Limeade (margarita wine)

...still haven't bottled it yet...or tasted it in months for that matter. I moved a few months ago and just haven't taken the time to do anything with it, even though I've brewed some beers since then once I can have a full weekend to myself, I'm going to bottle it, and my cider that's aged and ready to go.

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I made a cherry lime skeeter pee, with lime juice in place of the lemon. Truend out very good. Lime is a strong flavor, but it turned out good

I made a strawberry lime skeeter pee..yummmmmm

After many months of putting it off, I finally tasted my margarita wine.... and it is great! I had ny girlfriend 2 of her friends all drink it and they enjoyed it too. One of them said it was a little too sweet but the overwhelming sourness it once had is no more. The brown sugar (molasses technically) flavor really comes through and compliments the lime flavor perfectly. It just took 18 months to mellow out ;-) it's absolutely to the point where I want to bottle it. I was already asked when I was going to bottle it because they wanted more. If I attempt this again in the future, I'll use less lime and replace with lemon so I don't have to wait so long for the flavor to mellow out, and ease up on the backsweetening. Definitely try this out people!

Subd. Sounds excellent

How long do I have to let the yeast starter go before I add it to everything else? How long do I let the whole thing ferment for? Can I make this in my carboy? Sorry, I'm just full of questions!

KimmyBee327 said:

How long do I have to let the yeast starter go before I add it to everything else? How long do I let the whole thing ferment for? Can I make this in my carboy? Sorry, I'm just full of questions!

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24-48 hours is plenty of time
Ferment until it bottoms out. Mine usually go all the way down to .990-.996 before fermentation stops
Yes you can make it in your carboy. Just make sure it's big enough.

Okay, let's try this again. I was three quarters through my post yesterday when my computer blue screened. Grr

My very first attempt at anything like this. Only been brewing since August. Just wanted to add my notes for my experience so far.

So I started mine on October 4th, all of nine days ago. I read through everything and was a bit nervous about the stalling and fermentation problems associated with lemon and lime juice and having to make my first starter. I definitely had zero stalling problems. I only let the starter sit for about three hours, but as of yesterday when I did my first racking, it had already weaseled it's way down to .998 even with it fermenting at 68°. I was not expecting that. Heh. Mine is scaled down to a five gallon recipe using two-thirds key lime juice and one-third lemon juice. At this speed I'm only going to give it a few more days before I check again and see if it goes down any farther or if it's done. It's still bubbling a fair bit so I honestly don't think it's done yet. Currently sitting about 11.5%. After I do the rest of the additions and racking I'm going to try back sweetening it with the Finest Call Triple Sec syrup that Clifton mentioned was suggested by Jack Keller. Makes sense since it already tastes like a Margarita.

I'm really looking forward to this. This may end up being a fairly frequent product in my house. Quick, cheap, and good. LOL

Awesome. Let us know how it turns out!

Thanks. I will.

I'm pretty sure I will be doing the Kmeta/Sorbate/Sparkolloid addition (2nd racking) tomorrow, but I do have a bit of a dilemma though. I've been researching off and on for the last few days and have been finding that the instructions for the Sparkolloid addition stated by the Scott Laboratories' site, my package (re-package it looks like) of Sparkolloid from Brewcraft and the Mead forums' 'Sticky: Mead Making FAQs' are all a little different. They can't seem to agree and since I've never used it before I'm not exactly in the position to be able to tell which one I should follow.

I will admit that I haven't done the math for the Scott Laboratories's instructions yet. Theirs is listed for 1000 gallon batches. Listing 1 - 4 pounds of Sparkolloid per 1000 gallons of wine using 1-2 two gallons of water per pound to dissolve. I wish I knew what the variables were that give them such a large range of options. I mean do they use 1 pound for red wine and 4 pounds for white? I'm assuming they use the second gallon of water when they use the 3 or 4 pounds. Anyway, like I said, haven't done the math on that one yet.

My package instructions say to use 1 teaspoon per gallon of wine to 2 cups of water. I'm assuming it's only the teaspoons scaling so for a 5 gallon batch of Margarita wine it would be 5 teaspoons in 2 cups of water. The rest of the instructions, regarding the 5-10 minute boil and adding warm I understand.

The Mead forum sticky lists it by weight. 1/4 to 1 gram of dry Sparkolloid powder per gallon of wine. I haven't opened my package and weighed 1 teaspoon yet to see if it falls into that weight range. The newbie here is a little paranoid about contamination. I have also read a few threads where people say to use 1 tablespoon. I'm guessing that may be because of the lovely 1/4 to 1 gram option in the sticky. I still want to know what should influence you to use 1/4 gram over 1 gram or vice versa. Anyway.

The gigantic noticeable difference between my package instructions and the sticky however is in regards to the amount of water used to dissolve it in. Like I already stated, my package say 2 cups of boiling water. The sticky in the mead forum states 100 ml. 100 ml is 3.3814 oz or just over .42 cups. Or if you look at it the other way, my package says to use just over 473 ml of water and the sticky says to use 100 ml of water. Big difference.

To those of you who have done this before what do I use? My package instructions for 1 tsp per gallon in 2 cups (473 ml) of water or the stickies instruction of 1/4 g - 1 g per gallon in . 42 cups (100 ml) of water? Or do I use something else? My brain hurts. Help.

Thanks in advance. I'll be rocking in a corner.

My bottle of Sparkalloid says to dissolve 1 tablespoon into 1 cup of boiling water for 5 minutes, add to 6 gallons of wine, stir, and let sit for at least a week to rack or bottle

Apple_Jacker said:

My bottle of Sparkalloid says to dissolve 1 tablespoon into 1 cup of boiling water for 5 minutes, add to 6 gallons of wine, stir, and let sit for at least a week to rack or bottle

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Argh! Why are there so many conflicting instructions for the exact same product?

Not sure but I've been using it per those directions without incident. Is your powder a knock off brand?

Either way, just go with the instructions provided with what your purchased. It's probably the safest bet.

I don't think it's a knock off, I just think it's been bought in bulk and repackaged. It's in a Brewcraft brand package that has the name and the instructions applied with a sticker to the bag.

So after a bit more research I found some info with Sparkolloid's weight and scaled down the manufacturer's instructions (from 1000 gallons). I ended up using 2 teaspoons in 100 ml water (yay for mixing measurement systems. lol) and this is the result after only 9 days.

Looks good! Did you do all lime juice, or a combination of lemon and lime?

Apple_Jacker said:

Looks good! Did you do all lime juice, or a combination of lemon and lime?

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After reading the thread, I decided to use 2/3 key lime juice and 1/3 lemon juice.

A mix seems good. I'm excited to hear how this turns out

Yeah using all key lime juice made it horribly sour. A glass would give me bad heartburn. It has definitely mellowed out but I've been aging it since I started this thread ;-) I've probably said this a few times already, but I will bottle it one day. Or, just drink it right out of the carboy until I can fit it in some jugs and refrigerate it. I would like that carboy freed up. Me and a few other people drank some of it a few months ago and 2 out of 4 liked it, myself included. The other 2 thought it was still too sour. It is certainly more sour than a regular skeeter pee but much more drinkable than it was before. I considered tasting some more this past weekend but ultimately was won over by the Bell's beer and Founder's in my fridge. Maybe tonight I'll pour out a few glasses worth and see how she's doing.

Edit: I just noticed I've been aging this for 2 years! I better taste this after work!

UPDATE: What a difference 2 years makes! This stuff is delicious! The brown sugar aroma really comes through with a subtle lime/citrus tint to it. The color looks like I poured a tall glass of whiskey. It looks great. And the taste is excellent. It's very smooth, with some tartness at the end but it is not overpowering at all. This probably has a smoother finish to it than the skeeter pees I've made this year. I shouldn't have listened to the haters amd just bottled this stuff already, but maybe the long bulk aging helped mellow out the flavors. I honestly had my doubts with this one, but I'm bottling this stuff for sure!

So I racked off and back sweetened today. Took a lot more sweetening than expected, but still nice. The flavor is a bit bitey. The lemon/lime flavor is more of a peel flavor than sweetened juice, but that might be since it's so young. Of course this is my first attempt at this and I've only been brewing since August so I'm just making an educated guess. Either way I'm pleased. Might have to make a plain old Skeeter Pee now just to compare.

Looks good! Yeah lime juice is definitely more tart than the lemon juice.

I've started mixing it 50/50 with Coronas. I dubbed it a Mexican Shandy.

That sounds delicious

Sounds good. I finally bottled mine a week ago... better late than never!

...and I'm the one that started this damn thread haha ;-)

just started some!