Skeeter pee - flies in my carboy. Help!!!

I started a batch of skeeter pee, but it wasn't done before I eft to go camping for 2 weeks. I came home to about 10 fruit flies in the carboy! Is the batch ruined? Or can I salvage it?

you will likely get vinegar.. but not forsure.. how did they get in? did you airlock dry up?

Bugs like beer.

Try leaving a glass of beer or worse yet, a glass of wine outside while a the beach in the southeast. We left mugs of stale beer out along with a partially full glass of Choco Vine. The next day, the glasses were almost full of American Cockroaches AKA Palmetto Bugs. The choco vine glass was to the top. I wish I took photos. Our wives were freaking out.

daringescape said:

I started a batch of skeeter pee, but it wasn't done before I eft to go camping for 2 weeks. I came home to about 10 fruit flies in the carboy! Is the batch ruined? Or can I salvage it?

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I've had fruit flies twice (back when I used a non-sealing fermenter).

One batch was clearly sour. Ugh. We suspect acetobacter, as fruit flies are known for carrying that on them. Dumping 15 gallons of beer was *NOT* appreciated.

The other batch, my bro-in-law (we used to ferment in his place) saw relatively early that the fruit flies had come, so I had him crank the fridge temp down to nearly freezing. We actually were too busy to do anything with it for a while, but when the time came to brew again, I took a taste and it was fine. So I kegged off some of it for myself, he was too disgusted and poured off his portion of the batch, and mine never had a problem. (Since it was kegged, I kept it cold at all times).

So my advice: smell/taste it. If it's okay, package it ASAP. If you're kegging, keep it cold. If you're bottling, pay *careful* attention to the carbonation level, and as soon as it's carbonated, store ALL the bottles in the fridge. Doing this will help to retard the growth of any organisms that can cause it to continue souring if you happen to have bacteria in there.

I was thinking that bacteria may have a hard time growing in something so acidic? This was my first batch of skeeter pee, and it just smells funny, like juice that you left out too long - I haven't tasted it yet, but I don't know how it should taste...

Skeeter pee should definetly still be sour when finished, but if it's not infected, you shouldn't taste vinegar.

To taste, put two ounces of skeeter into 3 separate glasses and sweeten with 1/4 tsp, 3/8 tsp and 1/2 tsp respectively (a rough approximation of 2 to 4 cups of sugar per 5 gallon batch). Mix thoroughly, chill and taste. It should taste like a sweet/sour lemon wine, but you should not taste vinegar.

Provided your gravity is good (0.998ish) add your kmeta/sorbate as the recipe says (which will also help to keep any potential bacteria in-check). Good luck with a great drink!

Edit: I had to think about the amount of sugar again. After backsweetening, I've preferred the final gravity in the 1.010 range.