Lemon Wine Won't Start

[xanxer82]

It seems to be working away in there. The foam looks like a rootbeer float. I have it up to about a 1/4 gallon of yeast starter. I'll keep adding a cup or so of must to the starter until it's a gallon.

glad to hear it's taking off. Keep us posted.

 

[ryankelley]

I see a bubble pushing through the airlock about once every 25 seconds or so. I added the super starter last night and whipped the must with a whisk this morning. I plan to whip it again at lunch time and once more this evening. It appears to be fermenting, but not quickly at this point. Maybe I'll rig up something to bring the heat up a few degrees. It's probably 70 degrees right now.

Thanks for all the advice. I really like this lemon wine. If you haven't tried it, you should. www.skeeterpee.com is the author's website.

 

[ryankelley]

The fermentation is definitely going now, but I notice a bit of a sour smell to the must now. Not a rotten egg smell, but sour. I don't know if I should just let it go or if there's something I should do at this point.

 

[arcticsid]

I checked out the skeeter pee website and am definitely wanna try this. I'll be following your post Ryan, I'm glad you're going first.

 

[ryankelley]

I checked out the skeeter pee website and am definitely wanna try this. I'll be following your post Ryan, I'm glad you're going first.

Just go for it. Don't make the alterations I made and it will work great. My first batch was very good, but I thought fresh squeeze lemon might make it even better. We'll see what happens. I'll try the fresh squeezed one more time after this, but with a super starter ready when the must is.

This stuff is great...my drink of choice. I just hope this sour smell doesn't ruin the who thing.

 

[arcticsid]

I wasn't gonna say anything, but on the skeeter website there was a link to Jack Kellers comments, and Jack said, "this is excellent, but don't try and tweak it..", well at least not till you tried it once. There are of course other lemon wine recipes out there, but I'm going to go with Jack and not mess with the Skeeter Pee, at least not the first time out, although I am going to reduce it to 2/3 the size.(to fit my 3 gallon better bottles). I may not go with using the lees from another batch, I am pretty confident that a large agressive starter will get it going. Good luck to you, me, and anyone else who is going to give this a try.

Troy

 

[ryankelley]

I tweaked it with fresh lemon juice instead of bottled and added raisins for body. I didn't up the sugar level. Mine is fermenting full blast in there now...a bubble every second.

I don't know if the sour smell means it's gone bad, if it's fine, or if I need to do something at this point.

 

[Hillbilly Bill]

Ryan... like some of the others, I am wondering what your starting pH was, and what it is now...
Also, are you saying you used lemon concentrate from the bottle? Wouldn't that be full of preservatives?
HB

 

[ryankelley]

The PH on this one will remain a mystery. I will make sure to check every batch from now on.

I used fresh lemons for the juice. I bought a hand squeezer/juicer to extract the juice. Other than the additions of chopped golden raisins, that was the biggest tweak. I did add campden because I thought fresh squeezing the juice would increase the risk of a wild yeast or bacteria getting in there.

 

[Julie]

....., I am pretty confident that a large agressive starter will get it going. Good luck to you, me, and anyone else who is going to give this a try.

Troy

Hi Troy,

Yes you should not have any problems with an agressive starter but there is another reason to use a slurry that makes Skeeter Pee so unique and that is the taste. My first batch of Skeeter Pee I used a blackberrry slurry from a one gallon batch of blackberry jam wine. When you would take a drink of Skeeter Pee you would get a hint of blackberry then lemon. My second batch I used an Elderberry slurry from a 5 gallon batch and this was even better. Again, you would get a hint of elderberry then lemon.

Another thing that I noticed was, with the first batch I used generic lemon concentrate, which was good but with the second batch I used a name brand and that batch had a more lemon flavor than the generic batch did.

Julie

 

[ryankelley]

Since I used fresh squeezed lemons to make my skeeter pee, do you think I need to add the second dose of yeast nutrient? It's pushing a bubble per second through the airlock so right now I'm not having any issues with fermentation. I added the second does of fresh squeezed lemon yesterday and plan to rack the wine in the a secondary tomorrow.