# Can I still make this work?



## mikez104 (Nov 29, 2010)

I wanted to start my first batch of skeeter pee and needed the slurry to start it. I decided to start a 1 gallon batch of Welch’s white grape raspberry and use the slurry from that. I started to wonder if I would get enough slurry out of it to start the pee when I read in the FAQ section of the skeeter pee web site that some people just dump the whole gallon of fermenting juice into the pee to get it going. I thought cool, I can do that. Well, I got home tonight and checked the 1 gallon batch and found that it had gone from a frothing fermentation to not much of anything. It made it down to 1.000 and is hardly even bubbling. 

So, can I still move forward with my original plan? Or, can I use the little bit of slurry that was produced from my one gallon batch? I have not started the pee yet and I see that it has to stand for 24 to 48 hours. Yup, I think I planned poorly.


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## Bailey (Nov 29, 2010)

The point of the slurry is to have a strong starter going first. You can verify your slurry is still alive by adding some fresh juice to the 'thickest' part of the slurry. If it starts going again you're in good shape. Of course you could still use the entire gallon, add some juice to it in a larger primary and keep an eye on it. My experience has been that yeast is pretty forgiving.


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## Julie (Nov 29, 2010)

mikez104 said:


> I wanted to start my first batch of skeeter pee and needed the slurry to start it. I decided to start a 1 gallon batch of Welch’s white grape raspberry and use the slurry from that. I started to wonder if I would get enough slurry out of it to start the pee when I read in the FAQ section of the skeeter pee web site that some people just dump the whole gallon of fermenting juice into the pee to get it going. I thought cool, I can do that. Well, I got home tonight and checked the 1 gallon batch and found that it had gone from a frothing fermentation to not much of anything. It made it down to 1.000 and is hardly even bubbling.
> 
> So, can I still move forward with my original plan? Or, can I use the little bit of slurry that was produced from my one gallon batch? I have not started the pee yet and I see that it has to stand for 24 to 48 hours. Yup, I think I planned poorly.



Hi Mike,

I just noticed that you are not all that far from me or a few other members here, the next time we all get together it would be nice if you came, I and I know everyone else would like to meet up with you.

Even though the sg is donw to 1.000 you should still be able to use the wine as a starter. Did you use a whole packet of yeast? I have used a slurry from a gallon batch before and it worked very well so it you want to rack that wine and just use the slurry you should be able to do that as well.


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## mikez104 (Nov 29, 2010)

Julie said:


> Hi Mike,
> 
> I just noticed that you are not all that far from me or a few other members here, the next time we all get together it would be nice if you came, I and I know everyone else would like to meet up with you.
> 
> Even though the sg is donw to 1.000 you should still be able to use the wine as a starter. Did you use a whole packet of yeast? I have used a slurry from a gallon batch before and it worked very well so it you want to rack that wine and just use the slurry you should be able to do that as well.



So if I start the pee must tonight and let it sit until tomorrow night (instructions say to sit for 24 to 48 hours) it should be ok? I did use a whole pack of yeast when I started this 1 gallon. Would it be better to throw the whole gallon in? Would I get more raspberry flavor? 

Yeah it looks like there a lot of us in the area. djrockinsteve has helped me out a lot and invited me to the last get together. It's not always feasible for me to get out though. I work out of town a lot and have 3 kids so time is always tight but maybe and thanks for the invite.


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## Julie (Nov 29, 2010)

mikez104 said:


> So if I start the pee must tonight and let it sit until tomorrow night (instructions say to sit for 24 to 48 hours) it should be ok? I did use a whole pack of yeast when I started this 1 gallon. Would it be better to throw the whole gallon in? Would I get more raspberry flavor?
> 
> Yeah it looks like there a lot of us in the area. djrockinsteve has helped me out a lot and invited me to the last get together. It's not always feasible for me to get out though. I work out of town a lot and have 3 kids so time is always tight but maybe and thanks for the invite.



Well we all like kids and they are always invited. Yes if you use the whole gallon you would have more of raspberry flavor. I say go for it, I think this will come out pretty good.


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## mikez104 (Nov 29, 2010)

Bailey said:


> The point of the slurry is to have a strong starter going first. You can verify your slurry is still alive by adding some fresh juice to the 'thickest' part of the slurry. If it starts going again you're in good shape. Of course you could still use the entire gallon, add some juice to it in a larger primary and keep an eye on it. My experience has been that yeast is pretty forgiving.




I boiled a little water and added about 1/8 cup or a little less sugar to it and cooled it to the same temp as the must and added it in. Hopefully it will start back up or keep it going for another day. 

I'm going to start the pee recipe now and hopefully dump the whole 1 gallon of raspberry in to the pee tomorrow. 

Should I just back out the 1.25 lbs of sugar I added to the 1 gallon recipe from the pee recipe? My raspberry started at 1.090 and made it down to 1.000.


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## mikez104 (Nov 29, 2010)

I got the Pee mixed up and should be ready for me to add the Raspberry wine starter tomorrow. SG is right around 1.070. I whipped the crap out of it. 

After I added the little bit of sugar water to the Raspberry 1 gallon jug it slowly started to perk up and began bubbling again so it should be ok until tomorrow.


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## Arne (Nov 30, 2010)

If I was there, I would get a cup or two of your lemon must and put it in your gal. of wine. Do this three or four times today and nite and when you pitch it in the must it should be ready to really take off. Lets the starter get used to the higher acid lemon must. Arne


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## mikez104 (Nov 30, 2010)

Thats a good idea. I will try to get my wife to do that for me today. Thanks!


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## mikez104 (Dec 1, 2010)

*What a difference a day makes*

That was a good idea to introduce some of the skeeter pee into the welch's must. It was going pretty good when I got home from work. So here it is after I dumped the 1 gallon of Welch's white grape raspberry into the Skeeter Pee.




IMG_0717 by mikez104, on Flickr

And here it is 24 hours later. Eww.




IMG_0721 by mikez104, on Flickr

So we mix it up..




IMG_0726 by mikez104, on Flickr

And about two hours later...





IMG_0727 by mikez104, on Flickr

Looks kinda like barfed pepto bismol.  But smells alot better.


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## Wade E (Dec 1, 2010)

Great pics. I love a nasty looking fermentation.


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## mikez104 (Dec 1, 2010)

Yeah, that second one looks like its erupting.


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## Arne (Dec 1, 2010)

Won't be long now and you will be drinkin pee like the rest of us. lol, Arne.


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## mikez104 (Dec 2, 2010)

Arne said:


> Won't be long now and you will be drinkin pee like the rest of us. lol, Arne.


Now that's a scary quote!


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## mikez104 (Dec 2, 2010)

If you listen very closely you can here the sounds of Skeeter Pee being created. Also I heard someone shooting skeet or trap or something.... I put the nutrient and energizer and last bottle of lemon juice in tonight. It's fermenting very well.

[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/17427102"]http://www.vimeo.com/17427102[/ame]


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## djrockinsteve (Dec 2, 2010)

What's even more exciting is when others drink this stuff to watch their face. It's a whole new experience!

In time you'll have a skeeter pee with every wine made.


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## mikez104 (Dec 3, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> What's even more exciting is when others drink this stuff to watch their face. It's a whole new experience!
> 
> In time you'll have a skeeter pee with every wine made.



At this point, watching the fermentation is pretty cool but I'm not going to taste it until I can get rid of that funky scum on the top. I bet that it will have a nice look when it is all clear though. I'll wait until after my friends drink it to show them the pictures of what it once was. 

Yes, Skeeter pee looks like a natural byproduct of my future wines.


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## djrockinsteve (Dec 3, 2010)

It does clear up nicely. Could be Christmas gifts this year.


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## mikez104 (Dec 5, 2010)

Well that was fast. I put the Raspberry gallon in on Tuesday naight and it was petty much done by Saturday. 




IMG_0875 by mikez104, on Flickr

Still some foam hear and there but it got down to SG .991 so I racked it, added some Sulfite and topped it off. I had to use water as I have nothing the is even close to this stuff. Do I need to protect it from light like regular wine? I tasted it and I was quite surprised. It was pretty good although still kinda yeasty.




IMG_0879 by mikez104, on Flickr


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## Catfish (Dec 5, 2010)

Very nice! Mike would you mind to share the recipe you used to start the gallon of white grape \raspberry?


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## mikez104 (Dec 5, 2010)

Catfish said:


> Very nice! Mike would you mind to share the recipe you used to start the gallon of white grape \raspberry?



Sure,
1.25Lbs sugar
3 cans of Welch's frozen white grape raspberry concentrate
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp pectic enzyme
I followed these instructions but added and extra can of concentrate and did not add the acid blend.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/welchs-grape-juice-wine-21093/


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## Catfish (Dec 5, 2010)

Thanks! Sorry for hijacking the thread. But I think raspberry and lemon will be A+!


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## mikez104 (Dec 5, 2010)

Catfish said:


> Thanks! Sorry for hijacking the thread. But I think raspberry and lemon will be A+!



I actually miscalculated a little bit. It went too fast. I pitched the yeast late 11-25 and it was down to 1.000 11-29. The fermentation really slowed down at that point. I wanted to keep it going strong until the pee was ready so I boiled about a cup of water and added a few TBSP of sugar to that, let it cool and added it to the raspberry. That got it going pretty well for the day I waited before I put it in the pee. About noon the day I added it into the pee, Arne suggested that I introduce some of the pee into the raspberry must. I called home and my wife was nice enough to do that for me. That turned out to be an excellent idea. When I got home it was bubbling away and later that night i dumped the whole thing in to the pee mix. After a few hours it took off and by the next day you can see from the pictures above, it was going very well!


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## mikez104 (Dec 5, 2010)

Catfish said:


> Thanks! Sorry for hijacking the thread. But I think raspberry and lemon will be A+!



It does taste good.


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## mikez104 (Jan 11, 2011)

I racked this back on 12-18 and added super clear. I liked the way Super Clear worked so much on my Chardonnay that I figured I'd use it on the Pee. It 's been almost a month and it was kinda clear but had a haze to it. I racked it off the sediment tonight and put in 3 tsp of Bentonite that I dissolved in about 2 cups of warm water. You really have to whip that stuff to dissolve that stuff and prevent a glob of mud. It looked like it did after the first racking then in about 10 minutes it looked like snow and after about 40 minutes it was clearer that before I racked it. Weird.

Snow stuff



IMG_1120 by mikez104, on Flickr

40 minutes later



IMG_1123s by mikez104, on Flickr



IMG_1124s by mikez104, on Flickr


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