Revisiting the Summer Shandy idea

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shortyjacobs

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So, SWMBO wants this for after she finishes growing our baby....

I look at the Leinies website and see it's a 4.5% ABV, 13.5 IBU, pale and wheat beer. I also know that, typically, Shandies are 50/50 beer/lemonade.

So what do you think of this: I brew a 9% AB, 27 IBU beer with 2/3 pale, 1/3 wheat malt, and a goodly amount of cascade hops throughout the boil. Ferment it with either S-05 or kolsch or Hefe yeast. Then once it's done, add 5 gallons of lemonade, (homemade? store bought? made from minutemaid mix and boiled water?), dropping me to 4.5% and 13.5 IBU. At the same time, I toss in whatever kills yeast, (sodium metabisulfite? is that the right thing??).

Keg it up, carb it up. Enjoy.

Think it'll work??:confused:
 
I gotta resurrect this thread. I just made one with tap Budweiser, 1 shot of St. Germaines liquor (some elder flower concoction the wifey loves) and lemon juice.

Unbelievable, ridiculous aroma from the St. Germaines, and tastes great. I'm stunned. These will be crushed next summer.:mug:
 
Anyone have thoughts on this?

Did this ever move any farther then this? I was thinking the same thing. Brew a an american wheat with a clean yeast (that is what lienikugel uses), add some campden tablets and mix in lemmonade and done. Thoughts?
 
I never did anything on it. I think, this spring, I'll give my plan a shot with the 9% ABV beer cut 50/50 with lemonade. Worst possible outcome is I waste 5 gal beer, best possible outcome is I win brownie points with SWMBO.

Biggest PITA is gonna be blending 10 gal of beer/lemonade....I don't have any 10 gallon kegs, and I don't know if I trust the sanitization of my BK.

Ooooh, as I type this, I think I have my plan. Brew my 9% ABV wheat/pale beer, ferment it out. After a few weeks, boil 5 gal of water in my BK, (that should sanitize it), let cool, add lemonade, add campden tabs, siphon in beer, keg to 2 cornies after VERY gentle stirring to blend...

Yup, will definitely give this a go around Feb/March.
 
What about a half beer/half skeeter pee recipe? something like this

2lbs wheat
5lbs 2row
hops to 17ibu for 5 gallons
add 3lbs sugar and 1.5 of the 32 oz green bottles of real lemon at 3 day into fermentation.

How does that sound? I might do this as I am runnng low on Skeeter pee.
 
for what i have been reading you dont want the lemonade to ferment at all. I was planning on brewing 2.5 gal batch around 8% ABV and 26 IBU using cluster (the hop leinenkugel uses). I will then ferment with a clean ale yeast (leine uses a clean lager) so ill probably use notty at low end of the range. After fermentation i will transfer to a keg carb and keg condition. After it has condition i will add campdem tablets to stop the yeast. I will then add 2.5 gal of lemonade to a new corny keg and jump the beer into this keg and it should be ready to serve. I want to condition first cause im afraid by adding the campdem tablets to early i wouldnt get the yeast to condition the beer in the keg
 
Yeah, the idea of a shandy is that the lemonade is unfermented, thus making a sweeter concoction then you'd get with the half beer half skeeter recipe, (plus skeeter pee looks like such a ***** to make, with the lemon juice wanting to kill off any yeast it encounters...too much work for me...).

ekjohns, Leinies uses only Cluster in their Summer Shandy? Good to know...
 
according to their website:

abv: 4.2%
IBU: 13.5
carb grams: 12
malts: blend of wheat and pale
hops: cluster
serving temp: 45 F
 
We've had good success with using frozen concentrate (thawed) 1-2 tsp in the bottom of a glass filled with a honeyweiss clone. Your tastes and flavor choices are up to you. It keeps the sweetness up front.
 
I'm drinking some of it now and to me it has a strong flavor resembling Squirt the soda. I doubt Leinenkugal uses Squirt but I think I will use some when I try to create a clone. also, Leinenkugal does use honey, and you can taste it in the undertones. Unless I find a better clone recipe my best guess is to brew a wheat beer with very little wheat, I'll prolly try an extract with 1/2 Light extract and 1/2 Wheat extract. brewed with some honey and a good amount of corn sugar. The hops I guess I'll try a 90 minute boil with about anything as bittering hops to achieve 10 IBU's or so. The lemon additions should supply the rest. I guess I'll try adding at serving time, squirt first (just enough to create that zingy taste and finish and soda-ish extra carbonation) then a combination of lemonade and lemon juice I think I can get it pretty close like this. I will post if I'm satisfied with results. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of this drink. But I have friends who are just nuts over it. They're actually scowering the local stores stocking up on it now that it is out of season, lol. I normally prefer beer that tastes like, well, beer but too each their own.
 
I guess I should update this. I did what I'd planned, making a half/half pale/wheat 9% beer at around 27 IBU, (Used S04 if IIRC). Then, boiled 5 gal water, added enough Countrytime lemonade to mix to volume. Transferred 2.5 gallons of beer into each keg, added potassium bisulphite, added the lemonade, then poured in 1 liter of pure lemon juice into each one, ($3.29 each at Costco, helluva deal).

The result? PURE LEMON POWER. It was pretty gross....WAY too much lemon from the lemon juice. If I do it again, I'll use 1/2 liter of lemon juice per keg, which is what my original calculations said I should use. Anyway, my PURE LEMON POWER beer was great if cut 1/2 and 1/2 with a hefeweizen. So, we drank one keg by cutting it 50/50 with hefe. Then, I brewed up a batch of my friend's Yeastlord, which is a 45/65 pale/wheat with weinhestephan yeast and an ounce or so of Saaz at 60 min. My plan now is to cut the other keg of PURE LEMON POWER with the Yeastlord, 50/50, yielding me another two kegs of what should be PERFECT beer.

Seriously, by cutting the PURE LEMON POWER 50/50 with hefeweizen, I came out with a beer that had all the goodness of Summer Shandy, but was even better, fresher tasting, and had a nice fruity quality from the hefe. It is DELICIOUS.
 
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