Skeeter Pee

[Arpolis]

Oh that sounds great. I always thought a cardamom tea infused SP would be amazing. Just have yet had the chance to try it in the recent past.

 

[brew_ny]

I make beer but this is a wine I will make very soon to enjoy over the summer

 

[Totes]

We have been making Skeeter margaritas all day. Just a handful of ice cubes, an egg white, and piss from the keg, all in the vitamix. Super frothy summer yum yum.
Anyone else doing this? Any variations I should try?
Girlfriend is sideways......great summer drink.

 

[Pyg]

Oh that sounds great. I always thought a cardamom tea infused SP would be amazing. Just have yet had the chance to try it in the recent past.

This weekend I mixed my skeeter pee with sweet tea vodka.
Epic fail.
Did not mix well together!

 

[Arpolis]

Sweet tea vodka? Hmmm never used that before. But instead of the powdered tannin in the original SP recipe I have used 1 tbs of black loose leave tea and have also used earl grey. That has always came out great for me. I just have not tried cardamom.

 

[Paschendale]

For those of you that have used other fruits and/or juice concentrates in addition to the lemon juice, does it work best adding it to the primary or the secondary? Or should it be held all they way to the end, when you backsweeten? I'd like to try a strawberry pee but not sure when to add the strawberry. Think I'll try the daquiri mixer route, the first time out, rather than actual fruit.

 

[gotbags-10]

For those of you that have used other fruits and/or juice concentrates in addition to the lemon juice, does it work best adding it to the primary or the secondary? Or should it be held all they way to the end, when you backsweeten? I'd like to try a strawberry pee but not sure when to add the strawberry. Think I'll try the daquiri mixer route, the first time out, rather than actual fruit.

Check out Dragons Blood recipe. Mixed berry Skeeter Pee. It uses mixed berries or all strawberries if you want along with the lemon juice at the start of fermentation. I keep a batch on constant rotation. I'm not sure if there is a thread on HBT about it or not. If not check out our sister site, wine making talk. It's an epic thread.

 

[Paschendale]

Thanks, gotbags-10, I'll check that one!

 

[tarmenel]

Interested in trying this but finding certain ingredients in Israel is a bit hard.
Can I use a Campden tablet instead of the Add 1/2 tsp Kmeta, 2 1/2 tsp sorbate, and Sparkolliod

 

[Renegades_Brew]

For those of you that have used other fruits and/or juice concentrates in addition to the lemon juice, does it work best adding it to the primary or the secondary? Or should it be held all they way to the end, when you backsweeten? I'd like to try a strawberry pee but not sure when to add the strawberry. Think I'll try the daquiri mixer route, the first time out, rather than actual fruit.

My wife and I juiced about 5-7 lbs of strawberries and used them as part of the back sweetener. Turned out absolutely amazing.

 

[gotbags-10]

Interested in trying this but finding certain ingredients in Israel is a bit hard.
Can I use a Campden tablet instead of the Add 1/2 tsp Kmeta, 2 1/2 tsp sorbate, and Sparkolliod

You can use campden instead of kmeta yes. You don't have to use sparkolliod it will clear on its own with time. As far as sorbate goes you wouldn't be able to back sweeten if you don't use it. The sugar will renew fermentation. You will have bottle bombs for sure.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

+1

An alternative would be to pasteurize the bottles before sweetening (maybe fill each wine bottle a measured amount, pasteurize uncorked, cool, backsweeten, and cork) but that presents some more issues

 

[Black Island Brewer]

+1

An alternative would be to pasteurize the bottles before sweetening (maybe fill each wine bottle a measured amount, pasteurize uncorked, cool, backsweeten, and cork) but that presents some more issues

A great idea of you want to skip the sorbate. It might be easier, though, if you pasteurized the entire batch, then backsweetened and bottled. I've been toying with the idea of using a wort chiller to flash pasteurize, putting the chiller in boiling water and then running the beverage through the chiller.

 

[tarmenel]

By pasteurize you mean reheat after fermentation? Will this not kill the yeast? Is the back sweetening just for sweetness? So this is an unsweetened drink? I thought it was fizzy.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Pasteurizing would kill the yeast (if done correctly). If you do it after fermentation you would be safe to add sugar to your batch to backsweeten, but you wouldn't be able to carbonate because everything is dead.

If you want to have it sweet and fizzy, you can follow the advice on the Caramel Apple Cider thread. The idea there is to ferment your batch to completion, backsweeten, bottle, and cap (note: use beer bottles instead of wine bottles because they're designed to hold pressure. Wine bottles aren't). Be sure to use at least one plastic PET bottle.

Since you've added sugar to an environment with yeast, they will continue fermenting in the bottle. If left unchecked, they'll create bottle bombs. But, after a few days (depending on your environment) you should achieve the carbonation level you want. When your plastic test bottle is hard, you're usually ready but its ok to take a sample from a beer bottle...for testing purposes

From here you can pasteurize as normal in the beer bottles.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

A great idea of you want to skip the sorbate. It might be easier, though, if you pasteurized the entire batch, then backsweetened and bottled. I've been toying with the idea of using a wort chiller to flash pasteurize, putting the chiller in boiling water and then running the beverage through the chiller.

That sounds like a fantastic idea. As long as the liquid coming out is over 170F (I think) you ought to be good right?

 

[Black Island Brewer]

That sounds like a fantastic idea. As long as the liquid coming out is over 170F (I think) you ought to be good right?

That sounds about right, but it depends on how long it's held at a specific temperature. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the longer it's at certain temp, the lower the temp can be. So it you went through a double heat exchanger, one heating and one chilling, the temperature would need to be higher than if you went from heating into a vessel and then cooled it.

 

[z-bob]

The batch I started in February still hasn't cleared yet, even tho' I added the Sparkolloid 2 weeks ago. I think I'll bottle it this weekend anyway. Maybe it will clear in the bottles.

 

[gotbags-10]

The batch I started in February still hasn't cleared yet, even tho' I added the Sparkolloid 2 weeks ago. I think I'll bottle it this weekend anyway. Maybe it will clear in the bottles.

Generally the rule is to not bottle until clear. It won't really clear much more in the bottle. Even if the sediment falls to the bottom of bottle just moving it around will rouse it up. Do you have the ability to cold crash? I'm surprised because when I use sparkolliod my wine is perfectly clear in no time.

 

[z-bob]

The first batch I made cleared within 3 days of adding sparkolloid. I don't know what's wrong with this one. It's kind of clear-ish. I didn't degas it (don't have a degassing wand) maybe that's it. I think I shook the previous batch before I clarified it.

 

[Tegra]

My batch is 2 months old and has been in the keg for a month and still comes out looking exactly like lemonade. Might this be the yeast I used? Or lack of temperature control during ferment?

My next batch is on its second week. I will try a more aggressive degas this time.

Tom

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I've got a batch of cranberry wine I'm hoping to get off of the fruit tomorrow and I'll get a batch of skeeter pee going on the cranberry cake, just because it sounds delicious.

As an added bonus, I might throw several lime rinds into the sugar water when its hot to see if that imparts some flavor. For some reason cranberry lemon and lime sound like it would be a pretty good combo.

I'll report back with how it goes.

 

[BradTheGeek]

Working on my second batch of SP. Started with 1/2 gal of organic (supposedly) non preservative white grape juice and some EC1118 yeast just to get it started. I am about to rack off the crap wine and use the slurry to start things. Temp has been a steady 65F.

The juice definitely started fermenting (its been down 1.5 weeks). a yeast cake formed and all. I just poured 1 glass of the 'wine' from my starter just to see how it tastes. It has alcohol, and a yeasty smell, but is largely sweet. There was no added sugar to this, so I would have thought it would be dry by now. Strange.

Still have a good slurry to work with, so I am going to proceed and see what happens.

When I get to back sweetening, I plan on adding a different juice. Maybe raspberry, but does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Sprawl]

Has anyone made SP in a bucket rather than glass carboy? I've had lemon juice etch my plastic measuring cups from the acidity and would hate to ruin my wine-making bucket.

 

[vanishingpint]

I've made it in a plastic fermenting bucket several times with no problems.

 

[BradTheGeek]

I am brewing in a plastic carboy now, no issues. Last year used plastic too for either primary or secondary, but I cannot remember the order.

 

[G-Pong]

Any advice for a skeeter pee with an acetone smell? Will it go away on its own in secondary? Thanks,

 

[podz]

Any advice for a skeeter pee with an acetone smell? Will it go away on its own in secondary? Thanks,

The only safe way to neutralise it is with baking soda, but you have to be careful and not add too much or you might cause a gusher!

 

[fathertorque]

So question here. I'm on my second 5 gallon batch of edwort's apfelwein and I want to try SkeeterPee. I'm going to order some yeast nutrient and energizer and for the tannin I'm just going to use a tea bag( because I'm a cheap bastard) but do I really need the Potassium metabisulfite and the Potassium sorbate...from what I gather these are strictly agents to cut down on off smells that following the recipe to a T and degassing should take care of? I'm not even going to mess with sparkaloid....could care less if it's murky.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

So question here. I'm on my second 5 gallon batch of edwort's apfelwein and I want to try SkeeterPee. I'm going to order some yeast nutrient and energizer and for the tannin I'm just going to use a tea bag( because I'm a cheap bastard) but do I really need the Potassium metabisulfite and the Potassium sorbate...from what I gather these are strictly agents to cut down on off smells that following the recipe to a T and degassing should take care of? I'm not even going to mess with sparkaloid....could care less if it's murky.

No. K-meta and k-sorbate prevent fermentation from restarting when you back sweeten. Otherwise you'd end up with bottle bombs.