Skeeter Pee with Nottingham's stuck ferment:(

Hey all, I finally found some nottinghams, got one for a SP and one for my next batch of Apfelwein. now I made a started similar to how Geniz did his, made it with the dry yeast and water and sugar and then add a bit of the SP, and let it sit...then added some more, and so on until my 1/2G jar was 3/4 full, and still bubbling away good...then I dumped that into my pail, and nada....nothing...its still on 1.060 for the last 2 days...

I'm not sure how to get it started up again...should I had more nutrients...heat up the pail a bit by placing it into another larger tub, of warm/hot water to raise the temps, to get the yeasties going again?

I don't want to pitch the other nottinghams, as I wanted to save it for my apfelwein, and its pretty hard to come by around here (drove over an hour and bought their only 2 packs).

thanks for any help or tips you can give a stuck skeeter pee'er.
:rockin:

Did you use any energizer or nutrient?

If not do so and stir the crap out of it to aerate

Yes, I followed the instructions exactly, except using a yeast starter of course. So there is already some nutrients & energizer in there, but should I add more? & I've been stirring it daily as well, also using a stainless steel whisk to really get it aerated, same as I did with my first batch, but I used the EC-1118 then though. This is my first attempt with a yeast other then the 1118. Thanks for the reply.

ok, said screw it...added another 3 tsp. of the yeast nutrient and 1 tsp. of the yeast energizer, the samething you are supposed to add when it hits 1.050, but I added it now, to get things moving, hopefully...

Isn't that an ale yeast???

Might not be as alcohol tolerant as a wine yeast and simply has been rendered inactive due to alcohol poisoning (if I had a nickle for every time THAT has happened).

DoctorCAD said:

Isn't that an ale yeast???

Might not be as alcohol tolerant as a wine yeast and simply has been rendered inactive due to alcohol poisoning (if I had a nickle for every time THAT has happened).

Click to expand...

I also have a batch of SP going right now. My LHBS recommended using white wine yeast because of what the Doc said above. Mine took a day to get going but is seriously going hard now.

yes it is an ale yeast, that was my thought process for using it...I'm going to use it for my apfelwein as well. I have read that the EC-1118 tends to strip away the fruit flavors almost completely, where as an ale yeast leaves more of them hanging around. also, I figured since it was an ale yeast, that it would not ferment to as high of an ABV as the 1118 did, which would make for a slightly easier drinking "Everyday summer beverage", at about 7-9% as opposed to the EC-1118 which was 12-16% I think.

or have I simplified it a little bit too much here, and it just doesn't work that way?

thanks,

I used an ale yeast on my spiced pumpkin mead and it did great. Stopped fermenting at about 9.5% ABV. The ale yeast should start just fine in a wine. Low PH may be the problem here. In SP you are only adding about 2/3 the of the real lemon juice up front and later adding the 3rd bottle. Are you doing that or was all the lemon introduced up front? It may be worth it to run and get some ph strips and if the must is below about 3.4 then add in a little potassium bicarbonate and keep testing until you get to about 3.5 or so.

arpolis, yes I followed the recipe steps exactly, only using 2 of 3 bottles of the real lemon. I'll go grab some of those PH strips today...and then just add potassium bicarbonate until it gets higher then 3.4, correct?

thanks, also, is there another name for potassium bicarbonate? I know somethings in this hobby have a few different names, and when I go ask for them at my local small town shops I'm usually greeted as if I had two heads or something, LOL...

thanks again,

Not sure if there is another name. My LHBS caries 2oz bottles of the stuff just called what it is.

And yes the yeast usually likes PH ranges arounf 3.5 - 4.0. It can work higher but I would want to keep the PH as low as possible on this being a lemon wine. Too high a PH and this would just taste funny.

AWESOME!!! thanks soo much for your help...I'm feeling better about my batch now...hoping I can save it.

YAY!!!! she's bubbling away not too badly now...3-4 bubbles every 30-60 seconds...that's a start and better then nothing....phew!!!...the yeasties must of just needed a little booster...

So bubbles with no ph adjustment? If so that is awesome. The PH might still have been the culprit. Yeast nutrients will raise the PH one maybe two points with enough put in. Just keep up the aeration daily for the next week and I bet it will be fine.

that is correct...no adjustments were made at all...I got pretty lucky I think...I think maybe the warm water bath helped them fight a little bit more too...but I will still get the litmus papers and test the ph and adjust if need be, I don't want to stress them out any more then they already need to be.

thanks again for all your help.

Did you use up all that yeast or did you divide it again?

sorry, I'm not sure what you mean fluidmechanics.

my nottinghams came in an 11g packet. I just created my starter with it, after a day and a half of adding the must to it, i pitched it...and then I just added the nutrient and energizer that should have been added @ 1.050 to it when it was stuck at 1.060...so when its around 1.040, I'll add more, as I the recipe states to help keep it going.

but I did use the entire packet, but just on one batch...I've only been working on this one batch (my 2nd SP overall).

thanks,

well checked it again today, it was still bubbling away, not very fast, but say 3-4 bubbles still, about every 30-60 seconds...BUT, when I checked it it was still 1.060...so, aeration time again...now she's bubbling away, 3-4 bubbles every 5-10 seconds...& I will continue to aerate now every 10-12 hours... hoping that will get her going now...

Hey snake glad its working! I just am in process of making my 1st SP, I also made a dry starter like you using 116 yeast I think. After 24 hours in the 1 gallon gallo, its bubbling so and looking good, very tiny bubbles. I went to aerate one and created mount everest explosion! lol. Luckily I had more must from another batch I'm starting so I just topped it off, I figure it will set that bottle back a few days but so be it.

My question, how did you aerate without creating volcano? If its really gassy, should I degas then aerate or just leave it all alone!? Thanks.

mine is in a bucket...so I just stir the piss out of it, with my plastic spoon...get everything all mixed up and then I use my stainless steel whisk and give it some more...usually works good...but, although she is bubbling away...i'm still sitting @ 1.060 ...strange...figures my first time with something other then EC-1118 and I'm having problems...not cool...I'm trying to find some PH strips & potassium bicarbonate around here, but I live in a small town and allot of the LHBS close around noon'ish...so, looking like quite a challenge so far.

good luck on yours...and if its explodin' on ya, you mean something like Mount Vesuvius, not Everest right?...Vesuvius is a volcano. .... (p.s. just bustin' your chops, no harm or aggression intended ).

are you just making a 1 Gallon batch?

cheers.

Hmm yeah this is my 1st ever attempt at creating booze, lol. Lord knows I've imbibed enough. I'm from NJ, I was taught that everest was a volcano! Maybe a bucket would be better suited to stirring vs. my gallo glass jugs.

This batch was 2 gallons since I didnt' have any other containers at the moment. Yeah if yeast is creating CO2 how is it not lowering sugar level? Strange.

oh ok, cool...so you just scaled it all down to a little less then 1/2 what the recipe called for then? ya, I've always found it easier to stir/mix in a pail...after I get it to ferment properly, LOL (hopefully it does play nice!!!) then I transfer to the carboy for the "just sitting there" stages. .

really? oh, oops sorry to burst your bubble on Everest....ya, the famous ones I know of are Vesuvius, Krakatau, Kilauea, Mount Fuji & one even in the US - Mount Saint Helens Volcano, Washington ....

good luck on your batch of SP...stay in touch, and we'll keep tabs on each others batches...this is my 2nd SP, I've got an apfelwein thats been aging for 6-7 months or so now, and I've made countless batches of wines and beers over the years.

Yeah I never mind a good ribbing! And obv I didn't mean everest, I meant Helena. I was in a famous crater in Africa called Ngorongoro which was caused by a collapsed volcano.

Yeah I scaled back the recipe, and had an SG of 1.070, and used one packet of 116. I used about 40oz of lemon juice concentrate and 2 tsp of nutrients. I think what I'm going to do is make up 2 more gallons or so, using a starter I starter yesterday, and combine them all in a bucket. The starter I made yesterday seems to be really cracking along nice.

I'll post my success/failures. Take care.

oh ok, cool...so its not really Skeeter Pee exactly so much as a hard lemonade then...still awesome!!!...ya, that sounds like it should work out good...then you stir the crap out of it and get some good aeration going!

I'll be keeping an eye out for your updates...good luck...

A50SNAKE, not to call you a noob or anything but when you take the gravity reading is it in the pale? If so do you take it befor aerating it? The rising CO2 might be giving you false readings. From what you have said befor I would have thought for sure that the gravity would have dropped some.

Hey man, no worries & many many hundreds(maybe even a thousand or more) bottles above that. Been making for almost 20 years now, I test SG as soon as I pop the top, THEN I aerate it, not after ...but, good news, on Friday it was 1.060, today its @ 1.020 !!! Yay! Added my last bottle of juice & the yeast nutrient & energizer. So I'm hoping she'll keep on chuggin' away....thanks for all the tips & help & support.