Decent Strawberry Lemonade

[jkpq45]

OK, here goes the second try on the lemonade kick. Credit to Yooper for the base recipe!

9 cans frozen lemonade concentrate (no sorbate this time!)
2c table sugar
4c corn sugar
1-2lb frozen sliced strawberries (gave it a nice red color!)

Boil the whole mess for 15 minutes. Skim off pulp from lemonade, strawberry chunks (after giving them a good mashing to de-juice), cool, add water to make 5 gallons. OG turned out to be 1.058 - ~7.5%ABV if it attenuates.

My starter actually was 1L of water + enough sugar to bring OG to 1.040. I used Lalvin 71B-1122 at the direction of the LHBS goddess. Left it overnight, when I had a good colony going, added the contents of one one additional can of lemonade concentrate over the next 12 hours until the yeast were acclimated to the acid. Pitched once temp of the above mix was in the 65-70*F range.

For those that shat on my Country Time lemonade attempt thread, hopefully this offering will bring more praise. I plan on bottle conditioning once it ferments out. I'll keep you all posted.

-jkpq45

 

[rod]

sounds good - i make the hard lemonade all the time, with dme .
not sure what boiling the strawberries is going to do to the final clarity though.
it should still taste good only a little hazy.before i started kegging i used lactose to back sweeten before bottle carbing.

 

[jkpq45]

I actually skimmed the strawberries, etc. before I hit a boil. I guess I didn't make that clear. It seemed that once the mix hit about 180*F all the color, flavor, etc. had come out that I wanted out, so I got them out of there.

The good news is that the mixture was so acidic the strawberries/juice didn't turn brown at all, just a bright red from the start.

Isn't science fun?

 

[Nurmey]

Boiling strawberries isn't a very great idea, tends to make strawberry jelly.

 

[rod]

glad you didn't boil the strawberries - everything should be golden then.
let us know how it turns out

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Some pectic enzyme might help out if you want this clear in a short timeframe. (I know the berries were not in the boil)

maybe...

I wouldn't second guess Yoopers recipe either, so I'm probably wrong! I have no idea how much pectin will be formed by boiing strawberry "juice".

Sounds good, let us know how it turns out.

 

[jkpq45]

5 days in primary and still bubbling once every 4 seconds, at the first sign of fermentation slowing I'll take an SG reading and update.

The bubbler gas discharge smells great, nothing like the burnt rubber others speak of. Hopefully I got my yeast started properly!

 

[Dionysos911]

Curious to hear how this turns out. What kind of yeast did you use? What is the recipe you based this on?

 

[jkpq45]

12 days in primary, bubbling every 8 seconds. I used Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast. Damn this stuff takes forever--fermenting in the mid-60s plus. I've kicked the fermenter a couple times to degas. Any other way to get this thing done? I've thought about raising the temp. but I don't want off flavors.

Yooper's lemonade was the base.

Check the first post.

 

[Tusch]

it's been 12 days you are already anxious and asking how to make it go quicker?

 

[bob1852]

it's been 12 days you are already anxious and asking how to make it go quicker?

time, time, and time.....

I wouldn't bottle until at least 2 months.

 

[jkpq45]

It's my sixth batch of brew... most of my brews up to this point have been 5-7% ales that ferment out completely in 10 days tops.

I know all I can do is wait, just itching to brew more!

 

[bob1852]

It's my sixth batch of brew... most of my brews up to this point have been 5-7% ales that ferment out completely in 10 days tops.

I know all I can do is wait, just itching to brew more!

sounds like you need more carboys!

I bought a 3 gallon carboy to make apfelwein. After my second batch was bottled, I started a raspberry mead that was gonna take at least 4 months; so, I bought another 3 gallon carboy for apfelwein.

Then, I decided I wanted to try wine - so I bought two 1-gallon jugs (1 to make wine - 1 to rack into for aging). Of course soon both had wine in them, so I needed more - now I have 3 gallons of apfelwein, 3 gallons of pineapple mead, 1 gallon of Joe's Quick Grape mead, 1 gallon of blackberry wine, 1 gallon of white grape & raspberry wine, and 1 gallon of plain mead. AND I have an extra 1-gallon jug for racking that I'm trying so hard to keep empty because I really wanna do a cherry cider! I'll post a pic of my closet soon....

so, yes, you need more carboys

 

[bob1852]

here's the pic of my closet....

 

[Notnice]

Wow AZ I hope to be like u some day. note to self I need more carboys

 

[bob1852]

Wow AZ I hope to be like u some day. note to self I need more carboys

That's actually not too much $$ invested - two 3-gallon carboys and four 1-gallon jugs......

and if I had planned ahead, I'd get a gallon of Rossi (or some other brand) of wine that comes in the gallon galss jug - drink the wine, and then be all set!

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

Bet that closet has a sweet smell when you open it !

 

[jkpq45]

Lemonade's almost ready to rack--SG was 1.005-1.006 on Saturday, still bubbling but I suspect off-gassing. I'll check again tonight after I get my new kegs sanitized and ready to go!

I'll back-sweeted with sucralose (Splenda), then bottle from the keg, should turn out well!

 

[toularat]

I made 2 gallons of hard lemonade last month. When it was done, I stabilized and added 1 pkg. s/f lemonade mix to both sweeten and add more lemon taste. It worked very well. You could also use regular and not sugar-free.

 

[Ryan099]

1 oz. Strawberry / Raspberry Syrup
Juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons Powdered sugar
Shaved Ice
Water

How to make lemonade:
Put syrup, lemon juice and powdered sugar in a glass.
Fill the glass filled with shaved ice.
Add enough water to fill glass and stir well.
Decorate with a slice of orange, lemon and a cherry.
Serve with straws

 

[jkpq45]

I added some sucralose once this finished up (around 1.001) but it needs more sweetening.

How can I use campden tablets to kill off the yeast and add real sugar (the splenda at the concentrations I need it is getting a little fake-flavored in the samples I've made.)