BeerB4Liquor
Active Member
Well yesterday I made my first Hard Lemonade. Here is the recipe I used. Thanks Lorena (Yooper), britishbloke, and rod for the great post you made years ago.
Ingredients:
4 lbs of Corn Sugar
1 lb Dry Malt Extract (to make it a malt beverage like Mike does)
10 12 oz Cans of Minute Maid Lemonade frozen concentrate (make sure there's no preservatives)
Champagne yeast: (lavin EC 1118)
Yeast Nutrient: 5 tsp / 6 gal.
Yeast Energizer: 2 1/2 tsp / 6 gal.
Gypsum: 1 1/2 tsp / 6 gal.
Camden: 3 tablets crushed
Instructions:
This is a tough ferment, due to the high acidity of the lemonade. So, I recommend a yeast starter. A good way to do this is to start your must and then use some of it to make the starter.
Boil 2 1/2 gallon of water to 170 deg. for 15 minutes and dissolve the sugar and DME into it. Add to the primary. Thaw the lemonade and put 1/2 in primary. Stir well, and top up to 5 gallons. Take out two cups of this must and put in a large bowl or measuring cup (qrt canning jar). Add a pinch of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer and put the remainder of the nutrient and energizer in the must. Make sure the temperature of the must in the starter vessel is 70-80 degrees, and add the yeast. When it's foamy, add a bit more of the must. Do this about 3-4 times by just adding more must a little at a time.
Then, add the rest of the thawed lemonade and the crushed campden tablets to the primary and stir well. Check the OG and add more sugar if desired to raise the SG (but don't go over 1.100) Continue adding must to the starter, a little at a time, until the yeast starter is still looking foamy and going well, in about two days, and then pour the yeast starter into the primary. During primary, cover with a clean towel and stir frequently. After about 5-7 days, or when the SG reaches 1.030, pour into secondary and airlock. This will finish dry, so you can sweeten to taste if you'd like by adding unfermentable sweetners, or by stabilizing and then backsweetening. My experience is that this tastes best around 1.020. I actually siphoned it out of the carboy and into pitchers when it was in the 1.010- 1.020 range.
Bottle in beer bottles or soda bottles, carbonate if desired, or keg.
I liked the OG at 1.080, at the start after all ingredients are added.
Alternate:
Very important is to start your yeast in sugar water and slowly add some lemonade concentrate over the space of a few hours to acclimatize the yeast to the citric acid. search hard lemonade and you will find good info posted by Lorena. I added 1 tablespoon of gypsum /5 gallons to the above recipe and used lavlin ec1118 yeast. prime like beer when it has fermented out.
Hydrate your yeast in cooled boiled water (85 - 90 deg.) as usual. (use about 1/2 cups of water) after it has hydrated, 5 to 10 minutes (I went 10) add 1 1/2 cups of must and let it work until it’s bubbling pretty good. Then add 1 tablespoon of thawed frozen concentrate. wait until it is bubbling pretty good (about an hour) and then add another tablespoon every hour for 4 hours. After 4 hours of feeding I pitched it into the main batch and fermentation took off within 24 hours.
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Notes
I used the alternate way to make the yeast starter.
My OG was 1.050 before adding the Gypsum and Camden and 1.070 (dead nuts) after they were added.
Important:
Make sure must is between 85 and 90 deg. Because my 2 big boneheaded mistake was that I let my water temp. get to 210 degs. and I killed my first yeast by placing it in too hot of must and had to re-pitch. I knew as soon as I did it because my yeast started screeching like a live Lobster when it first gets thrown into the pot!
So far (14 hrs),
no activity. I plan on adding Potassium Sorbate to kill the yeast and adding sugar to the must before bottling.
Ingredients:
4 lbs of Corn Sugar
1 lb Dry Malt Extract (to make it a malt beverage like Mike does)
10 12 oz Cans of Minute Maid Lemonade frozen concentrate (make sure there's no preservatives)
Champagne yeast: (lavin EC 1118)
Yeast Nutrient: 5 tsp / 6 gal.
Yeast Energizer: 2 1/2 tsp / 6 gal.
Gypsum: 1 1/2 tsp / 6 gal.
Camden: 3 tablets crushed
Instructions:
This is a tough ferment, due to the high acidity of the lemonade. So, I recommend a yeast starter. A good way to do this is to start your must and then use some of it to make the starter.
Boil 2 1/2 gallon of water to 170 deg. for 15 minutes and dissolve the sugar and DME into it. Add to the primary. Thaw the lemonade and put 1/2 in primary. Stir well, and top up to 5 gallons. Take out two cups of this must and put in a large bowl or measuring cup (qrt canning jar). Add a pinch of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer and put the remainder of the nutrient and energizer in the must. Make sure the temperature of the must in the starter vessel is 70-80 degrees, and add the yeast. When it's foamy, add a bit more of the must. Do this about 3-4 times by just adding more must a little at a time.
Then, add the rest of the thawed lemonade and the crushed campden tablets to the primary and stir well. Check the OG and add more sugar if desired to raise the SG (but don't go over 1.100) Continue adding must to the starter, a little at a time, until the yeast starter is still looking foamy and going well, in about two days, and then pour the yeast starter into the primary. During primary, cover with a clean towel and stir frequently. After about 5-7 days, or when the SG reaches 1.030, pour into secondary and airlock. This will finish dry, so you can sweeten to taste if you'd like by adding unfermentable sweetners, or by stabilizing and then backsweetening. My experience is that this tastes best around 1.020. I actually siphoned it out of the carboy and into pitchers when it was in the 1.010- 1.020 range.
Bottle in beer bottles or soda bottles, carbonate if desired, or keg.
I liked the OG at 1.080, at the start after all ingredients are added.
Alternate:
Very important is to start your yeast in sugar water and slowly add some lemonade concentrate over the space of a few hours to acclimatize the yeast to the citric acid. search hard lemonade and you will find good info posted by Lorena. I added 1 tablespoon of gypsum /5 gallons to the above recipe and used lavlin ec1118 yeast. prime like beer when it has fermented out.
Hydrate your yeast in cooled boiled water (85 - 90 deg.) as usual. (use about 1/2 cups of water) after it has hydrated, 5 to 10 minutes (I went 10) add 1 1/2 cups of must and let it work until it’s bubbling pretty good. Then add 1 tablespoon of thawed frozen concentrate. wait until it is bubbling pretty good (about an hour) and then add another tablespoon every hour for 4 hours. After 4 hours of feeding I pitched it into the main batch and fermentation took off within 24 hours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
I used the alternate way to make the yeast starter.
My OG was 1.050 before adding the Gypsum and Camden and 1.070 (dead nuts) after they were added.
Important:
Make sure must is between 85 and 90 deg. Because my 2 big boneheaded mistake was that I let my water temp. get to 210 degs. and I killed my first yeast by placing it in too hot of must and had to re-pitch. I knew as soon as I did it because my yeast started screeching like a live Lobster when it first gets thrown into the pot!
So far (14 hrs),
no activity. I plan on adding Potassium Sorbate to kill the yeast and adding sugar to the must before bottling.
