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Extra Hard Lemonade

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I used the original recipe with the exception of substituting 1 lb of sugar for 1 lb of light DME. (Still a total of 10 lbs). It is still very sweet. Not sure if I should try adding more yeast or just go ahead and bottle. If anyone could share their final gravity reading it would be much appreciated.
 
I used the original recipe with the exception of substituting 1 lb of sugar for 1 lb of light DME. (Still a total of 10 lbs). It is still very sweet. Not sure if I should try adding more yeast or just go ahead and bottle. If anyone could share their final gravity reading it would be much appreciated.

Hey I looked for notes on my batches and I lost a iphone and the notes on it, if you taste mine it is not sweet. If the DME is the cause of it tasting sweet maybe when i start my third batch i will go get some DME,first batch I did was 1 and you was dancing naked in the streets. My second batch it is still bubbling pink mine rests in a warm room I have noticed its not bubbling as fast as it has earlier in process I did find I start the pink lemonade in May it is a slow Process you should message the the (brazedowl) he has been the wizard on this for me
"no limits when you do the brew" Dan

Ps I was watching my pink lemonade and it bubbles real slow and I did taste it is sweet right now. My point being I would not even see any activity If I didn't have the air lock filled half way with sanitizer over night the gas makes bubbles in the air lock, you now the kind of bubbles like we blew when we was kneehigh to a pias ant.

I was holding out as long as possible because of earlier in this post some other home Brewers had bottle bombs, I would say dew to bottling to early.

"no limits when you do the brew" Dan

pinklemonade.jpg
 
Wow.....that looks exactly like mine!

Hey I went ahead and bottled it was still little sweet butt all the talk I had few of my first batch left and was good and gone. Forcing me to bottle.
May make more in day or two. The og was best I could remember. the bubbles where slowing may have missed get carbonation in my bottles


* * Og 1.122* 5/17/2013
1.094 * 6/2/2013 *
1.068 6/20/2013 1.030
8/4/2013 *fg 1.018 bottled * 13.6%
 
hey i went ahead and bottled it was still little sweet butt all the talk i had few of my first batch left and was good and gone. Forcing me to bottle.
May make more in day or two. The og was best i could remember. The bubbles where slowing may have missed get carbonation in my bottles

* * og 1.122* 5/17/2013
1.094 * 6/2/2013 *
1.068 6/20/2013 1.030
8/4/2013 *fg 1.018 bottled * 13.6%
54 little Baby's


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  • Exrta Hard pink lemonade.jpg
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Anyone ever try lemon peel in it for a day or so before bottling/kegging? Would it add more lemon depth to it or does it not need it?
 
Anyone ever try lemon peel in it for a day or so before bottling/kegging? Would it add more lemon depth to it or does it not need it?

Let me know how it turns out. I started new batch other day and it has a while as It ferments, its regular lemonade color I like. Will post picture on desktop when I do it from phone I have to pull them and rotate so I just hold off on picture. Maybe someone else has tried it with lemon peels.

I must say if I wanted it to taste more like lemonade I would back sweeten it with same stuff I made it with and stick to OG specs, I always go to long to catch it before the yeast plays out and I did learn on my first batch I was going to have a little carbonation and I added these new gelcap type of carbonation tabs that results in no sugar visible in bottom of bottles, with these add to the 12 oz bottles and it was a great bit sweeter. With no carbonation I missed the yeast and don't want a bottle bomb. Thanks Dan GG

start_EHL.jpg


EHlemonade_reg.jpg
 
I don't want it a more sweet flavor, just more fresh lemon depth from the peel is all

You made it out of fresh lemons or you use concentrate this is a guess but I would use fresh squeezed juice to get the real lemon taste you should question the person thats recipe you have followed. That gives me a thought when the fermenter slows I may add fresh squeezed lemon juice to see if I can get the taste you are after.

No limits when you do the brew
 
I would stay away from lemon peels and go with pure juice if you want more lemon zest. I used orange peels in a beer I made once and it came out tasting like a wet dog. Had to dump it.
 
I just recently polished off a keg of a grapefruit ipa I did with grapefruit zest in boil and peel in the keg for a day... Probably most solid beer so far. I gave it to a guy a manager at a morebeer store room and he said he would have rated it 38-39, higher if the grapefruit wasnt as prominent as it was.
It is hard to get the strong citrus flavor I want sometimes without the peel is all I am saying.
I wonder why it came out tasting that wet dog way...
 
I just recently polished off a keg of a grapefruit ipa I did with grapefruit zest in boil and peel in the keg for a day... Probably most solid beer so far. I gave it to a guy a manager at a morebeer store room and he said he would have rated it 38-39, higher if the grapefruit wasnt as prominent as it was.
It is hard to get the strong citrus flavor I want sometimes without the peel is all I am saying.
I wonder why it came out tasting that wet dog way...

Guessing the peels of the two in question hold different amounts of zestyness

My new batch seem to slow and I just gave it a quick spin back to bubbling again the EH lemonade It is a hard batch but well worth it has become a favorite long side my dos esquis
 
I like to put jalapenos in my lemonade and let it sit for a day or two before I drink it, I searched online to see if anyone else does this since it was just something that sounded good to me and found a few alcoholic jalapeno lemonade recipes that appear to be more popular down south. They are all made with vodka but I am considering brewing this up and dry hopping with fresh jalapeno for two days. I will scrape the seeds out first. Any thoughts?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app
 
Would it be a bad idea to use the safeale-05 slurry from the bottom of my cream ale recipe for this?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I would stay away from lemon peels and go with pure juice if you want more lemon zest. I used orange peels in a beer I made once and it came out tasting like a wet dog. Had to dump it.


I have made 4 batches of beer using lemon and orange peel and have not run into this.

Saw this recipie today and ran out to buy the stuff for it. Fingers crossed and hoping to see the first bubbles in the next few days.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
For the cranberry-lemonade I used a Wyeast 1056 american ale and it also called for 2lbs dme and 2lbs of corn sugar, since this has so much more lemon/lime mixer is that why there is so much sugar?

could i add 2lbs dme and cut down the sugar a little bit?

That yeast gave me a much better beer feel and taste, any reason not to try it with this? i'm not partial to using champagne yeast as it drys everything out so much.
 
Just made my batch yesterday:

6 gallons
8 Minute Maid Frozen Limeade
2 Minute Maid Frozen Lemonade
8 lbs. White cane sugar (stupid 4 lb. bags now, not 5 lbs.)
1 lb. Corn sugar (had it kicking around)
2 Tbsp. yeast Nutrient
1 pack Montrachet (no starter, last minute)

1.100 OG

I should have done a starter... Been almost 24 hours and no airlock activity. Just gonna relax and let it do it's thing.
 
I should have done a starter... Been almost 24 hours and no airlock activity. Just gonna relax and let it do it's thing.

I was a little worried at the delayed start time too. It was a little over two days before it got cruising. It'll go.
 
I was a little worried at the delayed start time too. It was a little over two days before it got cruising. It'll go.

Ya it just started bubbling. I haven't not done a starter in years, this was a total after though batch and I just dumped the packet in.

So I sat back, relaxed, and had a home brew. lol
 
I would stay away from lemon peels and go with pure juice if you want more lemon zest. I used orange peels in a beer I made once and it came out tasting like a wet dog. Had to dump it.

The trick to this is that you'd want the zest (the very outside, that's still got some color) but NOT the pith (the white bit) which will make it bitter as hell.

I make limoncello, which is really just an infusion of lemon zest in alcohol, then mixed with simple syrup.

I suppose if you really wanted to maximize the amount of flavor yield from a piece of citrus, you could do both. Zest the lemon, then peel the pith off and use the fruit or juice.
 
With the high acid content of this recipe a starter usually helps. Use a little of the mixture at a time. Start it with like 50-50 water and your mix. Gradually add more of the lemonade mixture. This will help the yeast acclimate to the acid content.
 
Mine's been in primary since last Friday (on day 5), and the airlock is bubbling 1-2 times per second. It did nothing for about a day.

The yeast probably feels like it just got it's ass kicked Mortal Kombat style. My original thought after almost 2 days with no bubbles was that that amount of acid can't be too good for it. I was thinking about making a starter and re-pitching, but it's going and I'm ok with it.

If it all gets messed up I can adjust technique on the next one - I'm not into this for more than an hour of time and $25 at this point.
 
Did you crash or clarify this?

I've got a hard lemonade bottled that I'm not especially happy with. I'm a complete noob, but I think super-kleer removed not only the yeast, but most of it's character. Thought I'd try another recipe.
 
Mine's been in primary since last Friday (on day 5), and the airlock is bubbling 1-2 times per second. It did nothing for about a day.

The yeast probably feels like it just got it's ass kicked Mortal Kombat style. My original thought after almost 2 days with no bubbles was that that amount of acid can't be too good for it. I was thinking about making a starter and re-pitching, but it's going and I'm ok with it.

If it all gets messed up I can adjust technique on the next one - I'm not into this for more than an hour of time and $25 at this point.

When I made my first batch, the yeast took the better part of 72 hours to get going. I imagine by now yours is going strong.
 
When I made my first batch, the yeast took the better part of 72 hours to get going. I imagine by now yours is going strong.

Sure enough. Nothing for 2 days, slow day 3, sorta heavy until 2 days ago (one bubble a second), now slowed back to a bubble every 4 or 5 seconds. I'm sort of disappointed to be honest, it's the first batch of anything in a long time that i didn't do a starter.

What a huge difference a starter makes.

I'm even tempted to go get some more yeast and make a starter to get it kickstarted, but at this point that's pointless because I'm sure there's plenty of healthy yeast. I'm just shocked why it's going so slowly, with that much sugar. Do yeast process HFCS slowly or something? Even still, there's 8lb of pure cane sugar...

Several of my beers NEEDED blow-off hoses because of the force. One Imperial I made was literally like you had someone shooting compressed air through the other end of the hose into my growler airlock. This one started at a 1.100 and never really got violent.
 
Sure enough. Nothing for 2 days, slow day 3, sorta heavy until 2 days ago (one bubble a second), now slowed back to a bubble every 4 or 5 seconds. I'm sort of disappointed to be honest, it's the first batch of anything in a long time that i didn't do a starter.

What a huge difference a starter makes.

I'm even tempted to go get some more yeast and make a starter to get it kickstarted, but at this point that's pointless because I'm sure there's plenty of healthy yeast. I'm just shocked why it's going so slowly, with that much sugar. Do yeast process HFCS slowly or something? Even still, there's 8lb of pure cane sugar...
No idea. This is definitely beyond my ken. Mine did exactly that though, started slow, peaked wildly, then drifted off fast and slowly churned through the rest of it. I've got to imagine it's acidity, but that's pure guessing.
Several of my beers NEEDED blow-off hoses because of the force. One Imperial I made was literally like you had someone shooting compressed air through the other end of the hose into my growler airlock. This one started at a 1.100 and never really got violent.

That sounds CRAZY. I've only ever done meads and a fruit wine before this. Apart from a strawberry wine explosion, I've never experienced anything similar to what you're talking about. Sounds like fun.

Now if only I liked beer at all.
 
No idea. This is definitely beyond my ken. Mine did exactly that though, started slow, peaked wildly, then drifted off fast and slowly churned through the rest of it. I've got to imagine it's acidity, but that's pure guessing.


That sounds CRAZY. I've only ever done meads and a fruit wine before this. Apart from a strawberry wine explosion, I've never experienced anything similar to what you're talking about. Sounds like fun.

Now if only I liked beer at all.

I have seen wild... a bubble a second is very tame to me.

I have a video of the fermentation going nuts, I'll try to find it.
 
Still bubbling at 4 second intervals. You could quite literally set your watch by the regularity of this airlock.

In other news, my sweet new refractometer arrived last night!
 
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