Hard Lemonade Recipe Idea... Thoughts?

I did a little research about hard lemonade, and all of them talk about using sugar, lemonade concentrated and wine yeast... what about this?

5-Gallon Batch - ALL GRAIN:

12 lbs 2-row pale malt
2 lbs torrified wheat

24 lemons (juiced)
2 pounds of Lactose

No Hops, and since you don't have any, you would only need to boil for like 15 minutes to kill everything.

Wyeast American Ale 2


This is very simple, and give 65% mash efficiency should give you about 7.5% alcohol.

One question would be, when to add the lactose? To the boil, or with the priming sugar when bottling? I know people do it different ways.

Also, is that too much lactose? Not enough? Obviously you want this to be sweet.

The American Ale 2 yeast gives off a little bit of a fruity flavor/taste and is used in many wheat beers, so it should be pretty good.


What does everyone thing before I take a stab at it?

I won't say I am inspired to spend the energy vs. a hard lemonade or skeeter pee, but curious how it turns out. You might want to search for the AM Ale 2's acid tolerance with 24 lemons.

I could be wrong, but I thought lactose in milk stouts was for mouthfeel more than sweetness. The sweetness would come from the dextrinous wort, not the lactose. I've never tried lactose by itself, so I don't know how sweet it is.

I'd probably use a good does of carapils for sweetness instead, but maybe I'm totally wrong.

I've thought about something similar to this for the swmbo.. For the lactose I would personally add it at bottling time. This way you can add it in small amounts until you get the sweetness to the correct level. How much you'll need will depend on how low you get your FG. Then add in your priming sugar for the carbonation.

I wouldn't include the lemon juice until after the fermentation is completed or going full speed. With that much acid it may be difficult to bottle carb it.

You may also think about using 2-row pilsner malt as it would keep the color lighter and closer to a real lemonade. I am also curious about why you are using wheat? Let me know how this turns out too!