Hard Limeade

Also posted this in the Good Hard Lemonade but since thread has been around for awhile, wasn't sure if I'd get a response...

Started a Hard Limeade last night. As this is my 2nd attempt, only made a 1 1/2 gallon batch this time. Thanks to Yooper for the hard lemonade recipe this is based on:

2 cans Minute Maid Limeade
3 cups cane sugar
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp Yeast Energizer
Champagne Yeast
1 1/2 gallon Bottled water

1. Thaw limeade cans in pot with hot tap water.
2. Boil 2 pints water and slowly pour in 3 cups of sugar. Stir until dissolved. Take off heat.
3. Empty thawed limeade into clean primary. Rinse cans with bottled water and pour into primary. Keep adding water to 1 gallon mark. Stir.
4. Add water/dissolved sugar mix. Stir. Add water to 1 1/2 gallon mark. Stir, stir, stir... Check temperature.
5. Take hydrometer reading. (my SG was 1.072)
6. Add nutrient, stir. Add energizer, stir, stir, stir.
7. Add yeast. I just pitched right on top. (I didn't have a problem getting it going last time.) Covered over with lightweight dish towel.
This morning: Bubbling away happily!

NOTES:
The last batch I made tasted more like lime wine - just not good! I carbed it with corn sugar and while it took awhile, darn it carbed well! The last batch also had extra light DME and I back flavored with several packets of True Lime. This recipe is a lot more basic so I figured I'd start here and tweak... I only made this small batch because I ended up dumping the other one (6 gallons!) even after individually sweetening bottles,adding flavorings, etc. - it was just gross!

So my current plan:
Let ferment in primary until "head drops" and then rack to 1 gallon jug with airlock. Let sit until FG reached (going for 1.000 or under). Rack 1/2 to primary:

One batch: Backsweeten with about 1/4-1/2 can of limeade. Add sugar, if needed. Bottle to beer bottles and cap. After 2 weeks, check for carbonation.
Other batch: Stabilize with k-meta and pot sorb. Backsweeten with limeade and raspberry beer flavoring - 1/4-1/2 can limeade and maybe 1 TBSP rasp flavoring (will flavor to taste). Bottle in 1/2 gallon jug and refrigerate.

My husband and his cousin go through a lot of Mike's Hard Limeade (lovingly called "Greenies") during the summer up the lake. Your input, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated. I'll let you know how the batches turn out...

Sounds promising keep us posted

I hope this turns out good, I made the same recipe!

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope it goes well, too!
It's still bubbly away! Sounds like Snap! Crackle and Pop!
Mr. Nice Guy: Did you carbonate or backsweeten?
Thanks!

My limeade has been going for over a month now. When it is done I plan on carbing it. I have some lemonade going that is a higher gravity, I'll probably backsweeten it with concentrate.

If it is like Apfelwein, the smallest splash of Sprite will sweeten and "carb" it nicely.

If this turns out good it may be an excuse to get a kegging syatem, carbing and backsweetining, nice.

Sounds good.
The addition of Sprite works for me but the guys might find that too much to deal with. They just want to open and drink.
Apfelwein is my next adventure!
Thanks again.

So, I was wondering about making a version of this: Hard CHERRY Limeade.

Would I add the cherry juice afterward, like backsweeten? Never done one of these.

lrr81765 said:

So, I was wondering about making a version of this: Hard CHERRY Limeade.

Would I add the cherry juice afterward, like backsweeten? Never done one of these.

Click to expand...

I've never done this but I'm excited at maybe being the first to reply!
Perhaps you could do it the same way that I am:

One batch I'm going to backsweeten with more limeade (you would use cherry) and maybe a little corn sugar to carb (I may experiment with carb tabs as I have some).
The other batch I'm going to stabilize with k-meta and pot sorb and then add a bit more limeade and some raspberry flavoring. Anyone remember Brigham's Raspberry-Lime Rickies? Going for a bit of that taste.

UPDATE:
So, in sampling and not thinking, I "double-carbed" the limeade! Checked it today and it was EXPLOSIVE!! Oops! I also forgot to take SG so I'm not sure what it finished out at...
Here's what I did:
I racked both gallon and 1/2 gallon jugs to primary and backsweetened with 1/2 can thawed limeade and 3/4 cup of sugar (took some racked hard limeade and dissolved sugar in it). Stirred and stirred and stirred! Then racked to six 12 oz beer bottles. I then (stupidly not thinking!) added 3 Muntons carb tabs to each bottle, capped and set aside. To the remaining amount in primary, (I spilled some), I added 1 bottle of McCormick's Raspberry Extract, 1 crushed Campden tablet and 1/4 tsp potassium sorbate. Stir, stir, stir and then racked to a gallon jug and refrigerated.
Results:
Non-carbed sample: Nice, sweet lime taste upfront and then delicious raspberry taste on the back end. Very nice - not overly sweet and very tasty; no alcohol taste as fairly low. (Again, didn't take SG so not sure how it finished.)
Carbed sample: Nice lime flavoring. Sweet but no more than a Mike's Hard Limeade; tasted similar to Mike's. Overly carbed, but that can be fixed!

SO HERE'S MY QUESTION: How do I change this to a 5 gallon batch?
I'm going to carbonate it all and add the raspberry flavoring to half (I have some raspberry beer flavoring that I may use as the McCormick extract was delish but very expensive!!! I may see if I can find a cheaper type).
My concern is how much sugar? Using Yooper's recipe, it's 1.5 lbs to a gallon but that would be 7 1/2 lbs. Is that too much? Rocket fuel? Otherwise:

10 cans frozen limeade
5 tsp. yeast nutrient
5 tsp. yeast energizer
1 pkt Champagne yeast
5 gallons of water
??? sugar ???
Backsweeten with:
4-5 cans of limeade
??? 3 3/4 cups sugar???
Raspberry flavoring of some sort for 1/2 batch (2.5 gallons)

Your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated! This was very good!

6 cans ilmeade, 3 cups sugar, wine yeast, 3 gals water in a 4 gal carboy - that's how i do it. two months - come's out good

Most other "mikes" lemonade clone receipes I've seen has some sort of DME... doesn't look like you guys are using DME, is there a particular reason why you are avoiding DME? I'm going to try something like this but also instead use the wyeast "sweet mead" liquid yeast. I'm not a fan of the super dry finish that champagne yeast gives IMHO...

I believe a cup of sugar is closer to 7 ounces, so you didn't use quite 1.5 lbs in your one gallon batch. This was also 1.5 gallons originally, and you racked to 1 gallon (unless I misread something, I didn't think you'd have that much trub/pulp).

So 7 ounces per 1/2 gallon, into 5 gallons (10 half-gallons) = 7*10 = 70

70 / 16 ounces per lb = 4.375, but you could probably round up to 4.5 lbs.

It's early, so I may have messed up the math, or misread your original recipe/plan. 7.5 lbs sounds like way too much to me though.

Other than that, it sounds really tasty. Let me know if my heads up my A__. I've yet to make a hard limeade, so I'm speaking from a volume/weight conversion POV only, not from experience.

I just finished bottling this and it was excellent! I added potassium sorbets to stop fermentation a day before bottling. Then I back sweetened with half a can of limeade concentrate. I love this recipe! Thanks!

10 cans frozen limeade
5 tsp. yeast nutrient
5 tsp. yeast energizer
1 pkt Champagne yeast(EC1118)
5 gallons of water
8 #s corn sugar
(almost top out my 6.5 gallon bucket)
loose lid with cotton towel over the airlock hole.
this has a very thick(1/2 inch thick) krausen.

This is my 3rd attempt and I have a question for everyone who has made this.
I've noticed that after mine gets below 1.05 (SG was 1.084) then it starts to get a slightly yeasty flavor, and the lower the fg gets the more pronounced the yeast flavor get.
I figure that now at 1.05 my alcohol is around +-5%, so I am thinking of racking and pasteurizing to see if this stops the yeast flavor from getting worse.
Any ideas on what is causing this?
Harry

Do you use only a primary for this or do you rack it to another carboy? I have had a test batch in a gallon carboy for 5 weeks, the airlock is bubbling twice a minute. Should I rack it or leave it alone for the full two months?

Thanks,
BH