Skeeter Pee Round 1: Final Post

I am going ahead and just making a new post instead of continuing the updates on the original Skeeter Pee post.

So here is the run down on what happened.  I got a little....adventurous. Being the first time doing this recipe I was content with following the directions explicitly.  Well I did...but then I didn't, and the results are amazingly, smooth, balanced, fruity, and delicious.

I waited until my hydrometer read 0.096 and racked into TWO 3 gallon carboys.  One was going to follow the directions from the website, and the other was getting dry hopped. At first I was worried because I didn't have enough liquid to reach the neck of the carboys when separated, but after doing some research online it seemed not to be an issue with this wine due to its high acidity levels.  I am going to have to look into the chemistry of that sediment a bit more later, but I will admit that the wine does not taste in any way like it get oxygenated.  I had also bought a degaser wand and hooked that up to my drill.  I am thinking that helped to release a lot of carbon dioxide to create a blanket over the liquid.  I put a bung on right after degassing.

The degassing was done AFTER I stabilized the wine by adding potassium metabisulfate, which also works to remove oxygen from the wine, and potassium sorbate to halt any further fermentation when back sweetening. Since I knew that this wine was going to be served immediately once bottled and not last the summer or fall, I was okay with putting a shelf life on this wine by using the sorbate.  To top it all off, going for clarity, I added sparkolloid.

Ok, so I let that all sit for two more weeks.  The dry hopping was just done with 0.65g of Glacier hops that I got from Irish Rover, and those were added at the same time the Kmeta and Ksorbate were added.

Dry hopped batch.

Original recipe batch. Clear.

I got ready for bottling and went with a combination of glass and plastic screw top bottles from a Mr. Beer kit that a friend no longer wanted.  The intention of the plastic bottles was for my wife to take some of this on a float trip where glass was not allowed.

I just don't have time to remove the labels from all of my bottles...I am getting there.

All bottles were sanitized using Starsan, as well as the equipment.  Prior cleaning using an alkaline wash was done to remove any gunk from a previous batch.  PSA: Always check your spigots, and from time to time take them off and give them a GOOD cleaning.  Mine needed it, and got it.

Next came the tricky part of back sweetening.  I say tricky, because I was dealing with two factors.

1. The SP website gives sugar amounts for one 5 gallon batch.  I have two batches now, and they are not equal amounts, nor were they of the same taste with one being dry hopped.
2. The wife needed to approve.

So back sweetening with regular cane sugar, a cup to half a cup at a time, with taste testing between the wife and I was how I accomplished this task.  She likes it more sweet, I like it more tart...we met in the middle at a fantastic taste.

Original in all the brown bottles, SP caps were original, and SPH caps were the hopped ones.

I cannot say enough good things about this wine.  Everyone that has tried has really liked it.  My wife's friends on the float trip would agree, too.  The hopped version seems to be the overall winner.  It is not bitter hopped, it is a bit fruitier and the aroma has a bit of added citrus as well.  I am going to have to make 10 gallons of the next time(Round 2).  FINE BY ME!  Most likely I will split the batch at the secondary again, and do a 5gal hopped, 2.5gal with strawberries, and another 2.5 gal with grapefruit or cherries(cherry limeade anyone?).

Matuz

Skeeter Pee Round 1

I really do not like brewing during the summer time.  Well, not so much the actual brewing part, but the fermenting aspect.  Liquid in my basement will hover around 70F on its own.  Throw the metabolic reactions of the yeast cells and you have a recipe to overshoot your fermentation temperatures and receive off flavors.  Now there are some beers and wines that will do just fine with a 70F to 78F temperature  range, but I have an 8 week old, a two year old, finishing up my 2nd to last semester of graduate classes, along with work, so my time availability was limited.  I needed to scratch the itch, but I didn't have 4-6 hours of spare time.

Skeeter Pee ingredients minus the yeast energizer and tannin.

I have been eye-balling Skeeter Pee for about 2 years now.  This was the perfect time.  I could throw it all together in under an hour after the kids go to sleep.  The variability of Skeeter Pee, plus the ease, is what really attracted me to it.  It is well known among the home-brewing forums so I knew it was tried and tested.  I decided to go with the standard recipe for the first time, and maybe next time I will throw in something different to change the flavoring(I have seen blueberry, pineapple, cherry, lime, etc.)  The one thing I did not have was a yeast slurry, and I didn't want to spend the time making one with some apple juice or fruit concentrate.  It wouldn't have been hard, I have the stir plate and flasks, etc, but I just did not want to have to deal with it, and I had two packages of Montrachet yeast laying around...I figured two will be just fine....we'll see.

You can use most any yeast, a lot of people recommend Champagne yeast, Cotes de Blancs, or similar, but I just used what I had and it will offer me an ABV of up 13%, plenty high enough for me.

I cleaned AND sanitized my equipment.  I will post later on the differences of cleaning and sanitizing, but using just PBW or OneStep is not enough.  (Those are cleaners, not sanitizers.  You need an acid sanitizer like Star San to finish the job, but again, more on that later.)  While my equipment was sitting in the cleaner, after being scrubbed, I readied my invert sugar(simple sugar syrup).  My 8qt pot was just big enough to handle it all. While I waited for my super saturated solution to come to completion I moved from my cleaning stage to sanitizing and my wife, with a baby boy in one arm, took the whisk in other hand continued to stir and watch my pot on the stove...what a sweetie.

Almost done...keep this solution from boiling!  Just stay right under boiling temps!

I added my 1/3 cup of lemon juice from a container in the fridge, therefore not taking it from my 3-32 oz bottles.  I then let the solution cool a bit and dumped it in my fermenter with 2-32 oz bottles of lemon juice and enough water(tap, distilled, and purified left over from last brew) to top it off to 5.5 gallons.

I added the yeast nutrient and energizer to mugs worth of volume of a strong brewed tea to get my tannins since I had no tannins from the home-brew shop.

Yeast Nutrient was added to this solution.

That all went into the fermenter as well.  I then vigorously stirred for about 5 minutes to oxygenate and covered with a clean dish towel for 48 hours.  I don't have a wine whip so I just used my standard plastic paddle. The addition of the tea really did not make too much of a difference to the color.

After adjusting for temperature, my OG was 1.070...right on target.  No need to add granulated sugar.

After 48 hours I uncovered the must, stirred again, and threw in the two packets of yeast and stirred some more!  I added the lid, put on an s-lock, which I would generally use for secondary, but my 3-piece airlocks were in use, and walked away.


5/19/15 UPDATE

I went ahead and opened my lid to check fermentation since I did not see any bubbles coming out of my air lock.  Sure enough some fermentation had begun by the noticeable onset of bubbles at the top of the must.  The temperature on the bucket is registering at around 70-72F.  I quickly closed the lid and walked away.  I'll check the gravity Thursday or Friday night.  Following the directions, once I get around 1.050, I'll throw some more yeast nutrient and energizer in the bucket.  Stay tuned!

5/22/15 UPDATE

I checked the gravity and it was 1.048.  The last bit yeast nutrient and energizer, along with the last 32oz bottle of lemon juice was added.  I went ahead and agitated the must once more and shut the lid.  The s-lock was replaced with a 3-piece lock that I picked up today...because who doesn't need more airlocks?

I also tasted what had been fermented so far....and all I have to say, even with it all being almost half-way fermented....this is going to be a refreshing, perfect drink for the summer.  I cannot wait, and I am already thinking of doing another batch, with the addition of a different fruit to go along.

5/25/15 UPDATE

I checked the gravity, and it read 1.016.  Bubbling had also slowed down from a constant bubbling to a steady "blub....blub...blub".  I went ahead and clean and sanitized my carboy and equipment and racked the Skeeter Pee.  I also tasted it.  Yeasty right now, but that it to be expected.  Tart, with a slight sweetness and definitely on its way to being dry.  I can tell this is going to be a good hot summer day refreshment.  Manzi tasted some as well.

NOTE:  Make sure your bung and neck of carboy are DRY before you fit them together.  I freaked because my bung kept pushing out, until I slowed down my thinking and got logical.

Not very much yeast at the bottom of bucket.

With the flash on.

Without the flash on.

-Matuz

Matuz's First Belgian Pale Ale

I have started to get into a kick all about Belgian ales.  I have always known they are good, and Irish Rover has made me quite happy in the past with his Belgian brews.  It wasn't until last April(2014) did I make my first Belgian ale.  Out of necessity to brew a batch for my wife's friend who works for Widmer Bros., I opted to make a Belgian Blond Ale.  My wife's friend wanted to learn the process of brewing for her job.  A chance to brew? Sure!  So I whipped up a Belgian Blond Ale recipe following the guidelines in BeerSmith 2.



You'll notice the water chemical additions.  I have been monitoring my water for sometime.  I believe it to be one of the MOST important aspects of brewing.  You read about it all the time, but never do anything...you should.  I currently run off of a well, and now I have water softener, so my water profile needs to be checked again.  I want a reading from the well, not my softener, as that can fluctuate a bit more than my well's profile.  Anyways....when I did this brew I went ahead and started from scratch with my water and used distilled water.  From there I entered my amounts of water being used, the profile I wanted(Antwerp, Belgium), and voila!  My water additions were calculated.

   
The beer was amazing, at least to me.  When it was all said and done the Belgian Blond Ale, which was named Blond Ambition due to me having no experience brewing a Belgian Ale(and named by my wife), is now in my top list of beers that we brew.  It was taken to a dinner party of my wife's friend and was a big hit there as well. It is all gone now....I must make more.

BACK to the PALE ALE!

I used water chemical additions as well in this recipe.  But they are not showing up.  And just like my previous batches I also used pH Stabilizer.  I know there are some that love it, and some that hate it due to the fact that it may push your sodium levels to high, but as far as I am concerned, I have locked in my pH quite well with it.

Picture from the mash.

I also invested in a new grain mill.  Der Brauer and Irish Rover and I had invested in one previously together, but with the distance between us, the constant borrowing became a hassle.  So they bought me out of my part and I got my own.

With the larger funnel, more grain can be handled.  Necessary for 5 gal batches? No.  But for 20 more bucks, I am ready.  It will surely help in the 10+ gallon range of brewing, which I have backed away from...more on that later.

So I made my final touches to my recipe, downloaded the adjoining BeerSmith2 app to my phone(a blessing!), and set up my equipment in the usual fashion.

Those SS barrels in the back my soon become fermenters....

During the mash I drilled a hole with a step bit into my boil kettle.  I installed a weldless ball valve spigot, and readied my sparge water.  I installed the spigot since I acquired a counter-flow wort chiller.  Which I also need to get pictures of on the blog.  I also watched my gravity coming out of my mash.  I quit sparging when I reached 1.010 gravity from my mash liquid. I also did something different with this sparge.  I let the valve open just a little, to create a grain bed, for about 5-10 minutes.  Then I opened it all the way up.  Doing so, I ended up with a mash efficiency of  75%. Earlier I thought I was up in around 84%.  I missed a valuable calculation and fixed my numbers.  I am happy with that number for trying something new.  I also expected lower efficiency since it was so cold outside.  Even bringing in the mash tun inside, my temps dropped more then they ever have in the past.  I am going to add more reflective insulation to the sides, and to the bottom(which currently has none). I will continue to use a blanket for the top.

When the boil was over, I turned on the chiller, gravity fed, and cooled my wort from boiling to 55F in 5 minutes!  I had to let the wort come back up in temp before I pitched my yeast. 

I primaried around 64F with White Labs Belgian Ale yeast that I put on a stir plate days prior to raise my number of yeasty brothers!  Once pitched, I put on a blow off tube.  The picture below is during the secondary process and switching to an airlock.

From the recipe, I produced roughly 5.75 gallons.  I kegged it all.  It is fruity and slightly hoppy.  I wanted a low hop pale ale, but not this low.  Next time I will add more hops.  I have drank quite a few and the carbonation and lacing have been outstanding.  It is not as clear as I would want, and I blame that on me not installing a screen in my boil kettle to my new spigot.  That is my next project.

Until next time...

-Matuz