Hard Lemonade. Any Suggestions?

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MrMoose

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So 4 hours ago I threw 9 lemonade concentrate cans (with no bad stuff in them) 5 lemons and a pineapple in the sock strainer thing, 2 tsp pectic enzyme, 4 campden tablets, 4.4lbs of sugar and 5 gallons of water in the primary. Hygrometer thing reads 60 or 153.
Should I pitch my yeast know or wait?
Will SG go up still from sugar in pineapple and fresh lemons?

Thanks Y'all

Was thinking of putting this in pepsi keg and carbonating and bottling like I do with my beer....anyone ever done that with this type of brew?
 
Pitch your yeast. It won't get sweeter. The yeast will eat through the pineapple and lemons on their own. When fermentation stops, press out the straining bag.
 
Took 12 hours and she was working, another 12 and working real good. Will the alcohol be higher then what was measured due to the sugars in the pineapple and lemons?
 
No, it will probably stay around about the same, if a teensy bit lower. Pineapple and lemon juice probably has a lower gravity than 1.060 (your hydrometer reading), while still increasing the water content, but since there's only 5 lemons and a pineapple in a 5 gal batch, it will only make a very slight difference.
 
Heres another easy hard lemonade recipe.

2lbs. Corn Sugar
2lbs. clover honey
2lbs. light malt extract
6 cans frozen lemonade concentrate
* Optionial Fruit puree 2-3 lbs
6% ABV estimated

1 packet nottingham dried ale yeast

Bring 1.5 gallons of water to a boil. Add sugar, honey, and malt extract. Boil for 5 minutes. Chill the wort in a covered pot. When cooled pour ingredients into the primary fermentor. Top off with enough cooled water to make 5 gallons. Pitch yeast and ferment in the primary for about one week or until primary fermentation has completed. Add 6 cans of thawed lemonade concentrate to the secondary fermentor, you can also add any aseptic fruit puree you like at this point (think rasberry-lemonade). Rack the contents of the primary to the secondary until fermentation completes (usually about a week). Keg or bottle as normal but make sure to use a cheesecloth or steeping bag around end of siphon to filter out lemon/fruit particles.

Note: I know there are many processes for fruit/lemonade out there but this method works for me and bypasses the difficult initial ferment hard lemonade can have due to the high acidity levels by giving the yeast a head start in the primary. If you want it a bit sweeter you can add a pound of lactose to the last 5-10 minutes of the boil.
 
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