Full Hard Lemonade recipe

Yakima 728
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I've had a 2 gallon batch sitting on the counter for 4 months now , still in the primary. This stuff is clear. Lol. Its at 13% abv. I fixed a glass the other day, half hard lemonade and half regular lemonade. It had my head spinning after drinking it with supper. I'll be finishing it up tomorrow when I get home from work. Can't wait to taste the finished product.
 
When computing potential ABV for recipes that contains concentrates, juices and solid fruits, do you add in their respective amounts of sugars as part of the fermentables in your recipe?

For instance, using the dietary information on the containers of the ingredients for the hard Cherry Limeade that I’m doing, it uses 5 cans of concentrate (960 total grams) 1 gallon of apple juice (128 total grams) and 36 ounces of cherries (135 total grams) This adds up to about 1223 grams or 2.69 lbs of sugars. So when adding this stuff up in Beer Smith, Would I add in this 2.69lbs to my ingredient list as a sugar to see how that would affect the overall ABV level, or do I just use the levels that the LME and corn sugar give?

Thanks,
 
bigken462 said:
When computing potential ABV for recipes that contains concentrates, juices and solid fruits, do you add in their respective amounts of sugars as part of the fermentables in your recipe?

For instance, using the dietary information on the containers of the ingredients for the hard Cherry Limeade that I’m doing, it uses 5 cans of concentrate (960 total grams) 1 gallon of apple juice (128 total grams) and 36 ounces of cherries (135 total grams) This adds up to about 1223 grams or 2.69 lbs of sugars. So when adding this stuff up in Beer Smith, Would I add in this 2.69lbs to my ingredient list as a sugar to see how that would affect the overall ABV level, or do I just use the levels that the LME and corn sugar give?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I can't help with the fruit or apple juice, but I've done some testing and have the concentrate somewhat figured out. You definitely want to add it to your recipe...it has lots of sugar and will affect your OG.

I enter the concentrate as a sugar in Beer Smith and set the yield to 42%. Then I enter each can of concentrate as one pound when I'm doing the recipe. It hits the OG really close for me.

The yield percent will probably vary depending on the concentrate you use, but this should get you a starting point anyway.

Hope this helps!
 
I put this together today. Good Lord I could drink it as is. Hard Cherry Limeade will be coming down the pipe in about a month. OG 1.093

I never done anything with this high of a gravity. Should I pick up some 1/2" tubing tomorrow to make a blow off tube. I put 5.5 or so in a 6.5 glass carboy.
 
I got 2 gallons that's been sitting for a while an I finally have time to do something with it. I started with frozen concentrate and was wondering if I can use the lemonade that you can get on the juice isle instead of the concentrate.
 
bigken462 said:
I put this together today. Good Lord I could drink it as is. Hard Cherry Limeade will be coming down the pipe in about a month. OG 1.093

I never done anything with this high of a gravity. Should I pick up some 1/2" tubing tomorrow to make a blow off tube. I put 5.5 or so in a 6.5 glass carboy.
Click to expand...

1.093...WOW! Does that put you up in the 14% ABV range? :tank: Please post your results when you're done...I'd love to hear how it turns out.

Did you end up doing the recipe you laid out in post #187?
 
MusicalBrewer said:
1.093

Did you end up doing the recipe you laid out in post #187?
Click to expand...

No, I changed it up just a bit.

4lbs of corn sugar instead of the two since I did not use the honey.
Used a tater masher on the cherries
Steeped for 30 minutes at 160* instead of 20
Used 6 cans of Limeade concentrate instead of 5. This was by accident since I had accidentally opened all 8 cans that I purchased instead putting three in the freezer till bottling day. So I poured in one extra, and made a gallon of mix just to put in fridge to drink. All the other parts of that recipe I stuck with.

I rehydrated the the two packs of yeast in a cup of warm water, added a tablespoon of the Limeade concentrate and a 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient and set that aside for 30 minutes. When that time was up, I used a small bowl of cold water to reduce the yeast slurry to match my carboy temp.

I was not quite sure when to actually oxygenate the wort. Before or after adding the yeast, so I made a judgement call and poured it in, stuck a sanitized aquarium stone on the end of some tubing then used rubber bands to attach the stone and the tubing to the end of my stir paddle. Turned the O2 on 5-6 liters and let it churn for 2-3 minutes.

I capped it and set it in the utility room. Within a hour, I had activity in the airlock. Within 3 hours, I already had about 1/2" of Krausen on the top. This morning when I woke up, the airlock is going crazy and there is a vigorous boil going on. The utility rooms smells awesome - for once. lol

Since this was my first batch of this type of drink, I made several on the fly judgement calls. Hope they do not bite me in the keester. So far the yeasties look happy. lol As for ABV? I think the most potential it will have will be about 12% if it were to go all the way. We'll see.

Ken
 
Until this batch, I've always used a plastic fermenting bucket and never got to see the show. Out of curiosity, I set my camera up to take a picture every 10 minutes. To say it had a vigorous boil is a understatement. For two days it looked like someone dropped a 10lb block of Alka-Seltzer in it. The airlock was damn near hissing Co2. There was so much turbulence in the carboy that the chunks of cherries seemed to blow up, then rain down to be churned back up again.

The color started out as a deep red, authentic cherry appetizing looking color, to now a milky mess. The cherries continue to break down, but form a layer of pasty goop on the top. The funny thing is, this morning, I was fast forwarding through the pictures and seen that the Krausen steadily throughout the night kept getting thicker and thicker going from the bottom neck curve to the top neck, just below the bung over 8 hours. Then, all of the sudden, within about the time period of a 1 hour, the foam disappeared. The airlock is still going nuts, but there is no foaming. Just the steady fizzing through the pasty cherry top.

It's neat to look at the several hundred picture thumbnails. It looks like a paint color chart from a paint store going from one color to another. Sure as heck hope it gets to looking better. lol

One question I have. Since this is a hard limeade. do I call the contents a wort since I used LME, or is it a must or cider? Not sure what term to use.
 
The first one was taken a short time, probably 2-3 hours or so after I set the airlock. The solids which were at the bottom had already floated to the top. Was taken around 8:15Pm on Dec 20th, and the last was taken 10:47Am on the 22nd. By then, there was not much anything worth taking pictures of. Activity has slowed down a ton this morning. About a bubble a second or so. Now it has a peach colored tint to it.

I wish I knew a way to compile these still pictures into a short video w/o having a monstrous size file to upload. I only get 10gigs a month on my data plan. Grrr. Anyway, below are a cpl pictures while I had the camera set.

Since I brewed this up Friday, I might try to rack to a secondary on my next free off day which will be Monday.

IMG_2139-L.jpg

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**added** Ran in there just a second ago and grabbed one shot for this morning. 0830hrs 23rd Dec.

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Up to 1.016 as of today. OG was 1.091 9.78% ABV

Activity is down, going to let it sit till Next Monday before transferring. Obviously, it taste pretty sour, but you can tell there is some ETOH on board. Hope the lil yeasties continue to eat.
Cheers,
 
TexasWine said:
On day 10. Gravity down to 1.000 and still getting some air lock action.

Wondering if anyone could give me a little more direction on the bottle carbonation procedure mentioned in this thread. After reading the sticky in the cider forum it seems simple enough. Here's my elaborate plan.

1. On bottling day make the sugar, concentrate, water mixture per the instructions, but omit the sorbate.
2. Bottle in beer bottles.
3. Open a bottle every day until I find the carbonation level is right for me.
4. Stove top pasteurize per the sticky in the cider forum.

Sound about right? Somebody please chime in if I'm way off on anything!

And one more question. Will the bottle carbonation process reduce the sweetness? I'm trying to figure out if I need to add a little extra sugar to offset what gets converted to alcohol and CO2 during the bottle conditioning. Maybe it's an insignificant amount, but thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...

I realize this was probably posted awhile back, but one thing I read in the cider forum is that you should bottle some in a plastic soda bottle and when it gets to about the same feel as an unopened bottle of soda, you can probably pasteurize the rest in the beer bottles and/or check one of the beer bottles for carbonation. Keep in mind that unless you chill it, the carbonation may not *appear* to be there, but likely is.
 
bigken462 said:
I put this together today. Good Lord I could drink it as is. Hard Cherry Limeade will be coming down the pipe in about a month. OG 1.093

I never done anything with this high of a gravity. Should I pick up some 1/2" tubing tomorrow to make a blow off tube. I put 5.5 or so in a 6.5 glass carboy.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't hurt to pick up some tubing. I use 7/16 OD tubing as that fits my drilled stopper perfectly. That being said, I would *think* that with a gallon worth of head space you ought to be good, but you can never tell. :mug:
 
I had actually went and bought some at Lowes that evening while I was in town. I took a look at it Saturday night before going to bed and decided against messing with it, and by the next morning the Krausen had done fallen. I could tell from all the fruit particles on the glass that it had gotten high. When I went back to look at the pictures, I was surprised to see how fast it foamed up, then fell back. Literally over just a few hours. I was half tempted to fill it up more on brew day, kinda glad I didn't now. lol

I guess this stuff happens all the time. But since I had always used he buckets, never been able to see the show. Pretty cool to sit and look at the stuff churn like mad inside.

It was interesting to see the carboy temps rise with activity, then fall back to normal levels again. I was somewhat concerned about the temps, but after reading the text about that yeast strain seen that it was still within the parameters.

I can't wait to make another batch. Raspberry lemonade I think will be the next one.
 
How much yeast do you use? The packets I have found come in 5 grams. Use 1 or 2?
 
I rehydrated two packets of Lalvin EC-1118 with a dash of nutrient and a tablespoon of concentrate. I had a good activity within 3 hours. Three solid days of vigorous boil in the carboy.
 
When you guys say starter, you mean rehydrate? I don't think I have ever heard making a starter with dry yeast.
 
h22lude said:
When you guys say starter, you mean rehydrate? I don't think I have ever heard making a starter with dry yeast.
Click to expand...

I do exactly what BigKen has spelled out above. Not sure what it should be technically called. I've just always thought of it as a starter because it's bubbling and reproducing when I pitch it.
 
I need to say that this was my very first batch making hard limeade, and only 3rd batch of beer, so I can't say I have a bunch of experience with the hard lemonades/limeade brews. However, I followed the recipe for the yeast as was directed in the 2nd post in this thread. The yeast packs also state it's best to rehydrate.

I can't really speak with a bunch of experience, but I can say this batch of cherry limeade took off very rapidly. It went from 1.091 to 1.012 as of yesterday. I fear though that I may have goofed it up by adding nutrient in it after I transferred it to the secondary today. My hopes was to get it to finish out completely, but I'm not seeing any further activity in the carboy. It's as still as glass. I had a gut feeling I was goofing up. If it doesn't do anything, maybe the stuff will settle out in a few weeks and not effect the taste. I hope it will not be a regrettable decision. Looking back, I should have accepted that the yeasties did all they were going to do and leave them be. lol

I will say though, after transferring, the stuff looks amazing. I tossed the old cherries and yeast cake out in the yard and couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the dogs walking around drunk after eating the cherries. lol
 
bigken462 said:
I rehydrated two packets of Lalvin EC-1118 with a dash of nutrient and a tablespoon of concentrate. I had a good activity within 3 hours. Three solid days of vigorous boil in the carboy.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm going to need one more packet. I figured everyone meant rehydrate.
 
Just bottled mine this evening. Its delicious and I can only imagine it will get better

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app
 
Bottled mine up tonight. 60 - 12 ounce bottles and 3 - 20 ounce plastic bottles to carb test with. Saved a quart for the fridge for a thirst quencher tomorrow.

FG was about 10.34% before I back sweetened. Taste great. Still kinda wished I would have used lemonade instead of limeade though.

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Not sure what to brew next. Grrrrr.

Have a good weekend guys,
 
Soo.... theoretically you could add the potassium sorbate, and as it doesn't kill the yeast and just keeps the yeast from Multiplying, you could add it a day before bottling, bottle, and still get a light carbonation before the yeast all died out yes?

Thanks!
 
I got many different opinions of to use it or not. This is my first batch so I don't have experience to judge one way or the other. Since I plan to pasteurize these (above) in a few days, I elected to not use the potassium sorbate. We'll see how it works out. I have them covered up just in case they decide to spike a attitude. lol


Ken
 
bknifefight said:
This is a really easy and good recipe for hard lemonade. It is a lot stronger than Mike's.

Ingredients (makes 6-7 gallons):

- 12 cans preservative-free Lemonade concentrate (I use Nature's best
brand from Aldi's cause it is cheap, Minute Maid is another option)
- 1 lb Extra light or Pilsen Light Dry Malt Extract
- 2.5 lbs corn sugar
- Yeast nutrient
- Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne Yeast (THIS YEAST IS VERY IMPORTANT, OTHER CHAMPAGNE YEASTS HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THE ACIDITY OF THE LEMONADE, BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE YEAST PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW AS WELL)
- Potassium Sorbate
- Appx 8 cups regular cane sugar
Click to expand...

How much yeast is needed for the original recipe, it's not specified.
 
From watching several YouTube videos and reading through the forums, I decided to use 2 packs of Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast. I bottled last Friday, but it still has not reached a carb level that that I want to pasteurize. The soda bottles are rock hard, but when I pop a bottle it's dead flat. Not sure what to make of that.

Back to your question though, the 2 packs of yeast put on a good show with mine and I went from OG of 1.091 to FG of 1.010. I didn't need a blow off tube, but make dang sure that airlock does not get clogged.
 
I only use one pack of yeast. Turned out fine for me. But my OG was much lower than bigken.
If your OG is really high l'd probably opt for 2 packs. Around 1.065 or less you should be fine with one pack.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I'm really new to this. Back in the day... Many years ago, Some high school friends and I made a couple of batches of grape wine from Welchs grape juice, just getting back into this again. What actually makes the carbonation? I was wondering when it was done fermenting , if I could strain the liquid into a bottling carboy let sit for a day or two on an airlock and make sure fermenting
Is complete. Then add "fizz" tablets to the bottling. It seems like the pasturasation step could be eliminated. Would this work or would it affect the taste too much?
Thanks for your insight.
 
MusicalBrewer said:
I only use one pack of yeast. Turned out fine form me. But my OG was much lower than bigken.
If your OG is really high l'd probably opt for 2 packs. Around 1.065 or less you should be fine with one pack.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...


How big was your yeast packet? 5g?
 
bbrjj said:
I'm really new to this. Back in the day... Many years ago, Some high school friends and I made a couple of batches of grape wine from Welchs grape juice, just getting back into this again. What actually makes the carbonation? I was wondering when it was done fermenting , if I could strain the liquid into a bottling carboy let sit for a day or two on an airlock and make sure fermenting
Is complete. Then add "fizz" tablets to the bottling. It seems like the pasturasation step could be eliminated. Would this work or would it affect the taste too much?
Thanks for your insight.
Click to expand...

Carbonation is typically done one of two ways. 1. Your fermented liquid of choice is put in a keg and C02 is forced into it. 2. A calculated amount of sugar is added back into the fermented liquid, then it is bottled. The yeast start eating the sugar and a small fermentation begins again. Now CO2 is being released by the yeast, which cannot escape through an airlock. So the C02 builds up and is forced back into your joy juice, making it fizzy.....

I'm guessing the "fizz" tablets you refer to are the sugar tablets used for bottle conditioning beer. This is adding a small, calculated amount of sugar that the yeast will eat and leave a desired amount of C02 in a 12 oz bottle.

When you back sweeten the hard lemonade (add the concentrate and sugar after the fermentation is complete) you will be waking up the yeast again and will cause another large fermentation to begin. The amount of sugar you are adding is far more than is necessary to carbonate the lemonade. To prevent another fermentation and retain the sweetness you need to kill the yeast. This is done by either 1. adding potassium sorbate or 2. by waiting until your bottles have reached a level of carbonation you are happy with and then pasteurizing.

If you don't kill the yeast after back sweetening and you bottle the hard lemonade you will have bottle bombs going off.
 
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it to me. I'm not really stupid - just a newbie :). We're going to give this a shot and see what happens... (fingers crossed)
 
I hope my post didn't come across condescending. I definitely didn't think you were stupid! I just like things explained very clear and detailed to me, so I tend to explain things that way. If it came across wrong I'm sorry...

As far as the hard lemonade---if you get the yeast going good you should be fine. It's a great recipe. Hope it turns out good for you!
 
No sir it did't. I'm very appreciative of the info. The "stupid" comment was my attempt at humor. Maybe it didn't come across that way very well. Again, thank you for the very nice explanation.
 
I finished pasteurizing mine tonight. I'm limited on off days and the plastic bottles were rock hard. I was getting a lil uncomfortable and decided to go ahead and do them tonight.

The process went smooth. I did have one blow up on me. Thank goodness I had the lid on. The water pushed the lid off and I had a tidal wave splash on the stove, counter and floor. I'll have sticky floors for a month trying to get this out of the ceramic tiles. Lol

My only regret so far was using limeade instead of lemonade. But other than that, I'm happy with the results. I think my next batch will be raspberry lemonade if I can start collecting more bottles.

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Thanks to everyone on this list who guided me along the way. Awesome resource!
 
bigken462 said:
The process went smooth. I did have one blow up on me. Thank goodness I had the lid on. The water pushed the lid off and I had a tidal wave splash on the stove, counter and floor. I'll have sticky floors for a month trying to get this out of the ceramic tiles. Lol

!
Click to expand...

I've had a couple of bottles explode on me while pasteurizing. It's amazing the power that those things have. One exploded as I was putting the lid back on--the entire neck of the bottle shot out of the pot and hit me in the side of the arm :eek: That was a wake up call! Thank God I got hit with the cap and not the sharp edge. It hit me so hard it left a bruise. If i had been hit with the sharp edge I'm sure I would have needed stitches.
 
When making one of these grape juice/lemonade/juice extract thingies should i expect a gnarly krausen much like a beer? Or can i make a 5 gallon batch of it in a 5 gallon carboy (just like i did with apfelwein) and not have it blow up out the top
 

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