Skeeter Pee

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My pee is beige too, but I think that I'll try to use the Amarone with two bottles to taste it. Seems so interesting.
 
dmcl700 said:
Arpolis, I noticed that you started your batch of pee back in August and that it is crystal clear now. I started this batch that I would like to carbonate about 3 wks ago. Can I use a fining agent to clear it without the use of sorbate and k meta and carbonate? Or should I be waiting for it to clear on its own?

dmcl....I wanted to chime in and say that I have yet to use a fining agent in any batch I have made and it is always clear in less than 60 days, regardless if I had added pulp or fresh fruit into the recipe.
Finings have no relation to sorbate/k-meta, so you have no worries about one being dependent on the other. You will not want this dry, at least I do not know anyone who likes this dry... so you will have to ferment as low as it will go, allow to clear, rack off sediment, backsweeten with an unfermentable like stevia or sucralose and stabilize with k-meta, prime with a fermentable and bottle appropriately.
 
So I've tried a few bottles of SP and they are not carbonated at all after almost a month. Is it possible that the yeast was dead? I used dextrose at the normal amount (3/4 cup to 5 gallons) for bottling. Can this be fixed or should I just dump all those bottles into a keg? I hate to drink unfermented dextrose if there's an option.
 
Some blueberry skeeter pee I just racked to secondary:

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I'm hoping it clear up to a nice transparent purple.
 
Am down to my last two quarts of Pee and finally got one of my "wine-er" friends to get me some must. I have it sitting in the fridge right now. Hopefully when things slow down,
I'll be able to start batch three and my second with red...
 
I am in the middle of my first batch of SP & had a question about fermentation activity. How aggressive should the fermentation rate be? It is working, but at the same rate as an apfelwein. Too slow? About right? The SG at 1.06 this morning. I have whipped it a couple of times, which seems to have helped some. Just wondering what others are seeing.
 
I've only made one batch but I do recall it being pretty slow. It looked like a soda with the fizz coming to the top, so it was working, it just took a long time to get to 1.050. I would say over a week. Total fermentation was just about 3 weeks and then another 2 weeks to clear.
 
I am in the middle of my first batch of SP & had a question about fermentation activity. How aggressive should the fermentation rate be? It is working, but at the same rate as an apfelwein. Too slow? About right? The SG at 1.06 this morning. I have whipped it a couple of times, which seems to have helped some. Just wondering what others are seeing.

Mine is always slow and steady. Maybe some foaming but usually just small thin bubbles. I whip once a day for about 4-5 days, add more lemon juice and nutrient, and whip some more. It is usually down to 0.95 in about 10 days total, in my experience.
 
ColoHox said:
Mine is always slow and steady. Maybe some foaming but usually just small thin bubbles. I whip once a day for about 4-5 days, add more lemon juice and nutrient, and whip some more. It is usually down to 0.95 in about 10 days total, in my experience.

How many times do you rack it? Do you rack it within those 10 days?
 
How many times do you rack it? Do you rack it within those 10 days?

Only once into keg or bottles. I primary ferment for 10-14 days, then clear with sparkalloid for 14 days in primary bucket (I like my pee to be clear, cloudy pee is just unhealthy ;)).
 
ColoHox said:
Only once into keg or bottles. I primary ferment for 10-14 days, then clear with sparkalloid for 14 days in primary bucket (I like my pee to be clear, cloudy pee is just unhealthy ;)).

Thank you!! You are correct, cloudy pee is a bad thing.
 
Would it be OK to make skeeter pee on a slurry of premier cuvee that has 60g of french oak chips in it? I was planning on doing it but forgot about the chips. I wonder if they will give it a flavor or if they will be all used up? The wine has only been in primary for a week and I was planning on racking the wine off of the yeast and putting the pee on top...
 
D_Nyholm said:
Would it be OK to make skeeter pee on a slurry of premier cuvee that has 60g of french oak chips in it? I was planning on doing it but forgot about the chips. I wonder if they will give it a flavor or if they will be all used up? The wine has only been in primary for a week and I was planning on racking the wine off of the yeast and putting the pee on top...

Yes.
 
I posted this a while back, but it got lost. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Would it work to dump them all back into a bucket and add a packet of yeast?

"So I've tried a few bottles of SP and they are not carbonated at all after almost a month. Is it possible that the yeast was dead? I used dextrose at the normal amount (3/4 cup to 5 gallons) for bottling. Can this be fixed or should I just dump all those bottles into a keg? I hate to drink unfermented dextrose if there's an option."
 
I posted this a while back, but it got lost. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Would it work to dump them all back into a bucket and add a packet of yeast?

"So I've tried a few bottles of SP and they are not carbonated at all after almost a month. Is it possible that the yeast was dead? I used dextrose at the normal amount (3/4 cup to 5 gallons) for bottling. Can this be fixed or should I just dump all those bottles into a keg? I hate to drink unfermented dextrose if there's an option."

Did you stabilize the must before back sweeting? It is part of the process of making skeeter pee. If you did all yeast is dead now and can't carbonate.
 
Did you stabilize the must before back sweeting? It is part of the process of making skeeter pee. If you did all yeast is dead now and can't carbonate.

My thoughts exactly - if you use the Kmeta and sorbate to stabilize then carbonating is out of the question. This step kills the yeast so that the pee can be backsweetened.

I do wish more wine (and beer) recipes explained more about the "why" of each step, but learning from experience is part of the experience.
 
My thoughts exactly - if you use the Kmeta and sorbate to stabilize then carbonating is out of the question. This step kills the yeast so that the pee can be backsweetened.

I do wish more wine (and beer) recipes explained more about the "why" of each step, but learning from experience is part of the experience.

I'm with you on this. :mug:
 
Did you stabilize the must before back sweeting? It is part of the process of making skeeter pee. If you did all yeast is dead now and can't carbonate.

This is a solid theory, but I didn't use any of those since I knew I wasn't going to be sweetening with sugar. I didn't use the sparkolloid or anything either, for what that's worth. I just waited until it cleared on its own, sweetened with Splenda, added a packet of lemonade Koolaid (unsweetened) and then did the normal bottling procedure with dextrose simple syrup mixed in the bottling bucket.
 
This is a solid theory, but I didn't use any of those since I knew I wasn't going to be sweetening with sugar. I didn't use the sparkolloid or anything either, for what that's worth. I just waited until it cleared on its own, sweetened with Splenda, added a packet of lemonade Koolaid (unsweetened) and then did the normal bottling procedure with dextrose simple syrup mixed in the bottling bucket.

The only other thing I can think of is that the yeast are dead from all the work of fermenting all that sugar in a high acid environment. How long did it take for it to clear on its own? Also what kind of yeast did you use.
 
Let's see. I started it on 9-3, added the slurry from a batch of Apfelwein (originally a pack of Montrachet yeast) on 9-5, had good activity by the next day. Gravity was 1.050 on 9-9 so I added the third lemon juice, energizer, and nutrients. Racked it to a new carboy on 9-13. Let that sit and clear until 10-30, which is when I bottled.

If the yeast are dead, can/should I pitch more to try to eat up the dextrose and carbonate it? At this point if I poured it all back into a bucket it'd be a five-gallon batch minus three or four 12-ounce bottles. I'm not sure if this would work, or how much yeast to use for such a job.
 
Anyone ever heard of Lynchburg lemonade? Well add some whiskey to your SP and you will be blown away. It is so good. And strong too. Please drink responsibly.
 
If the yeast are dead, can/should I pitch more to try to eat up the dextrose and carbonate it? At this point if I poured it all back into a bucket it'd be a five-gallon batch minus three or four 12-ounce bottles. I'm not sure if this would work, or how much yeast to use for such a job.

If the yeast are dead, they will not wake up to carbonate something. Dead, is dead.
 
Here is an update on my SP batch. I bottled 18 750ml bottles and 9 11.5 oz bottles. I added some 2.6 oz of table sugar to the whole batch by dissolving it is two cups of the wine. It has been a couple weeks now and zero carbonation. The original yeast slurry was Lalvin 71-B so alcohol tolerance is not an issue. When I racked it last I knew it would be a while befor I bottled so I did use a dose of Camden tablets but no sorbate. I made sure to wait over a month for sulfites to dissipate but I guess there was too little yeast and the high acidic wine was too much for a small ferment to pick back up. Looks and tastes great though. I may enter this one in our local fair competition.
 
How long is this taking to clear for everybody?The recipe says 2 weeks but after one month my skeeter still looks like he has kidney failure. I have it in a closest that's been a little cold lately, between 63 and 65. Would that be a factor?
 
How long is this taking to clear for everybody?The recipe says 2 weeks but after one month my skeeter still looks like he has kidney failure. I have it in a closest that's been a little cold lately, between 63 and 65. Would that be a factor?

I never add Sparkolloid and every batch has been crystal clear in no more than 60 days from the beginning of ferment. Typical temperature 68-72, though I keep it closer to 72 when starting off.

Sometimes if your SP is gassy it may not clear well after adding the Sparkolloid. Did you use hot mix or cold mix Sparkolloid? Also, dropping the temp by 10F tends to facilitate clearing. You didn't forget the pectic enzyme did you?

Did you incorporate any fruit into your recipe, or did you make classic original version, including use of lees?
 
saramc said:
Sometimes if your SP is gassy it may not clear well after adding the Sparkolloid. Did you use hot mix or cold mix Sparkolloid? Also, dropping the temp by 10F tends to facilitate clearing. You didn't forget the pectic enzyme did you?

Did you incorporate any fruit into your recipe, or did you make classic original version, including use of lees?

I degassed before adding the sparkolloid and it was a hot mix. Am I missing something with the pectic enzyme? Didn't add it since the recipe didn't call for it.

I followed the recipe exactly and used the lees from a batch of apfelwein. I guess I'll be patient and if it comes down to it, cloudy SP can't be that bad.
 
I degassed before adding the sparkolloid and it was a hot mix. Am I missing something with the pectic enzyme? Didn't add it since the recipe didn't call for it.

I followed the recipe exactly and used the lees from a batch of apfelwein. I guess I'll be patient and if it comes down to it, cloudy SP can't be that bad.

I just realized the recipe does not call for enzyme, though I always use it. Bizarre that even two weeks later you are still cloudy. Have any SuperKleer?
 
saramc said:
Bizarre that even two weeks later you are still cloudy. Have any SuperKleer?

Yep, one month today and is as cloudy as the day I added the sparkolloid. Should I get some superkleer or would another dose of sparkolloid do anything at this point?
 
Is it all lemon juice or did you use some lime? My batches with lime don't clear well.
 
Is there any negative effects to leaving the pee on the lees for an extended period? I am at fg but do not have an empty fermenter to rack to. I do have another bucket but I am concerned the headspace may be an issue.
 
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