Need Help Making Skeeter Pee From Wine Slurry

[btom2004]

Oh yeah I love cherry and wanted to make a Skeeter Pee

I just checked my gal batch of cherry wine in primary day-3.
I didn't check SG before and don't know what kind of yeast was in the kit.
I'm sure it was a mild one since cheap kit said it would take 5 weeks to ferment.

Slow fermenting and SG is at 1.110.
Wow must have added too much sugar. It was suppose to be a sweet wine.
However after reading the many great post about sugar. I now know that in primary it is related to the ABV and not necessarily sweetnes; which is obtained by backsweetening.
Is that going to have a very high/strong level of alcohol, when fermented to near dry for slurry? Or will it drop down, when the lemon juice, water and other ingedients are added? Is the yeast I used in the kit geared to stop fermenting at a certain point to keep the wine sweet?

Could I add some Lavin EC-1118 to it, to speed up fermentation?
Or just let it go for the full 7 days and check then, and just move on to second step of SP?

 

[Arne]

Not too sure how you are trying to do this. Are you going to use the whole gallon or just the slurry from it? The cherry wine is going to have a pretty high abv. There are formulas up in the calculation threads that will help you figure the alcohol by volume, from the start to if you blend different abv. wines. The cherry should ferment down pretty dry if you leave it. Then when it gets down to 1.010 or so, rack it off and use the slurry to start your S.P. You will not notice the high abv with only the slurry. If you use the whole gallon as a slurry then the abv will be somewhat higher depending on how big a batch of Skeeter pee you make. Spose this is plain as mud, but hope it helps. Arne.

 

[cindy]

I think you need to know what your starting SG was in the beginning to determine the ABV
also I think by adding more yeast you will just be starting more fermenting
not speeding it up. I'm newer at this then you are so I could be wrong.

 

[btom2004]

Not too sure how you are trying to do this. Are you going to use the whole gallon or just the slurry from it? The cherry wine is going to have a pretty high abv. There are formulas up in the calculation threads that will help you figure the alcohol by volume, from the start to if you blend different abv. wines. The cherry should ferment down pretty dry if you leave it. Then when it gets down to 1.010 or so, rack it off and use the slurry to start your S.P. You will not notice the high abv with only the slurry. If you use the whole gallon as a slurry then the abv will be somewhat higher depending on how big a batch of Skeeter pee you make. Spose this is plain as mud, but hope it helps. Arne.

Yes I will be using the whole batch of wine, as I want to have more cherry taste as well as color. I will be making the 5-6 gal batch of SP.
It's fermenting slow and in 3-days should not have changed much. Don't some yeasts ferment faster than others? I want to speed it up.

The Skeeter Pee calls for the addition of more sugar, yeast nutrient and yeast energizer; which means it will still be fermenting. Could I do away with some of the sugar at that point, to level down the alcohol?

Edit: Hmmmm.....I think that's it. since I'm using the whole batch as slurry and the Skeetter Pee calls for like 20 cups of sugar. It's still going to be fermenting sugar into alcohol. I'll just subtract the 5-6 cups I added to make the wine. Thus I'll just add all the other ingredients minus 6 cups and I should be fine. Correct? Dose that sound good to you? It should be the same as if I only used the slurry.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

A couple thoughts for you btom2004:

1. Your batch of Skeeter Pee will benefit from a healthy batch of yeast. It concerns me that your cherry batch seems to be sluggish which could indicate that: a] you have a weak strain of yeast, b] it hasn't really taken off yet, c] it is not at an optimal temperature, d] or something else is out of balance with your cherry wine. If the cherry wine doesn't begin to ferment more aggressively, I would follow another plan. I would mix up your Skeeter Pee according to the original recipe on the website and instead of starting it with your cherry wine, start it with two packets of yeast. Use Lalvin EC-1118 or Red Star Premier CuVee. Once your Skeeter Pee is rocking and rolling, you can then add the cherry to the batch for the desired flavor and color. As long as your Skeeter Pee is in the midst of a healthy ferment, it should "kick-start" the cherry and help it along.

2. You say that this cherry batch is from a kit and it's one gallon. What kit is it and does the kit description tell you what the finished alcohol should be or does it tell you what the normal starting S.G. will be? If you added sugar when mixing up this batch, do you recall how much sugar was added to the 1 gallon of liquid?

3. When calculating the sugar to add to your Skeeter Pee batch, that will depend on your planned final volume. If you plan to make a normal batch of Skeeter Pee volume and the one gallon of cherry will just increase the final volume by 1 gallon, then no change to the Skeeter Pee recipe is needed. If you want to keep the final volume to 5 gallons, then you in essence want to scale everything back to create a 4 gallon batch of lemon to be blended with the 1 gallon of cherry. You will want to use your hydrometer to target in the correct S.G. when you mix it up. Be sure to take your S.G. reading of the lemon & sugar mix before adding the cherry wine. If you add the cherry before taking your initial S.G., you'd need to factor in the effect of the already present alcohol in your calculations.

 

[Runningwolf]

Lon thanks for replying as you're the expert and founder of Skeeter Pee. I couldn't of said it better. I have never heard of one gallon kits. Can you give us more information on this. I agree with Lon on starting a fresh batch of Skeeter Pee and add you Cherry into that once it's going good.

 

[btom2004]

A couple thoughts for you btom2004:

1. Your batch of Skeeter Pee will benefit from a healthy batch of yeast. It concerns me that your cherry batch seems to be sluggish which could indicate that: a] you have a weak strain of yeast, b] it hasn't really taken off yet, c] it is not at an optimal temperature, d] or something else is out of balance with your cherry wine. If the cherry wine doesn't begin to ferment more aggressively, I would follow another plan. Reply: The kit is a cheap kit I paid like $9 buck for. It appears that fermentation has kicked in, as the airlock has strong activity. The SG right now is 1.090 on day-4 primary. LOL...very cheap kit I got for fun. I decided to make it for a Skeeter Pee. Very simple and crude instructions. Instructions stated it would take 5 to 6 weeks to fully ferment. Just mix it and wait for bubbling to stop. There was a sugar chart-which suggested the amount to add to primary for sweetness. 4 1/2 very dry. 5 cups slightly sweet. I added 5 cups. Didn't really measure well so could have been 5 1/4 cups which would be quite sweet. Since the kit had a powdered cherry fruit, I went ahead and added a F-pack/ small jar of Smuckers cherry preserves. (I wanted to max the Cherry color and taste.) Of course this added more sugar, so I guess it would be 5 1/2 to 6 cups and very sweet on instructions sugar chart. Which is why when I did get a SG it was so high at 1.110.
I would mix up your Skeeter Pee according to the original recipe on the website and instead of starting it with your cherry wine, start it with two packets of yeast. Use Lalvin EC-1118 or Red Star Premier CuVee. Once your Skeeter Pee is rocking and rolling, you can then add the cherry to the batch for the desired flavor and color. As long as your Skeeter Pee is in the midst of a healthy ferment, it should "kick-start" the cherry and help it along.

2. You say that this cherry batch is from a kit and it's one gallon. What kit is it and does the kit description tell you what the finished alcohol should be or does it tell you what the normal starting S.G. will be? If you added sugar when mixing up this batch, do you recall how much sugar was added to the 1 gallon of liquid?
Reply: Wonder Wine (Homade Winecrafts (Canada) LTD.
1293 Concort Crescent, Burlington, Ontario L7M 1J8, (905)319-0777. http://www.wonderwine.com. I picked it up on ebay. You can buy as many as you want to make in bulk 5 kit-6 gal...1 kit-1 gal and it stated it is 12 % ABV. This can't be correct though, since I know now the more sugar you add in primary; the more ABV you have and not sweetness.
3. When calculating the sugar to add to your Skeeter Pee batch, that will depend on your planned final volume. If you plan to make a normal batch of Skeeter Pee volume and the one gallon of cherry will just increase the final volume by 1 gallon, then no change to the Skeeter Pee recipe is needed. Reply: If I go with this one I would then have to let the wine finish fermenting? I don't want to wait 5 plus weeks. I don't have any gal jugs, the wine is in my large bucket.
If you want to keep the final volume to 5 gallons, then you in essence want to scale everything back to create a 4 gallon batch of lemon to be blended with the 1 gallon of cherry. You will want to use your hydrometer to target in the correct S.G. when you mix it up. Be sure to take your S.G. reading of the lemon & sugar mix before adding the cherry wine. If you add the cherry before taking your initial S.G., you'd need to factor in the effect of the already present alcohol in your calculations. Reply: I don't have any 5 gal carboys so I would be making it in a 6 gal carboy. Therefore could I get away with making the Skeeter Pee as per 5 gal and just add this wine to it right now in the same primary? As if the wine was just a 7 day 1st racking slurry? I really don't want to wait until the wine is finished to blend it.
That would be great if I could. The SP is something that could be made fast and I want it now... Thus I'm going to let wine go to SG 1.005 and then start my 5-gal SP with it using the online recipe. Which means I will have a total 6-gal Cherry-Skeeter PEE in no time.

Thanks Minnesotamaker for the reply. @Runningwolf, thanks for checking.

 

[dangerdave]

I'm a little slow getting to this thread, but it looks like the expert (Lon) already filled you in. I do my skeeter pee a bit differently, and I have never used a slurry, as Lon's original recipe calls for. I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Keep us posted.

 

[btom2004]

I'm a little slow getting to this thread, but it looks like the expert (Lon) already filled you in. I do my skeeter pee a bit differently, and I have never used a slurry, as Lon's original recipe calls for. I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Keep us posted.

I will do. I've read your wonderful threads about Dragon Blood-Skeeter Pee. That's why I started this batch. I see that it worked...I just think Lon was just finding a way to reuse his slurry-lees is all. Here I will be doing somewhat like yours and Lon's at the same time. I'm going to rack cherry wine at 1.005, start 5-gal batch SP as Lon suggests and then dump cherry wine into it in a few days. I really just want to go ahead and add that 5-gal recipe right now though, but I'll wait. Thanks for checking the thread.

Edit: I have named mine Cherry Lemon Supreme Wine.

 

[dangerdave]

I will do. I've read your wonderful threads about Dragon Blood-Skeeter Pee. That's why I started this batch. I see that it worked...I just think Lon was just finding a way to reuse his slurry-lees is all. Here I will be doing somewhat like yours and Lon's at the same time. I'm going to rack cherry wine at 1.005, start 5-gal batch SP as Lon suggests and then dump cherry wine into it in a few days. I really just want to go ahead and add that 5-gal recipe right now though, but I'll wait. Thanks for checking the thread.

Edit: I have named mine Cherry Lemon Supreme Wine.

Yep, Lon was making his as cheaply as possible. It's great that you are modding the recipe to make it your own. My Dragon Blood was a mixed modified recipe as well. Experimenting is fun!

Mmmmm. Now I'm dreaming of cherry-lemon.

 

[btom2004]

Oh yeah I've been known to tweak a thing or two in my day.

 

[btom2004]

OMG-double posting here if it's OK.

Today I went ahead and blended my cherry wine must/lees-slurry into the lemon juice skeeter pee starter. Not only dose it look good, but I just had to taste a bit. It is out of this world. It looks so good I had to give it a classy name..."Cherlemon"
I recommend trying those cheap wine kits, just to get falvor for your skeeter pee. No more expensive fruits to buy, clean, destone ect.

There it is in the primary next to my 1st wine making attempt.
The Vino Italiano Merlot Red-In Secondary-Reracked-Degassed and fining agents added-Clearing nicely.