Skeeter Pee

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Hey has anyone ever tried making a VERY basic skeeter pee just mixing lemon, sugar and yeast, waiting a week then drinking it? Would it work?

I brewed a few kits in the past but right now I have literally no free time and no equipment at all other than a tube to syphon and a packet of wine yeast which I wanna put to good use.

Any opinions?

My batches ferment out in 9 days. Clearing is optional ( a little cleaner taste if you do) But plenty of times I didn't clear and drank it right away. Just lemon concentrate, sugar and yeast. Back sweeten a little and sometimes flavor with kool aid.

 

[Arpolis]

Sounds good, I'll give it a try. Just don't want to stall the donor wine, 5 gal of pinot gris.

Donor wine should not stall. You should not be robbing it of yeast until it is about finished anyway. At least that's how I have treated my wines.

 

[surf_medic]

Donor wine should not stall. You should not be robbing it of yeast until it is about finished anyway. At least that's how I have treated my wines.

Pardon my newbie-ness here, if I can rack the donor wine clear, then transfer the remaining sediment in a conical type settling chamber for a day and drain that slurry off (and return the remaining wine to its original home), that shouldn't be a problem?
Just want to make sure I'm not going to **** up 2 batches of wine at once doing this.

 

[themcnabs]

I started my first batch of this today. One big problem I found was the pH was 2.6 prior to fermentation. Is this normal? If so no wonder people hare having problems fermenting this. I added some potassium bi-carbonate to get the pH to 3.5 then pitched a normal amount of yeast. I can always add acid when done to get the acidic pucker that I am sure this needs.

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

I see a lot of over complication IMO on this. Its Skeeter. Its not some great wine that's gonna win you medals or anything. Its a simple refresher served on ice. Do the starter, use your nutrients and in 2-3 weeks your knocking it down, end of story.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Pardon my newbie-ness here, if I can rack the donor wine clear, then transfer the remaining sediment in a conical type settling chamber for a day and drain that slurry off (and return the remaining wine to its original home), that shouldn't be a problem?
Just want to make sure I'm not going to **** up 2 batches of wine at once doing this.

If you've got the vessels, I don't think you need to rack so much. Too much racking can cause problems later. If it were me, I'd rack your donor wine, leave the cake behind, and get your skeeter going on that.

One question though, is primary fermentation over in your donor wine? It sounds like your donor wine is in the conditioning phase. If that's the case, while there will be some sediment in the secondary, there's a big difference between a yeast cake that resulted from a primary and a bit of sediment that's settled out. There would still likely be some viable yeast cells, but it's not a safe bet.

I started my first batch of this today. One big problem I found was the pH was 2.6 prior to fermentation. Is this normal? If so no wonder people hare having problems fermenting this. I added some potassium bi-carbonate to get the pH to 3.5 then pitched a normal amount of yeast. I can always add acid when done to get the acidic pucker that I am sure this needs.

It's supposed to be very acidic, which is why the recipe creater used a slurry from a previous batch (with tons of viable yeast to get to work), but more importantly the staggered nutrient/energizer additions. You should be fine to do it your way, but the original recipe works just fine too.

Like Fuzzy said, this is a recipe that countless people have made. A lot of them managed to screw up the recipe (myself included) but it still turned out delicious.

 

[surf_medic]

If you've got the vessels, I don't think you need to rack so much. Too much racking can cause problems later. If it were me, I'd rack your donor wine, leave the cake behind, and get your skeeter going on that.

One question though, is primary fermentation over in your donor wine? It sounds like your donor wine is in the conditioning phase. If that's the case, while there will be some sediment in the secondary, there's a big difference between a yeast cake that resulted from a primary and a bit of sediment that's settled out. There would still likely be some viable yeast cells, but it's not a safe bet.

Primary fermenting in my primary fermenter (so I`ve been told) is what I`m doing in the bucket, with lots of activity in the air lock. Secondary fermenting is done in the glass carboy, no airlock activity noted. Is there an actual visible difference between the yeast cake and straight sediment?

 

[Noz03]

My batches ferment out in 9 days. Clearing is optional ( a little cleaner taste if you do) But plenty of times I didn't clear and drank it right away. Just lemon concentrate, sugar and yeast. Back sweeten a little and sometimes flavor with kool aid.

So there is no problem with the acidity of the lemon? Also if I back sweeten don't I need to use fermentation stopper first?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Primary fermenting in my primary fermenter (so I`ve been told) is what I`m doing in the bucket, with lots of activity in the air lock. Secondary fermenting is done in the glass carboy, no airlock activity noted. Is there an actual visible difference between the yeast cake and straight sediment?

There sure is. Yeast will look...well like yeast . It will most likely be more compacted than sediment.

If your donor wine is in the first vessel it's been in (your bucket in this case), just rack off of that into another container (make sure you minimize headspace for your donor wine), and get your skeeter going on what's left in the bucket.

Take a reading before you do anything though. You should probably wait and make sure your donor wine is done (or at least close to it) with primary before you move it.

 

[surf_medic]

There sure is. Yeast will look...well like yeast . It will most likely be more compacted than sediment.

If your donor wine is in the first vessel it's been in (your bucket in this case), just rack off of that into another container (make sure you minimize headspace for your donor wine), and get your skeeter going on what's left in the bucket.

Take a reading before you do anything though. You should probably wait and make sure your donor wine is done (or at least close to it) with primary before you move it.

Can't say I've seen yeast before, I usually just rack the wine off and dump the rest. We have been having pretty good luck racking most of the wine off clear (I always get a bit of sediment on the first rack - probably helped!), I will definitely have to look more closely at the sediment left over and dig through it. As long as I can dump that entire thing in the pee I'll be happy!
If there a way to tell the difference between dead and live yeast? Other than a microscope or lab?

Thanks!

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

So there is no problem with the acidity of the lemon? Also if I back sweeten don't I need to use fermentation stopper first?

Not if you do the starter and have the nutrients. And yes you do need to use a stopper before back sweetening. Here's a great basic and easy video that will get your methods for this down quick. Skeeter Pee - How to make Lemon Wine: http://youtu.be/PiqOQ8EBIeU

 

[Noz03]

Not if you do the starter and have the nutrients. And yes you do need to use a stopper before back sweetening. Here's a great basic and easy video that will get your methods for this down quick. Skeeter Pee - How to make Lemon Wine: http://youtu.be/PiqOQ8EBIeU

Hey Fuzzy, thanks but the problem is I have pretty much nothing but yeast, lemon and sugar available to me :/ Am trying to work out a way to make some super basic skeeter pee. If I make a starter with only sugar water would that be good enough to get it started? And am thinking if I can sweeten then stick it straight to a fridge to kill the yeast.

 

[Fuzzymittenbrewing]

Hey Fuzzy, thanks but the problem is I have pretty much nothing but yeast, lemon and sugar available to me :/ Am trying to work out a way to make some super basic skeeter pee. If I make a starter with only sugar water would that be good enough to get it started? And am thinking if I can sweeten then stick it straight to a fridge to kill the yeast.

Ahhh. Got ya. I have done it before (having run out of nutrients) Made the batch as usual and made a 1600ml starter (800ml must diluted w/800ml water) let the starter go two days then pitched. It took longer to finish out but worked. I also didn't add the third bottle of lemon till it was done fermenting. As for back sweetening w/o sorbate I have racked to a bottling bucket and just dispensed from there as I wanted. Of course its gonna keep going but it wasn't that big a deal. The fridge can work but not always foolproof. And definitely a bad idea if your fridge has glass shelves.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Can't say I've seen yeast before, I usually just rack the wine off and dump the rest. We have been having pretty good luck racking most of the wine off clear (I always get a bit of sediment on the first rack - probably helped!), I will definitely have to look more closely at the sediment left over and dig through it. As long as I can dump that entire thing in the pee I'll be happy!
If there a way to tell the difference between dead and live yeast? Other than a microscope or lab?

Thanks!

Generally speaking, yeast will look a few shades brighter than sediment. Google should be pretty helpful there.
If you mean find out if it's viable before pitching, unfortunately I believe the answer is no. Unless you experienced some trouble with fermenting the donor batch I would think you wouldn't have any problems.

 

[surf_medic]

Generally speaking, yeast will look a few shades brighter than sediment. Google should be pretty helpful there.
If you mean find out if it's viable before pitching, unfortunately I believe the answer is no. Unless you experienced some trouble with fermenting the donor batch I would think you wouldn't have any problems.

Sounds great, thanks for all the help! First batch underway, pitching yeast slurry tomorrow.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Sounds great, thanks for all the help! First batch underway, pitching yeast slurry tomorrow.

Good luck, be sure to post back with results!

 

[rickswine]

Hello! 1st post here. Just wondering if I can store a slurry from Chardonnay for 2 weeks? Should it be refrigerated?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

It should still be pretty good after two weeks. Definitely refrigerate it though.

How are you going to store it?

 

[rickswine]

I have it in a glass jar in refrigerator. Thank you

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Yeah you should be alright
The best practice would be to follow the steps for washing yeast (which are pretty easy to find on the board), but I suspect 2 weeks in the fridge won't be enough time for it to go bad.

 

[z-bob]

Mine is taking its sweet time to clear. I haven't stabilized it yet, but it has been finished for about a month. Might have to do the Sparkloid thing afterall.

 

[rickswine]

Washing yeast?What's that? How to do it and why?

 

[DisturbdChemist]

Washing yeast?What's that? How to do it and why?

Its when you harvest yeast to use again. There are videos on youtube. It saves money and basically a big yeast starter so your next batch has plenty of yeast. For wine yeast i do not usually wash because its so cheap. For beer/ liquid yeast i usually do several generations to get my monies worth

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Its when you harvest yeast to use again. There are videos on youtube. It saves money and basically a big yeast starter so your next batch has plenty of yeast. For wine yeast i do not usually wash because its so cheap. For beer/ liquid yeast i usually do several generations to get my monies worth

This.

It's not really worth it for wine yeast since it's so cheap to buy fresh, but since you have a slurry already, following yeast washing techniques would ensure it would keep better.

Again though, probably not necessary since you're not going to store it long, but it is best practice.

 

[Pyg]

Mine is taking its sweet time to clear. I haven't stabilized it yet, but it has been finished for about a month. Might have to do the Sparkloid thing afterall.

I use superKleer on mine, seems to work much, much better.
Especially since there is less "fluffy goop" at the bottom, therefor you keep more.

 

[rickswine]

I watched YouTube videos that was vary interesting? thank you

 

[TheCollector]

Speaking of sparkloid make sure to dump it in while still hot! It doesn't say that on the package.... I let mine cool just a little and ended up with a brown turd in mine lol... But it didn't hurt anything just had to repeat the process.

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[surf_medic]

I used Sparkolloid for my first batch. Followed the directions on the E.C. Kraus website. After about 48 hours there was significant clearing, and its still improving. Other than having to cook the stuff for 30 mins, it was pretty easy. I'm actually surprised how well its working.
Just make sure you keep stirring or you run the risk of burning the mix.
No issues with the clumping either

I'm at work now, don't have my notebook handy with all the quantities

 

[Renegades_Brew]

Just moved three batches to secondary. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1418132154.168413.jpg
Left to right:
Raspberry
Strawberry
Regular

This was before sparkaloid. They are super clear now and are just making sure they are completely degassed before bottling.

They fermented out super dry. .990 was final reading on all three.

10.5% ish here we come!

 

[Texconsinite]

What did you put in the raspberry? It looks tasty?