Mixed-Style Beer 10-42 Shandy

[RJBanks]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

WLP051

Yeast Starter

No

Batch Size (Gallons)

5.5

Original Gravity

1.048

Final Gravity

1.010

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

23.9

Color

3.5

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

9 days 66 - 72 degrees

Tasting Notes

Great warm weather lemon beer!

So last year I experimented with three recipes for a shandy. They were all okay but not what I was hoping for. This year I went with a new recipe I came up with that is a blend of ideas from others and my previous attempts. I offered this up to the neighbors at a cookout last week and it didn't made it halfway through the party. I will still play around with the hops a little bit but it came out really really good. Light enough to please non craft beer folks but enough there to set it apart from the commercial stuff.

4.5 lb - Pale 2 Row
3 lb - White Wheat
1 lb - Flaked Wheat
.5 lb - Rice Hulls
Mashed at 154 degrees for 60 min.

Hops
Citra .5 oz - 30 min
Citra .5 oz - 10 min
Citra 1 oz - Flameout
Added the zest of 4 large lemons at flameout.

After 9 days and steady reading at 1.010, I placed the carboy in the fridge to cold crash for 6 days. At kegging I added 1.5 cans of frozen lemonade concentrate. Purged oxygen with Co2 and rolled it around to mix it in well. Put the gas back on and let it sit for a week to carb.

 

[SGTSparty]

Was the lemon-aid concentrate frozen when you put it in the keg or did you thaw it first? Also what type/brand of concentrate did you use? I imagine there are about a million and a half varieties out there and when adding sugars to a brew w/ live yeast in it I'd rather know what I'm doing exactly. Speaking of, how many volumes of CO2 did you carb at?

 

[RJBanks]

I used the Walmart brand. I did thaw it. I set the pressure at 30 for 48 hours and then bled the keg. I then reduced the pressure to 10 -12 and left for 6 days.

 

[SGTSparty]

4.5 lb - Pale 2 Row
3 lb - White Wheat
1 lb - Flaked Wheat
.5 lb - Rice Hulls
Mashed at 164 degrees for 60 min.

Hops
Citra .5 oz - 30 min
Citra .5 oz - 10 min
Citra 1 oz - Flameout
Added the zest of 4 large lemons at flameout.

After 9 days and steady reading at 1.010, I placed the carboy in the fridge to cold crash for 6 days. At kegging I added 1.5 cans of frozen lemonade concentrate. Purged oxygen with Co2 and rolled it around to mix it in well. Put the gas back on and let it sit for a week to carb.

I'm going to brew this next weekend with my brother who's coming in to town and has never done an AG brew day so I want to make sure I'm on point here. Can you clarify the mash for me? Did you Mash in at 164 or you held 164 for 60 min? It reads to me that you held 164 for 60 min but I wanted to double check because I've never held a mash temp that high before... well at least not intentionally. thanks for the help, cannot wait to brew this up.

 

[sfrisby]

That was my question too. Was 164* a typo? Maybe 154*?

 

[tfbrews]

Sorry if somebody already suggested this, but I just kegged a beer I have dubbed Fo' Shandy or (faux shandy) as I didnt use lemonade, but instead used a good bit of Sorachi Ace hops in order to bring out the lemon. I also added 3lbs of mixed frozen berries and I have to say it turned out fantastic. Has the body and flavor of a shandy, and the lemon is very forward. Next time I will probably dry hop though as well, there isnt much lemon in the nose, but it is definitely in the flavor.
Its a good way to get the shandy effect without having to bother with figuring out ABV losses or gains or possible infections by adding lemonade.

 

[RJBanks]

I'm going to brew this next weekend with my brother who's coming in to town and has never done an AG brew day so I want to make sure I'm on point here. Can you clarify the mash for me? Did you Mash in at 164 or you held 164 for 60 min? It reads to me that you held 164 for 60 min but I wanted to double check because I've never held a mash temp that high before... well at least not intentionally. thanks for the help, cannot wait to brew this up.

Sorry, yes that was a typo. 154 degrees was what I was shooting for. Heated the water to 171 and dropped to that after grain was added.

 

[RJBanks]

Sorry if somebody already suggested this, but I just kegged a beer I have dubbed Fo' Shandy or (faux shandy) as I didnt use lemonade, but instead used a good bit of Sorachi Ace hops in order to bring out the lemon. I also added 3lbs of mixed frozen berries and I have to say it turned out fantastic. Has the body and flavor of a shandy, and the lemon is very forward. Next time I will probably dry hop though as well, there isnt much lemon in the nose, but it is definitely in the flavor.
Its a good way to get the shandy effect without having to bother with figuring out ABV losses or gains or possible infections by adding lemonade.

One of the batches I made last year used the Sorachi Ace hops. It came out well but did not have the lemon flavors I was hopping for. It was more of a bitter taste to me. Still really good, just not what I was looking for.

The mixed berries sounds interesting. I thought about the possibility of an infection but in the end decided that it doesn't seem to last long enough to really worry about it. May bite me one day!

 

[SGTSparty]

One of the batches I made last year used the Sorachi Ace hops. It came out well but did not have the lemon flavors I was hopping for. It was more of a bitter taste to me. Still really good, just not what I was looking for.

The mixed berries sounds interesting. I thought about the possibility of an infection but in the end decided that it doesn't seem to last long enough to really worry about it. May bite me one day!

Thanks for the mash temp clarification.

Shouldn't the Lemonade be pasteurized since its a commercial food product? I would think as long as you spray it and any spoons etc you use down with sanitizer you'd be ok.

 

[RJBanks]

Thanks for the mash temp clarification.

Shouldn't the Lemonade be pasteurized since its a commercial food product? I would think as long as you spray it and any spoons etc you use down with sanitizer you'd be ok.

Yeah, you are probably right about it already being pasteurized. I just sprayed the cans down with Starsan before I opened them and poured them straight in.

 

[RJBanks]

Let me know how this turns out for you.

 

[Warthaug]

Did you stabilize the beer to prevent refermentation? Or do you just rely on keeping it cold?

To clarify, i mean your first attempt with juice concentrate.

 

[SGTSparty]

Did you stabilize the beer to prevent refermentation? Or do you just rely on keeping it cold?

To clarify, i mean your first attempt with juice concentrate.

Curious about this. My kegerator stays very cold (like 32-33 f cold) so I'm hoping that the cold will inactivate the yeast. But I had another thought. This may be a real stupid n00b question but what if you used sugar free lemonade concentrate? Do yeast eat artificial sweetener?

 

[RJBanks]

Just kept it cold in the keg. Yes would have to kill the yeast if you were going to keep it out of the fridge.

I've never used anything other than lactose until now so I'm not the right person to ask about the artificial sweeteners. Lactose is non fermentable. I'm also relatively new still to all grain so just feeling my way through! I'm sure some veterans will give their opinions/experiences about things that are being done wrong or could be done differently.

 

[sfrisby]

I've messed with artificial sweeteners before and it's never been a positive result. Adding Camden and potassium sorbate will prevent the yeast from further multiplying and eating additional sugar. I've never worried about infection when adding a commercial product (in this case, frozen concentrate or frozen berries). I feel it is going to be cleaner from the manufacturer than anything I can do to it.

 

[Warthaug]

I'm doing a shandy (Helles + pink grapefruit juice concentrate) for the SWIMBO, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to stabilize with meta+sorbate. Between the lager yeast, and the 5-7C temp of my fridge, refermentation is probably going to be an issue otherwise.

Thanks

Bryan

 

[RJBanks]

I'm going to brew this next weekend with my brother who's coming in to town and has never done an AG brew day so I want to make sure I'm on point here. Can you clarify the mash for me? Did you Mash in at 164 or you held 164 for 60 min? It reads to me that you held 164 for 60 min but I wanted to double check because I've never held a mash temp that high before... well at least not intentionally. thanks for the help, cannot wait to brew this up.

Did you wind up making this yet? Just curious how it turned out for you.

 

[SGTSparty]

Did you wind up making this yet? Just curious how it turned out for you.

No unfortunately not. I have everything ready and I need to try and make it this weekend before everything starts to go south on me but I lost battles with SWMBO the last two weekends and it got trumped by other things on my HoneyDo list Hopefully this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Warthaug]

So mine is brewed...and its pretty damned good. Mine isn't a "true" radler, in that it is near full-strength with fruit flavour added by the addition of 4 cans of frozen pink lemonaid concentrate. A more traditional radler could be made by making up the lemonaid with water and mixing it 1:1 with the beer. I prefer my version - just as refreshing, but more bitterness and malt to balance out the sweetness/tartness of the lemonaid:

The Helles "Base" (which is pretty damned good on its own)

• 90% Pilsner Malt
• 6% Munich Malt
• 2.6% Melanoiden Malt
• 1.4% Carafoam
• 20 IBU Hallertau (60 min)
• Irish moss (15 min)
• Saflager W34/70, or other clean yeast

Mash 64.4C (148F), 90 min. Sparge enough for a 60 min boil. I fermented warm-lager style (16-18C, 3 weeks), but a traditional lager fermentation would work as well. Once fermented, transfer to a keg and add (per 20L/5 US gal) :

• 1/4 teaspoon potassium metabisulfite
• 10 g potassium sorbate
• 4 cans pink lemonade frozen concentrate

Mix, carbonate, serve.

I brewed a double batch, using half for the radler and half as a conventional Helles.

B

 

[SGTSparty]

Did you wind up making this yet? Just curious how it turned out for you.

Finally got around to brewing this last night. First time using my new cooler mash tun too. Everything went pretty well, more or less uneventful brew day which was great. My efficiency is for $#!T (hit like 58%, OG of 1.034) but other than that is went great. Grating the lemons' zest took longer than I expected and was a bit annoying at the time but man, the smell of that zest while transferring to the fermenter was Ah-mazing.

 

[RJBanks]

Finally got around to brewing this last night. First time using my new cooler mash tun too. Everything went pretty well, more or less uneventful brew day which was great. My efficiency is for $#!T (hit like 58%, OG of 1.034) but other than that is went great. Grating the lemons' zest took longer than I expected and was a bit annoying at the time but man, the smell of that zest while transferring to the fermenter was Ah-mazing.

Awesome. Hope the low efficiency does not bother the flavor too much. My last batch has been in the keg for almost three weeks now and the flavor is still improving. I'm going to make more in about 2 weeks and will just do a double batch this time. It keeps going so fast when I have it.

 

[SGTSparty]

Update, just got back from vacation and had a CO2 leak due to a bad DQ so I had to get that refilled and figured out before I could keg this. Finally got all that done (and my last/4th tap installed so I could drink it) and kegged this last night. I only had 1 can of lemonade concentrate, which I think you used 1.5 so hopefully that works out. Sitting at 25 PSI right now, will drop that tomorrow morning before work and should be ready to sample tomorrow night. I'm a little concerned because the hydro sample had a bit of a bitter (non-hop bitter) kick to it but i'm hoping i didn't screw anything up. Might have got too much pith in w/ the zest? we'll have to see how she tastes when she's carbed up w/ the lemonade.

 

[RJBanks]

Update, just got back from vacation and had a CO2 leak due to a bad DQ so I had to get that refilled and figured out before I could keg this. Finally got all that done (and my last/4th tap installed so I could drink it) and kegged this last night. I only had 1 can of lemonade concentrate, which I think you used 1.5 so hopefully that works out. Sitting at 25 PSI right now, will drop that tomorrow morning before work and should be ready to sample tomorrow night. I'm a little concerned because the hydro sample had a bit of a bitter (non-hop bitter) kick to it but i'm hoping i didn't screw anything up. Might have got too much pith in w/ the zest? we'll have to see how she tastes when she's carbed up w/ the lemonade.

Only using one can is more of a personal preference. You can always add more if you want more lemonade flavor. The bitterness is interesting because I had none of that. I am always concerned about there doesn't seem to be a lot of flavor to me when I take a sample before kegging. So hopefully it's just like you said and you got some of the pith that is causing it. I would think the lemonade concentrate should help with it. Also, after you get it carbed up if you can let it just for a week or so the flavor really comes together more. Just remember to mix it up really well once in the keg.

 

[RJBanks]

Any update?

 

[SGTSparty]

Sorry, yes, that random bitterness has mellowed a lot (still think that was a process error but IDK exactly what). I had some problems getting the lemonade mixed properly. I accidentally started racking the beer into the keg before I put the lemonade in, had to add it mid-rack, then I didn't feel like it mixed well enough so when I sampled it it was mostly concentrate. Took it out and shook the piss out of it and put it back, then left on vacation, came back 10 days later to an empty CO2 tank and flat beer. Once I got it re-carbed reviews have been good but it's more of a strongly flavored wheat beer then a true shandy after so much concentrate got poured off the bottom with the first sample. I also need to bump up the carbonation on it too. Will need to try it again with these lessons learned. I do really like the base wheat though, great, light wheat beer for big additions like with shandys. Will be adding it to my recipe bank for later experimentation.

 

[RJBanks]

Yeah, through trial and error I have learned that I need to shake it up really well one it twice a day the first three days or so. Sorry if I didn't say that before. After doing this the first two or so pints are usually stronger and then after that the rest are more evened out.

If you want more of the lemonade in it just add a bit more until you get it where you want it.

 

[SGTSparty]

Just wanted to post an update on this recipe for any future users. Life got busy the end of last summer with a house renovation and my wife getting pregnant in late fall so the last gallon of this sat in my kegerator until a few weeks ago. When I changed the keg I ran some sanitizer through the line... or tried to. Turned out that the lemon zest got caught in my flow control Perlicks and I had to disassemble them, clean it out before I could finish cleaning the lines. I still think this is a great recipe but maybe put the zest in a small, very fine hop bag that you can transfer from the BK to the fermenter? It is possible that this only happens with flow controls or only happened because of how long I let it sit but just wanted to let folks know its a possibility.