Skeeter Mead Foam Rant.

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Kyzaboy89

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Started a Skeeter 'Mead' Pee on 2-16-21 using the slurry from my recent blueberry melomel, using 71B and didn't remember to wash the slurry before starting the new batch. Following the recipe while exchanging table sugar for honey, same additions and schedule with slightly higher O.G. 1.076. Overnight after the pitch, some fruit pulp from the blueberry slurry formed a wet cap and sealed the lid and airlock before popping the lid on the only edge facing the wall. Cleaned up, opened the lid and skimmed all the thick foam which removed alot of pulp then cleaned the lid and resealed. This evening after degassing and adding 2nd stage nutrients, I didn't think they were necessary but I'm trying the recipe before I adjust anything, I heard a cry from the wife that my mead was exploding. Same story again, foam sealed the lid and was erupting out of the airlock but luckily was only on top of the lid. Clean, skim, degass and reseal... One hour later as I'm almost asleep, "Babe your mead is doing it again!" Ok, gotta wake up early so now I have mixed everything well and split between the bucket and a carboy...

Long story but I've heard the skeeter pee tends to form a minimal foam or krausen if you please, and outside of D47 I've never had foam issues, but I've also never tried this recipe before. Hopefully I will get to sleep on it and find nothing out of it's vessel in the morning.

Anybody else ever have a thick dense foam in a Skeeter Pee mead? Specifically it's rising in a bucket about 8 inches or 20 cm just for an idea, never had anything climb that high and blowoff tube has never been necessary and I don't have one.
 
Red line is currently where liquid level is at, will check later possibly.
 

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If I don't and it foams like that it's going to come out the sides and make a mess everywhere, I put an empty airlock in the hole but there isn't a bung, just a rubber grommet in the lid.
 
I have mixed everything well and split between the bucket and a carboy..

From the photos you posted, appears if you put the contents of the carboy in the bucket, it would be almost full. Is that a 5 gallon bucket? I can't tell from the photo. You will almost always need headspace for any kind of fermentation.
When I'm making mead, I make a 3.5 gallon batch and use a 5 gallon carboy, then figure I'll rack to a 3 gallon carboy for secondary. This provides plenty of headspace for foaming issues.
If you want to make a full 5 gallon batch, use 6.5 gallon carboys or buckets.
 
Have you tried a blowoff tube? Then, you could have the lid on tight, but, make sure your catch bucket is big enough to handle anything coming out of the tube😉
 
A food grade bucket might avoid all this trouble. What you are doing with the carboy and bung is ensuring that any CO2 that is produced is kept under pressure with only a small aperture to escape. If the amount of gas being produced is greater than the volume that that - what? quarter inch hole can permit to escape the gas will be kept under increasing pressure until the bung and its hole will fail to hold back the gas ... and you get a volcano of liquid. A bucket with its wide mouth loosely covered with some clean cloth will - assuming there is enough headroom- avoid such mishaps.
 
It's a 7.5 gallon bucket and yes there was headspace e.g. the 8 inches of foam that was puzzling me.

I used the carboy to split the batch and give more headspace for the foam but once I did that it never rose more than an inch, which leads me to think something got excited during the 2 hours after I added nutrients. Had the same issue at pitch with nutrients and at second addition.

As for a blow off tube I've never needed one more had one since I've always left plenty of headspace in primary, until now if never had a surprise like this but keep a spare jug or carboy around for this reason.

And again everything is under control and not my first rodeo but was wondering if anyone has tried Skeeter Mead or experienced a foam under similar circumstances (honey, water, slurry and lemon juice) or maybe some other explanation.
 
Transferring to 5 gallon carboy as it hasn't foamed anymore and S.G. is at 0.996 and I like watching it settle and change.
 

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Full transfer went into my 6.5 gallon carboy, not worried about the headspace at this time as it has alot of CO² built up and has a way to go to degas. Time to clean equipment and see what I want to do with blood oranges.

Cheers!
 

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It's a lemonade wine recipe that's fairly simple and popular that's been around for a while. Kinda like how everyone knows about JAOM but more of wine recipe than a beginner mead. Skeeter mead is a take on the recipe just subbing honey for sugar.

https://skeeterpee.com/recipe
 
No worries, I've wanted to try making it since I got started but never seem to get around to doing it. Worked with a guy that made it every 6 months to keep it on hand and asked if I liked mike's hard, told him "Hell no" and he said "Great you're gonna love skeeter pee."
 
Thank you. I've been wanting to ask that for a while

When it comes to wine making, imo it's one of the easiest, fastest, and rewarding wines to make. Plus it's very easy to tweak the recipe and make it your own. I've been making skeeter pee for almost as long as I've been brewing and I never get tired of it. Sometimes I'll substitute some of the lemon juice with lime juice, add cherry, blueberry, or cranberry juice on the back end to sweeten it up. Most of the time I make a mint simple syrup to sweeten it; the mint and lemon go great together. One of these days I'll try a basil simple syrup to see how it goes.
 
No worries, I've wanted to try making it since I got started but never seem to get around to doing it. Worked with a guy that made it every 6 months to keep it on hand and asked if I liked mike's hard, told him "Hell no" and he said "Great you're gonna love skeeter pee."
Sweet. So, just to make sure I have it right, you followed the skeeter pee recipe & used honey in place of the sugar. Is that correct?
 
No worries, I've wanted to try making it since I got started but never seem to get around to doing it. Worked with a guy that made it every 6 months to keep it on hand and asked if I liked mike's hard, told him "Hell no" and he said "Great you're gonna love skeeter pee."

Lol, that's one of the main reasons I call it a "lemon wine" instead of a "hard lemonade". People are either excited because they think it'll be like Mike's Hard/Smirnoff Ice, or turned off by it because they think it'll be like Mike's :drunk:
 
When it comes to wine making, imo it's one of the easiest, fastest, and rewarding wines to make. Plus it's very easy to tweak the recipe and make it your own. I've been making skeeter pee for almost as long as I've been brewing and I never get tired of it. Sometimes I'll substitute some of the lemon juice with lime juice, add cherry, blueberry, or cranberry juice on the back end to sweeten it up. Most of the time I make a mint simple syrup to sweeten it; the mint and lemon go great together. One of these days I'll try a basil simple syrup to see how it goes.
I look forward to trying a one gallon batch in the near future., just to make sure I like it before I go full bore into a 5 gallon batch😉
 
Sweet. So, just to make sure I have it right, you followed the skeeter pee recipe & used honey in place of the sugar. Is that correct?
Yes but instead of lbs per gallon I aimed for a starting gravity of 1.070 which I believe he says is an average S.G. and the color is from the blueberry slurry I used.
 
Skeeter mead has been steadily dropping yeast and forming a nice cake, going to check gravity later and possibly add sparkoloid. Keep you posted, I think it's going to get sparkoloid today.
 

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Put Sparkoloid in last night, followed package instructions (1 tbsp/1 cup boiling water.) Gave it a good swirling degas before I pitched.
 
Almost a week now, clearing out alot but still a little haze in there, rather surprised at the color being a rich raspberry red color. What was in that blueberry yeast slurry has added this much color and I'm not upset but it's going to throw me off I think when tasting, I'll expect raspberry lemonade and get straight lemonade so we might be fruiting this, not sure yet.
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