Full Hard Lemonade recipe

I have scaled this recipe down and this method does work.

 

started this today.2/3 lemonade concentrate 1/3 apple juice concentrate.what i had at home.

 

Really keen on making this but lemonade concentrate doesn't exist here in the UK.

I have two alternatives, could someone tell me which would be best?

I could buy lemonade power, the sort of stuff you get in the US. I don't know if that would turn out anything like lemonade concentrate when mixed with wort, and how you'd work out the ratios either.

My other option is sodastream lemonade concentrate. I think this is more of a syrup though and it does have a preservative in it amongst a few other flavourings.

Would either of these work?

 

If it has preservatives in it it wont work. Same with powder because at least the ones I have seen here have them. An alternative would be using actual lemons or some kind of organic lemonade without preservatives in it

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You could make your own lemonade concentrate. I've seen recipes online. You'd probably have to juice like a hundred lemons though.

 

I can get organic still lemonade with no preservatives, flavourings or colours etc, its just got water, rice syrup power and 12% lemon juice. Would that get the job done?

I've looked at the recipes for homemade lemonade concentrate and as you say I'd probably need a stupid amount of lemons which I wouldn't be against doing but I don't want to spend too much on a recipe.

Thanks guys.

 

I think this would totally work. When I make this I put the concentrate in then add water...that's essentially making lemonade. I don't see why pre made lemonade wouldn't do the trick.
You can always scale the recipe back to a smaller batch to make sure it works. I make 3 gallon batches regularly. Just divide the recipe in half for 3 gallons, or divide by 6 for a one gallon batch. Then you're not out a lot of money if it doesn't work out.
Keep us posted on how it turns out.

 

Cheers, yeah I think I'll give it a go. Fingers crossed it works!

 

Assuming one can of concentrate equals 48 oz of lemonade, then you should need 480 oz of lemonade, or just under 4 gallons, which looks like almost the exact amount of top-off water you would need, so it should work. The only problem would be the two cans it calls for on bottling day, but you should just be able to add the equivalent amount of lemon juice and sugar instead.

 

Wait, I think I've greatly underestimated the amount of lemonade I need. I thought the cans would be 12oz each like most cans, meaning 120oz plus two further cans later on? Can anyone thats brewed this tell me if each can should contain 48oz or 12oz?

 

Generally, a 12oz can of concentrate makes 48oz of lemonade, after adding water, iirc...so using 10 cans plus the water to hydrate/mix them would equal the usual lemon juice and the water addition.


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Yeah you mix one can of concentrate with three cans of water to make lemonade, so if you're using lemonade instead of concentrate you have to use four times as much.

 

The can of frozen concentrate is 12oz. The directions on most cans say to add 3 additional cans of water to make a total of 48oz of lemonade (12oz concentrate + 36oz water).

Sounds like you need to use 48oz of lemonade in place of every can of concentrate.

 

That's a pain, already ordered my lemonade though so I'll make 1/4 of the recipe and see what its like.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Did a variation on the hard lemonade

Strawberry lemonade 9.8% abv

 

Forgot the pic

 

If I wanted to do a mini mash instead of using lme/dme, how would that work out? How much grain would I have to use for a 1g batch to leave the taste on par...

 

I really want to make this in a one gallon batch as that's all I'm setup for at the moment....ive done two beer kits...however I've never had still beer and carbing makes me nervous because of the percentage of bottle bombs I've read about over the last 30 pages....don't really want one of these to blow up in my face...

 

Forgot to sub.

 

If you use the original recipe then the yeast will be killed when you add the potassium sorbate. The lemonade won't carb up and you don't have to worry about bottle bombs.

Some of us choose not to use the potassium sorbate to get some carbonation--then we bottle pasteurize in order to avoid bottle bombs.

If you don't want to worry about bottle bombs then simply make sure you add the potassium sorbate like the recipe calls for.

 

I tried this once. Unfortunately it was the only batch I've ever done that got infected--so I never got to try it.

I scaled my recipe back in Beersmith to see what you would need for a one gallon batch--using 7oz of grain should put you where you need to be (assuming 2 row or pilsen malt).

 

I was planning on .5lb mashed in 1q water and boiled for an hour to rid the dms. Should end well, almost thought of 2q just to handle boil off but didn't want too much water invthe mash

 

subbed

 

So I noticed in the original recipe that you can use Minute Maid Lemonade concentrate with no preservatives. I checked out a can of this tonight at the frozen food area of Wally-World and it has high fructose corn syrup but doesn't appear to have preservatives. It also only has 15% real juice. Is this what everyone is using?
On edit: I also noticed in the original recipe that the ingredients list calls for 2.5lbs or corn sugar (Dextrose) but in the brewing of the wort is says to combine the DME with 3lbs. of corn sugar. Can someone elaborate on that?

 

A batch I made with W-M's Great Value brand pink lemonade is rapidly disappearing! The dextrose discrepancy is probably a typo - don't worry about it. I think I used 3.4 pounds, because that's how much dextrose was in the bag I dumped in.

 

Thanks for that. I'm going to get the balance of my ingredients today.

 

Just did a variation of this on Monday, 1lb LME, 4 cans Lemonade Concentrate, 1lb Sugar.

With a 2.5g batch and 3/4 packet of yeast I didn't see any explosive fermentation like I expected, this has been fermenting at a steady 64 for 5 days now and it never did get a good krausen on top. Hoping this didn't flop.

 

Should be fine, wine yeasts don't usually get much of a krausen unless there is fruit involved or a VERY active ferment.

 

Ahh ok, I'm used to beer.My cider even had a little krausen but this lemonade nada

 

Has anyone tried a combination of juices? I read through the whole thread and see that people have tried cranberry or adding fruit, but I'm not a fan of cranberry and don't want to bother with additional mess so I'm thinking primarily lemonade, with some limeade, unsweetened orange and pineapple for a tropical citrus taste. We're all on a reduced carb diet so I'm hoping I can use less sugar for the sweetening if it's less sour and tart to begin with? Wishful thinking maybe that I can make it harmless, but perhaps just a little less bad. I have an old basic coopers extract beer kit I want to use up for this batch, or maybe half of it. Any suggestions on modifications? I'm planning on adding a 26oz bottle of vodka and force carbing in a keg.

 

I've tried this recipe using different juices (blueberry/pomegranate, cherry/apple) and combining juices (lemonade & limeade). Every batch has turned out great. I think you're combination of lemonade, limeade, orange, and pineapple sounds great.

The nice thing is you can add juice & sugar to your taste when sweetening. Start with a lesser amount and give it a try. If you want more sweetness then add more sugar. If you want more pineapple then add more pineapple.

As far as the beer kit and the vodka--- I wouldn't use any hops, that's for sure!

 

Glad I found this thread after I started two 1 gallon batches
today. Went simple, 2 cans of room temp Minute Maid for each
batch - one Lemonade and the other Pink Lemonade. 1/2 packet
of Red Star Champagne yeast and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient to each
1 gallon glass carboy. Didn't add any other fermentables this time.

S.G was around 1.044 for plain Lemonade and 1.050 for Pink Lemonade.
I plan to go primary for 2-3 weeks then rack to secondary for
about another week. Not sure how I'll backsweeten, maybe
lactose to sweeten and corn sugar to prime if I go ahead and bottle.
Might keg one if I have room and add more Minute maid if I can.

So far they've started to foam up a little, we'll see how it goes...
I

 

Mine ended up with a slight off flavor, possibly from the sorbate. Going to have to let t qait a few weeks and see how it turns out

 

Has anyone tried back sweeting with Splenda or xylitol to avoid having to stovetop pasteurize? I only have plastic bottles and am sure they will melt under the temp. If so how much per gallon and how much corn sugar was used to prime?


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I highly approve of this recipe! I have done it twice now and have had great results both times! I also fermented plain cranberry juice with a couple cups of sugar and yeast and added that finished product to the lemonade! Highly worthwhile recipe!

 

Looks good, what ABV are you getting there?

 

What about adding Camden and potassium sorbate to shut down the yeast and then back sweeten with whatever you like?

 

You used twice as much LME as necessary to follow the recipe. This would have put your OG around 1.078 and ABV about 11.8%--stressed yeast and twice as much LME could affect the flavor a bit

 

Sorry I ment .5lb not a full pound. Its fading now on the 3rd day in the bottle, hopefully this trend continues

 

Just over 9%


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