Louisiana Lemonade

I realize this isn't exactly a cider...not sure where to post.

A few years back my wife and I visited New Orleans and I "discovered" Louisiana Lemonade which is basically lemonade and rum. But I found it very enjoyable and refreshing. So I thought I'd try to duplicate it but with hard lemonade.

I recently made this--haven't sampled it yet though.

3 1/2 gallons of organic lemonade (that was all they had or I would have done 5).
peel of 3 lemons
1lb of sugar
yeast...I can't remember what yeast I used now.

I let that go for 3 1/2 weeks
stabilized it
Added 1 cup of simple syrup and 1 375ml bottle of Bacardi Limon.

Hopefully this snow will melt, it'll warm up and I can try it!

In Tennessee they call it Lynchburg Lemonade

Sounds like Skeeter Pee without the addition of Rum.

http://skeeterpee.com/

Ahhh, you beat me to it :/ I was gonna mention the skeeter pee lol. Sounds nice though. Did you have any fermentation problems?

Well I had a glass of it today...it is still young but I must say I'll be making this again. I've thought of making skeeter pee but this is pretty good too!

I think the reason I have never attempted Skeeter Pee is because don't you need a yeast cake from a white wine? I don't make wine, (especially whites) so I don't know what would be a good way to over pitch it.

I'm not sure about it...I read about making it a while back but didn't like some aspect of it. Whatever the case, this is a great alternative and easy.

ChasidicCalvinist said:

Well I had a glass of it today...it is still young but I must say I'll be making this again. I've thought of making skeeter pee but this is pretty good too!

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Any yeast cake ought to work. I don't believe the recipe specifies. Just remember that a little flavor from the previous brew may proceed into your skeeter pee.

I am planning on doing skeeter pee soon and someone on that forum suggested making a yeast starter with white grape juice. You start the yeast and prepare the lemonade and 48 hours later the chemicals from the lemon juice evaporate an the yeast are healthy enough to overcome a highly acidic new environment. They also suggest adding the lemonade mixture to the starter until it is close to the same acidity.

I like the idea of adding the lemon peels to the batch. Did you make this carbonated? That's what I want to do since it will be like champagne.

Pickled_Pepper said:

I think the reason I have never attempted Skeeter Pee is because don't you need a yeast cake from a white wine? I don't make wine, (especially whites) so I don't know what would be a good way to over pitch it.

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I just made two 5.5 gal batches of skeeter pee with no yeast slurry or starter...just 3 packets of yeast (i used EC-1118) fermentation started within 12 hrs. fermented to .998 on one batch and .995 on the other....

fear not - brew on!

buckeyeintexas said:

I am planning on doing skeeter pee soon and someone on that forum suggested making a yeast starter with white grape juice. You start the yeast and prepare the lemonade and 48 hours later the chemicals from the lemon juice evaporate an the yeast are healthy enough to overcome a highly acidic new environment. They also suggest adding the lemonade mixture to the starter until it is close to the same acidity.

I like the idea of adding the lemon peels to the batch. Did you make this carbonated? That's what I want to do since it will be like champagne.

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That sounds like an awesome strategy. I 'll have to try that
Ps. Sorry, quoted wrong person. Darn apple devices

Pickled_Pepper said:

I think the reason I have never attempted Skeeter Pee is because don't you need a yeast cake from a white wine? I don't make wine, (especially whites) so I don't know what would be a good way to over pitch it.

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You do NOT need a yeast cake from anything to make Skeeter Pee. watch this video. This is how I have made several successful batches of Skeeter Pee.

Just throwing in my (simple) 2 cents...I made hard lemonade a couple times last summer and I bought the frozen concentrate that doesn't seem to have preservatives. You can mix it up a bit as there is lemon, lemon-lime, lemon-raspberry. Most of the bottled non-fridgerated concentrate has preservatives. I added water and white sugar to get it up to 1.08. No starter. Just pitched rehydrated Lalvin 1116 (cousin of 1118) and swirled my carboy for the first 2 days randomly. Just my simple take on it. The yeast environment is quite acidic and unfriendly which is why I went for no preservatives and the monster yeast. Just giving another alternative. Good luck!

buckeye, no I did not carb this. I've had one too many bad experiences with stovetop pasturizing my hard ciders. I know, I know, it is easy. Something just doesn't compute and so I get bottle bombs. After a couple of batches of bottle bombs I don't make any of my ciders (in this case lemonade) carbonated.

In other news, as a former OSU alum I recently made a Silver Bullet IPA (all Columbus hops) for this coming football season. However, I don't think the batch will last until then...

UpstateMike said:

You do NOT need a yeast cake from anything to make Skeeter Pee. watch this video. This is how I have made several successful batches of Skeeter Pee.

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Thanks for posting this video, Mike. I appreciate you guys setting the record straight about not needing a slurry.

CRAP! Now I'm going to have to go out and buy all those wine ingredients so I can make this for summertime! I've never used Tannin, Nutrient, Energizer, Sorbate, Sulfites etc etc before...I guess this will have to be my crash course!

I like jtothea's idea of adding different flavors. I plan to make a 5 gallon batch and then prime with different flavors for each gallon.

A lot of people on the skeeter pee forum suggest skipping the slurry and just pitching 2 packets of ec-1118 since it is only about a dollar a pack.

As far as pickled pappers buying new equipment you could still try your raisin trick for nutrient. I also saw some posts on the sk. Pee forum about boiling or killing some yeast and using that as an energizer. They also recommend degassing for a few reasons including the fact that co2 makes carbonic acid. By releasing the co2 you make it slightly easier for the yeast to do their job. I don't want to buy a degasser so I am going to bend a wire hanger and stick it in my drill like in that video.

I like the ingenuity. The one in the video does look like a plastic coat hanger.

ChasidicCalvinist said:

Well I had a glass of it today...it is still young but I must say I'll be making this again. I've thought of making skeeter pee but this is pretty good too!

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Far better name as well.

Skeeter pee is literally the worst name for anything.

Pickled_Pepper said:

I like the ingenuity. The one in the video does look like a plastic coat hanger.

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I have the same Wine Whip that they use in the video. Very easy to use with a cordless drill. Great for mixing too.