Limeade (margarita wine)

[Apple_Jacker]

This is the best stuff I've ever made bar none!!!

The downside is that it's so strong, I can't drink all that much or I get headaches. So, what I do is mix about two fingers with my homebrew beer and oh man!!! There be good times to be had with this combo!!!

I've already started collecting the lime juice in preparation for my next batch!!!!

Thanks AppleJacker!!!!!!

Haha, I'm the one that made this recipe (derived from skeeter pee of course) and I seem to be the only one that hasn't bottled it yet!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Well I managed to find some time to check on my margarita wine and on my cyser. Cyser is tasting good but still needs to age some more (it's only 3 months old) and my wine is still stuck at 1.012. I whipped it for a minute if 2 to see if that gets things going again. It is still pretty tart but I like it. I can see me getting heartburn if I drink too much of it though.

 

[firepie]

So you gotta love Canada... Not a single bottle of Key Lime Juice to be found :"(

Would it make a difference if I used regular old lime juice for this recipe??? Any suggestions?

I'd rather not wait until the inlaws come back from florida in april to start this one...

 

[Apple_Jacker]

It wouldnt hurt to try. I'm not sure if regular lime juice is more tart than key lime juice... Maybe use less lime and add lemon instead?

 

[Leadgolem]

Reminds me of the hard limeade I made a little while ago. That batch did come out a little tart. The key lime juice should help mellow that a bit. I'll probably try something like this next time I do a lime batch. Sounds delicious.

 

[FTG-05]

It wouldnt hurt to try. I'm not sure if regular lime juice is more tart than key lime juice... Maybe use less lime and add lemon instead?

It is, at least the two versions I bought and tried last week. One bottle was the Key Lime juice you recommended (forget the name), the other was a Kroger brand lime juice.

To my taste, the regular lime was more tart than the Key Lime, my wife agreed. Not bad, just more tart.

 

[FTG-05]

Ok, using a modified AJ's recipe (see below), I pitched about 6 gallons of this limeade last night.

I measured the OG at 1.078 even though I used 7 lbs or brown sugar (my wife buys it 7 lb bags, so that's what I use) and 3 lbs of white sugar, plus ended with a little more water than I should have (6 gallons vs. 5 gallons). The Skeeter Pee recommendation is that the OG should be around 1.070.

Will this screw this batch up?

Thanks,

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Ok, using a modified AJ's recipe (see below), I pitched about 6 gallons of this limeade last night.

I measured the OG at 1.078 even though I used 7 lbs or brown sugar (my wife buys it 7 lb bags, so that's what I use) and 3 lbs of white sugar, plus ended with a little more water than I should have (6 gallons vs. 5 gallons). The Skeeter Pee recommendation is that the OG should be around 1.070.

Will this screw this batch up?

Thanks,

I doubt that it would.

 

[FTG-05]

Ok, never mind, I just reread your first post in this thread AJ and saw the OG = 1.080 for your recipe. My bad for looking at the SP recipe instead.

1.078 looks about right for just under 6 gallons vs 5 gallons I would think. It should have plenty of alcohol.

I'm going to go back to not worrying about it!

 

[FTG-05]

So last week (Monday, 12/3) I started another batch of SP/Limeade/Blackberry Pee. My recipe was AJ's replacing one pint of lime juice and three lbs of white sugar for 4 cans of blackberry pie filling. MY original OG was around 1.075 or 1.076 or so, since I wasn't sure about how much sugar was in the pie filling.

I added about a lb or so of white sugar boiled in water and got the OG to 1.078.

I let it sit overnight, then pitched my yeast the next day. Since I thought I had killed my original two packs of EC-118 yeast by using too high a temperature of water to rehydrate them, I added two more packs once the water cooled down some. The second pitch worked and they appeared to work very well, so I pitched them and let it go.

I tested this batch last night and the gravity now is less than 1.000 after only one week!

First, is this possible?

Second, is this batch ruined for having fermented so fast? We taste-tested the batch and it was more tart than the SP/AJ recipe I made the week before, which makes sense since the SP/AJ version measured right around 1.020 last night (ie. more sugar, less alcohol).

Comments, suggestions, and/or insults?

Thanks,

 

[Leadgolem]

It is possible, I had a batch of cider do that with a champagne yeast. It fermented a little warm, 78ish most of the time. It hit fg after 5 days. Applejuice is nutrient rich, and I had yeast energizer and nutrient in the batch too. I would suspect the pie filling gave you a huge nutrient influx, hence the faster yeast development. A warmish temp would have helped things along too.

The problem I had with the cider batch was it tasted very "hot" lots of apparent alcohol. It needed a little more time to condition then cider usually does, but other then that it was fine.

EDIT: I misremembered, it was distillers yeast. Here are some of my notes from that batch. It was a little while before I was able to take a gravity reading after the cider appeared to be done. The apparent alcohol didn't alter during that period, though it is possible there was a bit more fermentation taking place.

08-26-12 1:00 am: Starter created. OG=1.110. Pitch, 1 tbs yeast nutrient. 10 grams distillers yeast. Base is same applejuice as for batch, great value unsweetened 100% juice. Added sugar until gravity reached. Overshot a little. Desired OG=1.100. Volume is just under 2 quarts. Split into 2 bottles to keep it from foaming over. Will be intermittently shaking.

08-26-12 11:40 pm: Batch mixed OG=1.098. Pitched full batch with starter. Boiled 1 tbs cinamon and 1 tsp cloves in tea bag for 10 minutes in some juice. Tea bag sprung a leak. About 1/2 of the spices ended up in the juice. Added to cider anyway. 11 1/2 quarts applejuice brand mentioned above. 4 lbs sugar. With starter comes out about 14 quarts or 3 1/2 gallons total volume. About a total of 1 quart of liquid was removed from the starter and the main juice. So total juice volume used is 13 quarts. The sugar made up the additional volume. 3 1/2 tsp's yeast nutrient as directed on package.

08-27-12 2:00 pm: The wort is going crazy. Airlock is bubbling 7-8 times a second. This should be interesting.

08-31-12 10:30 pm: The cider appears to be done. My hydrometer is broken so I'm not certain it is. It is very dry. No detectable sugar at all. It's actually to dry. It no longer tastes anything like apples. Just the underlying bitterness that you always get in apples, yeast, and alcohol. I can not detect the spices at all. Possibly they are being masked by the yeast flavor as the solution hasn't settle out yet.

09-02-12 2:00 am: Moved to secondary and degassed until shaking no longer increased bottle pressure. removed 2 quarts to smaller bottle in freezer about 4 hours ago. Poured off the accidental apple jack from this bottle. still tastes a lot like yeast. Can't tell alcohol content, to drunk right now.

09-04-12 9:40 pm: Got refractometer. Refrigerated cider shows 9 brix. Cider in secondary is 9 brix. Fermenation is definately done.

09-07-12 10:00 pm: Got new hydrometer today. FG is 0.98 ABV is therefore 16%. Mixture has more or less cleared in secondary. Added pectin enzyme at ratio from package.

The second gravity reading is not an error or missing a digit, I checked it 3 times.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

using that yeast it is very possible for fermentation to go fast, especially if it fermented at a high temperature. Mine actually bottomed out at 1.012 so I stirred it up again and I've been letting it sit for the last month to see if that got it unstuck. I need to get back into brewing again; the last few months I've been very busy and a lot of my things I've been sitting around not being checked.

 

[FTG-05]

Ok, good, so it's not out of bounds for it to happen this fast.

I measured again last night, and it was right about .996 so I added the Kmeta, Sparkaloid etc. so it will be ready for the first rack this Friday or so.

The 2nd batch of SP/Limeade was right around 1.020 so I'm going to leave that a couple more days even though it started a week earlier. It's still sitting there burping away as we "speak".

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Update here: still haven't bottled it yet; my laziness has made me let this one bulk age for the past few months. The tartness seems to have mellowed from the last taste test, although if I don't sweeten anymore and leave it as-is, it might make for a better homemade margarita mix than a standalone beverage if you don't like tart drinks. I'll test making a margarita with it in a few minutes and post some taste test results.

 

[winenewb172]

I'm going to make this with agave nectar and have a true margarita wine!

 

[Leadgolem]

I'm going to make this with agave nectar and have a true margarita wine!

hmm. That might be interesting. Most of the posts I've seen from people who have fermented agave nectar indicate it's actually horrible after it's been fermented. In case you are thinking that's what tequila is made from, it actually isn't.

 

[winenewb172]

Tequila is made from blue agave stalks not white agave nectar but I've talked to some who have fermented it and had good results. It's worth a shot anyway cuz I got some given to me

 

[Inner10]

Tequila is made from blue agave stalks not white agave nectar but I've talked to some who have fermented it and had good results. It's worth a shot anyway cuz I got some given to me

My motto is if it's cheap and has sugar in it...make wine.

 

[winenewb172]

My motto is if it's cheap and has sugar in it...make wine.

I used 5 lbs of in along with 5lbs of honey in a grape mead and so far it is great but only a few days in so we will see

 

[Leadgolem]

Tequila is made from blue agave stalks not white agave nectar but I've talked to some who have fermented it and had good results. It's worth a shot anyway cuz I got some given to me

I will be interested to know how it comes out.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

...still haven't bottled it yet...or tasted it in months for that matter. I moved a few months ago and just haven't taken the time to do anything with it, even though I've brewed some beers since then once I can have a full weekend to myself, I'm going to bottle it, and my cider that's aged and ready to go.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Texconsinite]

I made a cherry lime skeeter pee, with lime juice in place of the lemon. Truend out very good. Lime is a strong flavor, but it turned out good

 

[lolznrofls]

I made a strawberry lime skeeter pee..yummmmmm

 

[Apple_Jacker]

After many months of putting it off, I finally tasted my margarita wine.... and it is great! I had ny girlfriend 2 of her friends all drink it and they enjoyed it too. One of them said it was a little too sweet but the overwhelming sourness it once had is no more. The brown sugar (molasses technically) flavor really comes through and compliments the lime flavor perfectly. It just took 18 months to mellow out ;-) it's absolutely to the point where I want to bottle it. I was already asked when I was going to bottle it because they wanted more. If I attempt this again in the future, I'll use less lime and replace with lemon so I don't have to wait so long for the flavor to mellow out, and ease up on the backsweetening. Definitely try this out people!

 

[John53189]

Subd. Sounds excellent

 

[KimmyBee327]

How long do I have to let the yeast starter go before I add it to everything else? How long do I let the whole thing ferment for? Can I make this in my carboy? Sorry, I'm just full of questions!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

How long do I have to let the yeast starter go before I add it to everything else? How long do I let the whole thing ferment for? Can I make this in my carboy? Sorry, I'm just full of questions!

24-48 hours is plenty of time
Ferment until it bottoms out. Mine usually go all the way down to .990-.996 before fermentation stops
Yes you can make it in your carboy. Just make sure it's big enough.

 

[Briatta]

Okay, let's try this again. I was three quarters through my post yesterday when my computer blue screened. Grr

My very first attempt at anything like this. Only been brewing since August. Just wanted to add my notes for my experience so far.

So I started mine on October 4th, all of nine days ago. I read through everything and was a bit nervous about the stalling and fermentation problems associated with lemon and lime juice and having to make my first starter. I definitely had zero stalling problems. I only let the starter sit for about three hours, but as of yesterday when I did my first racking, it had already weaseled it's way down to .998 even with it fermenting at 68°. I was not expecting that. Heh. Mine is scaled down to a five gallon recipe using two-thirds key lime juice and one-third lemon juice. At this speed I'm only going to give it a few more days before I check again and see if it goes down any farther or if it's done. It's still bubbling a fair bit so I honestly don't think it's done yet. Currently sitting about 11.5%. After I do the rest of the additions and racking I'm going to try back sweetening it with the Finest Call Triple Sec syrup that Clifton mentioned was suggested by Jack Keller. Makes sense since it already tastes like a Margarita.

I'm really looking forward to this. This may end up being a fairly frequent product in my house. Quick, cheap, and good. LOL

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Awesome. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Briatta]

Thanks. I will.

I'm pretty sure I will be doing the Kmeta/Sorbate/Sparkolloid addition (2nd racking) tomorrow, but I do have a bit of a dilemma though. I've been researching off and on for the last few days and have been finding that the instructions for the Sparkolloid addition stated by the Scott Laboratories' site, my package (re-package it looks like) of Sparkolloid from Brewcraft and the Mead forums' 'Sticky: Mead Making FAQs' are all a little different. They can't seem to agree and since I've never used it before I'm not exactly in the position to be able to tell which one I should follow.

I will admit that I haven't done the math for the Scott Laboratories's instructions yet. Theirs is listed for 1000 gallon batches. Listing 1 - 4 pounds of Sparkolloid per 1000 gallons of wine using 1-2 two gallons of water per pound to dissolve. I wish I knew what the variables were that give them such a large range of options. I mean do they use 1 pound for red wine and 4 pounds for white? I'm assuming they use the second gallon of water when they use the 3 or 4 pounds. Anyway, like I said, haven't done the math on that one yet.

My package instructions say to use 1 teaspoon per gallon of wine to 2 cups of water. I'm assuming it's only the teaspoons scaling so for a 5 gallon batch of Margarita wine it would be 5 teaspoons in 2 cups of water. The rest of the instructions, regarding the 5-10 minute boil and adding warm I understand.

The Mead forum sticky lists it by weight. 1/4 to 1 gram of dry Sparkolloid powder per gallon of wine. I haven't opened my package and weighed 1 teaspoon yet to see if it falls into that weight range. The newbie here is a little paranoid about contamination. I have also read a few threads where people say to use 1 tablespoon. I'm guessing that may be because of the lovely 1/4 to 1 gram option in the sticky. I still want to know what should influence you to use 1/4 gram over 1 gram or vice versa. Anyway.

The gigantic noticeable difference between my package instructions and the sticky however is in regards to the amount of water used to dissolve it in. Like I already stated, my package say 2 cups of boiling water. The sticky in the mead forum states 100 ml. 100 ml is 3.3814 oz or just over .42 cups. Or if you look at it the other way, my package says to use just over 473 ml of water and the sticky says to use 100 ml of water. Big difference.

To those of you who have done this before what do I use? My package instructions for 1 tsp per gallon in 2 cups (473 ml) of water or the stickies instruction of 1/4 g - 1 g per gallon in . 42 cups (100 ml) of water? Or do I use something else? My brain hurts. Help.

Thanks in advance. I'll be rocking in a corner.