First pee is flat

[saddlebronze]

First Pee, missing something. Tasted my first batch of lemon SP and it is missing something. Has a faint lemon taste, but other then that it is kind of flat. I have it in cold stabilization right now, but thinking, should I Zest it now, or wait until it ages and then taste it again? Thoughts?? All new to me.

 

[rob]

did you add tanin?

 

[Arne]

If it only has a faint taste of lemon, did you forget to add the last bottle of lemon juice?? It usually has a lot of lemon taste. If you need more lemon taste, you can add some more concentrate juice now, mite give you some problems trying to clear it tho. Arne.

 

[fleemartin]

You may want to try blending something with a small amount to add some flavor.
one of my favorites has been to add 1 750 ml bottle of my homemade blackberry wine to 2 gallons lemon lime pee. I had a bottle of the blackberry open so I just topped off a glass of pee 1 night with a splash out of curiosity and discovered something I really like.

 

[Julie]

Saddlebronze, please post up your recipe and proceedure. Not knowing what you did and what you have added, the only advice anyone can give you is pretty much a guessing game.

 

[saddlebronze]

I used Easy Peesy from Danger, posted elswhere on this site. Followed it exactly since I have no pee experience, except I used my moscato slurry since it was already cooking and I had to rack the Moscato. Anyway it fremented out fast and fine, but as I said, its a little lacking. I did not add tannin yet. The sample I tasted was diluted because it was from a batch for pH testing so that may account for the low taste.

 

[Arne]

After saying that, sneak another sample out of your carboy. Have a little taste. Add a little sugar and taste again. Add sugar and try again. Bet your flavor will bump up. Hope you were not drinking any of the chemicals you used for PH testing. I have never used them, but the chems. used for acid testing are some bad stuff. I pitch everything I use for testing. Now if it was just diluted wine you were going to use for testing, that is a different story. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[rob]

I still have to go back to the tannin, I have forgot it before and yes it was flat.

 

[saddlebronze]

Will re-sample and let y'all know!

 

[buddy]

You may want to try blending something with a small amount to add some flavor.
one of my favorites has been to add 1 750 ml bottle of my homemade blackberry wine to 2 gallons lemon lime pee. I had a bottle of the blackberry open so I just topped off a glass of pee 1 night with a splash out of curiosity and discovered something I really like.

I've tried blending skeeter pee with some of my homemade wines and found that it blends well with a lot of my wines.
The most pronounced was with a chamomile wine that did not turn out to my liking but add some SP. and it is quite nice.

 

[ffemt128]

I usually end up adding back in a bout a cup of lemon after I back sweeten. It makes it taste almost like fresh squeezed lemonaid. Try that with a bottle and see if it adds to the flavor you are looking for. Of course doing this you need to let it clear longer but not a big deal with the pee.

 

[saddlebronze]

Never even thought of that one, but as a beginner, I will probably have plenty of wine to experiment with!!

 

[dangerdave]

I hope the Easy Peesy Recipe works out for you, sb. I am actually yet to try it with just straight lemon. I always put fruit in it for flavor---so far. That being said, I also keep flavorings and extracts on hand. I have noticed that strawberries (for example) do not add a great deal of fruit flavor to the pee, so I have added some natural strawberry extract to those with awesome results (it's my wife's favorate). The triple berry I make comes out with very nice berry flavor and doesn't need anything extra. Some just need a little help. Don't be afraid to experiment! I have added raspberry flavoring to my blueberry skeeter pee with success, and am now making some citrus zest (thanks for the idea, joe!) for furture flavoring tests. I do have some lemon flavoring that I got in anticipation of making some straight lemon pee (for next summer), but have yet to start a batch without tossing in some fruit. I just can't help myself!

The others may be right, though. Tannin may be lacking. My current mod on the Easy Peesy Recipe is adding extra tannin (a full tsp or more for 5-6 gallons) and adding pectic enzyme (one tsp) in the primary (because I have had some pectin haze problems before). I think it's about prefected. The last two batches have beat all to date, and they were redo's of successful flavors.

A last note on flavoring the strawberry (or any other kind for that matter). I have used both artificial flavoring and natural extract to flavor my strawberry skeeter pee at back-sweetening time. The natural strawberry extract gave the wine a far superior fruit flavor (and a beautiful amber color---as opposed to the pink color from the red coloring in the artificial flavoring). FYI!