Full Hard Lemonade recipe

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Split my batch into two 3 gallon batches when it was time to backsweeten and bottle.

Batch #1: 4 cups sugar, 2 frozen sweet tea concentrates, sorbate
It takes the edge off the lemon a bit but you can still tell it's there. Goes down easy. Might just get enough teabags to do 5 gallons of sweet tea, and throw that in the primary and see how that turns out.

Batch #2: 4 cups sugar, 2 frozen strawberry breeze concentrates, sorbate
Also goes down smooth and takes the edge off the lemonade. Kinda a pinky-orange color. Very nice.
 
sfrisby said:
Just a random idea. I think I'm going to try to brew a blonde and separately brew a hard lemonade. Combine at kegging time for a shandy. If you are so inclined, discuss...

I brewed a lemon wheat beer a few months ago along with a batch of skeeter pee. I combined 1 gallon of each into a 3 gallon corny a few weeks ago for my pool drink. I've been taking it to the pool a few times a week ever since. It's great and not as high as a ABV as full strength skeeter pee.
 
DrHops said:
I brewed a lemon wheat beer a few months ago along with a batch of skeeter pee. I combined 1 gallon of each into a 3 gallon corny a few weeks ago for my pool drink. I've been taking it to the pool a few times a week ever since. It's great and not as high as a ABV as full strength skeeter pee.

Nice! Sound like a great combination.
 
I have just started this recipe. I added 1 tsp of baking soda just to bring the pH up a bit from 3.02 to 3.12. I figure that I can always add citric acid to increase the acidity after fermentation, if necessary. My OG was only 1.062. I am considering adding another lb of corn sugar.

I also have a Skeeter Pee and a Twisted Mist Hard Lemonade fermenting. The Skeeter Pee started at a much lower pH so I added 4 tsp of baking soda to that one. I plan to bring the 3 Lemonades to a BBQ in the future and have everyone do a taste test. I will also force carbonate some of each batch and include still and carbed versions in the taste test.

So far, this one smells the best of the three at start-up. It is also foaming quite a bit (like 3/4"), much more than the others.
 
The boss lady loves her some shandy. Made two horrible attempts last summer but managed to hit it this year. Did a very basic wheat beer and blended it with 25% skeeter peer just before it went into the keg to carb. Very yummy. Some yeast flavor from the primier cuvee yeast i used in the skeeter peer. I may try to use some us-04 brewers yeast next time and acclimate it to the lemon acid in a starter.

Here is the grain bill for the wheat. it's a 5 gal batch and i typically get about 70-75% efficiency
4 and a half lbs of while wheat malt
3 and a half lbs of pale ale malt
1 lb of flaked wheat
half a lb of munich
.5 oz tattnang for 60 min
1.5 sorachi ace 30 min
dry hop with .5 sorachi ace for 14 days
us-05 with a starter
 
I have just started this recipe. I added 1 tsp of baking soda just to bring the pH up a bit from 3.02 to 3.12.

The reason for adding baking soda is to help the yeast. Most yeast struggle below pH 3.1. Stressed yeast can lead to H2S which could end up smelling like rotten egg or burnt rubber.
 
I have just started this recipe. I added 1 tsp of baking soda just to bring the pH up a bit from 3.02 to 3.12. I figure that I can always add citric acid to increase the acidity after fermentation, if necessary. My OG was only 1.062. I am considering adding another lb of corn sugar.

I also have a Skeeter Pee and a Twisted Mist Hard Lemonade fermenting. The Skeeter Pee started at a much lower pH so I added 4 tsp of baking soda to that one. I plan to bring the 3 Lemonades to a BBQ in the future and have everyone do a taste test. I will also force carbonate some of each batch and include still and carbed versions in the taste test.

So far, this one smells the best of the three at start-up. It is also foaming quite a bit (like 3/4"), much more than the others.

Thanks for the baking soda tip. I'm not getting the thick foam you mention. Mostly just some pulp pieces floating around on top.

And I got essentially the same OG as you did. Still going for an ABV of 8-9 though.
 
I bottled a batch of this last night. It took close to a week and a second yeast starter before there were any signs of fermentation.

I used 1.2 lbs LME and a bit less sugar than called for to get the ABV around 7% (1.052 SG). Used ~4 cups sugar at bottling along with concentrate to bring it up 1.012.

This stuff is delicious, better than the Skeeter Pee I've made, thanks for the recipe.
 
Thanks for the baking soda tip. I'm not getting the thick foam you mention. Mostly just some pulp pieces floating around on top.

And I got essentially the same OG as you did. Still going for an ABV of 8-9 though.

I also have the pulp and its still foaming up but not as much as yesterday.

Adding the baking soda really helps the yeast out and results in a much quicker ferment especially if the pH is below 3.0. My skeeter pee was at 2.5 before I added the baking soda.

I am on day 3 and the SG is at 1.02 and the bubbling is still going strong. Based on the strength of the fermentation, I think that this might go down below .998 which should give ABV > 8. I decided not to add any more fermentables. It won't be as strong as my Skeeter Pee or Twisted Mist but that's ok. It still smells great.
 
On day 10. Gravity down to 1.000 and still getting some air lock action.

Wondering if anyone could give me a little more direction on the bottle carbonation procedure mentioned in this thread. After reading the sticky in the cider forum it seems simple enough. Here's my elaborate plan.

1. On bottling day make the sugar, concentrate, water mixture per the instructions, but omit the sorbate.
2. Bottle in beer bottles.
3. Open a bottle every day until I find the carbonation level is right for me.
4. Stove top pasteurize per the sticky in the cider forum.

Sound about right? Somebody please chime in if I'm way off on anything!

And one more question. Will the bottle carbonation process reduce the sweetness? I'm trying to figure out if I need to add a little extra sugar to offset what gets converted to alcohol and CO2 during the bottle conditioning. Maybe it's an insignificant amount, but thought I'd ask.
 
On day 10. Gravity down to 1.000 and still getting some air lock action.

Wondering if anyone could give me a little more direction on the bottle carbonation procedure mentioned in this thread. After reading the sticky in the cider forum it seems simple enough. Here's my elaborate plan.

1. On bottling day make the sugar, concentrate, water mixture per the instructions, but omit the sorbate.
2. Bottle in beer bottles.
3. Open a bottle every day until I find the carbonation level is right for me.
4. Stove top pasteurize per the sticky in the cider forum.

Sound about right? Somebody please chime in if I'm way off on anything!

And one more question. Will the bottle carbonation process reduce the sweetness? I'm trying to figure out if I need to add a little extra sugar to offset what gets converted to alcohol and CO2 during the bottle conditioning. Maybe it's an insignificant amount, but thought I'd ask.

Sweetness change is insignificant.

I'd bottle a few (like, 4?) in plastic just so I could easily see if they were carbing up by giving them a squeeze. Better than opening a bottle every day.
 
2 weeks is up! Got her down to 1.001 - tastes PFG already.

In the ferm chamber now for a good cold crash for a couple days, then will rack on to back-sweetening mixture and bottle er up.

I'm leaning to 1/2 the amount of cane sugar - anyone do this with less sugar and get good results? Not really in to sweet things - when I make lemondade for example, if it says to fill with 4 cans of water, I'll use 6.
 
I'm leaning to 1/2 the amount of cane sugar - anyone do this with less sugar and get good results? Not really in to sweet things - when I make lemondade for example, if it says to fill with 4 cans of water, I'll use 6.

I thought the same thing on my first batch, and cut back the sugar two cups. Everyone loved it, but I found it a bit too tart.

Can I substitute regular cane sugar for the corn sugar? If so, how much? Thanks!

I switched it out the same amounts in my second batch and was just fine. :)
 
Omg! Just pulled a noob!! I just brewed this and flippin added 2lbs xldme instead of 1. I wonder how its gonna turn out, any ideas?
 
Bottled with 4 cups sugar instead of 8. Tastes perfect!

I only had 2 packs of potassium sorbate though - 11 grams. Hope that was enough. I put some in a plastic bottle so I can see if fermentation kicks in again. If so will pasteurize the rest (they are safely in the ferm chamber to keep those yeast it's sleepy).

Thank you for the recipe. This is good - I've had 3 small glasses just bottling it!
 
I've got a couple questions for those of you who have gone the carbonated route. How long did it take for it to reach your desired carbonation level? And what did you bottle it in?

Been thinking about swing tops vs champagne bottles vs beer bottles. Beer bottles seem to be the cheapest/easiest route, but not crazy about drinking this tasty yellowish drink from an amber bottle. If I could buy clear beer bottles that's the route I would go, but my local shop doesn't carry them and the ones I've found on the interwebs have crazy expensive shipping.

Any help is appreciated!
 
I've got a couple questions for those of you who have gone the carbonated route. How long did it take for it to reach your desired carbonation level? And what did you bottle it in?

Been thinking about swing tops vs champagne bottles vs beer bottles. Beer bottles seem to be the cheapest/easiest route, but not crazy about drinking this tasty yellowish drink from an amber bottle. If I could buy clear beer bottles that's the route I would go, but my local shop doesn't carry them and the ones I've found on the interwebs have crazy expensive shipping.

Any help is appreciated!

Pour in to a glass with ice.

Or buy a case of bud light lime or twisted tea or something and use those.
 
Paulster, I'd go with the glass idea too but if you really want to bottle, buy you some good beer in clear bottles and reuse those.
 
Bottled today. Decided to go with amber beer bottles and a nifty American flag cap (seasonally appropriate). 20 minutes after bottling I walked over to a neighbor's house warming party with a dozen bottles in hand. They were an absolute hit!

I halved the sugar to 4 cups. Everyone that tried it said that was the right decision.

OG 1.064
FG 0.996
ABV after bottling day additions 8.2%

Plan to pasteurize here in a few days once carbonation hits the right level. Hopefully all goes well!

One note. It turned out a lot browner and cloudier than I anticipated. But it still tastes AMAZING.

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I bottled mine on Thursday, and I have been drinking it this weekend. Very good!! I also steeped some culinary lavendar in a cup of water with a tablespoon of sugar. Then I mixed that with three bottles (16 oz) of the lemonade for hard lavendar lemonade. SWMBO LOVED it!! I did too. It was a big hit!!!
This recipe is so much better than any of the other hard lemonade recipes I've done.
 
On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy
 
On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy

I bottled Saturday so I'll let you know in a few days. I'm guessing I'll be pasteurizing tomorrow or Wednesday. I did four PET bottles so I could squeeze test. Opened one yesterday and and got a little "pffffttt".
 
Great thanks....maybe 5-6 will be good....I don't want it too sickening sweet...

Well, what you can do is take something like 1 cup of sugar and dissolve it in 1/2 cup of water (heat it up). Then take that mixture and measure out a small amount and add it to another measured amount of the unsweetened lemonade. Just keep track of the additions and when you get to what you want, you can easily figure it out with some simple math. Even if you don't get it exact, you shoudl still have a good ballpark estimate. I wish I did this. My batch is so close to perfect, but it's not 100% there. Next one will be though!
 
On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy

So I ended up pasteurizing over two evenings. Bottled Saturday, pasteurized half Monday and the other half Tuesday. Looking back I could have waited and pasteurized it all Tuesday, but this is my first attempt at carbonating anything and I got a little nervous. Was thinking about bottle bombs all day yesterday, hoping I wouldn't get a call from the wife telling me to come home because the kitchen was a war zone.

All that to say, next batch I'll let sit for three days before pasteurizing. Hope this helps.
 
So I ended up pasteurizing over two evenings. Bottled Saturday, pasteurized half Monday and the other half Tuesday. Looking back I could have waited and pasteurized it all Tuesday, but this is my first attempt at carbonating anything and I got a little nervous. Was thinking about bottle bombs all day yesterday, hoping I wouldn't get a call from the wife telling me to come home because the kitchen was a war zone.

All that to say, next batch I'll let sit for three days before pasteurizing. Hope this helps.

It helps tons...now I have a good timeframe.

what was the temp that you carb'd at?

also, what plan did you follow? 160, 180 or 190 degrees for 10 min?
 
It helps tons...now I have a good timeframe.

what was the temp that you carb'd at?

also, what plan did you follow? 160, 180 or 190 degrees for 10 min?

I just let it sit at room temp, which in my household is around 76F. I almost exactly followed the sticky in the cider forum. I did two things differently. I loaded up my pot with 9 bottles at a time. And I put some of the lemonade in plastic bottles so I could do a squeeze check every so often rather than opening a bottle every time I got nervous about bottle bombs.

Here's a picture of the fizzy results!

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Ok I have just made this exact brew but used minute maid lemonaid. My gravity at 85 degrees is 1.031.

Doesn't that seem a bit low?
 
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