Hard lemonade

Hi everyone

I am just geting started in home brewing. What would I need, and how would i go about home brewing a batch of hard lemonade? I have found a lot of info on beer and wine, but very little on lemonade.

thanks

That's a good question...you need some kind of sugar to ferment, and cane sugar, from what I hear, is a no-no. I wonder....

rightwingnut said:

That's a good question...you need some kind of sugar to ferment, and cane sugar, from what I hear, is a no-no. I wonder....

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would the acid in the lemonade not have an ill effect on the yeast? i would think adding some kind of liquer would be a better method? i have no idea, just thinking aloud. there was a post a few days ago about a hard cider, you may want to search for it and see if it would aply to what you wish to do.

Apples have plenty of sugar to ferment...maybe lemons do, too, but I wouldn't think so.

Mikes says brewed on the bottle, not sure they really mean brewed or not thou.

here check this link, it is on this site so it is safe to click on.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=168

Ya I think it is made a similaer way, still googling on it tried to find a recipe. or how to get around the acid.

Does this look like it will work?

http://www.geocities.com/longriverbrewer/frameset.html

thanks

with apple cider there is no citric acid.

i would think the large amount of citric acid would kill the yeast while it ferments. i am not positive, but with my experience with acids, it would seem that the yeast would not last long enouph to fermet the suger in lemonade into alcohol.

to me it would seem you would have to add the lemon flavor after fermentation or add the alcohol after makeing lemonade.

as i said i have no idea, i am just kicking around ideas but citric acid is pretty harsh on live organisms.

found this one to

http://www.hbd.org/carboy/recipes/experimental1.htm

Interesting..sounds a bit more complicated than beer. Sounds like it's something not possible in in a true, raw sense, so you have to force it to work...Don't know if that makes any sense, but I understand myself!

jjsscram said:

Does this look like it will work?

http://www.geocities.com/longriverbrewer/frameset.html

thanks

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Wow....that looks VERY interesting...and very tempting to attempt. I think though, I may sub the corn sugar for an extra pound of DME. From what everyone says out here, the corn sugar will add a cidery taste to the finished product. Probably not what you're looking for with a hard lemonade. So, maybe 4 lbs. of extra light, 6 cans of lemon concentrate, and for the yeast.....I would go for something with neutral flavors, so as not to overshadow the lemon. Orrrr.....it'd be tempting to try out a champagne yeast...it'd add a nice dry finish.....some things to toss around...

Got all the equipment to gather today and sanitized it. got to probley start this tomorrow.

I tried to start this recipe with the cane sugar it called for but from the out side it did not appear to be active. I poped the lid to have a look the liquid sugar water is now cloudy and I did see a few bubble come up out of it. Its been about 2.5 days and i start with a sg of 1.045, and used dry champane yeast. What do you think, start over and try again or let it go a bit longer before I decide?

thanks

jjsscram said:

I tried to start this recipe with the cane sugar it called for but from the out side it did not appear to be active. I poped the lid to have a look the liquid sugar water is now cloudy and I did see a few bubble come up out of it. Its been about 2.5 days and i start with a sg of 1.045, and used dry champane yeast. What do you think, start over and try again or let it go a bit longer before I decide?

thanks

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Has the SG gone down over the last 2.5 days? I'm really interested to see how this turns out, as I too am interested in brewing up some for the summer....

The sg is at 1.040 now so it has gone down but very little. What do you think keep it or pitch it?

thanks

First Post.

I was doing a search on brewing hard Lemonade and came upon this site.... I haev been researching for a while and my second attempt is getting close to hitting the bottle. I am not an experience brewer by any means so I tend to stumble a bit. I am also Australian, so think in metric (just like the rest of the world ).

My first attempt was just 1500ml lemon cordial, about 10 lemons crushed up, 1 kg sugar, 20Lwater and larger yeast. It bubbled for about a month. Tasted terrible - too weak and not nearly sweet enough. Was able to make it very, very drinkable by mixing it with Rosie's Lime Cordial, Angostura Bitters and a teaspoonful of sugar to a large glass on ice. My Aunty called it magical falling over water after she'd had a few one evening....

Second attempt is tasting better: 3.2L lemon cordial, 750ml Rosie's Lime cordial, 500ml lemon juice, 1 kg sugar, 1 Kg Lactose (non-fermentable sweetener, added after three weeks), 22 L water, lager yeast. The wort is tasting a lot better, and it is still bubbing after a month. Taste improves with lime cordial and bitters like before, but you don't need as much. I'm hopeless at accurately describing flavour, so I won't bother.

When I bottle this one, I am going to try the following on a few bottles each:
priming the bottle with different flavoured cordials (lime, lemon, raspberry) instead of sugar or glucose (calculating the sugar content carefully). Some bottles will also get sugar. Some bottles will get bitters as well at the bottling stage.
I'll also try late-hopping half of the Wort with cascade hops before bottling

What I have discovered since putting this one down:

Use a wine yeast. The acid and the lager/Ale yeast don't get along and the yeast works very slowly as a result.

Hopping will probably help, and also the use of some regular beer wort at the start (for the malt I think).

Don't bottle too early or else bottles will explode (it didn't happen to me).

What will I do next time?

Wine yeast, less water, Cascade hops, and bit of a beer wort - prolly just make it up in the dregs of a beer.

I'd love any feedback on what people think, advice comments or anything else. It seems that not many people go for this type of drink, but it's been a favourite of mine since Two Dogs (an australian-made brewed lemonade)came out.

cheersbigears

Ian...

Bottle up the lemonade last night. Very strong stuff. The harsh taste when i first rack was gone much better stuff now. use 2/3 cup priming corn sugar on 3 gallons. I will post back in 2 week to let everyone know how it turned out.

thanks for the help everyone.

Few day earyler that two week, but I have to go back to work friday night. I opened one last night the tart sour taste of the lemons is gone.
The flavor is very smooth now. It taste very good just not what i expected. I Have some time to think about what I what to change next time.
Got a Red ale with trappist yeast it the secondondary right now.

thanks for the help guys