Dare to be different

[Lumpendoodle]

Hi folks, just finished 1 gal of sparkling apple, orange and white grape juice wine, and started on some pee with the lees.

Now, along with the 1118 yeast, I flung in a bit of general yeast that was left in the bottom of the container. The skeeter pee took off and is having fun.

I kept the sg to just below the recomended level, as I will be topping up the demijon with some left over white grape juice, so at the end of the day, I should have about 11% alc max.

Now, it occurred to me that I could just let it ferment out and then make it into a sparkling skeeter pee.

Am I committing a skeeter pee sin? It just seemed that a little sparkle would help the darling stuff along.

Please advise......

 

[Wade E]

Not at all, lots of people here actually carb it in kegs.

 

[Lumpendoodle]

Good to hear. I've got quite a few beer bottles ready for just such a use.

I've also got a red berry juice wine just about finished, so wil be interesting to see how that turns out as a pee base.

 

[Wade E]

I make sparkling raspberry and sparkling crab apple wine all the time and its always a big hit!

 

[Lumpendoodle]

Ok, I bottled the brew on Saturday. I know it seems very quick, but it had fermented out, and had cleared to 'a bit murky'. The weather last week in Scotland was inordinately hot for March. In fact, it would have been inordinately hot for June/July. So I primed and bottled the pee.

Of course, I had a beer bottle full left over, so felt obliged to try it out. My opinion? Not too bad at all. Sadly, snow is/was forecast for today, so will have to wait for another sunny day to try some more.

Can't wait.......I suppose, I could just turn up the heating, switch on all the lights, and pretend it's a sunny day.

 

[Lumpendoodle]

Just a little update on the sparkling skeeter pee. The wine elves came and drank it all.........

Ok, that's a lie, I finished the last bottle last night. It was rather nice, and had so much fizz, it was scary to look at. I think I may be catching the skeeter pee bug.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm very intrigued by the possibility of making pee like this. Can you tell me a little more about your process? I would assume nothing would change for primary fermentation, but I'm not sure from there - skip the sorbate? Thanks.

Jim

 

[SarahRides]

I'm very intrigued by the possibility of making pee like this. Can you tell me a little more about your process? I would assume nothing would change for primary fermentation, but I'm not sure from there - skip the sorbate? Thanks.

Jim

Just keep in mind Jim that if you skip the sorbate, you won't really be able to backsweeten. I wouldn't probably want to bottle condition the skeeter (like you would beer), if you are going to make it a sparkling skeeter, I would make it like you would any other skeeter then keg it to force carbonate it (as opposed to carbonation via fermentation).

 

[Boatboy24]

Thanks Sarah. In the absence of a kegging/carbonation system, do you think carbonation drops would be a good solution? Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003E5ZYB8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I'm thinking about putting it in Grolsch style clear bottles.

 

[SarahRides]

You could try it, my husband tried some like that before (different brand though) to try and speed up carbonation (he didn't want to wait the few months or so for one of his stubborn pumpkin ale to bottle condition). It did not work very well though. You could give it a try, or you might even be able to try something like this for less of an investment than a kegging system. I've never tried it on skeeter before, my but sister in law says it works great making soda, she loves it! It is a little bit of an investment, but nearly as much as a kegging system might be. Maybe if anyone else has tried it, they will post their experiences too with either the carbonation tabs or sodastream.

http://www.target.com/p/SodaStream-Fountain-Jet-Red-Soda-Maker-Starter-Kit/-/A-13940825

 

[Lumpendoodle]

I didn't really come across any problems regarding the sweetness of the pee, after all, you are bottling this stuff before it fully ferments out all the sugar.

I used the lees from the sparkling wine I made, and let it ferment down to (I think) sg1.000, but I would imagine sg1.010 would be possibly better? I added some white grape juice to slightly back sweeten, then popped 1oz sugar into the 1 gal Demi-Jon. The wine was then bottled in pet plastic bottles, left in a warm room for a week, then popped in a cool cupboard for a couple of weeks.

Not knowing what skeeter pee is meant to taste like, I can only say that it was pleasant to drink. So pleasant that I'm happy to make it again, and was delightfully, and naturally fizzy.

Oh yes, no stabiliser added, so plastic bottles (I used beer bottles) are a must.

Forgot to add, I presumed that skeeter pee was more of a drink early and enjoy type of drink, so don't see mine lasting more than a couple of months.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm intrigued by this little guy: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006CQ4ERG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Less investment than buying a soda-stream machine or full CO2 system. I may give it a try.

 

[saramc]

Sparkling

I have used my SodaStream to sparkle my Skeeter Pee, for immediate consumption.

I plan on priming a few gallons of my next batch, backsweeten with stevia, prime with at least 1.1 oz sugar per gallon and bottle in beer bottles or PET bottles. Will see how that turns out. I have had Skeeter Pee backsweetened with stevia and had no issues, and my remaining three bottles even last six months and were down right tasty this past weekend while at Derby festivities.

 

[Boatboy24]

Hadn't thought about stevia. I've never tried it. Is it really that similar to sugar?