Light Lemonade Mead

Helly said:

I started a 1 gallon batch of this today. I used 1 lb clover honey, 1 cup sugar, 1 can frozen lemonade thawed out, and Lalvin D47. Excited to see how it turns out.

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it won't last long is my guess.

Can you guys detail what a "can of lemonade" is? We have nothing equivalent in Australian that I know of?

Same we don't have cans of apple concentrate

Mitch311 said:

Can you guys detail what a "can of lemonade" is? We have nothing equivalent in Australian that I know of?

Same we don't have cans of apple concentrate

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It is frozen concentrate. You mix it with water to a certain amount and you have juice. What kind of juice mix do you have. hose

We generally have cordial, you can get some cold fruit drink concentrates that are designed to be mixed. But they generally don't taste great. Usually they are only orange or orange & mango. Might have to have a better look round the supermarket next time I'm there.

Otherwise all our juice comes ready to drink. Most of it is reconstituted though Cheapest freshly processed apple juice I have come across so far is $5/L

made this exactly, and added 6# of strawberry puree when Ralphs had strawberries for $1/#. honestly drank a third of it straight from the carboy. well, SWMBO did...

Making my second one of this tonight, same recipe, but this week Ralphs had raspberry pints for $1. adding 5# of raspberry puree into it. just hope it lasts long enough to go into bottles so i can make some sparkling.

great recipe!

Mine has been going for about 5 weeks. It's starting to clear. Just tasted it before racking to secondary. Wow! This is going to be good. My only question is whether to start one more gallon or five more gallons today.

Helly said:

Mine has been going for about 5 weeks. It's starting to clear. Just tasted it before racking to secondary. Wow! This is going to be good. My only question is whether to start one more gallon or five more gallons today.

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I would do 5. 1 will not last long.

Wow, I'm confused. I just read a BUNCH of posts that talk about D47 producing a ton of fusels if it gets above 68 degrees but no one here seems to be having that trouble...I wonder why? The hell with it, I'm trying this. I am so TIRED of people whining that they can't drink my meads right away...so this should put a stop to that quicklike

Let's just say that hypothetically I made a 5 gallon batch but wasn't thinking straight and put twice as much sugar in as I should have. Tying to figure out what will happen. Yeast chokes out before it gets to the honey maybe? Or will it ferment ok and just end up really strong? Hypothetically I used 5 cans lemonade, 5.5 lbs honey, and 5 lb sugar (which should have been 5 cups). It's bubbling and making some noise 24 hours later.

It will be higher alcohol content and will need more to mellow out for better taste.

BrewerBear said:

It will be higher alcohol content and will need more to mellow out for better taste.

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It's still bubbling away. I think the yeast is going to make it. It will probably end up very strong, I'm trying hard not to mess with it right now.

The first one-gallon batch I had of this, we got into it a few weeks later and almost all the lemonade flavor was gone. It now tastes more like apple cider to me. Anyone have this happen? Any tips? Bottle it up sooner? It was much better tasting it earlier, it's a bit disappointing now.

When you guys make 5 gallon batches, where do you put it for drinking? Cause 5 gallons is a lot of bottles.

EDIT: so is this recipe 4 or 5 gallons of water?

If you don't want to bottle you can always keg.

Because kegging solves everything

Because kegging solves everything!

irchowi said:

When you guys make 5 gallon batches, where do you put it for drinking? Cause 5 gallons is a lot of bottles.

EDIT: so is this recipe 4 or 5 gallons of water?

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Lol....not that many....(11 gallons of beer ready to bottle and 7 gallons of wine)

Another question:

Does corn sugar mean high fructose corn syrup? Are there any other kinds?

irchowi said:

Another question:

Does corn sugar mean high fructose corn syrup? Are there any other kinds?

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No you should have a brew shop in the Houston area to pick it up at, or you can use just brown sugar or table sugar.

Brewed a batch on 7/21. Very simple to do.

Did a little over 4 gallons in the boil. Got temp to 170, cut the heat, added all ingredients and mixed together. Cut heat back and brought to 170 again for 15 minutes, stirring regularly.

Rehydrated my yeast before pitching.

Attached a picture of carboy directly after pitching. Bright orange. OG was 1.078.

Fermentation started w/in hours, and was solid for a few days. After two weeks, all action was over. Got it down to about 1.022. Also just keeping it in primary.

It is now starting to clear up. Will probably bottle in another 10 days or so. Will try to post an updated photo later.

Making this today, looking forward to it!

Helly said:

It's still bubbling away. I think the yeast is going to make it. It will probably end up very strong, I'm trying hard not to mess with it right now.

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Update on this. It's starting to clear up. I took a taste this weekend and it's super sweet but quite good. I was good to split the batch to water it down but now I'm thinking let it clear a bit longer and bottle it up. Not what I was going for but it might turn out Ok just the same.

well, remember that if it's still sweet there is likely sugar still left to be fermented. definitely check the gravity to see where you're at. May be in for an extended fermentation.

booherbg said:

well, remember that if it's still sweet there is likely sugar still left to be fermented. definitely check the gravity to see where you're at. May be in for an extended fermentation.

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I will definitely check it this weekend and see where the gravity is. Thanks for the tip.

Started a batch this weekend, replaced the lemonade with limeade smells awesome cant wait to try it.

Created a batch of this last Friday, 1/11/13. Very easy to put together. I'm getting some constant bubbling now. Looking forward to the final product.

After one week, I took a sample of my batch last night. SG 1.055. The taste is very smooth but the alcohol is present. Sweet and lemony. It tastes fantastic so far.

I brewed a 5 gal batch of this last sunday, lowered temp to 76 and aerated the must for 30 min, OG was 77. Unfortunately, the yeast took 70 hours to show signs of fermentation, and the gravity this morning, 5 days after brewing, was 70.
has anyone had this trouble before? thanks.

I followed the recipe to a T and my batch is still fermenting. Should be done next week.

Did you deviate from the recipe at all? Did you rehydrate the yeast or did you sprinkle it in as this recipe states? Any preservatives in the concentrate you used? You could try aerating it to see if you can get some life out of the yeast. If your fermentation remains stuck, you can rack it off the lees and throw in another packet of yeast, though I'd recommend rehydrating it.

Keep us posted!

rowsdower44 said:

Did you deviate from the recipe at all? Did you rehydrate the yeast or did you sprinkle it in as this recipe states? Any preservatives in the concentrate you used? You could try aerating it to see if you can get some life out of the yeast. If your fermentation remains stuck, you can rack it off the lees and throw in another packet of yeast, though I'd recommend rehydrating it.

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I followed the recipe exactly except to add 1 tsp of yeast energizer, i used the minute maid lemonade cans described in the recipe list i believe, but i dont know if those have preservatives or not. i have tried repitching with wine yeast and there is still barely sign of activity.
gravity today: 1.067
Is it okay to still aerate at this point? its been a week since brew day.

hethacker12 said:

Is it okay to still aerate at this point? its been a week since brew day.

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Yes. You should aerate for the first 1/3 of fermentation. Take a look here for more info on stuck fermentations.

rowsdower44 said:

Yes. You should aerate for the first 1/3 of fermentation. Take a look here for more info on stuck fermentations.

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Thanks for the help.

is it possible to over areate it tho? and will the air that i add possibly infect the still sugar rich/ low alcohol must?

Bottled today. I'm liking the way it looks. Going to let this age a few weeks to a month before opening one up.

So is this recipe for 5 gallons in the op?

Kampo said:

So is this recipe for 5 gallons in the op?

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Yep! The OP is a 5 gallon recipe.

Anyone tried entering this into a competition....mine the lemon is pretty subtle so don't think the fruit is strong enough for Other Fruit category..think I will stick to the Open category and see how it does..entering as dry, sparkling, hydromel...mine is pretty light. Thoughts?

Schumed said:

Anyone tried entering this into a competition....mine the lemon is pretty subtle so don't think the fruit is strong enough for Other Fruit category..think I will stick to the Open category and see how it does..entering as dry, sparkling, hydromel...mine is pretty light. Thoughts?

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Did pretty well in Competition scored a 38 but no medal

I'm going to brew this today only I'm subbing in raspberry lemonade concentrate

Fermentation Temp. is never mentioned?

timcadieux said:

Fermentation Temp. is never mentioned?

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I've kept mine around 68F-70F and it turned out fine.