# Strawberry skeeter pee



## AndyL

Well since it was asked, and I'm really bad at taking notes  Let's put it here...

Decided on a strawberry skeeter pee - but no, didn't have a strawberry wine going in the primaries... We'll report as we go... 

Here's how I did it - basically followed the SkeeterPee recipe; Except for the 2nd and 3rd bottle of Realemon... And ran it up to 1.085 initial SG - took about 15 cups of sugar.

2nd bottle - I went over to safeway; grabbed 4 of the 425ml "frozen strawberries in syrup" (now in little tubs instead of the tetra/milk containers like it used to be) put them in about 6 cups of water, boiled down to about 1/2, used a strainer to remove the strawberries (they still made an ok ice cream topping ). 

Did add pectic enzyme per instructions (think it was 2.5tsp?)
Also used 3/4tsp of Ascorbic acid (as I really like the color - and would like it to stay roughly where it is).

Started with a starter culture of Lalvin EC-1118; that I had started for the original skeeter pee - started on saturday. 

Plan is to make another must of frozen strawberries for the 3rd "bottle" addition + back sweetening...

No guarantees - I'm a noob, this is my first time messing with a recipe - however; I can tell ya the strawberry is fermenting much faster for me than the regular SP recipe right now (I added a heater to that primary to bring it up to 78F, and it's still not bubbling even close to the strawberry at 72ish)


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## AndyL

Well the strawberry is sure fermenting like mad... It's still at room temp, my regular SP batch which is a day ahead isn't going near as well. See if I can figure out how to upload a picture (having PC issues - chewed a hard drive controller, so I'm running on ubuntu live CD for the time being - and it refuses to mount my SD card (likely hard drive controller issue again). 

Dumb question du jour - Many references to "whipping" with a egg beater etc to introduce air... Well I'm a lazy SOB and I've been using my drill drive CO2 dispersing tool near the surface; am I causing problems by being lazy?


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## AndyL

Well 1.045 on the SP this morning, 1.050 on the Strawberry today... 

PM'd MinnesotaMaker - Sounds like the drill drive degasser should be fine - so still running with it  

Pondering whether maybe I should just use one of the aquarium air pumps and air stones (cleaned new parts of course) to just do a continual bubblewall through the fermenting process...


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## djrockinsteve

No Andy you're fine. I just used my big plastic spoon and pushed down adding air as I stirred. Mine bubbled the whole time.


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## AndyL

Strawberry SP & Standard Recipe going side by side...









After a good whoopin this morning - had about 2" of foam when I started...


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## AndyL

Unseasonably cold weather of late had me scratching my head this morning... Temp down in the primaries was in the low 60s... Decided that just wouldn't do...

Brought the oil filled heater down - trying to get the room up into the mid 70s at least... Low temps have done a pretty good job of slowing fermentation down - stalled the SP totally - still at 1.045 today, SSP down to 1.040 - so it's not minding the temps as much... But faster fermenting would be good at this point  Like to have something other than the black cherry merlot to drink 

Not daring to rack into the secondaries yet - still too much foaming going on in both; adding nutrient + energizer yesterday seemed to make that worse again... Have a feeling it'd make a big mess in carboys at this point....


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## AndyL

Well heat helped... 

Racked into carboys yesterday... 1.010 SG on the strawberry - 1.020 on the SP... 

Well, that was a bad plan... Gave the lemon a quick stir when I got home tonight... Little bit too active fermenting - put about a gallon onto the ceiling, walls, heater, floor, me... Racked back into a primary - didn't have any problem with the strawberry though - did rack it anyway just to aerate... Strawberry is down to 1.000 today, standard SP recipe is still at 1.020... Stalled maybe? Will give it a couple days I guess...


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## Julie

Hi Andy,

Are you planning on mixing the two together and if so when was you planning to do this? I find this very interesting.


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## AndyL

No, planning to keep them separate... DW's not a big fan of lemon flavor (but I'm good with it) - that's why I used just the one bottle of realemon in the strawberry; then used the strawberry for the rest... Asked in the fruit wines forum about how to make an Fpak to sweeten and kick up the strawberry flavor - one person had suggested using Smuckers Strawberry pancake syrup - so once we've fermented dry, that's the plan, use that to kick up the strawberry flavor & sweeten. Give the wife something closer to her strawberry coolers she likes so much


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## AndyL

Well, getting down to that point where fermenting seems to be coming to an end on the strawberry - in the 0.99 range today, pondering that fpak & after picking up the pancake syrup - it lists potasium sorbate on the label... Think it'll contain enough - or should I still add the sorbate pack I picked up at the LHBS as well?


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## Minnesotamaker

Definitely add the sorbate pack. The syrup will contain enough sorbate for the volume in the syrup bottle. Once diluted into a 5-6 gallon batch, the sorbate will be too dilute to be effective. Also remember to add sulfite along with the sorbate.


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## AndyL

Thanks lon, needed that reminder about the kmeta - almost forgot to follow the recipe


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## AndyL

Well picked up some Kieselsol and Chitosan for both batches today, sorbated & kmeta'd the strawberry - lemon just isn't quite there yet... hasn't quite dipped below 1.0 yet...


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## arcticsid

Looking good bro", keep on keping on, keep us posted.


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## AndyL

Looking real good - got the k-c in the strawberry last night; wow that stuff works good and fast... Just racked to get rid of that 2"+ of sediment... 

My plain SP is still not done with it's fermenting - still sitting around 1.000; bubbling away slowly... 

Now if I could get my hands on that digital camera... Oh where oh where did the camera go... Oh where oh where did it go?


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## AndyL

Question of the day...

Strawberry has a very distinct yeasty flavor (wife calls it glue - I call it yeast)? What's going on here? I read that it's often caused by insufficient racking - but I don't think that's the case... Never really allowed sediment to collect at the bottom. 

Lemon doesn't but - it's just getting sorbated now...


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## AndyL

Well testing on the regular skeeter pee has us down a couple litres tonight  Backsweetened with honey (was reading in one of the books I got with some of my gear; that once upon a time honey was used as a clearing adjent - and we had a couple gallons in the cupboard...). A couple test glasses turned into a couple test bottles... 

Perhaps I should redo the label, bit closer to a cold toddy now


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## Minnesotamaker

AndyL said:


> Well testing on the regular skeeter pee has us down a couple litres tonight  ......... A couple test glasses turned into a couple test bottles...



Sometimes it pays to be a lab rat.


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## AndyL

Well now that my friends left... The bottles dry, and that syphon is so close at hand... 

Thanks Lon 

Strawberry still really has a bad yeast taste... Wondering if I need to just give that one time, or ?


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## AndyL

Strawberry's been backsweetened/fpac'd a bunch (we're 3 bottles of strawberry syrup now) - yeasty flavor is not as strong, but still pretty much wrecking the taste... 

Gotta start up another batch of plain SP  Down to our last bottle and bags... Whoops


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## countrygirl

AndyL said:


> Strawberry's been backsweetened/fpac'd a bunch (we're 3 bottles of strawberry syrup now) - yeasty flavor is not as strong, but still pretty much wrecking the taste...
> 
> Gotta start up another batch of plain SP  Down to our last bottle and bags... Whoops



my skeeter pee is pretty yeasty too...it's more in the bouquet than the taste though...almost reminds me of a beer???
still tastes good, lol


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## AndyL

Yeah, it's there in the Standard Skeeterpee - but It's REALLY strong in the strawberry... Maybe we'll give'r another two weeks of aging - see if it tones down some more...


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## BShuhart

I followed the original recipe to the letter and used the strawberry floaters on top of my working strawberry wine as my yeast. However, when it came time to back sweeten, there wasn't much strawberry flavor. So, I added a container of Bacardi Strawberry Daiquiri concentrate from the frozen juice section of the nearest grocery store. It turned out to be one of the best wines I have ever made. Since I don't have any strawberries for my next batch, I am going to try a normal yeast starter and 2 strawberry concentrates at back sweetening time.


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## nate0001

BShuhart said:


> I followed the original recipe to the letter and used the strawberry floaters on top of my working strawberry wine as my yeast. However, when it came time to back sweeten, there wasn't much strawberry flavor. So, I added a container of Bacardi Strawberry Daiquiri concentrate from the frozen juice section of the nearest grocery store. It turned out to be one of the best wines I have ever made. Since I don't have any strawberries for my next batch, I am going to try a normal yeast starter and 2 strawberry concentrates at back sweetening time.


How many pounds of strawberries did you add? I just did a strawberry version and racked it for clearing. Wonder if I will have to do the same...


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## tatud4life

I used Dave's Dragon's Blood recipe but used 7 1/2 pounds of strawberries in a mesh bag. After bottling, there was a very pronounced strawberry flavor.


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