Hard lemonade recipe - adjustments?

Hi all,

im planning on making some hard pink lemonade in my primary thats sitting around doing nothing. :cross:

I found an interesting recipe for Mikes Hard lemonade and am wondering if anyone has tried this recipe.

I assume that the extra 3 gallons of water added should be boiled and cooled before being added?

And this recipe does not call for secondary. I feel a little uncomfortable about not secondarying it. Im not in any rush so I think ill secondary (The 1-2-3 method).?

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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 to 170 for 15 minutes. Cool and add the frozen concentrate and 3 gallons of water. Pitch yeast. I've never used yeast nutrient, but this recipe could probably stand to have some added for faster fermentation. It takes about two weeks or so to finish fermenting, then straight to bottles. I use soda bottles since that's what the pint bottles are with Mike's Hard Lemonade.

I've used baker's yeast for this recipe in the past when I was experimenting, and it'll work, but takes a loong time to ferment out. My latest batch uses SafAle 56 dry yeast.
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Can I do this with real lemons and my juicer?

i am on my second batch now - it takes about a month to 6 weeks to ferment out and i just left it in the primary until it bubbles at 1 per 2 minutes.then in secondary for 2 weeks to clear.
very important is to start your yeast in sugar water and slowly add some lemonade concentrate over the space of a few hours to acclimatize the yeast to the citric acid. search hard lemonade and you will find good info posted by lorenae.
i added 1 tablespoon of gypsum /5 gallons to the above recipe and used lavlin ec1118 yeast. prime like beer when it has fermented out and you will have a great
sparkling beverage. some of my friends thought it was too malty but most liked it.
i added a seventh can of concentrate when the bubbling slowed and ended up at
8.5% abv. good luck

I have a carboy.

Id have to make sure that the concentrate cans were at room temperature before slowly adding?

Are we talking about adding one can every hour? Hmmmm/.

to start the yeast i just added 1 tablespoon of thawed concentrate to my yeast starter every hour until it was bubbling well and then added to main batch that had the rest of the cans in it.

britishbloke said:

12 oz Cans Lemonade frozen concentrate

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If only we got those in Britain!
Orfy - Use lemon/lime juice and the pared zest. It works for me!

OK so add thawed concentrate into the yeast starter glass? Should I add some water in first? Or pour concentrate straight into the liquid (starter) that goes into the glass?

Thanks.

hydrate your yeast in cooled boiled water as usual.(i used about 1 1/2 cups of water)
after it has hydrated - 5-10 minutes add 1 tablespoon of thawed frozen concentrate. wait until it is bubbling and add another tablespoon every hour or so
after 4 hours of feeding i pitched it into the main batch and fermentation took off within 24 hours

I started this about a week ago I used 5 cans of lemons and 1 of lime frozen conentrate. I mixed the 2 frozen conentrate cans into every 1 gallon of water to help cool the 2 1/2 gallons of sugar/water. As for the yeast, I used safale-56 and started the yeast just in water for 15 minutes then pitched into to primary and with in 24 hours I had full fermentation. I did use the extra bathtub to keep temp. down to 66-68 degrees for the first week.

I did
1 lb corn sugar
3 lb of light malt
and 6 can of lemonade

its in the clearing tank now and taste good but don't go does as fast as a mike's

oh and whats gypsum?

WM10 : Gypsum (2 oz) - Calcium Sulfate. Used to add permanent hardness (Calcium ions) to brewing water
i thought it would help to counteract the acidity of the citric acid and make an easier environment for the yeast

OK< I have the pound of light malt now.

I have 6 cans of fruit punch. I cant find any preservatives listed on the can like sorbate so I think it should be good to go.

So get the yeast started and then add a tablespoon an hour to get it going. For cold water do you use tap water? I probably would want to boil it and get to room tempurature first. Incase of bacteria?

You should be able to use the same water you use for making your beer.

OK I can use that.

I dont have any gypsum though. I want to boil the water first to get rid of bacteria and then leave it outside covered and use it the next day...

As the recipe says to add the ingredients to cold water for whatever reason.

Wouldnt the yeast not like such cold tempuratures in the beginning? Or it would just be a slower beginning ferment?

Im going to try this today.

Only problem is I couldnt get lemade concentrate and got fruit punch. I hope that works the same.....

the gypsum shouldn't matter - i added it because i had it and thought it might help.
i am also considering the fruit punch next time.
let us know how it turns out.
good luck

Will do Rod, I appreciate youre time.....

Ill send you one in the mail if it turns out good,

britishbloke said:

OK< I have the pound of light malt now.

I have 6 cans of fruit punch. I cant find any preservatives listed on the can like sorbate so I think it should be good to go.?

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Will the fruit punch be strong enough? Is it a concentrate?

Strong enough? I dont see why it wouldnt. It is concentrate.

I have an extra can I could put in. Its a good brand name also.:cross:

Tell me which one then.....So I can get

I'm not sure I've seen concentrates in can.

Its called Old Orchard . They sell many types of juice.

This one was on sale for 69 cents each. Nice bargain.

Where do you live Rod?

Im in Wisconsin, Madison.........

ahh ha, I see youre from england.

I moved 8 years ago.

Man send me some fish and chips or some sausage in batter. I cant wait to go back to London, im dieing for some english food!

Ohh the pain!

That's why I can't get it then.

You're name got me.



All home made.

looks so good orfy!
both my parents and grandparents were from england
i am first generation canadian.
went for a visit when i was 9 and still remember those fish and chips wrapped in newspaper

I was in Portsmouth with the USMC 1986. I stopped at the little grub shop, off the post near the Royal Navy entrance gate at Portsmouth, it had the nicest little bird dishing out grub and the best fish & chips.

The 3 Strongbows and the 8 Whitbread Best Bitters helped.......

Next day... sober, it was still awesome....

.... Long John's, ...eat your heart out!!!


I'm an original Chicagoan, Greek Gyros & Italian beefs with gardinera.... awesome 3 sheets to the wind... topped of with 6 white castles.

pHHHHHHst. next morning :cross:

Don't stand so close to me.....

DAMMIT!

Thats another thing! I was downtown chicago to see the King Tut tomb exibition and almost got my chance to try whitecastle. Damn but we had to keep driving!

They had a 10 burgers for 5 bucks deal. I was hungry thinking about it the whole day.

Theres arent any whitecastles near Madison.

britishbloke said:

ahh ha, I see youre from england.

I cant wait to go back to London, im dieing for some english food!

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Hahaha, how can people actually eat that stuff - u should go to France and get some REAL cuisine (note I am 1/2 French).

Back on to the topic - It sucks that I live in New Zealand, cos I don't think we get anything like that down here. How does the malt work with the lemon btw, it sounds interesting, not sure if I would like it much.

orfy said:

That's why I can't get it then.

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Orfy, I picked up some today in Lidl today for my next 'Hard Lemonade' experiment. No perservatives. I've never seen it in there before so if you want to try it get down to your Local store quick, they might not have it for long.

Cheers caplan.

Do you have further details.
What type of container is it in. Where in the store and the name of it?

Ta.

Orfy,

Quick pic below - 75cl metal can, It wasn't with the fruit juices, it was above one of the freezer sections.

Cheers.

I'll re-read the thread and go look in the morning.

Just to make it clear Orfy, it's not a frozen concentate! (the US/Canadian one's in thread obviously are)

Well it 0530 in the morning, I just had this sudden erg to go to the bathroom because why, I heard running water, why is it O 530 well that’s because it’s oh my god it’s to early for “that was not my hard lemonade I just heard explode!! Was it?” That’s right that was the sound I heard this morning that had awaken me this early in the morning. 2 gallons of hard lemonade just exploded in the kitchen. I had transferred 4 gallons to 1-gallon jugs over the weekend and primed with a ½ cup of corn sugar like I would for beer. NOT A GOOD IDEA! Well it’s a least I had a chance to try the first 2 gallons they turned out great, we drank them within hours after transferring. Next time I will keg and prime with less corn sugar.

is htree a recipe for this useing beer extract, instead of the dry malt?
it sounds interesting, but only readiably available things here are the cans of extract.

I am reviving this thread from the dead to ask some ?'s If I am bottling I am assuming I should not add Campden Tablets so I do not kill off the yeast. How much priming sugar is added to bottle 5gal?

zman said:

I am reviving this thread from the dead to ask some ?'s If I am bottling I am assuming I should not add Campden Tablets so I do not kill off the yeast. How much priming sugar is added to bottle 5gal?

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Campden (potassium metabisulfite) doesn't kill yeast, but if you're not aging it long, there isn't a need for it. It's a preservative, and an antioxidant. If you're priming it, it's probably best to leave it out just in case it stuns the yeast a bit.

Anyway, you can prime just as you would beer. 1 ounce per gallon would probably be fine (of dextrose). For table sugar, I think it's a little different but I'm not 100% sure.

Orfy said:

That's why I can't get it then.

You're name got me.



All home made.

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Dang it Orfy...I know I'm a picky eater, but I have to tell you that I can not recognize anything on that plate except the catsup...and I don't even like that.

I'm guessing that's taters under the catsup, but I could be wrong.

Funny this topic came up... I just started a 1 gallon test batch. After researching a lot of recipes, I decided to try one with fresh lemons rather than the lemonade concentrate method. 10 lemons - first removed the outer skin (without the pith) and made a lemonade with the squeezed juice and sugar, bringing it to about 1.09 sg. I made a starter with champagne yeast with 1/2 teaspoon yeast energizer and 1/2 teaspoon yeast nutrient, and then slowly added the lemonade, cup by cup, over a few hours, along with the peeled skins. So far, a slow fermentation, but it is active. I'm giving it a few shakes every day, again, based on what I've read from others who have gone this route. Apparently the acid content is not very friendly to the yeast, but I'm optimistic that I can come up with a nice summer beverage. Hopefully it works out.

Unable to buy pre-made lemonade here without preservitaves, so decided to give it a go with my own.

Here's what used;

Juice of 6 lemons
3 litres of water
2kg Sugar
2 Table spoons Alcotech Turbo 48 Yeast
and Zest of 3 of the lemons

Started the yeast in 1 cup of 40 degree C water, and a few spoons of sugar

Boiled the juice, Zest and sugar together

Allowed to cool to appx 40 degrees C

Added a few spoons to the yeast mixture, left for a few hours, then combined in my formentation unit.

Been Turbo Yeast, fermentation was over in 5 days or so.

Bottled,

Added 1 Table Spoon of sugar to each bottle.

2 weeks later, chilled and surved

Result was a plesent dry sparkling lemonade, at 19% Alc/Vol. it was very drinkable and the Alcohol content did not contribute to much taste. Really just a crisp fresh dry bottle of lemonade.

I just used the OP's recipe (except with regular lemonade instead of pink). I hope it works out.

The lemonade concentrate that had sodium citrate, but I don't think that will have an effect on the fermentation. I decided to slowly acclimate the yeast (EC-1118) to the lemonade a tablespoon at a time over about 3 or 4 hours. There was still a foam at the top of the starter at the end of it all.

I used about 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient before I pitched the yeast starter, but after about 4 hours, I noticed that there was quite a bit of sediment. I'm going to stir it back in now, but I hope everything works out.

Any comments on my choice of yeast?

i mixed up a 3 Gal batch of hard lemonade
Used 5 cans lemonade concentrate, 1 lbs amber malt extract, 1 lbs sugar.

Kegged it up after fermentation stopped and force carbed.

Poured a glass, and the smell is too high on the Sulfer to be drinkable. The taste isn't too bad if you plug your nose tho. Any thing that may help with the smell?

I have pulled it from the fridge to let sit for a while to see if that helps.