Cranberry Lime Skeeter Pee

[djrockinsteve]

I'm sorry you are right. 32 ounces of each. I changed the blog. Originally lime juice was in 32 ounce bottles. Now they don't carry them and I purchased them elsewhere. Now they come in @ 15 ounce bottles.

 

[ffemt128]

I have everything mixed and sitting in the primary. I took the starting sg to 1.074. Will pitch yeast tomorrow after work.

 

[wineinmd]

I realize I'm bumping a 4 year old thread, but my wife has asked for something along these lines for the summer. I tried clicking on the blog link in the thread, but it is no longer active.

I've not yet made the original, so I'm hoping it is OK to ask some questions here too. I don't have a fresh slurry, so I'll be using new EC-1118.

My proposed plan.

Add the following to fermenter:
32 oz. of lemon juice
16 C. sugar
3/4 tsp. tannin
3 tsp. Fermax
1 tsp. yeast energizer
Enough water to get to 6.5 gallons

Stir vigorously

Wait 24-48 hours
Stir
Add re-hydrated EC-1118 yeast

Once below 1.050, add remaining 3 tsp. Fermax and 1 tsp. energizer

Once below 1.010, add 32 oz. of lime juice. <I wasn't sure on the amount of lime juice because the OP says 16 oz, but in one reply later on in the thread the OP says 32 oz. lime juice total.>

Once dry, rack to clean carboy and add 4 12 oz. containers of frozen cranberry juice concentrate, 3 tsp. sorbate, and 1/4 tsp. sulfite.

Fine with sparkolloid. Can I add this along with the other ingredients in the previous step?


As always, thanks for the help. My fermenter is itching to get put to use again.

 

[djrockinsteve]

To make this simple.

Do not add lime or lemon until fermentation is complete.

Add a couple cans of cranberry concentrate. Watch your gravity levels.

Ferment dry. Add 2 bts. of lemon juice, not 3
Add 1 btl. equivalent of lime juice.
(@64 oz. lemon and @30 oz. lime)

Degas and Sparkolloid to clear.

Rack 6 wks. later.
Add Sorbate.
Add cranberry concentrate to desired gravity level.

Let rest 30-60 days. Carefully rack off of sediment.

Bottle if you like.

 

[reefman]

To make this simple.

Do not add lime or lemon until fermentation is complete.

Steve,
Is that what you call the reverse method? Not adding lemon or lime till after fermentation?

 

[djrockinsteve]

Lemon and lime juice add nothing helpful to the fermentation. They are acidic and will greatly hinder fermentation.

By adding a few cans of concentrate you are giving the yeast certain additives that will help the yeast. Fermentating straight sugar water can be drawn out too which is why you add a few concentrates. They introduce to the must what straight sugar water doesn't have, minerals etc.

If you want to add lemon/line juice up front it will slow fermentation so add slowly over a few days but honestly adding at the end of ferm. but prior to clearing you will do very well.

 

[wineforfun]

While Steve is wayyy more knowledgeable than I am, I do just the opposite of what he proposes, with great success.
This is one of my quick, go-to wines.
For a 2gal. batch I take 15oz. of Real Lemon juice along with water, sugar, tannin and nutrient. SG to 1.090-1.100. Pitch EC-1118 next day.
When SG reaches approx. 1.020 I add 4 oz. of Real Lime juice.
Once dry(usually in 7-9 days), approx. .995-.996, I rack into carboys(2-1 gal.) and add k-meta and SuperKleer. Once cleared, I rack onto various Old Orchard 100% concentrates, ie: blueberry pomegranate, cranberry, strawberry kiwi, etc. 1 gal. gets one flavor, and the other gal. gets another flavor.

They all have the fruit flavor with a hint of lime.

 

[djrockinsteve]

The common denominator here is that the lemon and lime juice will hinder fermentation. You can add them gradually over time or as I do wait until fermentation is complete since there are no sugars in the lemon or lime juice to ferment.

Whatever works best for you. I prefer my Skeeter Pee not to take a month to ferment.

 

[wineinmd]

Thanks for the quick response. Very much appreciated.

Just one quick question. Do you allow it to ferment dry, degas, and add Sparkalloid all in the primary and allow it to sit there for 6 weeks, or do you rack it over at some earlier point?

I'm trying to stagger things to utiltize my existing equipment, so I might get a red wine started next, and then get to work on this. Another benefit of going that route is that I'd be able to use the slurry from the red to get this going.

 

[wineforfun]

The common denominator here is that the lemon and lime juice will hinder fermentation.

Steve,
Help me understand this. Do you have issues due to the preservatives added?
I have never had any issues fermenting when using lemon or lime juice in the initial fermentation, ie: the above recipe, dragon blood, etc.

 

[wineforfun]

Just one quick question. Do you allow it to ferment dry, degas, and add Sparkalloid all in the primary and allow it to sit there for 6 weeks, or do you rack it over at some earlier point?

I allow it to ferment dry in primary, then rack to carboy(s) and add SuperKleer and k-meta. After one week in carboy, I rack again onto sorbate and juice concentrate. One week later bottle it. Mine is done and in bottles in approx. 4 weeks.

 

[djrockinsteve]

The first batch I made I slowly introduced the lemon juice and it went well. Fermented dry in a week. Now that I have changed brands and add lime it takes forever to ferment.

After much thought I realized that there is no sugar in the lemon and lime so adding these high acidic juices will hinder yeast activity.

I then added a few cans of concentrate to the sugar water and fermented dry. Once dry (below .990) I add my lemon and lime to secondary carboy, splash siphon over skeeter pee, add sparkolloid and clear.

6 weeks later siphon over to clean carboy (not splashing though ), and I let it rest awhile. When I had time I added sorbate and concentrate (had a little extra for sampling).

Let it rest several weeks. Bottled. You Will see additional sediment in the bottom of the carboy from the concentrate. Either siphon off carefully or rack off of sediment then bottle.

 

[ffemt128]

I think I'll get a batch of this started this weekend. I have 10 gallons of regular pee ready to bottle, now I need the cranberry lime.

 

[wineinmd]

The first batch I made I slowly introduced the lemon juice and it went well. Fermented dry in a week. Now that I have changed brands and add lime it takes forever to ferment.

After much thought I realized that there is no sugar in the lemon and lime so adding these high acidic juices will hinder yeast activity.

I then added a few cans of concentrate to the sugar water and fermented dry. Once dry (below .990) I add my lemon and lime to secondary carboy, splash siphon over skeeter pee, add sparkolloid and clear.

6 weeks later siphon over to clean carboy (not splashing though ), and I let it rest awhile. When I had time I added sorbate and concentrate (had a little extra for sampling).

Let it rest several weeks. Bottled. You Will see additional sediment in the bottom of the carboy from the concentrate. Either siphon off carefully or rack off of sediment then bottle.

I haven't looked at the grocery store yet, but are there both frozen and "canned" concentrate? If so, which do you use?

I'm thinking about splitting my batch in two after it is done fermenting, adding lemon and lime to one, and just lemon to the other. Trying to have more options for Memorial Day get togethers.

 

[Arne]

Better get it going if you want it for Memorial Day. Ferment it down, get some gal. demijohns, add different concentrates to each one. Some will cloud it up, others will stay clear. Use the concentrates to sweeten or partly sweeten, then finish with sugar. Good stuff and have a great holiday if you can remember it after all the S.P. LOL, Arne. Oh, and Steve was making this stuff when I was still trying to figure out what Skeeter Pee was. Take my advise for what it is worth. A.

 

[wineinmd]

Ok. Life got in the way, but I finally found cranberry juice concentrate last night, I have time to tackle this, and I have a slurry ready to go. I think I've got the mechanics and amounts figured out. I realize this isn't rocket surgery, but can someone provide a sanity check?

Current plan:
To the bucket with my slurry, add 2 cans concentrate, tannin, nutrients, energizer, water to reach 6.5 gallons, and enough sugar to get to 1.070.
Ferment dry in bucket
Split batch into two carboys. One will get 32 oz. lemon and 15 oz. lime juice. The other will get 48 oz. lemon juice only.
Add sparkolloid and k-meta to both and allow to clear.
Transfer into new carboys on top of sorbate and 1 can concentrate.
Wait as long as I can.
Bottle.

 

[wineinmd]

Well, I put everything together last night and the yeast are going to town this morning. I must have overfilled the sangria batch since I completely filled the carboy and still had about a pint of slurry left. I went ahead and left it in and added the rest of the ingredients and it has a beautiful, deep cranberry color at this point.

 

[ffemt128]

I actually just transferred mine from the bucket to the carboy yesterday.

 

[wineinmd]

My yeast slurry must have been in tip-top shape. It has taken the gravity down to 1.024 already and is still going strong. I imagine not having the lemon juice in it yet has helped.

I tried a tiny bit of the hydrometer sample since I figure it will be fairly close to that gravity once backsweetened, and it wasn't bad for just being sugar, water, and cranberry concentrate. I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes with the lemon and lime juices.

 

[ffemt128]

I should be adding my cranberry concentrate anyday now to back sweeten. Can't wait. It's been 2 years since I Made the Cran Lime verison. I still have a 3 year old bottle sitting on the rack.