# Plum/Raspberry skeeter pee



## Sammyk (Nov 12, 2011)

I am still very new to making wine. Tomorrow we will be transferring our plum and raspberry Vinters Harvest to carboys because the sp will be 1.040.

I went to the skeeterpee.com website to see how it is made.

If I am understanding this right I save the lees off the bottom of the bucket to start the skeeter pee (I will follow the recipe on that page)

Do you think the plum and raspberry will be good together?

I am not sure I will be able to start this right away so how do I keep the lees until I can get the rest of the supplies needed?


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## Angie (Nov 13, 2011)

Plum and raspberry sounds good. You can keep the lees in the fridge or even freeze it


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## Sammyk (Nov 13, 2011)

Lesson learned! I had the lees in separate bowls on the counter because I was not sure if I should refrigerate or freeze them.

I was sitting in my office and hear a "pop". Dashed to the kitchen to see what it was.

One of the plastic lids popped off. Thankfully there was no mess.

We are going to start skeeter pee in a few days.

I have lees from plum, red raspberry and peach all in the fridge now.

I am thinking of combining them all together for the skeeter pee so it will be multi-fruited.

Yes/No on mixing them? Any pros or cons?

The recipe from skeeterpee.com does no say how much slurry to add. I would like to make 5 gallons.


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## docanddeb (Nov 13, 2011)

I would pick just one flavor. It will be a muddled mess if you add them all. In that slurry... the part you are really using is the leftover yeast. I usually save some of the initial juice to give it extra flavor... or at the end after stabilized, you can add some frozen concentrate to bring the flavors up a bit. The predominant flavor will be lemon. You need to make sure and whip for the first 2-3 days before adding the slurry to get the sulfites out. Sometimes you can actually smell it dissipating. Make sure you read the directions and understand before starting... you want to have a great success with this one!

Debbie


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## Arne (Nov 14, 2011)

One more quick hint. When you transfer to secondary, start another batch. That ought to be in the instructions, but isnt. Seems like the first batch disappears in a hurry. If you don't have a slurry, you can start it with a yeast starter. Look up yeast starter on here or just ask and we will tell you how to do it. Arne.


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## Sammyk (Nov 15, 2011)

There is not a lot of lees from the various batches, maybe a total of 4 to 6 cups. I am not sure how much because they are in different bowls in the fridge.

Since it is going to be back sweetened and flavored, it does not seem like it would be a problem using the different lees.


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## Arne (Nov 15, 2011)

I would say you can go ahead and use them all. With no more than you are throwing in, you probably won't get too much flavor from any one of them. The lemon is going to be predominant and the others may give it just a little flavor. Arne.


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## LJPelletier (Nov 26, 2011)

My understanding is that if you used different yeast in the wines you have slurry from, combining different yeast strains could have an effect on the end result as well. Only combine them if they were made from the same strain of yeast.

You don't need a lot to start something... if you take 1 cup of slurry for example, it can be added to a cup of must... then, wait several hours for it to get going, and add a bit more... wait for it to get going more, then add it to the whole batch of slurry.


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## Sammyk (Nov 26, 2011)

I did use the slurry from the plum and raspberry, same yeast was used. The SG is 1.020 and is still in the pail used for fermenting. It is a pale pink color. I have to wait until Monday to put it in carboys because my sanitizing solution will not be here until then.

After stirring very well to get the cap down, I did dip out 3 glasses last night and we had it on ice. Actually it was pretty good but cloudy. The reason being we had an out of state brother that left for FL today.

Question, is there anyway this can be shipped? I would love to get some to my sister in Michigan.


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## Arne (Nov 27, 2011)

Sammyk said:


> I did use the slurry from the plum and raspberry, same yeast was used. The SG is 1.020 and is still in the pail used for fermenting. It is a pale pink color. I have to wait until Monday to put it in carboys because my sanitizing solution will not be here until then.
> 
> After stirring very well to get the cap down, I did dip out 3 glasses last night and we had it on ice. Actually it was pretty good but cloudy. The reason being we had an out of state brother that left for FL today.
> 
> Question, is there anyway this can be shipped? I would love to get some to my sister in Michigan.



If that is your starting S.G. you are not going to have much alcohol in it when it is finished. Probably should be at least 1.070 to 1.095 depending how strong you want the alcohol. 
you can ship your wine by ups or Fedex. Do not try the post office as it is not legal to ship thru them. Check out some of the old threads on here about shipping. Quite a bit of advise on here. Arne.


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## Sammyk (Nov 27, 2011)

No the starting SG was 1.070 as per the recipe. It is still in the pail and this morning the SG is 1.010. When should I rack to carboys? The recipe does not say what the SG should be before the first racking. There is a heavy cap this morning. The sanitizer did arrive yesterday.........


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## docanddeb (Nov 27, 2011)

You can get it in the carboy now. It still has a little fermenting to do and that will help protect the wine until it finishes.

Debbie


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## Sammyk (Nov 27, 2011)

5.5 gallons of skeeter pee in carboys now

I have 1 quart and 1 pint of lees in the fridge now. Is that too much? for 5 to 6 gallons? 

At WalMart actually it is 4 berries. I made a pie for turkey day and everyone raved about it.

3 pounds is what dangerdave used. I would like to bump up the pounds of berries. What would be the maximum pounds of the 4 berry I can use?

I need to order yeast. Is it still recommended to use EC-1118 yeast? I did bookmark the page with his recipe.


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## LJPelletier (Nov 27, 2011)

Sammyk said:


> I did use the slurry from the plum and raspberry, same yeast was used. The SG is 1.020 and is still in the pail used for fermenting. It is a pale pink color. I have to wait until Monday to put it in carboys because my sanitizing solution will not be here until then.
> 
> After stirring very well to get the cap down, I did dip out 3 glasses last night and we had it on ice. Actually it was pretty good but cloudy. The reason being we had an out of state brother that left for FL today.
> *
> Question, is there anyway this can be shipped?* I would love to get some to my sister in Michigan.



Sure, why not? Maybe it would be safer to ship in a plastic bottle rather than glass wine bottle though.


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## LJPelletier (Nov 27, 2011)

Sammyk said:


> 5.5 gallons of skeeter pee in carboys now
> 
> I have 1 quart and 1 pint of lees in the fridge now. Is that too much? for 5 to 6 gallons?
> 
> ...



Adding berries to skeeter pee is a great idea... and if you want to use more berries, you could probably as much as double the 3 pounds per gallon. The more you use, the more berry flavour you should get.

Lalvin EC-1118 yeast is great yeast to use!


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## tjbryner (Nov 27, 2011)

Sammy I have an idea for you. 

Make a batch of Berry blood .... Well thats what I called it.  
1 bag per gallon of wine you are making from those 4 berry bags. 

Then use the less off of that to make your pee. Then add 3 bags instead of the last bottle of lemon. Just place the berrys in a mesh bag soak for 2 days then squeeze the bag out really tight for the following 2 days allowing it to soak in between squeezing. Remove mesh bag and clear. and drink!!

I call that batch sour berry pee. 

TJ


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## Sammyk (Nov 27, 2011)

This will be the last of the wine I will be making until next fall. So I thought I would make the 4 berry pee. But, thank you!


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## tjbryner (Nov 27, 2011)

It will turn out great with the 4 berry in it


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## dangerdave (Nov 28, 2011)

Hey Sammy! I bumped up the berry level x2 on my current batches of Pee ( a reduex of the Strawberry and Triple Berry). I am yet to try it with any lees, though. Mine has turned out nicely with adding fruit to the must. Lots of fruit! The more the berrier! Did I just say that? lol

And make sure you use a mesh bag for your fruit. I dumped the fruit right in the must for my first couple of batches, but that just made more junk in the must. Very messy at racking time. The mesh bag makes it much easier. Another lesson learned.

I went AVTing in West Virginia over the TG weekend and served my homemade wines to my riding buddies. For a bunch of whiskey and beer drinkers, they were actually able to appreciate the wines. Turns out, everyone likes free wine!

Any more questions, Sammy?


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## Sammyk (Nov 28, 2011)

Thank you Dave for replying, it is much appreciated. 

I do have mesh bags and I found out it does make life a lot easier. I have a quart and a pint of slurry in the fridge from the first batch of skeeter pee. Did you have to alter the sugar amount from the original SP? I will bring the SG up to 1.070?

We would prefer more berry taste with a light lemon background so I will probably add 4 pounds of the triple berry. Think that will be enough for 5-6 gallons?

I was thinking of an f-pak with more berries when it done. Or will that not be necessary?


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## dangerdave (Nov 28, 2011)

I added two three pound bags of the triple berries to the primary in my current batch of pee. It is clearing now, and _very_ dark. I have had very good results from adding artificial flavoring (at back-sweetening time) to those batches that are lacking flavor. For example, it seems to take a _lot_ of strawberries to get a good full strawberry taste in the finished pee. So, I added one ounce of strawberry flavoring to my first batch of strawberry pee. It was a favorate at my house. That was my Sweet Strawberry Tart (which is exactly how it tasted). I also made some blueberry skeeter pee this fall and---just for fun---added one ounce of raspberry flavoring to make the taste more comlex. It is delightful, and is my current favorate---Jet Blue Raspberry.

Like I said, I have yet to use a slurry. I started making skeeter pee without slurry (using whole berries instead), and have not seen a reason to change. Using a slurry is more economical though, so if that is an issue, go with the slurry. There is only one thing better than cheap homemade wine---_good_ cheap homemade wine!

Find what works for your taste. Experimenting is encouraged! I'm interested to hear how it turns out. Better yet, take some pics, so we can see! If it's really good, it won't last long. Make more!

Oh, and you are welcome. Thanks for asking!


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## Sammyk (Nov 28, 2011)

One more question. How many gallons did you make at one time?

I will be starting this Friday or Saturday and will post photos

Thanks again Dave.


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## dangerdave (Nov 28, 2011)

I usually make 5 gallon batches. This last time I made some 5.5-6 gallon batches to allow for loss after racking off the lees. I bumped up the ingredients accordingly for these larger batches---thanks to my wonderful wife for making those calcualtions for me.

Good luck, Sammy! Keeps us posted!


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