Skeeter Pee Revisited

Okay. I feel a little quilty (not alot), but "ryan" introduced us to the "Skeeter Pee" and he had a hard time getting it to ferment. I, in my infinite wisdom(sarcasmn) gave him a hard time for tweeking the original recipe without trying it first. He had a hard time getting it to go but it did, after creating an aggressive starter. So I am quilty because, I too, tweaked it.

I haven't heard from him in a bit, but if he checks in ask him about the MOPED crash in Mexico!! LOL

This is the original recipe:

http://www.skeeterpee.com/Skeeter_Pee/Recipe.html

So I am quilty. The recipe calls for 3-32oz bottles of lemon juice. Because I only have a 5 gallon fermenter, I divided it by 3 and made two thirds.

With all due respect to the original creator of this recipe. This is what I did.

Beacause it is now MY recipe and not the authors', I will call it "Mosquito Pi$$"

I dissolved 15 cups of sugar in 1/2 gallon of water.

I added this to 43oz. lemon juice(green bottle type) and enough water to make 3 1/2 gallons of must.

To this I added: 1/2 tsp Tannin
2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
3/4 tsp Yeast Energizer
1 TBLS Pectin E
(3/4 of a 1/4 tsp K-Meta)

I stirred the hell out of it and will allow it to rest for 24 hours. (Yes Tom, it is on top of the refrigerator!! LOL)

Starting SG= 1.090 at 95F.

The recipe says to allow it to ferment to 1.050 then add the remaining juice (21oz.), 2 tsp nutrient, and 3/ tsp energizer. Then stir the hell out of it and allow it to do it's thing.

For a starter I used: 1-12 oz. can frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
31 oz. water
1 cup of sugar

From the starter juice, I pitched 1 sachet of Red Star Champagne yeast in 6 oz. at 100F. It is growing fine, and over the next 24 hours I will slowly add a little more of the starter juice till I have used it all and have a nice agressive starter and after the 24 hours these happy yeasts will be introduced to the must.

24 hours after that, I may be in here asking where in the hell I went wrong!!! LOL

Hopefully not.

I feel pretty good about it and will be sure to keep you posted.

Troy

I'm curious as to how this works out. I'm going to try my hand at making this in the spring. I don't know if I'll try the Skeeter pee or your Mosquito pi$$. Please let us know how it turns out.

As expected. No action. made a starter, and turned the heat down to save fuel, and it got too cool in here, and it just kind of lost the agressiveness. After pitching it I waited 24 hours and no action.

So in my impatienceness, I started a new starter using cuvee. Its cooking along good and will add about 1/2 cup of must every hour until I have a nice 1/2 gallon starter and give it a shot.

Ryan is right, this wine has a nice aroma and taste, I can hardly wait to see how it turns out. The original author and ryan are right, this ones gonna be a sob to get started.

I turned up the heat and am running the show about 75 now so I should have a little better luck.

Updates to continue....

I read somewhere else, that another person reversed the process. It might be to late for you. They added everything but the lemon juice in the primary, after it started they slowly back added the lemon juice a little at a time over a few days, trying to not overpower the yeast. Hopefully you get it going!!

Got any updates on this? I am going to start one tomorrow.

I pitched my first starter made with apple juice, but I let the temp in here come down and it lost its "zoom". I started another with some of the must on 1/10. Grew it slowly to a half gallon and pitched it about 24 hrs later. I checked it a couple hours ago and it is going right along, SG now 1.060 @ 72F, not super agressive but it is going fine. Smells nice, nothing strange going on, been giving it a little stir(more of a quick whip) everyday. So far so good.

I am still not sure how I feel about using lees from another batch. I say use a starter.

Other than that it seems to be progressing as I was hoping.

Be sure to read the authors original recipe and follow his advice.

Because I only have a 5 gallon fermenter, I scaled down the recipe. Because it called for 3 bottles of juice it was easy to convert the recipe down to using 2 bottles.

I say go for it. They say this is a nice quick drinking wine. I made mine a little higher in alcohol but feel good about the whole thing.

Thats the way it is, update complete.

Let us know how your's comes along.

Troy

I guess you could do the reverse you mentioned, but I don't think it is necessary at all. Follow the original recipe before you tweak it to much. I too, did a lil tweaking, but I think I got lucky. Well, only as far as using apple juice for a starter and increasing the SG. Other than that, I am going to follow the original recipe and technique as far as adding the remaining nutrient, energizer, and remaining lemon juice at 1.050.

Starting my Batch of Skeeter Pee

Well I started mine about 5 mins ago. Copy and paste of my log:

Skeeter Pee
3 Bottles of 32 oz real lemon juice.
10 Lbs Corn Sugar
4.75 gals water
1 Tsp energizer
3 Tsp Nutrient
¾ Tsp Tannin
Lavlin B-1112
SG 1.075

Mixed everything in primary and pitched yeast, after 2 days of strong fermentation will add half a bottle of lemon juice. Will continue to add juice slowly over a couple days as long as activity is strong in my fermenter.

Edit: After this first batch I am going to try some with DME in it... maybe 1lb of Amber and 1 lb of light DME and see how the flavor profile is. Sorry I can't help it, I'm new and I want to experiment!!

I am at 1.050 and just added the remaining nutrient, energizer, and remaining juice about 30 mins ago and stirred it like crazy. It definitely has a new "zoom of life", A noticeable difference even in that short time, and now it has developed a layer of foam on top.

Volf did you make a starter or just add the rehydrated yeast?

I just added the yeast no starter, but in my case I have not put a single drop of lemon juice in it yet. So basically I will have a 4.75 gallon starter to add the lemon juice to slowly. I just checked it and the yeast is starting to swell up on top. Depending on how long it takes for it to take off I might not be adding lemon juice until monday. The first addition of lemon juice will be half a bottle, see how it does after that.

I read this tip from someone else on getting lemon ferments to go. I can't wait to taste it and then try it with DME! I think it may make a big difference in the flavor!

Sure sounds like it will work man, keep us posted for sure.

As "unconventional" as this pee sounds, even at this stage, it has a great smell and even though it has a ways to go the taste is heading in the right direction. I am real interested in how your "reverse" method works out.

Pee on!!!!! LOL

Troy

Well just added half a bottle, now we see what happens!!

EDIT: Added the rest of the bottle as fermentation was going very strong!!

Update:
Added the second bottle with no problems, still very strong fermentation going. Now I will add the 3rd bottle per the recipe.

Articsid,

I can say that the reverse method works very good. I ended up putting two bottles of lemon juice in the fermenter yesturday and it did not slow down. This morning when I checked on it, the mixture was like a nice rolling boil, very much alive. Tonight I will check my SG and see where I am at. This stuff smells delicious!!

My only real concern... none of the 3 stores I checked had the brand Real Lemon, so I had to use a generic Western Family brand. They had really small Real Lemon brand and the ingrediants were the same, but the small bottles were almost the same price as the big ones. I tried a drop that was left over in the bottle and it tasted like lemon, so I am hoping it doesn't change the flavor profile.

Excellent! I think it was Julie who said there was definitely a difference when using the generic, I did as well, still smells great. We may be on to something here! I'll be racking mine tommorrow, so a few weeks from now the truth shall be revealed.

I like the reverse method more and more

I'm already thinking my next batch, I want to add a can of raspberry juice for a touch of extra flavor.

Keep on bubbling!

Troy

Thats a bummer to hear about the generic brand. I knew I should have just bought a bunch of the small bottles. Something kept saying, I am less than half, but I cost just as much... therefore I am made from better materials. I have also seen people use frozen concentrates....

My next one I am going to experiment with DME, thinking maybe 3 or four pounds of DME. Will need to get some input from the beer guys because I do not want to over kill it. I have an apple cider/beer that uses 2 lbs of DME, I should be drinking it already but accidentlly restarted fermentation
All I can say, that cider smells awsome!!! It has a tiny bit of hops in it to.

Thinking about trying the lemon this way too, just not sure what hops would do in there.

I am a brewing monster right now!! Next time I will spring for the better juice!

Julie,

What say you with the generic juice?

I think it'll be just fine with generic, but it sounds as though it would be better with Real Lemon. Not sure if frozen concentrated lemon aid would be the same thing. The recipe calls specifically for the green bottle stuff. Maybe someone else has an opinion.

Well my SG is at 1.058 and still going very strong. Will check again tomorrow night. I save a small sip and wow was it good!! A little weak on lemon flavor, but I still have a bottle left. This one is looking very promising!

I hear you, as we speak I am sanitizing tubes and the secondary(Better Bottle). My buddy just came over and I gave him a taste and even at 1.020, still fermenting, he even said it tasted outrageous. What has been started here? It really is prety good. generic, or not.

Right on. I really like this silly wine. I can only imagine with a little back sweetening, this could be a dangerous wine.

I am glad the "reverse" method is working. I'll still be monitoring your progress.

Gonna pull mine off into the secondary in the morning and as I said earlier, it will be time that will tell.

Troy

vvolf34 said:

Julie,

What say you with the generic juice?

Click to expand...

The generic is good, you won't be disappointed. I thought the name brand tasted a little more smoother and lemony than the generic but not that much that it would stop me from using the generic.

Vwolf34 and Troy, you two better start thinking about a second batch now because the first is not going to last long

Julie

Way ahead of you!! I am thinking about a second batch but going to try and add some DME to it. Slightly malty, looking for a good ratio though as I dont want to add to much.