Skeeter Pee

[mcwilcr]

Maybe keep your OG down a bit.

This is my primary concern but at the same time, I have read that this yeast can handle up to as much as 14%. I'll most certainly take this into consideration though.

So if you have a low hop lager, I don't see any problem. Check to make sure your yeast can hit the 11%, or alter the recipe as suggested to bring the OG down. But if you made a highly hopped beer like a barley wine or an IPA ... I frankly don't know how much I would like hops mixed in my lemonade. It may just be me - it may be the best thing since sliced bread.

No hops here. This one is coming off a Cider. as for the 11%, I think it should be ok.

I'm going to go ahead and do it and see how it goes.

since the yeasties will be a bit tired from the work they did on the cider, would it be a good idea to give them something nice and easy to chew on for a day or so before I pitch them into the Skeeter Pee?

 

[CidahMastah]

Just decided to do a little experiment - started two batches, one with Premier Cuvee and one with 1118; will let people know if I have any taste preference out of it. I did lower the SG from 1.070 to 1.056 since I carb the pee. Tired of picking people up off the floor after the pee punches them in the back of the head!

 

[DoctorWho]

Update on Cherry Pee...

Just racked to secondary and I have a few photos to share. This is what it looked like after a week of fermenting:

This one shows the lovely blood red color that I was hoping for:

I pulled a sample and when it was appropriately sweetened it was dangerously delicious. No medicinal flavors at all, just a bit of yeast taste which is normal as there is still a lot of yeast in suspension.

I am very excited about the final producto!

 

[mcwilcr]

Update on Cherry Pee...

Just racked to secondary and I have a few photos to share. This is what it looked like after a week of fermenting:


I pulled a sample and when it was appropriately sweetened it was dangerously delicious. No medicinal flavors at all, just a bit of yeast taste which is normal as there is still a lot of yeast in suspension.

I am very excited about the final producto!

Well Doctor, thats some good lookin bloody pee you have there! you'll have to be sure to give us the final prognosis on taste.

What do you plan to use for back sweetening? are you going to use something like Splenda or Stevia or do you plan to kill off the yeast and use something like sucrose or dextrose?

 

[DoctorWho]

I took 1 gallon and have it cold crashing and that I am going to shoot the moon and keep the yeast, sweeten with sugar, bottle carb (under strict supervision) and then stove top pasteurize, thanks to an awesome sticky by Pappers!

The rest, I am going to Sorbate and Kmeta and sweeten with liquid invert sugar. It's going to be fun on the bun.

 

[mcwilcr]

Excellent idea! Thanks for the sticky link!

 

[Reaver]

Speaking of ....
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx300/de1156/Homebrew/IMG_3725.jpg

I can't afford enough carboys to keep a pipeline of this going. Has anyone used regular water jugs since this is only about a 3-4 week Secondary? Much shorter period than normal wine aging. It would help me keep this going while still making other wines.

 

[DoctorWho]

Reaver,

That is a can of worms, right there! A quick search would yield dozens of threads with for and against.

Basically, it's up to you...cheaper, but potentially more dangerous chemicals (of course most people I know still drink water out of them.) I don't think there will be an oxidization problem within a month or two however.

PS. I know all of this because I had this same debate when I first started. I decided on going with the Better Bottle, because it's relatively cheap ~$20 and if I use it 20 times (already have used it 3 times in a month) it's just a dollar more per brew.

 

[Reaver]

Yeah I've read a bunch of the debates. That's kinda why I asked if anyone had actually used them. My family fell in love with the Pee. If they want to keep the pipeline running, they'll need to help me get the equipment to manage it! But until I can get someone to help, I was considering using a couple I of jugs that I already have.

 

[WIMARIPA]

Methinks 'tis pee season, skeeter threads abound!

 

[geniz]

Speaking of ....
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx300/de1156/Homebrew/IMG_3725.jpg

I can't afford enough carboys to keep a pipeline of this going. Has anyone used regular water jugs since this is only about a 3-4 week Secondary? Much shorter period than normal wine aging. It would help me keep this going while still making other wines.

I use water bottles (Pete 1) for my skeeter pee. I'm not dead or poisoned......yet

I have a pic of pee in a water jug somewhere on this thread

 

[CidahMastah]

I think generally people accept plastic bottles for a couple weeks of ferment - some people even go a month+ with them. I have plenty of glass, so I am sticking with that

 

[firepie]

I just found 6 glass carboys on kijiji for $12 a peice... If you keep your eyes peeled, theres always deals floating around!

I have 3 pails of pee going at the moment and am gonna start another 3 as soon as i can... Looks like its gonna be a summer to (not) remember!

 

[graffij1]

the OG of my lemon juice/sugar water was 1.074 (assuming because I used 8lbs of sugar instead of the 7lbs but 8lbs is the 16 cups that are recomended) should i make any adjustments to when I add the second helping of yeast energizer and nutrient, which the recipe says to add at 1.05, the recipe says OG should be 1.070...i'm fairly new to this whole brewing/wine making process and am not sure if the difference between 1.070 and 1.074 is a big difference or not

also i pitched the lemon juice/sugar water cobmination directly onto the slurry of a blueberry island mist wine kit, the slurry had more then a slight affect on the color my skeeter pee looks more like skeeter blood, any idea if this color will fade out?

I'm more concerned with the OG issue over the color issue.

FYI. it began fermenting in less then 10 hours.

 

[CidahMastah]

the OG of my lemon juice/sugar water was 1.074 (assuming because I used 8lbs of sugar instead of the 7lbs but 8lbs is the 16 cups that are recomended) should i make any adjustments to when I add the second helping of yeast energizer and nutrient, which the recipe says to add at 1.05, the recipe says OG should be 1.070...i'm fairly new to this whole brewing/wine making process and am not sure if the difference between 1.070 and 1.074 is a big difference or not

also i pitched the lemon juice/sugar water cobmination directly onto the slurry of a blueberry island mist wine kit, the slurry had more then a slight affect on the color my skeeter pee looks more like skeeter blood, any idea if this color will fade out?

I'm more concerned with the OG issue over the color issue.

FYI. it began fermenting in less then 10 hours.

Doubt the color will fade out much, but I also doubt any flavors would "ruin" the pee.

as for the 1.070 v 1.074 - small difference, nothing to be concerned about. For the record, I don't even take a reading for 1.050, I simply add the rest of the lemon, energizer and nutrient at about 24hours from yeast pitching. My pee came out great.

 

[skagneti]

Reaver I bought a few number 7 culligan water bottles to brew apfelwein in and you should be ok. There is a potential for some BPA leaching from the plastic in theory. I would like to point out that the applejuice that I made the apfelwein from came in #7 Polycarbonate containers as well. You can by the 5 gallon culligan bottles for 7 bucks so I have three. As long as you don't let any infants or children going through sexual development drink your booze you should be fine. If you do let infants and children drink your booze there is a serious problem and it aint from BPA.

 

[graffij1]

Cidah thanks for the quick reply...thinking down the line a little bit what type of bottles should i use, like i said i'm new to this whole thing, so i don't have much in supplies but somebody gifted me a whole bunch of wine bottles so that's what i have on hand and plan to use...but i haven't read anybody bottling in wine bottles...can i get away with using wine bottles? if not that's fine i have plenty of time to work my way thru a couple of cases of pop tops to have them ready for bottling

 

[onthekeg]

Cidah thanks for the quick reply...thinking down the line a little bit what type of bottles should i use, like i said i'm new to this whole thing, so i don't have much in supplies but somebody gifted me a whole bunch of wine bottles so that's what i have on hand and plan to use...but i haven't read anybody bottling in wine bottles...can i get away with using wine bottles? if not that's fine i have plenty of time to work my way thru a couple of cases of pop tops to have them ready for bottling

Wine bottles are fine, but you will need corks and a corker to fill them.

 

[CidahMastah]

Wine bottles are fine, but you will need corks and a corker to fill them.

agreed - just don't put carbonated pee in there (or carbonate it in the bottles). i.e. be sure to follow the proper procedure of cold crashing, adding sorbate, sweetening to taste and then adding kmeta, THEN bottling. If you don't, you could end up with bottle bombs.

onthekeg - that wasn't directed at you - just so the graffiji doesn't have a surprise on his hands in a few weeks

 

[Captive]

I agree, wine bottles are fine. I use beer bottles only because it's more convenient. I can grab a bottle from the fridge on a hot day and just drink it right out of the bottle. No left overs, no glasses, etc., so it's clean and easy. I've also heard of people using gallon jugs or those "bag in a box" thingies that some wine companies use.

 

[Captive]

.....i pitched the lemon juice/sugar water combination directly onto the slurry of a blueberry island mist wine kit

This should work as long as your additions were at the proper temp. Really hot invert sugar solution would kill your yeast. I would also suggest adding the water first so that when the high acid lemon juice and sugar go in, it isn't so concentrated that it has harmful effects. The fact that you have ferment going, tells us you did things right

...the slurry had more then a slight affect on the color my skeeter pee looks more like skeeter blood, any idea if this color will fade out?

The color won't likely fade much. It will go from a murky red to a clear red, and I'm confident that it'll look lovely. Take a look at the image gallery at skeeterpee.com. Tangela sent me a photo of her Raspberry Skeeter Pee that looks fabulously yummy

...not sure if the difference between 1.070 and 1.074 is a big difference or not.

Your higher starting S.G. of 1.074 will give you a little higher alcohol content. It adds about one-half percent alcohol to your finished total. I'd say that you'll come out with a Skeeter Pee at about 10.5% alcohol. Some people like it with more alcohol, some like it with less. Since I usually serve this as a summer beverage meant to be consumed fairly quickly on a hot day, I try to keep the alcohol a little on the lower side

It sounds like you're doing great! Cheers, and enjoy your Skeeter Pee this summer

 

[bengerman]

made my first (modified) batch yesterday. the only real modifications were the use of a dry yeast and the lack of waiting the 24-48 hour wait.
i did try one thing to incease my odds of success without waiting, and that was shaking the cr@p out of the lemon juice as i inverted the sugar. I took a little out of each bottle of juice, shook it for 2 minutes or so, then let the fizz subside with the top off, and repeated for about 10-12 cycles per bottle. we'll see what happens...

 

[mayberry]

Bottled a batch today, back-sweetened with grenadine and sugar. And we'll be taking some to a get-together this evening. :)

 

[bengerman]

back-sweetened with grenadine and sugar.

brilliant! approximately how much grenadine did you use?

 

[mayberry]

brilliant! approximately how much grenadine did you use?

24oz plus 4 cups sugar in 6 gallons.

 

[newbrew77]

Ok, so I am going to start a batch of Skeeter Pee soon. I just made a gallon of welchs grape juice wine (in a carlo rossi 1 gal bottle) and racked it into a secondary. I sanatized the lid and put it on, then put the entire primary (with the lees) in the fridge. Can I just pour it into my skeeter pee for the yeast slurry? Should I be worried about sanitation?

 

[bengerman]

24oz plus 4 cups sugar in 6 gallons.

i may just have to pull a gallon or so aside and try this.

 

[edmanster]

Started this sunday as CidahMastah had suggested with skipping the steps.. I added the second half of the energizer and nutrient and last bottle of lemon followed by a10 minute aeration with the aquarium pump last night and this morning it was going like crazy... Cant wait to taste!

 

[CidahMastah]

Started this sunday as CidahMastah had suggested with skipping the steps.. I added the second half of the energizer and nutrient and last bottle of lemon followed by a10 minute aeration with the aquarium pump last night and this morning it was going like crazy... Cant wait to taste!

very cool - let us know how it turns out, and what yeast you chose.

I also think that keeping the must at 70F-75F for a quick ferment is ideal - but no proof of that

 

[edmanster]

very cool - let us know how it turns out, and what yeast you chose.

I also think that keeping the must at 70F-75F for a quick ferment is ideal - but no proof of that

EC-1118 is my go to yeast... I love the stuff Pitched 2 packs.. I have it on the kitchen table with my saison so it should be around 70-76.. I did put my home thermostat to spring time so it will heat and cool with the days and nights to stay at 72.. Ya, wasn't gonna put this down in the chamber at 65.. Will let you know how it turns out

 

[CidahMastah]

EC-1118 is my go to yeast... I love the stuff Pitched 2 packs.. I have it on the kitchen table with my saison so it should be around 70-76.. I did put my home thermostat to spring time so it will heat and cool with the days and nights to stay at 72.. Ya, wasn't gonna put this down in the chamber at 65.. Will let you know how it turns out

Cool - I think double pitching is as high as you need to go (sounds like you are witnessing the proof to that). I love 1118 too. Great yeasty.

 

[Vxjester]

I pitched my yeast almost a month ago. I used d 47. Just to see how it will turn out.

 

[graffij1]

ok, so i screwed up big time on the i added 2.5 tablespoons of kmeta and 2.5 tablespoons of sorbate, clearly it was too late in the night to be messing around with this stuff...i don't know ANYTHING about wine making...what is this going to do to my 5 gallon batch will it be safe to drink, will it be drinkable, should i just throw this out?

 

[graffij1]

like i said i don't know anything but it also might be important to tell you i did this step after fermentation (when the hydrometer read 0.996)

 

[mayberry]

ok, so i screwed up big time on the i added 2.5 tablespoons of kmeta and 2.5 tablespoons of sorbate, clearly it was too late in the night to be messing around with this stuff...i don't know ANYTHING about wine making...what is this going to do to my 5 gallon batch will it be safe to drink, will it be drinkable, should i just throw this out?

Ah, you'll be fine. With Skeeter Pee, I just eyeball that stuff. ;)

 

[Reaver]

@ Graffiji1 ... go ahead and backsweeten, take a Gravity reading, but let it sit for a week. If you get no change then it's good. Otherwise re-stabilize. Might be just fine.

 

[Captive]

ok, so i screwed up big time on the i added 2.5 tablespoons of kmeta and 2.5 tablespoons of sorbate, clearly it was too late in the night to be messing around with this stuff...i don't know ANYTHING about wine making...what is this going to do to my 5 gallon batch will it be safe to drink, will it be drinkable, should i just throw this out?

Aye, aye, aye! That's a lot of K-meta. The sorbate I wouldn't be as worried about, although I've heard that it can add a "bubble gum" like artificial flavor in high quantities.

The recipe calls for 1/4 tsp Kmeta. So you added 30 times the recommended amount. My guess is that you may be able smell the sulfites at this level which would make for a less enjoyable beverage even if it is safe. The legal amount allowed in commercial wine is 350 ppm (or mg/l) I believe. If my calculations are correct, you're probably at around 1800 ppm.

You could take the risk and drink it, there are some foods that are higher in sulfites than wine (e.g. dried apricots), or you could make another batch or two and blend them. Or you could just drink it in small quantities to limit the total amount of sulfite you'd consume at any one sitting.

 

[nyer]

Update - Yeast from packets and less steps:
My ferment started 2/13/11 and is just about dry, very slow ferment right now, should be done in a day or so.

I thought I would post back with the following information:

1. I only aerated at yeast pitching (which I did right away, and didn't wait 24 hours)
2. I did split the yeast nutrient and energizer additions, half up front and half about 24hours later.
3. I didn't touch the ferment again and it had a nice constant steady ferment throughout and no off smells from the ferment.

Details:

1. Double batch of skeeter pee in a demi john - planned on using 4x1118 yeast packs but had 5 on hand so figured eh, it won't hurt. So 5x1118 yeast packs @ 85 cents each.
2. started 2/13/11, should be done by end of week latest (3/4/11)
3. Used warm tap water to help dissolve the sugar, added 2/3 of lemon juice and 1/2 of nutrient and energizer up front (cooled pee to ~77F before pitching). I hydrated my yeast prior to pitching, but no starter.
3. Ferment temp ~68F-73F
4. About 24 hours and tossed in the rest of the lemon juice and the rest of the energizer and nutrient.

Conclusions:
There are a lot of extra steps in the original recipe (perhaps a few more that I did) that may or may not hurt the process (make you more prone to infect your wine, etc). I tend to think that extra aeration after the first 24-48 hours is not helpful, and possibly harmful. since this part of the fermentation is anaerobic anyhow. All you would be doing is oxidizing the must.


Next time:
I plan to pitch everything in at once next time and see what happens. I think as long as you prime it with enough yeast, you will be good to go.

I made a 5.5 gallon batch of this yesterday by putting everything in at one time and I shook the carboy for a few minutes. I pitched 2 packs of rehydrated 1118 and had activity within 2 hrs. I checked it again 8 hrs. later and it's bubbling like crazy. Sweet.

 

[CidahMastah]

Ah, you'll be fine. With Skeeter Pee, I just eyeball that stuff. ;)

Graffij1

I disagree with this. Personally - based on the cost of the ingredients I would dump it. If you had said you put 3 tsp in there I would have been nervous about the high PPM (600ppm)....

However if you are dead set on keeping it you can reduce some of the So2 PPM by doing a heavy racking back and forth - aerating it. However if my memory serves - you will only kick out 30-40PPM at a maximum doing this (down to 1760ppm... better than nothing I suppose).

If captives calculations are correct - that would do it for me. 1800ppm - holy ****. I believe that is worth the extra $10 for a new batch.

As for blending - not a bad idea, but I would offer two common expressions (as you would have to blend with several batches to get your PPM down):

1. Don't throw good money after bad.
2. You can't polish a turd

 

[CidahMastah]

I made a 5.5 gallon batch of this yesterday by putting everything in at one time and I shook the carboy for a few minutes. I pitched 2 packs of rehydrated 1118 and had activity within 2 hrs. I checked it again 8 hrs. later and it's bubbling like crazy. Sweet.

Cool !

I alsow think the 5 packs fo yeast was way overkill. I jsut finished two batches right now - with premier cuvee and 1118 and double pitched the dry yeast - added in a "booster" of energizer and nutrient with the remaining lemon after ~24hrs. Ferment smelled great with no problems. Fermented at 71-75F. Can't wait to try this one - did 1.056 for a lower ABV