Yet another skeeter pee question - adding juice?

[Tw0fish]

Forgive my foray into wine, usually cider and mead are enough to keep me occupied! I feel kinda bad asking yet another skeeter pee question, but it's so popular that the search function is borderline useless

I wonder if a lot of yeast stress could be avoided by fermenting the invert sugar, yeast nutrients and tannin and then adding the lemon juice in secondary. The yeast don't have to fool with lots of acidity, they're still eating the sugar and the lemon juice probably doesn't add anything to it for them.

So I went ahead and did it.. I've got five gallons of what can best be described as sugar mash going upstairs that seems to be chugging along happily. Has this been done before?

 

[JonK331]

subscribed

 

[Tw0fish]

Playin the bump card, just this once

If nobody's tried it, I'll try to be thorough in documenting and bring back my results.

 

[Sammyk]

We both suffer from acid reflux so the lemon is very hard on us.

My 3rd batch I used only 15 oz lemon and 15 oz of lime and the slurry from a previous batch. I do not plan to add the 3rd bottle.

It took off within a few hours of adding the slurry. And just a few days after starting the SG is 1.040. The other batches took a whole lot longer like 10 days to get going!

I know this does not answer your question but it does show you can use a whole lot less then the recipe calls for and the fermentation is a lot faster without all that acid.

The liquid has a lemon/lime taste but is very mild

Anyway, I hope this helps

 

[Tw0fish]

It helps my theory that the lemon is just flavor, I think..

Lemon lime skeeter pee sounds ridiculously good. Was it green? You could call it "it burns when I skeeter pee" haha!

 

[Sammyk]

It is still in the primary but the juice tastes very good in the bucket, a lemon-lime flavor.

I think you jest about the color..........

 

[black_talon]

I am thinking of adding a little green food coloring to my lemon lime skeeter pee... Any thoughts?

 

[Honda88]

im not going to add the 3rd bottle until i rack to secondary but i do have 2 bottles in my mash right now. I did boost my expected alcohol percentage to like 14% so im making super pee lol. let me know how yours turns out without the lemon im sure the yeast are having a lot of fun.

 

[FlamingHawk02]

Still want to check and see if this method works. I don't have access to yeast nutrient and energizer unless i order it and would prefer to not have to unless completely needed. Adding the lemon juice while being racked to secondary sounds much easier that trying to get it started in the low ph lemon juice.

 

[Tw0fish]

Hi friends. I'm surprised to see this thread pop back up, but glad to share. If you're too impatient to read, consider a) yeast can't just live on sugar and b) the lemon juice does have stuff to contribute to the fermentation.

I probably waited a month or so on doing anything with the sugar water, just to see what would happen. I didn't actually take gravities because I am a bad person, but some three weeks in I tossed in the rest of the yeast nutrient. By then the gas production had begun to slow. I only had room in the carboy for one bottle of lemon juice, so I tossed it in and resolved to wait a few days (both to let the yeast acclimate and so that I could run to the LHBS and finally get some legit wine hardware.)

Amusingly enough, my initial theory was disproved - the lemon juice certainly does seem to serve a purpose. The fermentation picked back up noticeably when it was added.. Bubbling in the airlock picked up and you could see pulp bits flying around. Totally cool. Happened for the second and third bottles, too. I learned meanwhile from another thread that there is some sugar in lemon juice - further, I theorize, the pulp either a)contains juice for the yeast to eat b)provides condensation nuclei for the yeast to hang onto or c)is food itself.

I've been busy with school, so I just racked about a week ago off of more lees than I anticipated seeing. I'm gonna skip the sparkolloid and either drink it cloudy or wait it out, but it sure tastes like alcoholic lemonwater right now.

So, Honda88, I wouldn't recommend adding the last bottle in primary because you're still feeding it.

Flaminghawk - I didn't use energizer. Neither did our ancient ancestors, and you bet they got wasted However I have seen enough to believe that yeast cannot live on sugar alone - if you can't get to energizer, I'd recommend dicing/tearing up some raisins (yeast gets in alright but gases take forever to come out if the skin's unbroken), maybe 20/gal if you're counting, and tossing them in.

 

[FlamingHawk02]

Would it be better to dice and throw them in or should i try boiling them in some water?

 

[phuff7129]

You know I have read so many posts about difficulty getting skeeter pee to ferment and that has just not been my experience. Here is my process.

My experience getting skeeter pee to ferment with dry yeast has been pretty simple. I made the must per the instructions on skeeterpee.com. I took 2 cups of the must and put it in a sanitized jar, pitched 1 packet Red Star Premier Cuvee and put a loose piece of foil over the jar. Within a few hours the starter was fermenting. I basically left the starter untouched for 2 days while I left the must sitting for 2 days with a towel over the fermenter per the instructions.

After 2 days I pitched the yeast starter, stirred it in, aerated the must again, and put the lid with an airlock on it. Within 3 hours fermentation was going.

After 2 more days i checked the gravity and it was 1.048. I added the additional nutrient and energizer per the instructions. It has now been fermenting steady for 6 days and the gravity is at 1.015 so it is getting there.

I have kept the temperature around 70 degrees. I found the process to be pretty simple and had no troubles getting fermentation to start.

 

[Tw0fish]

Hawk, I suppose you could do it either way. Wild yeasts are (generally) easily outrun by commercial yeasts.. and a good long soak does about the same as a short boil for disseminating the fruit's innards, I believe.

Huff, I think the secret to this has been the stepped lemon juice addition. It's definitely easy, but you *will* mess up your yeast if you just chuck in all the juice right away.

 

[FlamingHawk02]

Hawk, I suppose you could do it either way. Wild yeasts are (generally) easily outrun by commercial yeasts.. and a good long soak does about the same as a short boil for disseminating the fruit's innards, I believe.

Alright thanks. I think I'll try that until i can order some nutrient and energizer.

 

[phuff7129]

Hawk, I suppose you could do it either way. Wild yeasts are (generally) easily outrun by commercial yeasts.. and a good long soak does about the same as a short boil for disseminating the fruit's innards, I believe.

Huff, I think the secret to this has been the stepped lemon juice addition. It's definitely easy, but you *will* mess up your yeast if you just chuck in all the juice right away.

Real simple as I explained in my last post. I followed the directions on www.skeeterpee.com to the letter. The only thing I did was start the yeast as I described in my post above.

My process worked perfectly. I fermented out at .994 8 days after pitching the yeast. It smells and tastes great! Evidently I did *not* mess up my yeast as you stated and I didn't go throught the hassle of steps. Just take a couple of cups of must and pitch the yeast and let it go for 2 days then pitch.

 

[WIMARIPA]

Twofish, your ferment probably restarted because of the yeast nutrient and the sugar in the juice. Fermentation of simple sugar like this definitely needs energizer and nutrient to get a good ferment going. If you want to test one variable you definitely need to hold the other ones constant....