starter

[cst]

Im taking my first run at skeeter pee and have had my must (original recipe modded with one bottle of lime in place of lemon and enough extra sugar to get twelve percent abv) sitting in a bucket since yesterday afternoon. The yeast slurry Im using is from a batch of black cherry/cranberry melomel with about thirty raisins in it. I wasfreeing up some bottles as i put this stuff together last night and dumped three teaspoons of yeast nutrient in by mistake. The yeast has no excuse not to be energetic. Well, I ended up dumping the yeast slurry in last night also. No problem, I thouht, Ill just make a yeast starter with some of the yeast i have on hand. I put a cup of must, a half teaspoon each of nutrient and energiser along with some sugar and water in a jar, microwaved it for a little bit and when I took it out there is a noticeable amonia smell that is not present in the bucket of must. Your thoughts?

 

[cst]

Oh yeah, the yeast in the slurry is D-47, the yeast in the starter is RC - 212

 

[cst]

Another thing I forgot was that I added a cup of strong mint/black tea in lieu of tannin as I didnt have any on hand. I ended up giving it a quarter teaspoon of tannin this morning after going to the brewstore. I didnt think it would hurt and I tend to prefer drinks with a big body. That might not be right for this style... but heck, I didnt follow any of the other instructions.

 

[Brian]

Well a couple of things come to mind.. If you already pitched the yeast slurry why are you making another? Also putting it in the microwave can't be good for the yeast. you probably killed them and hence the smell. Secondly if you added enough sugar to get 12% and then you added rasins you have just added more sugar. Not a big deal with such a small ammount but rasins have alot of sugar in them.

 

[cst]

Right. the raisins were part of the yeast slurry from the donor batch of wine. They were fairly well melted down into a raisiny goo after a month in the mead that they and the yeast slurry came from. So prolly not an appreciable amount of sugar in six gallons of fluid. I mistakenly pitched the yeast slurry immediately after putting the first round of ingredients together. Like I said I was enjoying a batch of cider I made. This morning I realised that the preservatives in the citrus juice had likely killed the yeast. So, I made a starter. I realise I didnt give an accurate step by step so here goes. I got a jar added water, nutrients and energiser and some sugar to a half cup of must, stirred it all up really well, microwaved it to bring the temperature of the mixture to 104°, then added yeast. before I added the yeast I noticed an ammonia smell and posted here. After a while I decided yeast is cheap and added that to my starter mixture. I had a beer. In the time it took me to drink the beer the new yeast in the starter started doing its thing.
I dont intend to sound like a smartass, I realised I evidently was not clear on what I did or why so I have spelled it out here.
By the way the starter is going well and I added some more must to it and will do so till I have a litre or so and then I intend to chuck that in the primary.
I still wonder about that ammonia smell.

 

[Brian]

OK the oly thing I can think of is that you got some yeast out of your must which caused the smell. I am not sure what else would make it... maybe someone else will pop in with a possible solution..

 

[cst]

Thankyou Brian

 

[Arne]

I am not sure, but something in my weak old memory is telling me that yeast nutrient has urea as an additive. Possibly you are getting the oder from that. Have never had that problem, but I am thinking it will probably go away. Just a guess, tho. Arne.

 

[cst]

Urea, that must be it. Thanks!

 

[Swilley]

yeast Nutriant is diAMONIAM phosphate that might me it

 

[cst]

That could do it, too. The label on the jars I have list no ingredients, and I didnt think to look it up online. Thanks!

 

[docanddeb]

As I whipped my lemon juice for 2 days before pitching my last batch... the sulfite smell was HORRIBLE!! It's never been this bad before!
Did you whip it for a couple of days before pitching the yeast? That can be a very important step if it has as much sulfite as mine had!!
How is it doing today?

Debbie

 

[cst]

I did not whisk, I did spin my slotted brew paddle back and forth like you'd do to make a fire with sticks very rapidly for five two minute sessions for three days straight. I did this with just the paddle head about halfway in the must. This seems to aerate the.fluid very well. There was next to no sulfur smell. I didnt add any extra sulfites as I dont plan for this to age any longer than Christmas. I dont know how much sodium bisulfite Safeway lemon juice has in it, but it does show up third on the ingredients list. Either way it is steadily bubbling away. The strong ammonia smell was only in the starter after microwaving, so I'm thinking that maybe that was old yeast, urea and that diammonium stuff getting heated up. Hope it dont kill me

 

[cst]

I think the donor yeast slurry and raisins were not compatible with lemon lime. I checked the sg today (1.010) and drank the sample. Fairly underwhelming. there wasnt any real standout flavor, kind of a faint citrus mixed with dirty laundry. The slurry came from a black cherry/cranberry melomel which smells fan-freaking-tastic. Is it normal for skeeter pee to have kind of an ugly phase? That is routine with the apple wine I make. Usually right around week three it is pretty rough. So can I expect a marked improvement or does this stuff maintain its flavor profile start to finish?

 

[docanddeb]

I know mine goes through some funky phases at times. I'd keep it and age it, if I were you!

Debbie

 

[cst]

I plan to. Maybe backsweeten with a strong flavor like cranberry. Thats assuming that the lemon lime flavors didnt go into hiding and come back out. Either way I had intended to have this ready for a party towards the end of next month. Maybe Id better buy another carboy and start a new batch.