Extra Hard Lemonade

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brazedowl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
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Location
Fayetteville, NC
~~Ingredients~~
10# Regular Cane Sugar
7 Containers off brand lemonade concentrate
3 Containers limeade OR pink lemonade concentrate
1pkt Redstar Montrachet Yeast (have used yeast cake left from the cherry pie wine as well)
1 tbls Energizer
1 tbls Nutrient
Water to 5-6 Gallons

~~Prep~~
1) Dissolved sugar in 3-4 Gallons of H2O.
2) Placed concentrate in primary while sugar dissolves over med-low heat.
3) Added sugar water to primary
4) Started yeast in mason jar of combined solution at ~85F.
5) Pitched yeast into brewbucket and added water to bring to 6 gal

~~Primary~~
Sat in an Ale Pail on my kitchen counter for two weeks. Regular room temp 70F-75F

~Secondary~~
Used blue plastic 5gal water jug (the type found at lowes etc).

Continued fermenting at 70F-75F until bubbling has almost completely ceased

~~Bottling~~
Bottled into 12oz beer bottles with crown caps

~~Notes & Comments~~
- Limeade version tastes so much like mikes hard lemonade it's crazy
- Pink lemonade version is still bubbling... I'll report back later

~~Moral of the story~~
Cheap. Yummy. Enjoyed by all.
 
The first time (lemon-lime) it sort-of carbed itself in the bottles. This time I'm going to add sugar and make sure it does. It get a very soda-like carbonation.
 
Bottled and good to go. :)

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Final ABV 7.5%
48 bottles at an average cost of 42 cents a bottle.
In your face mass produced lemon-flavored swill :D
 
i do a similar recipe that people love:

4 cans frozen lemonade
4 cans frozen pink lemonade
3 cans frozen limeade
4# sugar
1 pack montrachet
water for 6 gallons

let primary 1 month, then keg, and let it chill/carb 2 weeks on 11# co2

and i agree: that mass-produced garbage is eating our dust :D
 
I'm sitting on almost 48 hours with no airlock activity, should I just be patient?

Its in a carboy so I can see the yeasties just hovering around the bottom of it
 
If you started it from a yeast packet it'll be slow to start. If you started it from the yeast cake leftover from another batch it'll start up pretty quickly.
 
Any updates on your hard-lemonade batches?

Brazed I followed your directions with a few minor variables:

1. I used 5lbs of sugar instead of 10lbs.
2. Fermentation was actually around 55F-70F :mad:
3. Fermentation took 24 days (single fermenter)
4. I didn't dissolve the sugar over heat before adding it.

I tried a pint of it today. The leftover pulp sediment from the lemonade/limeade concentrate doesn't look too appealing in the carboy. It also seems like most of my sugar is sitting at the bottom of the carboy =(.

However, it TASTES GREAT. The only real problem I have the weird smell, that usually doesn't accompany the taste of a mike's hard or a Smirnoff ice, but seems to accompany home brews.

Smell has a lot to do with taste, and I was wondering if you had this problems as well?
 
I had the same problem. The sugar all sits at the bottom if you don't dissolve it ahead of time. It's likely not done fermenting. If you try to rerack it you will doubtlessly stir up some sugar, it'll start fermenting again, and will no doubt cause a bottle bomb or two.

As far as the weird smell... can you give more details?
 
I re-racked it, and that layer on the bottom *disappeared*, so no worries there.
I don't think the smell is bad, it's just foreign to me since I've never brewed before.

Hey Brazed would you mind sharing some insight on your personal bottling methods?
 
As far as timing goes I just wait until it's clear and not bubbling on the lemonade. Once there's no more ring of bubbles hangin around the top of the carboy it's time to bottle. It always ends up carbing just perfect in the bottles.

As far as method, I just rerack to the brew bucket, hold it up to the spigot and fill 'em. I do the same for all my wines. But I wait a little longer on them because most of them I want to be still, or at least not champeign bubbly because wine bottles can't take the pressure.

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(sorry about my spelling, the spell check isn't workin' here)
 
Thanks, I will used the bucket and spigot method. Do you take any steps to halt fermentation?
 
Could you clarify on the "containers" please? That's pretty vague. Sorry, this is my second ever brew and I don't want this to go wrong!
 
Just started a batch of this today scaled down for about 2 gallons. So 2 cans lemonade, 2 cans limeade, Montrechet, and water to top it up.

Did you have to stop this early or do you know what your FG ended up at? I'm a little concerned. My OG is 1.118 and I'm afraid I'm going to have rocket fuel on my hands.
 
I had forgotten to take the SG on that but I'm sure it was over 1.200 and I don't get rocket fuel. The acidity helps knock out the yeast before that point I think.
 
So far it's not looking good. I haven't been seeing any bubbles really, but on the top of the fermenter there are some bubbles and a mat of white that I was hoping was some form of krausen and a sign of something going on in there. Took a gravity today and it's at 1.120. So it essentially hasn't budged and looks like my yeast didn't make it.

Considering a couple options right now. With such a high gravity and acidity I'm not sure repitching is the best idea. I was considering diluting the batch down and then trying a repitch. If it works I'd end up with more final product which is good and if it fails, I'm only out water and yeast.

Just not sure. I didn't use any energizer or yeast nutrient so I'm guessing they just couldn't get going on their own.
 
I just started a batch of Cranberry-Lemonade. I've found that dry yeast takes a long time to take hold and multiply in the acidic enviornment. I use the yeast slurry from the bottom of another batch of something to start my lemonade batches. I ended up using a little more then 2 cups of yeast-cake-slurry to start off this batch.
 
Considering a couple options right now. With such a high gravity and acidity I'm not sure repitching is the best idea. I was considering diluting the batch down and then trying a repitch. If it works I'd end up with more final product which is good and if it fails, I'm only out water and yeast.

Everything I have read about Montrachet suggests that it isn't the best choice for a "hostile" must, it appears to be prone to H2S issues when even moderately stressed so when greatly stressed by a high gravity, high acid must, it might just keel over at the get go. :(

Based on my limited experience and a lot of reading other "Lemonade" threads, I would suggest repitching with one packet (given you only have two gallons of must) of EC1118, ideally rehydrated with something like Go-Ferm. If you can't get your hands on the Go-Ferm there still seems to be plenty of people having success just dry pitching the EC1118.

Cheers

HW
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll keep it in mind for next time. I ended up diluting down with 2 more gallons of lemonade-limeade mix. That dropped the OG to 1.088. Then I repitched with another packet of Montrachet I had. It seems to be ramping up, just really slowly. There's been a decent "krausen" all week and it's seems to be bubbling up more each day. Still not very much airlock activity though.

So I think the new batch is still kicking. The brew room had that funky Montrachet smell for the first time today. I think you're right though. Montrachet might not be the best choice for this. Certainly not without a starter or something else to help get it kicked off strong.
 
Just one quick question. How do you keep from drinking it all before it gets done? This **** is the bomb lol
 
Just started a batch of this today scaled down for about 2 gallons. So 2 cans lemonade, 2 cans limeade, Montrechet, and water to top it up.

Did you have to stop this early or do you know what your FG ended up at? I'm a little concerned. My OG is 1.118 and I'm afraid I'm going to have rocket fuel on my hands.

How much sugar did you add for the 2 gallon batch? I'm really wanting to try to make a small batch of this too for my girlfriend. She digs Mike's Hard Lemonade. Think I may try the other yeast strain though. :mug:
 
I used this recipe with EC-1118 and had no problem getting fermentation going. The hard part is getting it to stop.
 
Has anyone made this recipe and skeeter pee?

Which one do you prefer or do they taste similar? I have been doing a lot of reading, and with summer approaching I want to start my first hard lemonade and would love some input on which is better tasting.

From what I have gathered, I don't think I could go wrong with either but wanted to ask.:mug:

Thanks,
The Doctor
 
I've got skeeter pee going now also. I made a batch of this but with some cranberry concentrate thrown in there. They should be good to go come summertime.
 
Dang thing never started, I hydrated & stepped up with the Lemonade mixture twice. I got a krausenish head on top but that's started to go away. never bubbled (that I saw) I'm going to repitch today. going to try ec-1118 this time see if that works better.
 
The first time (lemon-lime) it sort-of carbed itself in the bottles. This time I'm going to add sugar and make sure it does. It get a very soda-like carbonation.

I just made a 5 gallon batch of this following the limeade recipe. Did you end up making a second batch and carbonating it more? If so, could you walk me through it?

I have it in an 'ale pail' now. Is secondarying in a carboy neccessary? I know a lot of people on here just go straight from the primary to the bottle.

I'm toying with the idea of leaving it alone in the primary for about 3 weeks, then bottling, but I want to make sure that it's A) done fermenting to avoid bombs, and B) carbonated properly.

Any advice for a first timer?
 
a) I put mine in a secondary just so I could judge the clarity (it won't COMPLETELY clear well which is ok).

b) Never got around to adding more sugar to make it carbonate. I just waited until there was only a tiny ring of bubbles around the edge of the mouth of the carboy then bottled it.
 
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