zman

Recipes 

Sometimes you just have to RDWHAHB. I bottled the hard lemonade last night and it is So awesome and very tasty. It has just the right balance of tart and sweet. It also packs a pretty nice punch!! A BIG thanks to YOOPER for the recipe (I added some DME to my version) and for answering all my questions. SWMBO, who is a beer drinker, said that we have to do more hard lemonade and less Apfelwine. At roughly $15-$18 for 5 gallons even my fiscally conservative self can get into that.

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Captive

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If you like hard lemonade, try Skeeter Pee. I can't make it fast enough to keep up with demand. I found the recipe on another forum, but there's a website too: http://www.skeeterpee.com I just finished bottling up another 5 gallons and oh my... is it good. It's a good drink for backyard gatherings and BBQ's.

77bawls

Recipes 

I think I'm going to give this a try next week.

PimmsOClock

Recipes 

Hi Guys,

My first post here! Been lurking a while and just starting to really get into this whole homebrew thing. Have beers, and ciders on the go, and some already in bottles capped and happy!

This whole hard lemonade thing is really appealing to me. However I'm having a problem with all the recipes here on HBT. I'm in the UK and here we don't have this whole "Frozen concentrate" thing that seems very prevalent in the USA. We do however have something we call "Squash" or "Cordial" or "Diluted juice". Its sounds really similar to this concentrate you guys talk about, and recently due to rocketing fuel prices and transport costs the stuff has become twice as strong (use half as much for same flavour).

For example I have 2 bottles of the newer double concentrated variety, one in lime, and the other "Cherries and Berries". Both say to use 1 part concentrate to 9 parts water. So for 250ml of end product you would use 25 ml of concentrate and top up to 250.

The ingredients list the concentrate itself as having around "20% juice from concentrate" along with water, aspartame, saccharin, sodium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate.

What I want to do is create a hard lemonade type drink, using this as flavouring. Probably lemon-lime-mint or a lemon-raspberry type thing.

The metabisulphite and sorbate doesnt worry me too much as its a small amount that would get diluted a lot and hopefully boiled off when I heat to dissolve sugar. (Boiling/agitation makes this stuff go away right?)

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this stuff or similar, and if not could someone post some information about these frozen concentrates being used here. Information like the ratio of dilution that these frozen concentrates are designed for, how much sugar or sweetener is in them, and how much juice concentrate is in them would be really appreciated.

Sorry about the rambling post!

77bawls

Recipes 

Holy cow that's strong. The frozen concentrate comes in 12 oz cans and you mix in 4 and 1/3 cans water. So about 4 to 1.

The end product is only 15% juice. Total juice is 64 so pure lemon juice would be 9.6oz, the rest is water and sugar.

BeerBrods22

Recipes 

2 questions...
1) the original recipe called for DME... do you have to boil that or just add it to the juice?

2) Has anyone had success kegging it?
(and if so I assume I could drop the sodium carbonate)

zman

Recipes 

You need to dissolve the DME in water @170F and hold it for 20 min. At least that is what I do.

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LloydRenee

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Can you give me a step by step play on this? Imagine I am an ignorant noob.

What temps, for how long, is what I am looking for. Thanks in advance

AImhoff88

Recipes 

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to brewing, so I have a couple questions about this hard lemonade.\

1. Is any secondary fermantion necessary, or is it OK to drink after primary fermentation? I guess a follow-up question is whether or not bottling is necessary or can you drink it straight out of the primary plastic keg if you're using it for a party?

2. I've seen from this thread that champagne, wine and beer yeasts have been used. Is it OK to use any kind of yeast or will the flavor be affected greatly?

3. What exactly is yeast nutrient and how important is it when making hard lemonade?


Thanks for your help guys!

zman

Recipes 

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to brewing, so I have a couple questions about this hard lemonade.\

1. Is any secondary fermantion necessary, or is it OK to drink after primary fermentation? I guess a follow-up question is whether or not bottling is necessary or can you drink it straight out of the primary plastic keg if you're using it for a party?
It is not necessary per se but it will keep fermenting if you do not rack it off the yeast or add K Meta. I had it go form 1.020 to 1.010 in 3 days (OG was 1.100). You can drink it right away. I prefer to bottle mine so I secondary, cold crash and carb to 2.3 volumes of CO2. I would bottle it in a growler, jug, or a pitcher instead of out of a carboy or bucket


2. I've seen from this thread that champagne, wine and beer yeasts have been used. Is it OK to use any kind of yeast or will the flavor be affected greatly?

Yes it is. Some people on here have used Beer Yeast I believe. I have always used Cotes de Blanc (yoopers recipe) You want something that is going to tolerate up to 12%ABV. The batch I just bottled is in the 11% area

3. What exactly is yeast nutrient and how important is it when making hard lemonade?
Yeast Nutrient and energizer, is very important. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-1.html. It is really important to the Hard Lemonade because the lemonade is very acidic and you need to get the yeast acclimated to the environment and give them the extra nutrients. I think the starter is the most important part of this beverage.

I made batch 2 last night for a party we are having in a few weeks.

Thanks for your help guys![/quote]

10char

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