Extra Hard Lemonade

Yakima 728
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haha mine got all drank up over the summer and I've been doing all my holiday brews up till lately. :) soon enough I'll picture it up.
 
Here's an early ferment pic.

Dickhead's XXXtra Hard Lemonade.jpg
 
Yea SWMBO is taking those ones to work. I have been promised cookies for me, but have been stealing work cookies just in case.
 
JoshuaW said:
I pitched mine with Nottingham on Friday, since that was all the "spare" yeast I had, and I didnt really feel like driving 20 miles to the LHBS just for a yeast run. So far it has been slow to start. There is definitely some activity, the lid on the bucket kind swells after 2-3 hours, but there has not been any airlock activity. The airlock is floting, so I have a feeling that it is bubbling, just at a significantly slow rate. It hasnt been very long, so I am going to stick it out and see what happens. At what point should I consider repitching, or is there anything I can do to help it along? I am kind of thinking maybe make up a warm sugar/water solution, take a sample from the batch, and create a second "starter" assuming that the sample has enough viable yeast, of course. Good learning experience, I suppose.
Click to expand...

I want to update, it did get going. By the 22nd (six days after originally starting) I finally got noticeable bubbling on the airlock (still slow, about once every two minutes at best) and my gravity was lower by 0.002 from start. It is still going super slow, but it is clearly working. In the future I most certainly will use a stronger starter, maybe mixing part of the sugar solution with some energizer and letting that work for a few days before adding the lemonade.

This is WAY slower than beer and cider, almost enough to drive you mad! But, it is crawling along.
 
Mine is going slow also, but should be finishing up sometime this weekend. All in all I'm very impressed with the yeast, since I simply dumped all this right onto a old apfelwein cake.
 
My 2nd batches (earlier in this thread) used:

10 cans concentrate, 10lbs sugar, US-05 *started* + EC-1118 *finished*, 90 day ferment. The result was a sweeter, highly alcoholic. I think my yeast morphed and couldn't finish.

My 3rd batch (started yesterday) will use 8 cans limeade, 6lbs sugar, and nottingham. I wonder if notty will kick through the entire batch.

If it doesn't, do you think a wine yeast like Cuvee or Cote de Blanc could finish it the way EC-1118 does? I want to avoid EC-1118 if I can.
 
scotched said:
My 2nd batches (earlier in this thread) used:

10 cans concentrate, 10lbs sugar, US-05 *started* + EC-1118 *finished*, 90 day ferment. The result was a sweeter, highly alcoholic. I think my yeast morphed and couldn't finish.

My 3rd batch (started yesterday) will use 8 cans limeade, 6lbs sugar, and nottingham. I wonder if notty will kick through the entire batch.

If it doesn't, do you think a wine yeast like Cuvee or Cote de Blanc could finish it the way EC-1118 does? I want to avoid EC-1118 if I can.
Click to expand...

Why or for what reasons would you want to avoid EC-1118? Just curious.
 
I have a belgian abbey that is finishing up- any ideas how this lemonade would be with 1214? I think that the yeast is ethanol tolerant to 12%.
 
scotched said:
My 2nd batches (earlier in this thread) used:

10 cans concentrate, 10lbs sugar, US-05 *started* + EC-1118 *finished*, 90 day ferment. The result was a sweeter, highly alcoholic. I think my yeast morphed and couldn't finish.

My 3rd batch (started yesterday) will use 8 cans limeade, 6lbs sugar, and nottingham. I wonder if notty will kick through the entire batch.

If it doesn't, do you think a wine yeast like Cuvee or Cote de Blanc could finish it the way EC-1118 does? I want to avoid EC-1118 if I can.
Click to expand...

theres no reason notty shouldn't handle the entire batch
 
Hey what's the general plan on flavoring this with fruit? Looking at options for raspberry, strawberry, black cherry and blueberry per friend requests.

Fresh fruit? Frozen? How much for 5 gallons? I know my LHBS has giant cans of fruit puree for wines.....
 
Totally guessing here:

The HL is pretty strong in flavor. If it was me and I was going to try it, I would freeze the strawberries and use enough to cover the bottom of the vessel for a good 1.5 - 2 inches thick and rack on top of it.
 
I've found strawberries have a very light flavor so be sure to use a lot of 'em. I've only ever flavored my EHL with cranberry concentrate. Fresh fruit and I don't get along so well. I've used strawberry and blueberry pie fillings in other wines I'd assume they'd work in this as well.
 
Update:

I really reccomend not using a yeast cake. My Apfelwein cake was very active and healthy, and Nottingham is a very strong yeast. However, fermentation eventually stalled out, and I had to re-pitch to get the lemonade to finish and do some clearing.

Very good, btw. Better than skeeter pee imo
 
Colesrt8 said:
Why or for what reasons would you want to avoid EC-1118? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Quite honestly, I'm not a big fan of the taste of the yeast :(.

nukinfuts29 said:
theres no reason notty shouldn't handle the entire batch
Click to expand...

I pitched my starter into 1.080 must, so I figure it's right at the alcoholic limit of the yeast. 12% or so, if it finishes under 1.020. maybe I should relax :mug:
 
scotched said:
My 3rd batch (started yesterday) will use 8 cans limeade, 6lbs sugar, and nottingham. I wonder if notty will kick through the entire batch.
Click to expand...

2 questions, I assume this is a standard 5 gallons? And what size limeade cans? My grocery has 2 sizes. Thanks.
 
ouuuu kegged would be great. I even saw once a pump tap that you can put right on to a carboy and serve from there. Seriously considering it for parties.
 
Yeah, the whole reason I asked is because I'd I thought I remember someone warning me of running highly acidic stuff through my taps if they weren't stainless steel? But I can't be certain ....
 
Howdy,

I can't get mine to ferment. I've added Montrechet twice over 2 weeks and...nothing. The only thing I've done differently from the OP is skipping the yeast energizer and nutrient since I don't have any.

If that's the problem can I just dump them in?

Thanks.
 
Strangelove said:
Howdy,

I can't get mine to ferment. I've added Montrechet twice over 2 weeks and...nothing. The only thing I've done differently from the OP is skipping the yeast energizer and nutrient since I don't have any.

If that's the problem can I just dump them in?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You need those, it is extremely acidic and has a staggering amount of sugar in it.
 
nukinfuts29 said:
Well I'm using Nottingham, they don't need training. They are to yeast what Mexicans are to day laborers :D

Recipe is Ed's to a T
Click to expand...

Hey NF thanks for all the input. I just read the entire thread and I would to brew this. I had been planning on making some of EdWort apfelwien (I have made this a number of times with great results) and pitching on the cake afterwords.

You stated above you followed it to the "t", his recipe call for Montrachet and I see you chose to use Nottingham. Later you state it stalled and you re pitched some more, and you would not recommend using Notty. Do you think I would be safe pitching on the Montrachet cake with some nutrient/energizer?
 
nukinfuts29 said:
Yes. If I was going to do it again I would use Montrachet cake with nutrient and energizer.
Click to expand...


Many thanks NF, I have 10 gallons of unfiltered, unpasteurized with no preservative added apple cider ready to go. Thanks again!
 
I did this about a month ago and im in secondary now so im just waiting around for this to ferment out. I can't wait to bottle it. anyways i had an OG of 1.115 and i used 10 pounds pure cane sugar heated in 4 gallons of water, and added 6 cans of lemonade concertrate and 4 cans of limeade concentrate. I filled it up to 6 gallons and pitched my yeast. It wasnt doing much so i added some yeast nutrients and energizer and before i knew it the airlock was going crazy. Im gonna try and get as close to 1.000 as possible. Im pumped to have a bottle of this! ooo and fermenting right around 70-72 degrees.
 

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