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Hard Lemonade question

Discussion in 'Beginners Beer Brewing Forum' started by wk1h, Sep 13, 2007.

 

  1. #1
    wk1h

    Member

    Posted Sep 13, 2007
    I found a recipe for hard lemonade somewhere. It's pretty straight forward, basically it calls for 8 cans pure frozen lemonade concentrate, 3#'s extra light DME, and WLP720. Do a complete fermentation with it, then sweeten with wine conditioner to taste at bottling.

    I'm just looking for suggestions from those that have brewed a hard lemonade before. Does this recipe sound OK?
     
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  2. #2
    Yooper

    Ale's What Cures You! Staff Member  

    Posted Sep 13, 2007
    Sounds ok. I haven't done one with DME but I know that Mike's Hard Lemonade is a malt product.

    I have a super long thread around here on the problems encountered when fermenting lemonade. If you do a search for "hard lemonade", you'll find it. Anyway, the jist of it is that lemonade can be a real bugger to get started. It's best to make a starter, with some super diluted must (just dilute your made up must with water) and some sugar until that gets going and then keep adding a little more must to it until it really takes off. Only then should you pitch it into the lemonade must. It was definitely the toughest ferment I ever had, and I really babied it to get it going and keep it going. I'll also suggest some yeast nutrient in it.

    Edit- here's one thread to start with. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=12104&highlight=lemonade
     
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  3. #3
    PseudoChef

    Well-Known Member

    Posted Sep 13, 2007
    I would just be careful with that 3# DME depending on how strong you want it to be. My hard limeade came out to 1.080. It's a doozy.
     
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  4. #4
    Yooper

    Ale's What Cures You! Staff Member  

    Posted Sep 13, 2007
    Oh, one more thing- read the ingredients on the lemonade can before you buy 7 of them. If it says "sorbate" anywhere, it will NOT ferment at all.
     
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  5. #5
    wk1h

    Member

    Posted Sep 13, 2007
    Lorena - Will do with the starter. I've also got some yeast nutrient, I'll make sure to use it (can you over-use it?). I made sure the lemonade concentrate was 100% pure no preservatives when I went to buy it.

    PseudoChef - What did you put in for fermentables to get you up to 1.080? Should I cut back?
     
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  6. #6
    zman

    Well-Known Member  

    Posted Apr 6, 2010
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  7. #7
    Veinman

    Well-Known Member

    Posted Apr 6, 2010
    Hey I just posted a long post about what I did to make my hard limeade here:

    http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/my-hard-limeade-recipe-delicious-potent-172058/

    I followed a lot of Yooper's and others tips when making it the BIG keys:
    large starter and no fermentables
    also if you use champagne yeast you'll ferment to below 1.000 so consider how strong you want it to be when mixing, I added sugar until I got to the sg I wanted.
     
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