Skeeter Pee

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Colesrt8 said:
Thanks daze, how much baking soda?
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I added 1 tsp to 1 gallon. It was just enough to slightly cut the acid but still leave plenty of tartness. In fact based on the original recipe you would need to use about 20oz of lemon juice per gallon and I started with that, and tasted it. The tartness was perfect but not enough lemon flavor for me so I added about 6 more ounces of lemon. this got the lemon flavor where I wanted it but then it was to tart. adding the soda brought it back in line with the original recipe.

:off:

Colesrt8 said:
And I'm so sorry to hear about you being a griz fan lol ever come to bozeman for the cat-griz game? Next time hit me up. Yeah msu had a great year till the griz whipped that ass, then they just fell apart, as always. And damn the griz always has some badass white boy running backs lol
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I was watching a telecast of the Cat Griz basketball games in Bozeman and the announcer said "If you are born in the state of MT you are required to pick a team at birth" How true it is!!! :) :)
 
Don't know I was born in Kansas, grew up in Southern California, and am a Stanford and Nebraska fan lol go figure. I think I've meet more Californians than born and raised Montanans here in bozeman anyway
 
:off: I guess as soon as you became a Montanan you were "adopted in" to the car griz rivalry :)
 
I made a one gallon batch and used all 32 oz also and the acid is a little over whelming.
 
Jukas said:
That's not surprising since the recipe calls for 3 * 32oz bottles for a 5 gallon batch, which breaks down to 19.2oz per gallon.
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thats exactly why I added the baking soda, made all the difference in the world
 
nope, in fact a home brew store sells it as "Precipitated chalk" same stuff, I just use baking soda because I have it on hand.
 
Isn't chalk Calcium Carbonate (or Bicarbonate) and baking soda is Sodium?
 
Oh you are right... good call. I had a mental lapse and due to the bicarbonate was thinking there were the same thing. Either way the baking soda still works just as well. I started putting it in rhubarb pie as a way to cut the acid so that I could use way less sugar. It worked just as I had hoped so I started adding it to overly acidic wine and it has worked extremely well. I highly recommend it as a way to cut acid.
 
In everything I've read, they steer you away from Sodium bicarbonate as an acid reducing practice due to the addition of sodium to the diet and imparting of a salty flavor. In something like Skeeter Pee, if you're drinking it after profuse sweating, adding some salts back into your diet might be OK as long as you're also drinking extra water at the same time. Personally, I think beverages like Gatorade have a slightly salty taste to them; if you like Gatorade, maybe it's a flavor you want.
 
Just made my first batch of this tonight, and had a quick question. I tossed the lees from some red wine I had racked about a week ago into it. The lees were kept in a freezer bag at room temp for about a week, and I had tossed a 1/4 cup of corn sugar in just to keep the yeast happy. Kind of worried that at 7 days the yeast might have died though?

Also, I was kind of running on auto pilot, and didn't wait the 24-48h to toss in the lees like I was supposed to; Is that going to hurt it? If so, can I toss some EC-1118 in there on top of the wine lees? Not sure what kind of yeast was in the lees from my wine though, just kind of tossed the kit together when I made that.

Oh, also, I put a little over 4kg of corn sugar, and probly 3-4 cups of table sugar into this, and could only get my OG up to 1.065. And I stired that sucker for a good 30 straight mins. How much bloody sugar does it take to get to 1.070??
 
Captive said:
In everything I've read, they steer you away from Sodium bicarbonate as an acid reducing practice due to the addition of sodium to the diet and imparting of a salty flavor.
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salt is Sodium chloride not sodium by it self. I have been doing this for a long time and never once had a salty attribute added to my wines and other foods. Baking soda doesn't make cookies and cakes taste salty when used in baking and the same thing is happening the acids in the batter or dough react with the baking soda creating co2, that's what makes your baked good light and fluffy. Now I am sure the calcium bicarbonate is better than baking soda when making wine, but baking soda will also work.


Captive said:
Personally, I think beverages like Gatorade have a slightly salty taste to them; if you like Gatorade, maybe it's a flavor you want.
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As to it being like gatorade, like I said before there is no salty flavor imparted in my experience, and even if there were it would be minimal. There are a lot of salts and other minerals in Gatorade way more than what a little baking soda will put in a full gallon of wine.
 
So, I am currently in south America and brought everything I needed for Skeeter Pee, except the Star-San. I pitched a starter after cleaning a plastic container of coconut juice with boiling water (rinsed, melted partially). I boiled water and sugar and after cooling, I added a little yeast nutrient and energizer for good measure along with two packs of 1118. It took off overnight. However, now it seems to smell, and taste, a little on the sour/acidic side. Not off, not bad, just a bit sour with the expected alcoholic aroma. Have I contaminated my friggin yeast? Is there a way to save it? I may have some 1116 or D-47 stuck somewhere around this place but I am not sure what it will do in these high temps (80 degrees).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.....
 
Relax. It will taste sour/acidic, it's fermented lemon juice and sugar. Let it finish, stabilize, backsweeten and enjoy.
 
Is it fine if I use dextrose for fermentation, I didn't see any specific sugar mentioned.
 
I've used table sugar as well as corn sugar in my Pee, and it's turned out great! I'm getting set for my next batch, using brown sugar. Can't wait!
 
I've never carbed my Pee, so I don't have a comparison. However, it is very delicious still. Made about 10 Pee batches and they're all tasty still
 
Don't worry about carb'ing it yet. Just make a couple batches to get the feel of it and then play around
 
Cool, thanks guys. If I wanted to back sweeten a batch in the future, would a can of frozen concentrate work well after stabilization?
 
you need to back-sweeten either way, I think the 5 gallon recipe calls for 6 cups?? I would just use sugar as concentrate will add more acid with the sugar.
 
Okay, so then when people say that there making something like a cranberry skeeter pee do they say this because the slurry they used came from a batch of cranberry wine?
 
I think most of the time they have started with the skeeter pee recipe and then add the "other juice" to it when starting the batch to give a different flavor. think of it kind of like strawberry lemonade
 
yep. Just keep in mind that will up your ABV unless you reduce the amount of sugar you add.
 
I believe that SP should start at around 1.080. So add the basics then use winecalc to find how much sugar to add. In fact this is what I do for every batch of wine I make
 
I'll have to give it a try next time, I just finished up the first step of SP, I wanted a lower ABV so I added only 14 cups of sugar instead of 16. The gravity was 1.040, is it going to be far to light?
 
Guthrie said:
Okay good to know, I think I'll try the cranberry next
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Just keep in mind, like lemon, cranberry is extremely tart and would not be drinkable as juice if it were not for all the extra sugar that is added.
 
So if I wanted could I add a small amount of juice just for flavor and top up with water
 
You are over complicating this. Relax, don't over think it. Use your nose and taste buds. Mix up the skeeter pee as designed, then add some cranberry and taste it. If it needs more add more, if it is to tart add a little water or some calcium bicarbonate (precipitous chalk) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to cut the acid. One of the most important steps (and one that is usually not mentioned) is to taste the must before you pitch the yeast. Make sure you have good flavor at the beginning and you will have good flavor at the end.
 
Okay thanks a lot, i'm so new to all this it's kind of overwhelming trying to get everything right. But it's so much fun I can't get enough.
 

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