Skeeter Pee - Starting with Dry Yeast

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

geniz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2009
Messages
424
Reaction score
77
Location
Georgia
I started a batch of skeeter pee this weekend. Didnt have a slurry, so I decided to try to start it with dry yeast. I made the "must" as per the original recipe.

Here is the recipe:

http://www.skeeterpee.com/Skeeter_Pee/Recipe.html


I decide to try to get a yeast starter going al la Yoopers Hard lemonade.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/hard-lemonade-68144/


If it worked for her recipe, it probably would work for Skeeter Pee.

So, I rehydrated a pack of EC-1118 in 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp sugar. Once this got going, I added a cup or two of must every hour, making sure that it was bubbling away before I added the next round of must. Once I had about 1/2 gallon of starter, I put an airlock on the starter and let it work overnight .

I pitched the yeast starter into the fermenter and it seems to be going well, Its bubbling slowly, but its working. Ive been stirring the must a couple of times a day to introduce oxygen.

The starting gravity was 1.072

Temp in the mid 70s

So far so good.

When it gets down to 1.050, I'll add the third bottle of lemon juice, some nutrient and energizer.
__________________
 
Now its Monday night,

The must is fermenting, but not vigorously.

SG tonight is 1.062, so something's happening.
 
Tuesday afternoon. SG = 1.054

Adding last bottle of lemon juice, 3 tsp yeast nutrient, and 1 tsp yeast energizer.

More to come...
 
Wednesday Night,

Bubbling away like mad. Nice lemony smell from the open fermenter and a large foam cap on top. Did not stir since it looked like it was working just fine, but probably will tomorrow to try to try to prevent sulphur smell
 
Very interested in seeing where this goes. I can tell you from my own experience in trying to make a 'hard lemon cider' that it can be very, very difficult to get that fermentation going.

It took over two weeks and three packs of WC-1118, lots of yeast nutrient and a prayer before it finally took off. What I found though was it appeared to be fermenting like crazy at first, but my SG readings told another story. Mind you the recipe was different, but I was very happy with the final product. I would keep checking the SG every couple days to be sure its actually fermenting.
 
Very interested in seeing where this goes. I can tell you from my own experience in trying to make a 'hard lemon cider' that it can be very, very difficult to get that fermentation going.

It took over two weeks and three packs of WC-1118, lots of yeast nutrient and a prayer before it finally took off. What I found though was it appeared to be fermenting like crazy at first, but my SG readings told another story. Mind you the recipe was different, but I was very happy with the final product. I would keep checking the SG every couple days to be sure its actually fermenting.
It seems to be working well. I aerated it tonight. I think the trick is to get the yeast started well in sugar water and very carefully add must a little at a time to the yeast, making sure that it is working well before adding more. Initially I had very slow fermentation, but when I added the second round of energizer and nutrient, it really took off.
 
Glad to hear it :mug:

I actually started a 'light' version of Skeeter Pee tonight (OG was 1.048) and I plan to go with the dry WC-1118 yeast as per what you did.

Here's hoping! :tank:
 
Bradinator,

Keep us informed on how things are going.


Here's a picture of the foam cap in the fermentor.

 
Thursday night

Things are still going well. Aerated the must. No off smells. Still smells like lemons and yeast.

Took a SG reading. 1.018
 
Saturday Morning. SG = 1.000. Time to rack into secondary.

I got it to work!

But to prove it wasn't a fluke, I'm planning to start a second batch next week as an experiment to demonstrate reproducibility. I plan on chronicling the new batch and will take pics of the steps.

Anyone else trying this, please post your progress
 
Glad to see yours is working out!

Well I took a gravity reading this morning, 1.040 down from 1.048. The yeast is working, albeit slowly. I think I did not add enough nutrient to the batch initially so I introduced another tsp (1 cup boiled water, 1 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 tablespoon sugar, stirred and cooled to room temp).
 
Mine started really slow too. Didn't really pick up until the second addition of nutrient.
Yours probably will do the same.
 
I'm doing a variation of Skeeter pee with Simply Limeade. I found it unsale and I love Limeade more than Lemonade. I forsee the same problems of starting fermentation, so I'm going to do as you suggest and try and get this thing started.
 
It was bubbling pretty good this morning just from the single tsp of yeast nutrient added yesterday morning, so I skipped taking another gravity reading, added the final 3 tsp of yeast nutrients and bottle of lemon juice.
 
I got a quart (only doing a gallon batch) of must/starter bubbling real good let sit overnight and pitched it before work. hopefully it takes off.

Also I picked up a bottle of lime juice to add when the gravity drops, but I didn't look at the lable till I got home. The ingredients read Lime juice, sulfer dioxide, and lime oil in that order. Do you think it will be ok to use? I know sulfer dioxide occurs during fermentation, so i'm not too worried about that, but the lime oil i don't know about. I heard oils can leave a bad taste, but it being the 3rd ingredient i dount think there would be very much of it. any thoughts?
 
I got a quart (only doing a gallon batch) of must/starter bubbling real good let sit overnight and pitched it before work. hopefully it takes off.

Also I picked up a bottle of lime juice to add when the gravity drops, but I didn't look at the lable till I got home. The ingredients read Lime juice, sulfer dioxide, and lime oil in that order. Do you think it will be ok to use? I know sulfer dioxide occurs during fermentation, so i'm not too worried about that, but the lime oil i don't know about. I heard oils can leave a bad taste, but it being the 3rd ingredient i dount think there would be very much of it. any thoughts?
If I remember the suphur dioxide was present in the lemon as well. The original recipe requires you to aerate the must for 24-48 hours in an attempt to drive off the preservatives (SO2). I'm not so sure of the lime oil. Its certainly worth trying. When you are ready to add the lime, I would add the energizer and nutrient 1st and then add small portions of the lime making sure that fermentation is continuing before adding more lime. I cant imagine that the relative small amount of lime oil compared to your must would turn the whole gallon, but I'd go slowly.
 
Ok.

Round 2.

I took pictures this time while making the starter.

Again, followed the published recipe for Skeeter Pee.




Making invert sugar: 16 cups sugar, 8 cups water, 14 tsp lemon juice, just brought to boil and kept there for 30 min.
 
I made the must with:

The invert sugar
2 32oz bottles of Real-lemon
3/4 tsp tannin
3 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer
Tap water to 5 gallons

Stirred like crazy

O.G. 1.080 (a little higher than the original recipe)
 
Rehydrated a pack of EC-1118 yeast in:

2 cups 105F water
2 tbs sugar
pinch nutrient and energizer



After about 1/2 hour, I transferred the yeast to a jug and let it work for another 15 min.

 
Started adding the must a little at a time.

Added 1-2 cups each time, waiting an hour before adding more must. As you can see, the starter was bubbling away nicely between additions of the must.











The frothing/bubbling decreased after each must addition. The yeast is stressed, but it's working away.


 
I put an airlock on the starter and let it sit overnight. In the morning the starter was working, but not bubbling. You could see CO2 rising up the sides of the jug and the airlock was active.




The final volume of the yeast starter was 11 cups.
I gave the must a good stirring and added the yeast starter. I will report back as this progresses...
 
I did not let my starter wait for more then a couple hours before adding it to the must. I just rehydrated yeast in a cup of warm water with a couple tsp of yeast nutrient and like you geniz did, continually adding a small amount of must to the starter during that period of time.

When I pitched it, there was yeast action within the day though it was mild. It took off the day after adding the final bottle of lemon juice and yeast nutrient. Even today its still frothing away like mad.
 
I did not let my starter wait for more then a couple hours before adding it to the must. I just rehydrated yeast in a cup of warm water with a couple tsp of yeast nutrient and like you geniz did, continually adding a small amount of must to the starter during that period of time.

When I pitched it, there was yeast action within the day though it was mild. It took off the day after adding the final bottle of lemon juice and yeast nutrient. Even today its still frothing away like mad.
Mine is working away, very mildly. Same as last time. Just like yours, It didn't really get going until the second addition of nutrient and lemon
 
Looks like all my pics got deleted overnight. Not sure what happened. I'll try to figure it out

Put pics on a different server. They're back again
 
Sunday
Day 3
SG= 1.056

Time to add:
3rd bottle of lemon juice
3 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer
aerate
 
Monday
Day 4
SG = 1.036

Its bubbling away nicely with a great fermentation cap

 
Ok,

So it worked a second time. I plan on putting the second batch in secondary this weekend.

The experiment was a success. We showed that we could start a batch of skeeter pee with a dry yeast if we acclimate it to the must a little at a time.

The first experiment wasn't a fluke because we reproduced the results.

I know this method is not what the original recipe calls for, not sure what this method will take away from the character of "real" skeeter pee, but I hope this helps those who want to try skeeter pee but don't make wine.

Anyone else who does tries this, please post your progress so that we all can learn from your experience.

I'll post how well the skeeter pee turned out in the main skeeter pee thread when it gets finished.

Good luck
 
The slurry method does a few things when done correctly:
1) it adds a MONSTER batch of hungry yeast to the new batch of Skeeter Pee
2) it makes use of some of your additives that may not be completely exhausted (yeast, bentonite, nutrient, etc.)
3) it saves you the huge cost of a packet of yeast :)
4) can shorten the total production time by more than a week
5) adds a slight flavor/color of the parent wine to each batch of Skeeter Pee; thereby giving you some variation between each and every batch

The flavor variation may or may not be a good thing. If you're looking for consistancy, then I'd recommend the "non slurry" method that you're having success with. That batch in the primary two posts up reminds me that I have to get another batch rolling.

Have fun, be safe,
Lon
 
The slurry method does a few things when done correctly:
1) it adds a MONSTER batch of hungry yeast to the new batch of Skeeter Pee
2) it makes use of some of your additives that may not be completely exhausted (yeast, bentonite, nutrient, etc.)
3) it saves you the huge cost of a packet of yeast :)
4) can shorten the total production time by more than a week
5) adds a slight flavor/color of the parent wine to each batch of Skeeter Pee; thereby giving you some variation between each and every batch

The flavor variation may or may not be a good thing. If you're looking for consistancy, then I'd recommend the "non slurry" method that you're having success with. That batch in the primary two posts up reminds me that I have to get another batch rolling.

Have fun, be safe,
Lon
Thanks Lon for your advice and of course, the great recipe
 
Tagging along, not really making skeeter pee but the tips are coming in handy making homemade wine cooler from fruit juice.
 
2-2-11 started skeeter must as per recipe. At the same time I rehydrated a packet of ec-1118 and pitched it into a gallon jug half full of wal-mart white grape juice (o.g. 1.062), added some nutrient and energizer and shook the hell out of it. I added an air lock, and it was bubbling 2-3-11 AM. 2-3-11 PM, jug bubbling very well, whisked the must again. Tonight (2-4-11) I plan to start intoducing some must every couple hours, until the jug is full, and then pitch the jug into the must tomorrow morning, whisk well, and continue on as per standard pee directions. Hopefully this takes off well. I want to have this done, kegged, and force carbed for a party on 2-26-11.:drunk:
 
Don't expect this to take off like gangbusters. For the first few days, it'll probably just barely be bubbling. Be sure to aerate it twice daily while in primary. Itll not develop a cap until the second addition of nutrient and energizer. I've done two batches now from dry yeast and both have turned out great.
 
Well I pitched my (2 1/2 day) white wine (with must) starter on 2-5-11 am, and by 2-6-11 am, my pee had gone down to 1.050 already nearly 20 gravity points in 24hrs!:rockin: So I added the second additions of energizer and nutrient, and last bottle of lemon juice. Whisked daily, and 2-9-11 pm, pee has dropped to 1.000, and no sulfer smell. On the home stretch now. This seems to be working out fine, when it is done, If someone would want, I could maybe step by step it in another post, I have been writting it down. Maybe I will repeat it once first to prove it out. After letting my wife taste the still sweet hydro sample a couple days ago, I might as well start another one as soon as this finishes. :cross:
 
Geniz - thanks for starting this thread.

I was going batty with the other thread where a few people were preaching that this could not be done without a yeast cake. The whole time I read their comments I knew they were wrong. I mean the whole idea behind the yeast cake was just a large amount of viable yeast to combat a harsh environment (a starter accomplishes this!). However that misinformation from the other post turned a lot of people off (lots of inexperienced people) to the recipe and even caused one newbie to curse HBT. Not cool.

In short, thanks for posting this as proof, so the new guys would have confidence to try it.

:mug:

Gonna have to get on this recipe myself. I have a lot of acreage to mow this summer :)
 
FTR, I did the Pee too.

Threw everything in the carboy at once. Pitched 2 sachet of Montrachet on top.

Was fermenting by next day.
 
Back
Top