my first pee

[TABITHARL]

Alright, so apparently I didn't do enough reading before starting this. I am inverting sugar for my first pee. I only had 14 cups of granulated. However, I have 2 lbs of powdered sugar. Dare I use it? If so, how much? Its on the stove, so quick replies would be appreciated.

 

[TABITHARL]

for the record, its steve's recipe for cranberry lime....

 

[LJPelletier]

Alright, so apparently I didn't do enough reading before starting this. I am inverting sugar for my first pee. I only had 14 cups of granulated. However, I have 2 lbs of powdered sugar. Dare I use it? If so, how much? Its on the stove, so quick replies would be appreciated.

I'm way late with the response, but yes Tabitharl, you should be able to use your powdered sugar if you have to. The only downside to that is it costs way more than plain table sugar. If it's icing sugar, it's the same stuff, just powdered. If it's dextrose of fructose, it's different, but will work just fine!

The only sugar that will not ferment is lactose.

 

[LJPelletier]

For the record, I added cranberries to skeeter pee and all it did was make it pinkish... still tasted like pure lemon lol

 

[TABITHARL]

lol, well we will see. This is steve's recipe for sp. Getting rave reviews from others on this site. Will see though I suppose! Thanks for the input though!

 

[arcticsid]

I too have added cranberries to pee and same result, not much.

I have also tossed in a can or two of frozen concentrate to a couple of batches and it can add a nice suptle taste difference.

 

[TABITHARL]

Welp again I am trying Steve's Cran/Lime sp. This time I have everything, well almost (as usual). Tonight we invert sugar and add a bottle of lemon juice and tannin and nutrient and energizer (oh crap, I don't have energizer). I really am not doing well. I am thinking I get it all ready to sit for the 24-48 hours as prescribed. Tomorrow I will go to the store and get energizer. Then I will add it in tomorrow or next day, when I add my slurry.

Bring on more questions. I am reading two recipes from Steve, just now realizing they are very different (to me). 5 Gallon recipe mentions pectic enzyme, and does not mention using a slurry. 6 gallon recipe (below) is different. I have enzyme, and yeast, and all of the above but no energizer.

"Originally Posted by djrockinsteve
Got home last night to have my wife tell me "This wine is excellent and you will NOT be giving any of it away!"

I replied as I took my coat off Okay, and what wine is that?

The Cranberry Lime Skeeter Pee. Sorry folks you'll have to make your own as she was not joking. Here's the recipe;

Cranberry Lime Skeeter Pee-"Final 6 gallons, not 5"
Starting gravity 1.070-1.080 Lalvin EC-1118

Start off with Lon's original recipe but with only 1 bottle of lemon juice. When near thru fermenting (@1.010) add 2 bottles (16 ounces total) of Lime juice.

When thru fermenting add 4 cans (12 ounces each) of Old Orchard (or equilevant) Cranberry Juice and 3 teaspoons Sorbate, and a 1/4 teaspoon Sulfite.


My ph was acidic at 2.83 and I had a final gravity of 1.020
Fine with Sparkolloid. Age a little and bottle. You could wait before adding the cranberry if you like.

This was one of two experiments which yielded two 3 gallon batches. I adjusted it for a full 6 gallons. You will want to start off with 6 1/2 gallon mass. Adjust water and sugar accordingly to desired specific gravity. "

I am starting to really confuse myself. Oh Steve, I hope you read this and set me in the right direction. Here is what I am doing tonight.
"Start off with Lon's original recipe but with only 1 bottle of lemon juice"
I have it sitting per Lon's recipe, except I have no energizer in it. Can you help me figure it out?

My boyfriend keeps telling me to stop overthinking this, his view is that people have been doing it forever and if they could do it 1000 years ago, then I can figure it out today. Now, I'm not so sure!

Thanks again guys!

 

[TABITHARL]

An update: We added water to 5.5 gallons and SG is 1.060 at 80 (which corrects to about 1.063). That leads me to believe that I need more sugar also? Adding tannin (3/4 tsp) and nutrient (3 tsp) now.

PS, I asked for a "Wine for Dummies" book for Christmas!

 

[Stuart77047]

I am way way too late here.

I have always heard, never use powdered sugar. It has corn starch in it. That will cause issues.

That is just what I have heard anyway. I have never tried it.

I doubt your SG would change much in the first 12 to 24 hours after you add the yeast, so I think you have a little bit of a window to add more sugar.

Also you are waiting a day anyway after you add the lemon juice. So together you have almost two days to adjust the SG.

 

[TABITHARL]

Hello again. Steve has helped me a lot through this skeeter pee but I had a few more questions to ask. First should fill you in on details.
I only added water to 5.5 gallons and realized later that I have 6 gallon carboys. So to get the volume I added a 3rd bottle of lemon juice (on top of 2 lemon and 1 lime). Still not enough volume so I put in a bottle of 100% cranberry juice. I degassed, but really didn't get much co2 (compared to my first 2 batches of wine), I figured maybe it was because I splash racked this one? Then I added clarifying agen and let it sit. Within a few days the wine had tons of tiny bubbles rising to the top. Not enough to really move the airlock, but I have never seen that in a carboy before. SG did not change, so I don't believe it was re-fermenting. I let my wine sit (and bubble) through the holidays and then racked it to another carboy. At that time I added a 1/4 teasp of SODIUM metabisulfate (my boyfriend got that instead of POTASSIUM meta by mistake). It def was fermented, and very sour. I added 4 cans of old orchard frozen cranberry concentrate. It is still very sour! I took a sample over to my boyfriend in an airtight container and within 40 minutes it had popped off the lid of the container. Now it sits, I didn't record it but I thing sg is around 1.030.
And so here are my questions:
1. Is sodium metabisulfate ok to use since it is what I have? The directions appear to be the same...
2. To sweeten I pulled a sample and threw in some sugar and stirred. It tasted better, but sg was 1.060, doesn't that sound awful sweet?
3. This wine smells very fragrant of either liquor or medicine. Any thoughts on why that might be?
4. Although it was crystal clear when I racked it 3 days ago, I plan to back sweeten with inverted sugar and then let it sit and clear again. Any final steps I am missing? Do I invert the sugar in water on the stove? I feel like someone mentioned that I could invert it in some of the wine.
5. Although this question is out of order, does it sound like I should de-gas again? I used the drill attachment to degas the first time with not much results. I did splash rack when I put it into the carboy. The fact that the wine popped the top of the rubbermade container off worries me a little.

I appreciate the help and feedback. Poor Steve has been working on this with me a ton! And FYI my next wine is candy cane wine, I believe that means I will be bugging Julie for help. But I do plan on having a better plan in place before I even start it!

 

[Sammyk]

I too am still a newbie and am wondering did you add potassium sorbate? It sounds like your pee is still fermenting........

Some one with more experience should be around soon.

 

[milbrosa]

3. This wine smells very fragrant of either liquor or medicine. Any thoughts on why that might be?

Brettanomyces contamination?

What is your sanitation regimen? What sanitizer did you use? What kind of fermenter did you use?

 

[TABITHARL]

I sanitize everything with kmeta. When I added the concentrate I pored into tupperware bowl and stirred with a spoon (didn't sanitize those). I've been a little lax on the "cleaning part though. If I had just washed equipment with my regular soap and water I went straight to sanitize, instead of my industrial cleaner from wine store...

 

[TABITHARL]

I have a plain bucket primary fermenter. Purchased for winemaking.

 

[Sammyk]

did you add potassium sorbate?

 

[TABITHARL]

I do believe I missed the potassium sorbate! Is that what is wrong?

 

[Sammyk]

I am not an expert but you have re-fermentation going on and I believe that is the reason.

I was saving my lees to make the skeeter pee and had it sitting on the counter in a plastic bowl with a lid while I finished raking.

The top blew off, hit the top of the cupboard. Thankfully no mess.

 

[TABITHARL]

Sammy I was going to tell you that I think you are wrong because there's been no action since I racked it off the lees and added the cranberry concentrate. So then I shined a flashlight on the carboy and saw that it is going. Not much action in the airlock, but I do believe its refermenting. So now its fermenting the cranberry concentrate I put in. So I'll have to back sweeten again...
I'm learning that if you really want to be good at this, there is a LOT to know and understand. Very interesting.
Talked more with Steve and he is guiding me through this. Need to go get some sorbate.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Sammyk]

I flavored 1 gallon of my pee with cranberry juice. I bought a 64 oz bottle of cranberry juice at Wally world that was 100% juice. It is in the juice aisle. No sugar. I simmered it down on the stove about 1/3rd to remove the water. It was great. The Black Cherry Cranberry was even better.

Because there was no sugar, there was no re-fermenting.

Glad you figured it out. And yes, there is a lot to learn