Well I've decided that I'm not going to brew again until the fall because it's just too hot. I really underestimated how much beer I needed to carry us through the summer so I was thinking of just dumping some lemonade and some type of alcohol into a keg and force carbonating it. Anyone done this? What type of alcohol? Grain alcohol? Vodka? I'm assuming I don't need to boil the lemonade since the alcohol content is instantly where it needs to be... is this true? Any input appreciated.
Here's a recipe for some Hard Lemonade that seems to work alright. You can adjust the sugar and malt pounds to taste.
Hard Lemonaid (5 gallons)
5 lbs Table or Corn Sugar
1 lb Dry Malt Extract (to make it a malt beverage like Mike does)
6 12 oz Cans Lemonade frozen concentrate (make sure there's no preservatives)
any Ale yeast
-or-
English Cider Yeast (WLP775)
heat the sugar and malt in 2-1/2 gallons of water for 15 minutes. Cool and add the frozen concentrate and 3 gallons of water. Pitch yeast. I've never used yeast nutrient and energizer, but this recipe could probably stand to have some added for faster fermentation.
I've used brewers yeast for this recipe in the past when I was experimenting, and it'll work, but takes a looong time to ferment out. My latest batch used SafAle 56 dry yeast.
I ended up just filling a keg with frozen lemonade, frozen limeade, cheap citrus vodka and then force carbonating. Quick, easy, no brewing (in the 100 degree heat), and it turned out great.
This winter and next spring I just need to make sure I brew enough to carry me through next summer. Out in July... pretty sad.
Maybe spend the rest of the summer digging a root cellar to store all of that beer?
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Buy some wheat beer to keep you cool why you brew enough beer for the rest of the summer! We have many long hot months left!!
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Yeah, I don't think I'll survive the summer without some barley beverage on tap so I'll probably just get a keg from one of the local microbreweries. Still not the same as homebrew...
Hard lemonade
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