CooperBrew
Well-Known Member
Thanks. That's pretty similar to the "bent hanger" thing I have seen before. How long do you spin this in the carboy to degass? Is it evident when the degassing is completed?
Skeeter Pee
- Thread starter klcramer
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Paschendale
Well-Known Member
Well it is good to know I didn't completely miss the boat on the additive purchases. Thanks for the help.
Paschendale
Well-Known Member
Well that is a relief to know. Stirring I can certainly do and will. I have been afraid I would simply end up with rather sweet flavored lemonade. I believe I will invest in DAP in the future, however. Thanks again for the advice.
nozzleman
Member
I made my first batch of skeeter pee and it has some problem with an off taste to it that is not very appealing at all. My batch is about 14 days old, it fermented dry, I racked it, added k-meta, sorbate and sparkolloid. After it got crystal clear (6 days) it was racked again. The taste is not sulfur in nature, any ideas? Will it get better with age? Just don't know what else to do any help would is appreciated.
Goodness 14 days old! I would bet any wine would have off tastes. That is why I do not use finnings with my SP. I am foing to age it anyways so might as well let gravity do the clearing.
nozzleman
Member
As you can tell I am brand new to this, I realized I needed to age the wine I am making but I thought this was good to go as soon as it was made. You guys are making me feel better about it though. I went ahead and capped it in gal. bottles and will let it sit for_____? How long does skeeter pee need to age to taste good?
Thanks for you help and putting up with those that are learning!
Thanks for you help and putting up with those that are learning!
looneybomber
Well-Known Member
Fermentation takes 3wks? Clarification without additives is another 3-4 wks, finding time to bottle, 1-2 wks, so I would say from start to finish is 2mo? I doubt the flavor improves or even changes much at that point.
I have 5 gallons of apfelwein in a better bottle right now that is two weeks old. Was thinking about racking it to a 5 gallon better bottle to start some SP from the apfelwein lees. Do you think I will have enough of a cake in the apfelwein to get the pee going? It's still cloudy so I can't really tell. Any input would be great!
You will have enough yeast to get it going - done it.
BUT ....
If you used Montrachet do yourself a favor and avoid that particular endeavor and the smell of sulfur that will follow (right into your glass.) If what you want is someone to tell you it will be fine then you probably will not have to wait long, but Montrachet seems to be a particularly nasty yeast for sulfur production with SP.
CreamyGoodness
Well-Known Member
JUST to give the devil his due, would a good smacking with a copper rod help this after the fact? I brought some really sulphury apfelwein back to life that way once...
I've not tried that yet, but I've read about it in the literature. It seems a sound idea but I wonder how long the contact time needs to be ... and then how much is too long since the acidic wine will continuously strip copper.
The CuSO4 worked fine for me and appealed to my geek-ish nature. Using copper (pipe, still, whatever) to improve alcoholic beverages is an ancient tradition and probably just as good.
CreamyGoodness
Well-Known Member
I love my copper rod. Its made of 3 strands of thick copper wire that were twisted using a cordless drill. It hangs out of the way in my brew closet, and if my wife isnt paying attention I'll give her a light whack in the behind with it.
What were we talking about again?
What were we talking about again?
Hovik
Well-Known Member
Hi guys. I was wondering if anybody could help me figure out why my skeeter pee isn't clearing. I followed Lon's recipe from the site with the exception of using a slurry from a Belgian Tripel. Everything has gone well with fermentation. I racked to secondary on 3/23. I added sparkalloid as called for in the recipe. The pee cleared slightly the first week after fining addition but hasn't cleared any more since, going on 2 months. I have tried cold crashing which didn't help. I've heard people have it clear a week after sparkalloid, and on the other extreme I have heard people say to let it sit for 4 months. Obviously I am somewhere in the middle but just getting antsy after not seeing any progress for a while. Any advice guys?
tylerverry
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LBussy said:
I'm sure you're right, but I used it (had it on hand) and though it took longer than expected, no sulfur smell. In fact I've polished about half of it off (mixed with iced head) in the past month.
tylerverry
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Hovik said:
Did you degas? I tried clearing w/o degassing (no equipment) to no avail. But Gerry rigged a vacuum degassing thing with a wine bottle pump I had, and redid the sparkalloid, and I was crystal clean in 3 days.
Hovik
Well-Known Member
I did "try" degassing. I too didn't have equipment but I did agitate aggressively for about 20 minutes using a modified plastic clothes hangar and a cordless drill until I didn't see any more bubbles. I didn't use a vacuum and don't know much about doing that. I have one of those wine preserving pumps that you put the stopper in the bottle and then it pumps the oxygen out of it, has anyone tried using one of those to degas a carboy?
Hovik said:
I have not done so personally but have been researching degassing as I prepare to do my first batch of SP soon and found this exact idea on YouTube.
Check it out.
[ame]http://youtu.be/ZjL80hXkHdI[/ame]
Chris
Nope .... let us know how it works.
I have been wondering about the clarity thing as well. My SP isn't clearing for squat. I did use a wine whip for degassing, but apparently I didn't go for nearly long enough - I only ran it for a minute or two. I just didn't see much happening as far as bubbles. Plus, my home-brew nature was getting worried with all of that stirring and oxygenation. I even threw it in my chamber and have been cold crashing it for several days now. Guess I should have done some more research first about the degassing.
I tried a small sample - it is pretty good. I may just rack into the keg and drink it. Just looks like lemonade right now.
I tried a small sample - it is pretty good. I may just rack into the keg and drink it. Just looks like lemonade right now.
chumprock
Well-Known Member
Mine is clear as can be, and I've k-meta/sorbated, and racked off into a new carboy.
But its still giving off bubbles so I'm leery of back-sweetening yet and assume its just leftover CO2?
But its still giving off bubbles so I'm leery of back-sweetening yet and assume its just leftover CO2?
Mine cleared finally about the same time the keg was emptying. Apparently it did not discourage people, and let's face it it does look like lemonade when cloudy.
I used gelatin on my last batch and it was clear in two days. That may be something you guys that are having difficulty clearing could try.
I added the sparkloid, but I think I may have done it incorrectly. The instructions said to add after "letting it cool". Well, I let it cool for quite a while and it had gelled up. I stirred it up and got it pretty soupy and then added it to the SP and stirred. All a learning process.
I am going to try this recipe with ReaLime next time.
I am going to try this recipe with ReaLime next time.
That's interesting ... gelatin should bind to proteins and polyphenols, neither of which should be an issue with SP. I suppose it could be the tannin we add back in (tannin is a polyphenol) but I was unaware that the tannin we use is a contributor to cloudiness. As a matter of fact it s believed that tannins help control protein cloudiness.
Maybe there's a difference in the tannins we use. I think the bottle I have is oak tannin, perhaps grape tannin would be better?
I don't let mine cool generally. I can't see where it would make a difference to the large body of the wine.
I'd say mine was clear after a month, but it was also damn near gone. It goes in the keg after it "mostly" clears, about a week after fermentation completes. After three months, if I could wait that long, I would expect mine to be super clear as well.
Mine usually gets clear within minutes of adding the sparkloid. Maybe it's the way I make it. I use a brew belt to keep the bucket at around 82 degrees during fermentation. After its done fermenting I rack it into a separate bucket add the yeast killers then crash cold it to 32 degrees. After its cold I add the sparkloid along with more inverted sugar to back sweeten it. The last 4 batches were crystal clear within minutes of adding the sparkloid. Maybe it's due to the high fermentation temperature?
That made my head hurt just reading it.
tylerverry
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Hovik said:
Yes. They were a little on the small side, so I took my standard blowoff tube, and a smaller tube whose OD matched the ID of my blowoff and then put my vacuum stopper in the smaller tube, then put the small tube in my blowoff. Worked great, just make sure you have a way to stop the tube from getting sucked it. I actually had the carboy sit on the blowoff tube. I plan of experimenting with two small sections of tube and maybe a bead of hot glue or something.
CliffMongoloid
Well-Known Member
Should i degas this if ive added the sugar 2 weeks ago... I used montrachet yeast also
Hovik
Well-Known Member
Hi guys, just wanted to say that I did try using my battery powered wine preservation pump and not only did it turn out to be an effective tool for degassing the SP, it also formed a tight, double seal on the top of my airlock. Here are some photos (sorry the HBT app auto-rotates them) and the model of the pump is Sharper Image KP-W140. H
