvin 71b yeast... It never carbed up and it was well below the ABV limit. So some strains may be too shocked by the low acidity.

Hopefully someone who has successfully done this may chime in.
 
Figured I'd update this.

Just did the final racking and backsweetened with splenda and 2tsp of lemon/lime soda pop flavouring. I cleared it with sparkolloid and it seems very beautiful to my untrained tongue and nose! I'm gonna give it a day or two to see if anything in the soda flavour is gonna ferment then bottle. Heres a few pictures, the other carboy is a mix of concentrate and mixed fresh fruit. Kind of a DangerDaves Dragons Blood kinda thing.

Anyways, thanks for helping me get this far.

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