Easier Hard Lemonade?

[Superkabuto]

I've been thinking of doing a hard lemonade, and after reading up on the threads on the topic I see the 2 biggest problems are: 1) getting the yeast to work under the acidic environment of the lemon juice; 2) given that you can get fermentation going, ending up enough residual sweetness to make it drinkable (that is, keeping it from getting too sour).

I had an idea which could possibly solve these two problems, though I haven't tried this yet. Couldn't you just ferment the sugar first, and add the lemonade concentrate later, after fermentation is done? This would give you easy fermentation, and since fermentation would halt after introducing the acidic lemonade, you would retain the sugar in the lemonade concentrate, and so it wouldn't be too sour.

Any thoughts? I may try this method.

 

[jfkriege]

At that point, why not just add neutral grain spirits to some lemonade and force carb it? It seems like that would be even easier to me.

 

[archiefl98]

Easier Hard Lemonade

Step 1: Make lemonade with 3/4 amount of water called for
Step 2: Use vodka as other 1/4 of liquid needed for lemonade
Step 3: Put in keg and carbonate if desired.
Step 4: Hospital

With average vodka being 80-proof (40%ABV) and making up 1/4 of the mix, the total ABV of the drink should be around 10%

jfkriege beat me to it.

 

[gicts]

I had no problem with my lemonade

If your that worried about the starting, do what I did. Add a yeast starter (think mine was 800mL) to 4 gallons of sugar water and 1/3 of the required lemonade concentrate. Once that gets going, slowly add the rest of the lemonade concentrate to the 'brew' over a week or so.

That way you start off with a low acidity and work your way up as the yeast takes over
Doesn't get much easier than that!

As for #2, just backsweeten if it doesn't work out?

 

[howabouttheiris]

WineKitz (and probably others) has a "5 day wine" replacement/upgrade for the yeast in their kits. It is their formulation of a yeast, nutrient, etc in a convenient package intended for folks who can't wait more than a week for their wine...... insert shudder here.

I have traditionally had issues with stuck/starting fermentation on the hard lemonade. I used this product last time, after my 2nd attempt at a starter failed, and it was the 1st time I experienced blowoff with a lemonade.

Very pleased, and worth the $5. (kit also comes with extra clarifiers which I put to use on the wife's wine)

 

[malkore]

because most alcohol made from pure sugar tastes aweful. sugar lacks nitrogen and other nutrients that yeast need to be happy, so you get these stressed out/strung out yeasts that throw fusels and green apples and all kinds of weird lighter fluid aromas in the hootch.