Skeeter Pee

Enough to get 3 quarts of juice which would be alot. Why wouldn't you have lemon juice in Australia? Don't you guys use lemon juice in cooking and baking? Let alone as a mixer in drinks????

In all reality following the recipes as it is isn't hard at all and comes out pretty darn good. Kinda the way I feel about Ed's Apfelwien recipe. If it ain't broke I ain't gonna mess with it.

akthor said:

Enough to get 3 quarts of juice which would be alot. Why wouldn't you have lemon juice in Australia? Don't you guys use lemon juice in cooking and baking? Let alone as a mixer in drinks????

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I personally have NEVER seen it used, not even at pubs/bars. I googled it though and found some wholesalers, just that I'm going to have to buy 10kg (min) at a time if I want to try it out.

akthor said:

Doubtful, Apfelwein takes apple juice and makes a dry white wine out of it. Skeeter Pee is supposed to be sweet and taste like lemon. I am sure if we did it like Apfelwein it would be more dry white winish. Also I guess citrus is supposed to be notorious for being hard to get fermenting which is why I think some of these other steps are involved.

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The yeast and the fermentation is what makes it dry or not. If you want it sweet you would need to stop fermentation or back-sweeten it, regardless of the method you use. You could use whatever yeast you would like, just like apfelwein.

How do you get the idea that it would be sweeter with this method than with a different form of sanitation? The only difference I see in regards to flavor is the the tannin.

Well I think the fact it calls for a yeast slurry off another wine and not for dry yeast shaken in the juice botlle is a big difference. The slurry and the use of yeast energizer, yeast nutrient also probably show it can't be made like Apfelwein.

Why don't you try? The extra steps aren't a big deal to me but if I didn't have to do them it certainly would be better. Someday when I have enough in the pipeline I may try it.

But until someone who has made it the "traditional way" and made it like Apfelwein and says they both taste the same or damm close I will continue to make it as the recipe calls for

Like someone else said if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I don't really need to try it. I have a pretty vast knowledge of fruit wine, wine and beer making. A yeast slurry will give you more yeast and give you higher attenuation, making for a LESS sweet drink.

I was just throwing it out there. I don't see why you have a problem with that. Try it either way, either way WILL work.

For anyone that is not a regular wine maker, potassium metabisulfite is used as a sanitizer by killing off everything in the wine with sulfur dioxide gas. This is why you don't need to sanitize your equipment, just have it clean.

Sorry didn't mean to come off like I had a problem with your suggestion I am a noob especially at brewing anything but beer so I was trying to find out why or if it would work if made like Apfelwein. Didn't mean to offend.

so my batch of skeeter pee came out looking fine and tasting quite good. The only issue I have is a slight yeasty smell. My wife and friends don't seem to mind but I know it could be better. Any ideas?

klcramer said:

so my batch of skeeter pee came out looking fine and tasting quite good. The only issue I have is a slight yeasty smell. My wife and friends don't seem to mind but I know it could be better. Any ideas?

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Cold conditioning. Just my $.02!

It's been in the fridge for about 2 weeks now. Is there something else I should do? maybe move it to the freezer?

If it isn't better in the fridge for 2 weeks, then cold conditioning isn't going to fix it.

Maybe just give it time.

Did you follow the directions exactly? I think I was late in adding the 3rd bottle of lemon juice and yeast neutrient so I had a bit of the sulfur smell when I added the kmeta and sorbate and isinglass. I am going to keg it today with the 6 cups of sugar I opened the bucket and the smell has lessened a lot. Hopefully more aging will eliminate it all together.

Anytime you use kmeta+sorb you can get a sulfur smell. Often it will go away with time, or with copper(!), or by bubbling CO2 up through it. If you are going to drink it quickly you can go ahead and aerate it to get rid of the sulfur smell -- but it will go bad pretty quick if you do that.

I had the sulfur smell before I added the kmeta and sorb.

Well, it's possible that the sulfur is permanent then. There's a threshold when you can still get rid of it, but once it sets in long-term, it's there for good. You can either hold your nose or...

I don't know, did you email the creator of the recipe?

Well like I said you are supposed to keep checking your OG and when it get to a certain number (don't remember) you add the last bottle of lemon juice and the last of the yeast nutrient. To prevent a sulfur smell. I didn't check and think I was late adding it.

I just kegged mine with the sugar and I didn't really notice the smell so hopefully all will be good.

Being new to wine making and haven't back-sweetened anything yet, what's the best way of adding the sugar to it in the last phase? I have 5 gallons in a glass carboy, already added the kmeta, sorbate, and sparolloid. Just waiting the two weeks before adding the 6 cups of sugar to it. So, do I waste a portion of the fermented SP to make room for the additional sugar?

Pull some liquid out. Add the sugar. Put as much of the liquid as possible back in. If there's liquid left over, sweeten to taste and drink.

I put the 6 cups of sugar in the keg, racked on top of it, then shook the crap out of the keg. Later that night I picked it up and shook it again, then the next day before I used my "I don't need know stinking beer gun" beer gun to rack from the keg into bottles I shook it again. After the keg was empty there was no sugar left on the bottom inside so I guess it worked. Wish I could figure an easier a to do it

akthor said:

Wish I could figure an easier a to do it

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Boil the sugar. When it's liquid, pour it in. You still need to shake it, but not as much.

Justibone said:

If there's liquid left over, sweeten to taste and drink.

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Don't waste it, just drink it! I like this idea!!!!! :rockin:

Of course!

You (and the yeast) worked hard to make it, why pitch it? Sometimes I'll mix my samples in with other stuff (champagne, other beer, etc.) but I never waste it unless it is literally undrinkable.

I am thinking about making some of his but am just starting.I have two questions though.
1. What is the most common yeast cake used? Flavor it has given?
2. I have not seen where people have tried this with out a wine yeast cake? How do i make it with out one?
Thanks for the help.

Knight03 said:

1. What is the most common yeast cake used? Flavor it has given?

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I haven't made it yet, but I'll answer from what I know. The most common yeast used is probably going to be either montrachet or cuvee, since those are probably the most commonly used yeast overall AFAIK.

2. I have not seen where people have tried this with out a wine yeast cake? How do i make it with out one?

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You can't make "skeeterpee" without a wine yeast cake. The yeast cake is necessary because pure lemon juice is pretty hostile to fermentation and there are preservatives in the lemon juice used. If you pitched it like a normal wine or beer, it most likely wouldn't ferment. Also, part of the flavoring of the skeeterpee comes from the flavor of the wine... cranberry wine = cran-lemon skeeterpee, etc.

If you want to try, I wouldn't recommend it, but it might work cutting the ingredients down to 20%. Use a whole pack of dry yeast and get a good starter going. Slowly add some lemon juice to the starter to get the yeast used to the pH and preservatives, then add the entire starter in after a day or two. I don't know that it will work -- you'd be far better off finding a recipe for lemon wine instead of trying to modify this one.

If you want to make skeeterpee, just make some apfelwein first and then make skeeterpee off of that. Two inexpensive, proven recipes -- how can you go wrong?

was thinking of giving this a whirl, but was thinking of an added twist. Has anyone out there tried to backsweeten this with frozen juice concentrate, like maybe a cranberry or raspberry? My thought was to do that, and then force carb in a keg. Mikes hard lemonade on tap by the pool? I would probably have to put life jackets on my guests.

Maybe some lime concentrate, Margaritas on the rocks on tap!

lalnx... that sounds frickin' awesome. :fro:

Damn if this Montrachet isn't taking forever to clear. despite using Sparkalloid as per the instructions.

I may have to cold crash this to make it go brite.

Speaking of clarifying, what about using knox gelatin instead of the sparkolloid? Woud this accomplish the same thing or not? Does the sparkolloid actually drop the yeast out and the knox doesn't (only the protiens)?

Anyone tried this with orange juice instead of lemon? Not a big lemon fan, but I love OJ. Also, pineapple juice?

I just transferred my second batch to a keg. This batch smelled much better since I paid closer attention to the OG readings and added the the 3rd step on time.

I like your idea and I may steal it when it comes time to sweeten it

lalnx said:

was thinking of giving this a whirl, but was thinking of an added twist. Has anyone out there tried to backsweeten this with frozen juice concentrate, like maybe a cranberry or raspberry? My thought was to do that, and then force carb in a keg. Mikes hard lemonade on tap by the pool? I would probably have to put life jackets on my guests.

Maybe some lime concentrate, Margaritas on the rocks on tap!

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I thought about pineapple and orange myself and may try it. I think they would ferment easier since they have more sugar less acid???

I would ask the question in the winemaking forum first tho.

jbrookeiv said:

Anyone tried this with orange juice instead of lemon? Not a big lemon fan, but I love OJ. Also, pineapple juice?

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It's been 2 weeks since adding the kmeta, sorbate, and sparkolliod. It has not cleared at all! Not one bit!

Anyone else have this problem?

I haven't made any yet... the wine is still fermenting so the cake is kinda busy.

I may have asked this already, and if I did I apologize... IF you do not have a wine yeast cake to make this with, starting the yeast with the lemon is not super easy to accomplish. Why not start the yeast in just the inverted sugar water and add the lemon juice after it is really churning along? I don't believe the lemon juice adds any fermentables does it? I think this would work, or am I missing something?

Lemon juice has a very small amount of fermentables, I believe.

Yeast don't do well in pure sugar water... you'd have to add at least the nutrient.

Justibone said:

Lemon juice has a very small amount of fermentables, I believe.

Yeast don't do well in pure sugar water... you'd have to add at least the nutrient.

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I meant you add everything except the lemon for a few days.. wonder if it would taste the same?

For me I am constantly making batches of Apfelwein so using the yeast cakes off them is no biggie. Supposedly according to a winemaking guy in this thread you should just be able to make skeeter pee like Apfelwein and skip all the fruit wine steps. I don't dare try it cuz I can't afford to experiment with a batch. Be cool if we could make it like Apfellwein and get the same results. Here's what he said:

"You could make this like apfelwein if you wanted. Just boil the sugar in some water first, use sanitized (boiled and cooled or store bought) water, don't open the bottles until you are ready to go and dump it all in a sanitized carboy. Skip the other additions, that's all fruit wine stuff.

The alcohol mostly comes from the sugar. If you want it to be lower (this stuff is about 10%), all you have to do is reduce the sugar. I'm sure it would still be good, flavor-wise."

I just think if it was that easy the Skeeter Pee guy would have done it that way

Yeah, I believe the yeast would get pretty stressed.

It might be necessary to use a yeast cake because of the preservatives in the lemon juice? If there is sorbate in there then that interferes with yeast reproduction and a yeast cake would take care of that.

I guess thats why you do the 1st step combining the sugar water and lemon juice with the energizer etc. and leave it for a couple days with just a towel over it and stir it every so often before adding the slurry to get the preservatives out.

akthor said:

I guess thats why you do the 1st step combining the sugar water and lemon juice with the energizer etc. and leave it for a couple days with just a towel over it and stir it every so often before adding the slurry to get the preservatives out.

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I did not. I put everything into carboy and pitched 2 pack of Montrachet. Had fermentation by next am. And steady fermentation for about 2 weeks.

Racked to another carboy and it is clearing. Slowly at first but now it is almost brite. A little bit powdery tho' so I will give it another week or two to go completely brite and then rack to a keg and bottle a dozen or two before that carbonates.