First batch of pee questions

[hobbyiswine]

I have decided to start my first batch of pee and had a couple questions. I am going to use the skeeterpee.com recipe and try not to make any changes for this batch. My first wine kit is in the primary and this will be my first try at starting from scratch.

Questions:

My first batch is a WE sav blanc and is currently in the primary. I was going to use this yeast for my slurry. The packet was Red Star but I tossed the package in the garbage so not exactly sure which strain. This should work right?

I was going to make up the lemon, sugar, water, nutrient mixture and pour into a 6 gallon carboy and leave it for a couple days (per instructions) while I go out of town. Should I put an airlock on it or just rubberband a cloth over it?

I am going to transfer my sav blanc into the secondary and was then going to just add my skeeter pee mix into the slurry. The SG on the slurry should be around 1.002 or so at this time. Any need sanitize the primary or can I just dump my skeeter must on top of the slurry that is left in the primary?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Arne]

Looks like you are good to go. Dump her in and watch it bubble. Don't forget to stir it a couple times a day and add the rest of the nutrient when the recipe says to. Won't be long and you will be peeing with the rest of us. Arne.

 

[rjholtmus2]

First Batch of Skeeter Pee

Bottled my first batch of Pee on Oct. 6. Was a little disappointed at first because it did not have much "zip" but after a two months in the bottle - WOW!: ib Although the recipe says you can drink it right away, it (like most wines) does better with a little aging. This is a great wine. I like it VERY cold. Hope yours is as good as mine.

Roy

 

[hobbyiswine]

Seems that I am on my way to "peeing".

Only hitch I had so far was that my initial SG was low. (1.056) so I added 4 cups of sugar to bump it up to 1.070. Seems I may have added a bit more water even though I had followed the recipe. After adding the extra sugar water I have a full 6 gallons in the primary. My yeast slurry took off right away and is bubbling nicely. Lots of little bubbles. The sav blanc that the slurry came from never made a foam in the bucket and it doesn't seem that the pee must I have going will. I know the yeast is Red Star and came in a blue package but not certain of the strain. Almost like clean burning hot propane fuel!

 

[Arne]

It is gonna be fine. If you have diluted it down too much, you can add some more lemon later after stabalizing, or you can add it now, just kinda hard to know how much to put in, but mite be about a half a bottle. Arne.

 

[hobbyiswine]

Have been giving the pee a good stir twice a day since it started on 12/28. Had left the lid on loose for the first few days. Put it under an airlock today in the primary and the ferment is really chugging along. About one bubble per second. I was going to give it a good mix with the spoon and check the SG tonight. I checked the SG earlier this morning and it was down to 1.030 and has been dropping about .1 per day.

 

[hobbyiswine]

pee update

I added the yeast nutrient, energizer, and third 32oz bottle of lemon juice concentrate to the pee must a few days ago. Just checked it the SG is down to .992 so that puts the abv right at 10% so it should be dry. I gave a little sniff and taste. YIKES in a bad way. It smells ok, kinda like wine with a bit of lemon but tastes awful. I know it has yeast in it and all that but it is all acid and no flavor. Needs to be backsweatened for sure. I know this should be nothing like the finished product but it is close to awful. Anyone else taste their skeeter at this stage and have a similar experience?

 

[arcticsid]

hobby, be sure to add the required amount of nutrients.

Starving this of its "stuff" can lead to funky smells being emitted!

 

[Arne]

I added the yeast nutrient, energizer, and third 32oz bottle of lemon juice concentrate to the pee must a few days ago. Just checked it the SG is down to .992 so that puts the abv right at 10% so it should be dry. I gave a little sniff and taste. YIKES in a bad way. It smells ok, kinda like wine with a bit of lemon but tastes awful. I know it has yeast in it and all that but it is all acid and no flavor. Needs to be backsweatened for sure. I know this should be nothing like the finished product but it is close to awful. Anyone else taste their skeeter at this stage and have a similar experience?

I'm thinkin put just a little in a glass and add a little sugar to it. Should make it taste better, give it a little more time and then when you add sugar, should be like lemonaide. Get it where you start drinkin it and you best have another batch started. It disappears in a hurry. Arne.

 

[hobbyiswine]

I read the instructions wrong and waited until the SG was 1.005 instead of the recommended 1.050 before adding the last bottle of juice and yeast nutrient. Did this mess me up? Also, my SG is still dropping and is at .990 and that is much lower than where the directions said it would finish (.995). I was going to add the sorbate, kmeta, and sparkolloid and get it into a carboy since I don't see much benefit in leaving it in the primary with the SG so low. Have I messed It up?

 

[TABITHARL]

Hi Hobby, I am pretty sure I read that you are new at this too- so am I!
I have done 2 kits (which were great) and started my first batch of pee in early December. I am doing a recipe of DJRockinSteve's, cran/lime sp. I've hit tons of roadblocks, but still trying thanks to Steve's guidance. I must agree with you, I'm not super impressed with the taste of my pee, very sour. I added 2 cans of cranberry concentrate to backsweeten, but its still sour. Going to add more concentrate and maybe some sugar. I have a feeling I am going to dilure the heck out of it, but I want it to taste good. Will be following your progress, so good luck!

 

[Sammyk]

For what it is worth, I purposely left out the 3rd bottle of lemon and it was fine. Not as sour/tart as the first batch where I used 3 bottles.

 

[Sammyk]

I am going to start another batch and only use one bottle total. Why? because we both have acid reflux and it bothers the heck out of us to just drink a small glass.

 

[TABITHARL]

So you think the sour is pretty normal then? I've never been a huge lemonaide fan, but cran/lime sounded good. I actually had to use 3 bottles lemon juice and 1 bottle lime so I do understand thats probably why is so sour. Do you think I will ever be able to get it sweet enough? I'm actually pretty discouraged, but have been trying to "keep my head up".
Will definately be doing a kit wine next to get my confidence back up... (-:

 

[Arne]

So you think the sour is pretty normal then? I've never been a huge lemonaide fan, but cran/lime sounded good. I actually had to use 3 bottles lemon juice and 1 bottle lime so I do understand thats probably why is so sour. Do you think I will ever be able to get it sweet enough? I'm actually pretty discouraged, but have been trying to "keep my head up".
Will definately be doing a kit wine next to get my confidence back up... (-:

Let it clear a little so you can stand to drink it, draw a glass and start adding sugar, stir, taste, more sugar stir and taste til you get it sweetened where you like it. If you have enough left in the glass to take a s.g. reading, that will tell you where you want to sweeten the whole works to. I usually taste some while it is sitting and sweeten it a week or two before bottling. Oh, and I sweeten it in the glass while tasting too. Way too sour without some sweetening for me. Arne.

 

[Sammyk]

The first batch was per original recipe. Very tart even with the additional sugar. I would have to check my notes because I am not sure how much more sugar I had to add then the recipe called for. I boiled down different bottle juices and added more sugar. It was good but as I said but it is not for anyone with acid reflux. We gave most of it away. We don't drink lemonade for the same reason.

Shame because we have a Meyers lemon tree in our greenhouse that produced over 100 lemons last year. Crop should be double that this year. I will just feed the lemons to our koi - they love them.

The 2nd batch I eliminated the 3rd bottle. I made an f pack with 7 pounds of frozen mixed berries. While it did eliminate most of the lemon taste, it still caused problems with acid reflux. Not as severe as the original recipe.

I plan to start a 3rd batch very soon with only one bottle of lemon and the slurry from the 4 berry fruit. I suspect this will be more of a wine then a pee, I think. I will let it age like the 2nd batch until this summer.

The second batch so far has an awesome berry taste.

 

[hobbyiswine]

Thanks for all the info. I am going to get my pee out of the primary and add the stabilizers and sparkolloid tomorrow. Went to rack it tonight and didn't have the sorbate.

Interesting note about the acid reflux. I get it infrequently but when I do it feels awful so maybe "drinkin pee" wouldn't be the best idea. Gonna keep moving ahead on this batch though and see how it turns out. Worst case scenario I am only out about $15 in product. Better than buying a bunch of fruit or kit and messing that up! Will chalk it all up as a learning experience and keep on to the next batch.

 

[Sammyk]

Don't get me wrong. The SP is great. We loved the ones we back flavored with 64 oz of cranberry and black cherry cranberry especially. It is the lemon that gives us both problems because of acid reflux.

 

[hobbyiswine]

Was just talking to my wife tonight that maybe we would experiment with some different flavoring and sweetness levels just to give it a try. The 64 oz was for how many gallons? I know it will take some trial and error and depends on your individual taste. Was that basically just juice that you added to it to get the flavors you want? Curious how that would hold up for a few months or more in the bottle or if the sorbate would be enough to keep all the bad bugs out?

 

[Sammyk]

We used the 64 oz bottled pure juice. WalMart had a nice selection of juice in the juice section. Simmered it down to about half and then added that amount to 1/2 gallon carboy. Simmering reduces the water content so that the wine does not become "diluted". We used the sugar amount, after fining, recommended in the recipe which works out to about 1 cup per gallon.

The flavor of the juice was predominant and just a slight hint of lemon taste.