Hard lemonade question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

speedster00

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
76
Reaction score
2
Location
Houston
I asked my local brew store about lemonade and he suggested to literally put wine yeast on 5 gallons of regular lemonade made from concentrate. Being that it's frozen, there is not a risk of contamination and concentrate is sugary enough....so I did. I used 11 cans of concentrate for my 5 gallons, and pitched the yeast. He did say I would have to re-sweeten with table sugar and to add potassium sorbate to stop any secondary fermentation after I resweeten. Once I had it in the Car boy and pitched my yeast, I realized I forgot to take my gravity. So I siphoned some out of the middle, and it read 1.05. Isn't that quite low? Or did I not take the gravity right? I mixed the lemonade slightly heavy and that stuff is loaded with sugar. Maybe I took the reading wrong? Ideas?
 
Thanks golddiggie. Reading through that thread I notice people were using a lot less concentrate for smaller batches, but also adding sugar. I just made the lemonade as i normally wood do for full strength in my 5 gallon jug. I dont want a lemonade that's so strong it's one glass and done. I'm hoping it will be in the 6-8%range. I may use the sorbate to stop the yeast but I'll take a gravity after it's sat for a week. Since my first reading was 1.05, I guess I'll stop around 1. But again, I have no idea what to expect and I'm assuming I took my gravity correctly.
 
If you have room in the carboy you could always add a highly concentrated sugar solution to boost your abv.
 
With something like hard lemonade, depending on the yeast you pitched in, it could ferment down to .990-.998... I haven't taken a gravity reading on mine yet. I just added another can of concentrate in order to get some more flavor into it. I'll be priming with another can next week. It's getting close to the limit of the yeast, so I figure it will carbonate what it can, and then the rest will be residual sweetness. I plan on letting it carbonate in a plastic bin, to ensure no mess is created. :rockin: I also use stronger bottles, that I know won't fail (Belgian bottles are designed for HIGH CO2 volumes, I think the Grolsch will also hold up well to higher volumes).

I'll be letting my batch stay in the bin for at least a month, maybe two, before I chill one bottle down to try. At that point, I'll decide what to do with it...

I'm already thinking of what to use in the next batch. I already have the yeast on hand, so that decision is easy... It's more a matter of making sure it retains the flavors I want.

I'm NOT going to dump mine... If it's not ready for drinking this spring/summer, then there's a high chance it will be come next spring. :ban:

Time heals most brews...
 
When I make Yoopers Hard Lemonade I add #1 to #1.5 of DME to give it more backbone. I also do not have to worry about back sweetening it.
 
Checking mine today I'm on 48hrs fermenting. I added some yeast nutrient and it's fermenting but appears very slow. I have about half inch of krausen on the top but I have zero airlock activity. Which I think is weird. I wondered if I had a leek or my air lock was cracked so I replaced with my other one. I could smell the alcohol so I know it's fermenting, but I don't know why I don't have airlock movement.
 
Airlock movement isn't the only sign of fermentation, you may very well have a leak somewhere (around your bung/lid etc). Just look for the little bubbles rising up the sides :)
 
I took a sample today after fermenting for 3 days...1.048. So it's barely dropped in 3 days?? I thought this would have gone much faster...
 
Did you make a starter? Lemon juice is quite low in pH (high in acidity) which may be hindering your yeast. If you suspect this is the case, you can make a starter and repitch the yeast.
 
Test the PH in it... If it's below 3.2, add some potassium carbonate to increase the PH to at least 3.2... Otherwise, you're probably looking at about a week before things take off well...
 
gotcha. so low PH stalls the yeast. But I just let it set it "should" get going? or is raising the PH necessary?
 
All depends on how low the PH actually is... If it's really low, not much will probably happen... OR it will take forever to get going, be slow to ferment, and such... Right now, I suspect the low PH is stressing the yeast (not a good thing at all)...
 
So here's my update. On day 6 I checked my gravity and it was 1.044. Down from a
Starting 1.05. Today I checked it again and no change which is day 10. I checked the lemonade I used and it didn't list any preservatives. So I added 4 pounds of sugar, made a yeast starter and re-pitched with some nutrient. As soon as I put the airlock on I had some airlock activity. I will say that over the past week I have only had a towel on the carboy. But judging by the gravity, there hadn't been any yeast activity. So now my gravity is 1.068. Maybe repitching and adding sugar fired it off? I haven idea how this will turn out...hopefully this last pitch and sugar will take it down to a good level and maybe salvage my batch. Any thoughts?
 
I would seriously check to see what the PH is... In the threads on Got Mead? they talk about serious lag time from when the yeast was pitched to actual good fermentation (1-2 weeks)... One person decided to correct the PH early and his took off much faster. Which is one of the reasons why I adjusted mine before pitching the yeast in...
 
i keep hard lemonade, and i use 11 cans for 5 gallons, and either montrachet or pasteur red wine yeast. i also add 4 lbs table sugar. boosts it to 14%. after 30 days, potassium sorbate. a few days later, keg or bottle
 
They should have one set for beer, and the other for wine... I'd get both, so you have them on hand... Also get some pot. bicarb. while you're there to adjust the PH as needed.

I'm already planning my next batch of hard lemonade... I'll be using a 5 gallon carboy, so that I don't need to use a blow-off tube. I'll also probably use regular sugar instead of honey... Still leaning towards unprocessed/raw sugar over table sugar though.
 
Thanks lumpher. What I pitched was mantrachet yeast. I basically am trying the same thing you make. Do you use an airlock or just a towel? And, do you know what you final gravity is? Is the table sugar all you ad or do you have to back sweeten? Thanks for the help. I hope I havent messed this up....
 
I have something similar in the fermenter.

2 qts. lemon juice, add a third after a week of fermentation
7 lbs. sugar
yeast nutrient
yeast energizer
Red Star Montrachet (cake from a batch of EdWorts Apfelwein)

It took almost a week to begin airlock activity. Even with a fresh yeast cake.
 
i prefer montrachet yeast, as it sounds like you used. i use an ale pail with an airlock, and the airlock barely even lifts. og is aroung 1.110, and final gravity is around 1.004. i don't back-sweeten, as i like it very tart. it will take several days to even start moving gravity
 
Ok thanks. If that's working for you, it's the same thing I'm doing so it "should" work. I'll just let it sit a lot longer..mines only been going for 10 days and I do see activity tonight after I added the sugar. I guess it's just the waiting game now. I don't know how to calculate it but if I was at 1.05 and went to 1.044, the re-pitched and sugared to 1.068, then let that drop to 1.02' I wonder what my final abv will be...
 
Update. I took a sample just now and it's at 1.06. I still have some airlock activity so I know it's still fermenting but it definitely smells like alcohol. Yes I know that sounds weird but the lemonade is very pulpy and cloudy. I'm wondering if my gravity just isn't going to get that low because of it. The original unsweetened batch started at 1.048. Since I added sugars, what if I stop around mid 4's? I'm just wondering if my readings are naturally high because of all the pulp and bits in the lemonade out of the can
 
First I want to thank you guys for you help. I've been reading though this forum and found a lot of helpful tips. I'm brewing a raspberry limeade.

- 8 Cans Limeade
- 4 Cans Raspberry Lemonade
- 1 Lb. Dextrose
- 0.5 Lb. Table Sugar
- 2 Pkg. Red Star Cham Yeast

OG = 76

Just got her going last night and my yeast wasn't moving much this morning either. I'm warming her up in a warm bath in order to help to yeast a little bit. Also, I plan on sweetening with lactose and then priming with more dextrose. I'll keep you updated!

Any tips, comments, or questions are welcome...
 
So I've done about 5 batches of this so far.
My super easy way -
5 gal batch
10 Cans Minutemade
2# cane sugar, into syrup
4 tsp yeast nutrient
2 tsp yeast engerizer
4 crushed campden tablets
Mix the above with water to make 5 gal. Pull off about 2 qts. (this is a 1.070)

With a cup of warm water, hydrate
TWO packs of EC1118. Just trust me on this one :)

Make that into a starter, adding about 400ml every couple of hours - let the yeast foam on top.

I let that sit overnight to build up some yeast, and pitch it. It takes right off at room temps.

I will usually add another 10 points of sugar (~1#) after about 3 days to give the yeasties some more crack

This will dry out to <1.0, and I've found about 30g/gal of Splenda to do the trick for a nice lemonde with about 6.5-7 abv.
 
Update- I'm at 1.038. So after 4 more days I'm down .01 point. In need to drop .02 more. But it's been 16 days and I'm just impatient. My beer is usually drinkable in 10 or less.
 
It would have been finished already if you had adjusted the PH earlier...

Mine was done actually fermenting, the first time, within 2 weeks of starting it... I even racked onto some more concentrate after a month to get more flavor into the batch. About a week later I bottled it... I'm planning on letting it sit until towards the end of next week where I'll chill down one bottle so that I can get some family feedback on it (over Easter weekend)... I suspect this batch won't be ready for a bit longer though.

I'm already thinking about starting another batch this week, so that it's ready within another month or two. I don't think I'll use honey for the extra sugar this time though. I also think I'll use one of my 5 gallon carboy's for the 3 gallon batch.
 
I agree I should have checked the ph. My lhbs is not close to my house. I didn't have Time to get over there recently. Next time.
 
Online vendors/stores are always an option... The pot. bicarb. is only a few ounces in a jar. Cheap shipping on it, probably much more than the item cost. Just put some other things you'll be needing to get anyway with the order and it helps to soften that blow...

The LHBS I visit is about 30-40 minutes from where I live. I do make sure I plan my trips so that I'm not going back within a couple of days. Just means I need to plan my trips a bit better.

I would suggest getting the pot. bicarb. before you go to make another hard lemonade batch, or anything else that's more acidic. Having PH test strips (again, you can either buy local or order them up online) really helps. It's not like you'll be going through these items quickly... Well, unless you're making a lot of batches, a little will go a long way.

BTW, the original recipes I found on Got Mead? mentioned serious lag time from when the yeast was pitched. In the order of several days before fermentation went active/post lag... Making the PH level better for the yeast drops that time significantly. So if you don't want to wait for the yeast to deal with the highly acidic must, then you need to increase the PH to a level where the yeast won't have the issue.
 
Thanks again for the advice gold. I'll be placing an order. Are the test strips and pot. Bicarbonate all I need to test and adjust?
 
Pretty much... The test strips come in two versions... One for beer the other for wine. I picked up both so that I can test my mash as well as higher acid musts... I just checked the jar of pot. bicarb. and PH test strips. None of them have expiration dates on them... The pot. bicarb. jar I picked up has 5 ounces in it... Should last you a decent amount of time, or more than a few batches. If you start running low, just plan to order more next chance you get. If you don't have DAP already, I'd get a jar of that too. Good stuff to have on hand.
 
looks like I'll be able to swing by my LHBS today on my way home. Im going to pick up the strips and Pot Bicarb and check levels this evening. That should help those last few points I need happen quickly.
 
So I just kegged it. FG was 1.028. which means I ended up in the 6% ABV range. After being carbed and poured over ice, its decent, but it doesnt have tons of flavor. I expected a stronger lemonade taste and this is pretty mild. I'll drink it, but is there a way I can add flavor to it?
 
Add more concentrate once you have some space in the keg... I used about 8 cans in 3 gallons of total volume in mine. Since it's only been 10 days in bottles, I'm not going to try one yet. I figure that this first batch will help guide me in future batches.

I am already looking to make a carbonated hard ginger ale/hydromel... :D Another 3 gallon batch, using Dememera sugar and 2-3# of fresh ginger root. Planning on getting the ingredients either Saturday or Sunday to make it up. Formulating it to stop around 10-12%, using Lalvin D47 yeast...

For yours lacking flavor, it could be the yeast strain you selected. Since you stopped it before it fermented too much of the available sugars, it might not have had the time to do what it could have. Stressing the yeast initially wouldn't have helped much either.

Look at it this way, you have things you can change for the next batch you brew. Keep making batches, changing things, until you get a recipe that really works. Personally, I don't expect my first hard lemonade to be stellar, but I do want it to be drinkable. At least eventually. It might need some aging time to get there, but I can live with that. :D
 
Back
Top