Skeeter Pee Question

I have finished my first batch of Raspberry Lemon pee. The process went well using a 1 gallon recipe of raspberry wine for the slurry. The wine cleared terrific however the final wine is bitter, not tart or sour.....I dont think additional sugar would help, just make it overly sweet. My wifes's first taste resulted in a Bitter Beer face.....I have experienced an unfinished taste with young wines before but I understand that the pee is complete when bottled.

ANY IDEAS????

subscribed. brewing first SP this weekend.

I have the same problem with my Skeeter Pee same recipe I used raspberries as well. I'm think back sweetening might be the only way. This weekend I'm going to pull a few cups out and use a turkey baster with simple syrup and play with it to see if I can get a decent taste out of it.

It definitely gets better with a little age but mine have all been drinkable within 6 weeks. Does it taste like it is unfinished or did something corrupt it ?

I would have to say it has an unfinished taste, I dont believe it was corrupted. The thing that has me curious is that I understood that the pee would be ready to drink as soon as bottled. But, this will definately have to age, if that even helps....

subscribing. Hmm, things that are bitter..
did you use lemon juice you made yourself?
what do you sanitize with?
did you do it in a brew bucket that's been used for beer before?

I started with a raspberry puree from MS to make the slurry. I made a 1 gallon batch of that. I used ReaLemon from the bottle and started the batch in a wine fermenter, only used for wine. I use one step sanitizer and clean like crazy. All the water I used had been boiler prior to use. I strained out solids at the first racking into a carboy. The batched fermented well, ending at 10% ABV, and cleared crystal clear.

What I'm wandering is if the puree and 1 gallon slurry was enough to give the batch more of a traditional wine composition, thus resulting in it needing to age to get past the bitterness.

I have taken 1 gallon and back sweetened with 2/3 cup of sugar and will let that sit for awhile to see what happens. The resulting wine is about 10% ABV so it shouldnt hurt to sit arround for awhile.

oh man. I totally missed that in your first post... you mean to say you added a whole gallon of dry wine, or just the bottom end of it with the yeasties? That could def be a problem

I started the raspberry wine and after 3 days of fermenting pitched the entire gallon into the SP. This was per Lon at the SP website. So I didnt think it would be a problem.

I think you are just suppose to add the bottom of the starter but im not sure...anyways good luck atleast your skeeter pee fermented dry, my airlock stopped bubbling about 5 days in....

Honda88 said:

I think you are just suppose to add the bottom of the starter but im not sure...anyways good luck atleast your skeeter pee fermented dry, my airlock stopped bubbling about 5 days in....

Click to expand...

Was it finished?

looks like its alive again!!! I think when I added the third bottle of lemon juice it stunned the yeast cuz im running a blow off tube now, tons of foam...hooray!!!

Using a 1 gallon of wine after 3 days is fine. I've done it before. Its just like making a starter, but with flavor. You didn't mention if you backsweetened before bottling or not. If you did, how much sugar did you use for the 5 gallon batch?

The last step is to rack to clean carboy and add 6 cups of sugar. I would have thought this would be enough but this is when the wine tasted bitter. I have since backsweetened with 2/3 cup sugar in a gallon as a test. Haven't tested this yet, waiting to make sure it doesnt take off again.

I'm assuming it was all completely dissolved right?

Yes the sugar was completely dissolved...

Is it possible that the raspberry had seeds in it? The seeds can sometimes impart a bitter taste, but it doesn't sound like you used all that much. I've found that the lemon juice can vary from bottle to bottle. I'd guess that the lemon juice bottler would try to have a consistent product, but they are going to be limited by the fruit they can get. Just like with grapes, a poor growing season could mean that the resulting juice is not as good as good or if the supply is limited, they might have to use lemons that they normally would turn away? Some flavors will tend to clash too, I've tried making a grapefruit/lemon batch and those flavors seem to fight all the way.

Its hard to say about the seeds since I used a puree from MS. I guess time will tell. I strained at the first racking?? I have plenty of bottles so this batch will sit for awhile to see it things calm down. I have a second batch going right now having used the slurry from a blue moon beer clone. Interesting to see a wine with a krausening layer....Nothing ventured..nothing gained..

MANY people opt to use a starter just like you did. Raspberry can tend to be quite acidic, so it may just be a case too overly acidic. Follow the steps to sweeten, give the sugar some time to saturate the SP, and taste again, and don't forget to taste it chilled. If it still off to you all, then start a tasting trial by backsweetening some more and make your necessary adjustments. If you have already bottled, just have a bottle of simple syrup available when you serve and allow people to sweeten to their liking, if necessary. BUT, I suspect it will mellow out if given a little more time, since you do have a gallon of fresh raspberry wine going there.