Skeeter Pee

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PDXHollyD said:
OK, I'm going to bottle the Apfelwein tonight, and the first stage of the Skeeter Pee has been sitting with its towel on for two days, with occasional whipping to release the sulfur stinkies. I was planning to add the yeasty slurry from the apfelwein to the bucket the Pee is in.

Question for right away: Is that okay? I don't need to literally pour the lemony pre-pee mixture right onto the yeast that's left at the bottom of the apfelwein carboy, do I? That seems wrong a) because there's 5.5 gallons of lemony pre-pee and the carboy is just 5 gallons; b) because I can't believe it's really okay to just use the same carboy without cleaning it; and c) because I think I need to whip it from time to time while it ferments, and that'll be easier to do in a bucket since I don't have a wine whip but I do have a balloon whisk that works well.

Questions for later in the process, since I intend to backsweeten with Splenda:

1. Is it correct to just use six cups of the Splenda (or store-brand equivalent) that comes in the big bags?
2. I understand I don't have to use the sorbate in the previous step (two weeks before backsweetening). Do I still need to use K-meta?
3. Do I still have to wait the two weeks after backsweetening "to be sure no new fermentation begins" before bottling?

Okay. I'm wondering... You can use the slurry from your apfelwein that had been sitting for 4 weeks? :) this makes me happy if so. I just assumed it had to be slurry from the first stages of fermentation or the first racking (still new at this) I have 3 wk apfelwein at the moment so can I start skeeter pee with that slurry in a week?
 
My apfelwein had been sitting for 11 weeks. I don't know yet if it worked; it's only been a day since I pitched it. But I'm hoping it will.
 
PDXHollyD said:
dmcl700: It's working! Airlock is bubbling and the pre-pee is moving. :ban:

Nice! I'll be mixing my new pee soon excited for the apple twist.
 
I made mine from a slurry of Apfelwein that had completely cleared. I racked it to a keg at 8-9 weeks, poured the slurry into the skeeter and a couple days later it was doing it's thing. I'm sure it would just go dormant if left longer but be just fine.
 
I made another batch of pee last night, I used yeast from my apfelwein that has been in the primary for 7 weeks. No signs of fermentation yet, but it's a little soon. I'll let ya'll know when it starts...
 
Does anyone think 3 weeks is too early to take slurry from my for the pee or should I just leave it for a few more weeks... Is this going to affect the apfelwein at all?
 
I made mine from a slurry of Apfelwein that had completely cleared. I racked it to a keg at 8-9 weeks, poured the slurry into the skeeter and a couple days later it was doing it's thing. I'm sure it would just go dormant if left longer but be just fine.

This...

Let Apfelwein finish. This takes aprox. 6-9 weeks

Pitch slurry from Apfelwein into Skeeter

Wait 2-3 days for fermentation to start

Follow recipe instructions.

If you have already assembled your skeeter there are instructions for making a starter in lieu of a slurry referenced at the beginning of this thread.

Enjoy Skeeter :drunk:
 
Jboyles123 said:
I made another batch of pee last night, I used yeast from my apfelwein that has been in the primary for 7 weeks. No signs of fermentation yet, but it's a little soon. I'll let ya'll know when it starts...

Well its been 72 hrs and I have zero activity. I whipped it good yesterday and again tonight. I gave it a shot of oxygen tonight too. I'll give it another 48 hrs and then if it hasn't started I'll have to move on to plan B.

Now I just need to come up with a plan B! Any advice?
 
Well its been 72 hrs and I have zero activity. I whipped it good yesterday and again tonight. I gave it a shot of oxygen tonight too. I'll give it another 48 hrs and then if it hasn't started I'll have to move on to plan B.

Now I just need to come up with a plan B! Any advice?

A packet of EC-1118.
 
So anyway, I racked my pee into secondary the other day, and took a growler full to throw in the fridge first off the racking cane to catch most of the yeast that would come through.

Also added kmeta and sorbate to secondary, haven't added the sugar yet.

The pee in the growler has a sulfuric odor to it. I'm not a wine maker generally so i don't have a lot of wine making tools around. So, i have never whipped this stuff, not having a whip.

But offhand, i have a 4 foot length of 1/4" PEX water tubing - semi-rigid, slightly curved.

If i chuck that up in my drill, will it serve as a good-enough whip for degassing and mixing in the sweetening sugar?
 
So anyway, I racked my pee into secondary the other day, and took a growler full to throw in the fridge first off the racking cane to catch most of the yeast that would come through.

Also added kmeta and sorbate to secondary, haven't added the sugar yet.

The pee in the growler has a sulfuric odor to it. I'm not a wine maker generally so i don't have a lot of wine making tools around. So, i have never whipped this stuff, not having a whip.

But offhand, i have a 4 foot length of 1/4" PEX water tubing - semi-rigid, slightly curved.

If i chuck that up in my drill, will it serve as a good-enough whip for degassing and mixing in the sweetening sugar?

i've seen on here where some people take a metal coat hanger attached to a drill and use that as their wire whip.
 
So anyway, I racked my pee into secondary the other day, and took a growler full to throw in the fridge first off the racking cane to catch most of the yeast that would come through.

Also added kmeta and sorbate to secondary, haven't added the sugar yet.

The pee in the growler has a sulfuric odor to it. I'm not a wine maker generally so i don't have a lot of wine making tools around. So, i have never whipped this stuff, not having a whip.

But offhand, i have a 4 foot length of 1/4" PEX water tubing - semi-rigid, slightly curved.

If i chuck that up in my drill, will it serve as a good-enough whip for degassing and mixing in the sweetening sugar?

I do not have a wine whip myself but after hearing all the SO2 problems with this recipe I was determined to be as cheap & Lazy as possible and not drive the whole 9 miles to the LHSB shop and get an actual wine whip while still making sure I have no SO2 problems. I cut up a coat hanger and bent it to look like this:

Wine Whip.JPG

It is lop sided & shakes the hell out of my carboy. But I think that is what makes this work so well lol. It froths up nice with 60 seconds of whiping at a time. I did this with my SP must every morning and night for the first week or so untill all noticable fermentation stoped. I have had ZERO bad smells and nothing but lemony goodness from my airlock.
 
I seem to recall that the original skeeter pee recipe recommends that you use lees that are healthy and preferably not from a high alcohol wine where yeast may be suffering from alcohol toxicity. Since many people rack their wine from primary to a carboy/airlock when O.G. has decreased by 2/3, or maybe they use a certain number regardless of O.G. perhaps 1.030, 1.010...they opt to use those early lees. They are healthy and happy and tend to kick off your SkeeterPee rather quickly. Not yo say that lees from a 6 week or older wine will not work, but I think the outcome will be better if one uses lees from the very young must. I once used lees from a wine rhat was dry, was at the six week mark...and I had to pitch a packet of new yeast because I could not establish a good colony.
 
My yeast slurry was from a 8 week old 9.5% ABV white grape peach wine using Lalvin 71B. Everything was picture perfect on the fermentation. Could not have been happier.
 
Finally made it through all 94 pages.....do I get a prize? :fro:

I started a batch of SP back on 8/22, before finding this thread. Figured I'd give my method in case anyone cares:


  • I only have 3 gallon carboys so I scaled the recipe down to a smaller batch.
  • I didn't have any yeast energizer, so I skipped that addition
  • I added all lemon juice in the beginning (accidently)
  • I did make the invert sugar, although I probably didn't "cook" it the full amount of time.
  • I waited 28 hours after mixing everything before adding the yeast. I whipped up the must a couple times in between to dissipate the preservatives as best as possible.
  • I didn't have a yeast cake to use, so just used a single packet of EC1118. I re-hydrated it per the instructions on the packet, using the must to re-hydrate instead of water. Within a few minutes, the re-hydrated yeast were actively fermenting the re-hydration sample.
  • I added the re-hydrated yeast to the primary, and whipped them like crazy. I also whipped them like crazy at least two times a day until I moved to the secondary.
  • Starting SG was 1.074, and by 8/27 (only 4 days after pitching!) it was down to 0.995. I didn't keep track of the fermentation temperature, but it was probably between 75-80F. It was cool enough outside for us to keep the windows open, so I don't believe the must would have gotten much hotter than 80F. Definitely a fast fermentation, but it seems most of mine are for some reason. I don't recall any sulfur smells, but haven't tasted it yet to see if there are any off tastes present due to this rapid fermentation.
  • Racked to the secondary on 8/27, and added bentonite, k-meta, and sorbate. I also degassed at this time.
  • Racked again on 9/5 to get the SP off most of the sediment. Used some left over pear must as a topping solution.

SP has remained untouched since then, and still isn't clear. My original reason for writing this post was to ask you guys why my pee hasn't cleared yet, but I think I spotted my mistake when listing out my process: The pear must.

Since I didn't wait to be sure the SP was completely fermented dry (I just added k-meta and sorbate at 0.995 to kill off all the yeast), there might have still been some fermentable sugar in the mix. By adding the pear must (which likely still has both yeast and sugar), I've likely started fermentation again, albeit a very weak one since the available yeast and sugar in there has to be pretty small.

Does this sound like a reasonable explanation for why my pee isn't clear yet, even after adding bentonite? If so, I assume I will need to re-add the k-meta and sorbate before backsweetening, right?

P.S. Thanks to reading through this thread, I've just started my first apfelwein. I need more carboys.....
 
Does this sound like a reasonable explanation for why my pee isn't clear yet, even after adding bentonite? If so, I assume I will need to re-add the k-meta and sorbate before backsweetening, right?

I believe fining agents won't work terribly well if the ferment is still active, so yeah that is probably what your problem is. You are probably correct about the pear juice probably adding more sugar.

As for the k-meta and sorbate, I've never used them before myself, but I assume if they didn't work you may need to do them again.
 
You were fine to stabilize at 0.995, but did you recheck SG after adding pear must. The pear component likely threw alot of pectin to the ferment. Most use Sparkolloid with SP, thoufh my batches always clear on their own. May try SuperKleer.
 
Anyone try adding Calcium Carbonate to the finished product to cut the acidity down a bit? I'm thinking about experimenting with 2.5 grams per gallon at a time until is reaches near 7.0.
 
Why make the PH 7.0? The point of Lemon flavor is to have Citric acid for the puckering sour affect. I think it would taste awful funny at a nutral PH.
 
Not having a yeast cake from a previous batch of wine(I've not made wine), I went hunting for a wine yeast of sorts to use. South Africa has a shortage of brew type stores :(

I found a distillation supplier that also does some fruit wine goodies and he sells a no name yeast that he describes as "fruit wine yeast". This stuff is incredible, I racked to bigger buckets with more headspace just 5 hours after pitching a 1 litre starter at high krausen. Yes if I'd gone to bed without checking on the buckets I would have woken up to a blow out or two :D

The only serious deviation from the recipe was fresh lemon juice that we squeezed from fresh lemons in the morning :D
 
johanmk1 said:
not having a yeast cake from a previous batch of wine(i've not made wine), i went hunting for a wine yeast of sorts to use. South africa has a shortage of brew type stores :(

i found a distillation supplier that also does some fruit wine goodies and he sells a no name yeast that he describes as "fruit wine yeast". This stuff is incredible, i racked to bigger buckets with more headspace just 5 hours after pitching a 1 litre starter at high krausen. Yes if i'd gone to bed without checking on the buckets i would have woken up to a blow out or two :d

the only serious deviation from the recipe was fresh lemon juice that we squeezed from fresh lemons in the morning :d

:d
 
Can I add a can of welches grape concentrate to my pee at the end? And if i do, how much sugar should I add?
 
Can I add a can of welches grape concentrate to my pee at the end? And if i do, how much sugar should I add?

You can do anything to your pee, that's what makes America great. After you add the concentrate take a gravity reading. One pound of sugar will give you 9 gravity points for a 5 gallon batch. Most people sweeten to around 1.014-1.025. Shoot low, taste, and add more sugar until you reach the level you want. Then you can repeat on the next batch.
 
Update: Finally got my pee to clear recently. Picked up some sparkolloid at the LHBS last weekend and now she's all sparkly clear. That's some pretty good stuff (the sparkolloid that is). Cleared up within a couple days. Went ahead and racked it Sunday and will give it another week or so to see if anything else falls out, then it's finally time to sweeten and enjoy this one! Yay!
 
So here is a question. Why the 1/3rd cup of juice when making the sugar invert? Why not just use water and add all the juice at once?
 
So I am getting ready to make some more of this. I don't like the sulfur smell and taste the sorbate adds. Is there another way to kill the yeasties?

Or

If I keg it and keep it refrigerated can I not use the sorbate?
 
I second that idea! Try it! The sulfur and sorbate taste ruins the final product. Kegging it for a few weeks knocks it down some.
 
So here is a question. Why the 1/3rd cup of juice when making the sugar invert? Why not just use water and add all the juice at once?

When making invert sugar, what you are doing is taking a long chain sugar (sucrose) and breaking it in "half" to form two shorter chain sugars (fructose and glucose). Yeast cannot digest sucrose. They do have an enzyme within themselves to break the sucrose down into the two shorter sugars themselves, but it is an extra step for them. When you make invert sugar, you are setting the table with prepared food for them; they just have to pull up a chair and start eating.

The acid in the lemon juice and the heat supplied is all it takes to snap that long sugar into the two edible parts. Bon appetit!
 
When making invert sugar, what you are doing is taking a long chain sugar (sucrose) and breaking it in "half" to form two shorter chain sugars (fructose and glucose). Yeast cannot digest sucrose. They do have an enzyme within themselves to break the sucrose down into the two shorter sugars themselves, but it is an extra step for them. When you make invert sugar, you are setting the table with prepared food for them; they just have to pull up a chair and start eating.

The acid in the lemon juice and the heat supplied is all it takes to snap that long sugar into the two edible parts. Bon appetit!


Thanks! The first batch I made followed the recipe but I was curious as to that step. It turned out very well and was a huge hit with the Fam at our last get together. I'll be starting another batch soon. :mug:
 
Does any one know how many times is ok to use the yeast cake? I know it adds up after using yeast twice.
 
The sorbate is used to prevent refermentation when back-sweetening. You'll need to use an artificial sweetener if you don't neuter the yeast to prevent making bottle bombs. This recipe really starts to shine after about six months.
 
Thought he says there is no benefit to aging? Unless I am misremembering? Anyone tried other juices besides lemon but kind of following this process? I mean we do it this way due to citrus being difficult to ferment. I am thinking of trying lime, orange, and pineapple versions, adjusting the back sweetening of course. Anyone else tried similiar?
 
Also I have a slurry that is from Apfelwein I just jugged up it was in primary about three months (been over a year since the last time I made skeeter pee forgot its supposed to be from an active fermentation) afraid the yeast might be "tired"? Can I throw the slurry into my starter beaker throw some sugar in it fire up the stir plate and try to "reenergize" it and make a starter with it?

Also what is the Kmeta for? Since I am going to keg mine I am not worried about killing off the yeast so I am leaving out the potassium sorbate step, should I leave out the Kmeta too?

Also can I just double everything or triple it and make a 10 or 15 gallon batch? Is the slurry from one batch of Apfelwein enough for starting a 10 or 15 gallon batch?
 
akthor said:
Thought he says there is no benefit to aging? Unless I am misremembering? Anyone tried other juices besides lemon but kind of following this process? I mean we do it this way due to citrus being difficult to ferment. I am thinking of trying lime, orange, and pineapple versions, adjusting the back sweetening of course. Anyone else tried similiar?

I'm making a pee using key lime juice and brown sugar. I have a post with my recipe in the wine forum.
 
Cool I just asked on skeeter pee facebook page about using fresh key lime juice. I squeezed a gallon worth of key lime juice. Umm I click "recipes" under your name but just a burgandy box pops up. I would love to see it. :) Also, do u notice a big difference between the key lime and lemon flavors? I want my stuff to be like sucking on a battery. Sour! :)
 
Also I have a slurry that is from Apfelwein I just jugged up it was in primary about three months (been over a year since the last time I made skeeter pee forgot its supposed to be from an active fermentation) afraid the yeast might be "tired"? Can I throw the slurry into my starter beaker throw some sugar in it fire up the stir plate and try to "reenergize" it and make a starter with it?

Also what is the Kmeta for? Since I am going to keg mine I am not worried about killing off the yeast so I am leaving out the potassium sorbate step, should I leave out the Kmeta too?

Also can I just double everything or triple it and make a 10 or 15 gallon batch? Is the slurry from one batch of Apfelwein enough for starting a 10 or 15 gallon batch?

The slurry I used for my SP was from a 2+ month old white grape peach wine that had sit on the lees for a while. I had no problems what so ever.

If you are not stabilizing the yes you could skip the Kmeta.

The recipe seems pretty standard and I am sure doubling and tripling is fine. If your slurry is from a 5 gallon batch, I am sure it is fine but you may just have a longer lag phase. Expect the full 48 hours after yeast pitch to see any real fermentation.
 
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