Strawberry daquiri underway!

[detlion1643]

My wife doesn't drink beer and only some certain sweet red wines. But she really likes a couple different flavors of the Seagram drinks. Strawberry daquiri is one of them.

So I picked up a few items and mixed up a batch to see if it might come out to her liking.

6 cans frozen strawberry daquiri concentrate
2 1/2 tsp strawberry extract flavoring
Water and sugar to just under 5 gallons at 1.075 - 1.08
4 tsp yeast nutrient
4 campden tabs
1 packet of Montrachet

I left some headspace in the carboy (using it as primary) in order to back sweeten. I have 2 more cans of the strawberry daquiri concentrate left. I also have a 1 litre bottle of strawberry daquiri magarita mix. Not sure how exactly I will back sweeten it yet.

 

[detlion1643]

Took a peek at the carboy this morning, it's started, albeit slowly currently. Here's a few pics of the ingredients chosen:

 

[Baabaad00]

Sounds interesting. What kind of sugar did you use? What yeast? What do you think about using actual strawberries?

I'd almost be tempted to use this same approach, but with this recipe style. I think substituting the DME for the Mr&Mrs Mix would work better, especially since it contains sorbate in it according to the ingredients. I wonder if the concentrates alone would be enough strawberry flavor and what the extract will contribute. What are the ingredients in the extract? Store bought extracts are often infused with artificial flavors and sometimes sorbate, both of which is recommended avoiding. If you want a bigger strawberry'ee punch, I'd recommend just following that recipe I linked above and perhaps adding strawberries to the mix. No flavor better than the real thing.

How's the fermentation? Did you start it yet?

 

[detlion1643]

I want to avoid using DME for the time being. I'm not opposed to it, but I wanted this first batch to be relatively simple and then branch off from there. Think of this as a control batch.

I used just normal white table sugar and 1 packet of Montrachet yeast.

This batch has been extremely slow going. In fact, I deemed it stuck this morning as it's been at 1.03ish for a few days now... So I pitched in a little bit of nutrient and energizer and then 1 packet of Premiere Cuvee I had laying around (I hope the yeast is still good, after pitching I noticed it had a date of 2015 on it lol)...

I'll have to check the extract for sorbate, but I DO know that the Mr & Mrs contains sorbate which is why I did NOT put it into the primary for fermenting and will be using it for backsweetening. Should I still do the normal amount of sorbate after it finishes, or would this suffice as being the only means of sorbate?

I do remember that around 1.05ish it tasted very thin, but I didn't make any modifications.

It's just time to wait again and see if the repitching can finish this batch off.

BTW, there is a good 1-2 inches of lees at the bottom. The frozen cans of mix contain strawberry puree in them.

 

[detlion1643]

It's definitely started again, measuring 1.02 this morning... Should only be a few days until complete at this rate!

 

[detlion1643]

This is certainly a frustrating batch. I don't know if it's because of the second yeast packet (it was dated), or something else, but it hasn't moved since 1.02 yet. I put it under airlock this morning and set it aside. Although, there is lots of airlock activity, so hopefully if I don't look at it, it'll finish off. I think I'll test it after a week and see if it moved from 1.02...

 

[Baabaad00]

Why the aversion for DME? I personally tend to use other recipes as guidance for my own experimentation. That linked recipe seems pretty reliable and used a lot.

I mean if you're white table sugar, why not DME and adjust to the linked recipe? Just wondering where you got your recipe from. I'm newer and tend to stay simple with well known/practiced recipes then go from their.\


No idea regarding the sorbate.

 

[detlion1643]

The recipe came from myself, came up with it on the spot. I will do a batch with the use of DME later for comparison though. It's certainly not an aversion to using it. The airlock has been steadily blurping, so I took a peek at this morning. It read at 1.01, so it's still going! Not sure why I am having so much trouble with it, but it should be completely finished at this pace in about a week. Then it's time to backsweeten and clear.

 

[Baabaad00]

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

Rehydrate yeast:

Rehydrate yeast by combining 1 cup warm water with 1 tbsp of lemonade concentrate and just a couple yeast nutrient pellets with Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne yeast, Allow to sit for at least a half hour. You should see vigorous action in the yeast when ready.

Brewing the wort:

In a 2.5+ gal brew pot, combine 1 lb Pilsen Light Dry Malt Extract (DME) with 3 lbs corn sugar to appx 2 gal boiling water. This will give you appx 9% abv when finished. To increase alcohol, increase sugar and/or DME, use less sugar to lower ABV). Stir until completely disolved Remove from heat, and 7 tsp yeast nutrient.

Combine wort in large plastic fermentor bucket with 10 cans lemonade concentrate, and enough cold water to fill bucket to bring total volume to 6 gal. Make sure temp is between 65 - 75 degrees, and take initial hydrometer reading. Pitch in your yeast starter. Put lid and airlock on fermentor and allow to ferment at room temp.

Fermentation:

You should see steady fermentation within 2 -3 days, that will last 1-2 weeks. Allow to ferment completely out before attempting to bottle.

Bottling day:

Take hydrometer reading. You should be right around .998 – 1.002 specific gravity.

In a large sauce pan, add 8 cups cane sugar (or to taste), 2 cans Lemonade concentrate, and 3 cups water and, stirring continuously, bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and disolve 3.5 tsp potassium sorbate. Add lemon/sugar/sorbate solution to a 7 gal bottling bucket. Rack fermented lemonade from carboy into bottling bucket with the sorbate solution, stirring thoroughly.

You can bottle in beer or wine bottles, or you can keg. Even with the sorbate, you will probably get a little bit of carbonation as it sits, but it is usually not enough to pop a cork. I usually keg, and force carbonate.

It is ready to drink on bottling day.

Why not give this a try? Switch out all lemonade concentrate with your strawberry daiquiri concentrate and eliminate the extract. Taste it and then you can adjust it then if you like.

 

[detlion1643]

I will be trying something different in the near future.

As for this batch, it measured under 1.000 this morning, so it's finally done! At this point I added in 1 tsp of sorbate, 1 whole bottle of the Mr & Mrs T Strawberry Daquiri Margarita mix, and 1 1/2 cans of strawberry daquiri frozen concentrate. I wish I could've gotten 2 whole cans in but I didn't have the room in the carboy. The Mr&Mrs T says sorbate in the ingredients, so with the extra 1 tsp I added, I hope it's enough for backsweetening.

Anyways, the result is around 1.015ish. I gave it a quick sip as well but I can only really taste hot alcohol flavor for now. Time to let it sit for a long time and clear away.

 

[detlion1643]

So the airlock has been bubbling away all day yesterday and a little bit today. Yesterday throughout the day I gave it 2 really good shakes/stirs to degas. There also seems to be a lot of dead yeast (or at least I hope that's what it is) at the top and in the neck of the carboy. I don't know if it's still fermenting or degassing. The reading this morning was at 1.01ish, but that could be what it settled at after backsweetening.

I'm just gonna wait it out and see, keeping good notes for the future.

 

[Baabaad00]

Time to let it sit for a long time and clear away.

My skepticism was for this reason. How pronounced was the strawberry flavor? I would have just used the recipe format I referred and altered it because of it's reliability. Throwing something together can result in something to be desired. A hoochie-ish brew can taste good in time, but time is limited and I know I personally don't want to wait unless I absolutely have to, which is the case for my mead/apfelwein, but I'm in the process of minimizing that need to age. I think that recipe, based on posted experience, would have resulted in a sweeter strawberry malted drink that would taste good almost right away.