Can I make hard lemonade?

[arienjaynes21]

Is it possible to make hard lemonade for store bought lemon juice?

 

[plepper]

Check out the thread here on HBT about Skeeter Pee Not exactly hard lemonade I think its better. Super easy to make and nothing better on a hot day!

 

[arienjaynes21]

Awesome thanks I'll try to find it

 

[bernardsmith]

Skeeter Pee is a fun wine to make and to enjoy. The original recipe calls for using the slurry from a previous wine because of the acidic nature of the must (the liquor before you add the yeast): many yeasts will be damaged by the acid levels, the assumption being that yeast harvested from the slurry will be far more tolerant of low pH environments than yeast cells that you have just rehydrated... BUT I have made a version of SP twice and have only used yeast I just rehydrated and have not experienced any problems...

 

[JonM]

Definitely read the separate thread about preparing yeast for the acidic environment of the skeeter pee must. I'll see if I can find it ... off to the Google.

ETA: Well, heck. That was easy.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=310979

 

[kramer2500]

There are quite a few recipes here for hard lemonade. Here is a popular one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=68144

One word of caution. Almost every recipe I have seen calls for champagne or wine yeast. That stuff is absolutely bananas, especially champagne yeast. If you are planning on bottling and using priming sugar to carb, you will end up with bottle bombs because the yeast will not quit (ask me how I know...). There are ways to pasteurize the bottles when you get the level of carbing you want, but I havent tried any of them.

 

[bernardsmith]

There are quite a few recipes here for hard lemonade. Here is a popular one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=68144

One word of caution. Almost every recipe I have seen calls for champagne or wine yeast. That stuff is absolutely bananas, especially champagne yeast. If you are planning on bottling and using priming sugar to carb, you will end up with bottle bombs because the yeast will not quit (ask me how I know...). There are ways to pasteurize the bottles when you get the level of carbing you want, but I havent tried any of them.

Sorry but I have to disagree with one point - Any wine yeast will ferment bone dry any normal amount of sugar in a must. The problem with champagne yeast is that it is just so aggressive that it will blow off any subtle flavors and aromatics in the fruit and it won't itself enhance any flavors. It is a killer strain and so will not tolerate the presence of other strains. Bottom line a champagne yeast is unlikely to ever result in a wine with the complexities that less aggressive yeasts might produce. But the wine won't be a shade less sweet or less dry than any other wine made with any other yeast. In my opinion the only real use for a champagne yeast is to add to a wine that you want to bottle prime after an extended period of aging.

 

[kramer2500]

I wasnt debating the flavors caused by the wine/champagne yeast. I was simply pointing out the fact that if you try to bottle carb with priming sugar, both of these yeasts are more aggressive than beer yeast and could possibly overcarb the bottle.

 

[z-bob]

I've made several batches of Skeeter Pee, and I just use a packet of rehydrated wine yeast (usually not champagne yeast.) But I don't exactly follow the directions -- I only add one quart of lemon juice before I pitch the yeast. I add another quart after it's fermenting good, and the last quart a week after that. (I think it's 3 quarts; been a while since I've made it)

When it's finished and cleared, you don't carbonate it, you stabilize it and add sugar. It's a sweet, still wine (best if it's not too sweet) that's really good over ice. Like lemonade, although it doesn't taste like lemonade.

 

[MarkKF]

If you like hard lemonade just make lemonade and add vodka or moonshine. It's easier!

 

[arienjaynes21]

It's more or less for my girlfriend she's not a big beer drinker so I was thinking of different drinks I could brew up for her, does anyone have a small batch recipe for skeeter pee?

 

[z-bob]

It's not really a small batch kind of thing. Here's the recipe; you could multiply everything by 2/3 (use 2 bottles of lemon juice) and make a little over 3 gallons:

http://skeeterpee.com/recipe

 

[arienjaynes21]

Thanks a lot will have to give it a shot

 

[excitingcidering]

I've made a hard ginger lemonade before with cider yeast. It came out quite zesty and spicy. Not sure what it would be like without the ginger, and it might require something to temper the citrus, but here it is if you want to play with it (makes 1 gallon):

1/2 lb fresh ginger
2 lemons
2 c granulated sugar
water to make 1 gal
1/4 tsp cider yeast

Grate the ginger, zest & juice the lemon. Simmer ginger, lemon & sugar in a small amount of water (1/2 cup? 1 cup? don't remember) for 10-15 minutes. Add to sanitized 1-gal fermenting jar or carboy; top up with cold water. Pitch yeast. Add airlock.

I now have wide-lid jars for primary, and that would be much better than a carboy, as the ginger floats to the top of the carboy and is a pain to remove. Maybe you could simmer it longer and then strain it into the carboy.

I was in a hurry and didn't rack, just fermented it dry, primed and bottled. I quite like the tart taste (it's not like sucking on lemons, just like a very tart lemonade) but you could use a non-fermentable sweetener or back-sweeten/cold crash or kill off the yeast if you wanted it sweeter.

I'm considering adding tea of some sort for complexity if I try this recipe again.

 

[arienjaynes21]

I have thought about using tea as a added flavour, I've got some frozen blackberries from last year picked wild, I was thinking of thawing the small amount left and basically make a juice with it aim for around a gallon add some sugar and yeast and ferment it not sure how well that will work though, I'm thinking I'll do that when I start my skeeter pee