Extra Hard Lemonade

[lextasy23]

Racked over to secondary after a week and a half, zero trub (was expecting a lot).

Great flavor and color.

 

[DGibb]

i do a similar recipe that people love:

4 cans frozen lemonade
4 cans frozen pink lemonade
3 cans frozen limeade
4# sugar
1 pack montrachet
water for 6 gallons

let primary 1 month, then keg, and let it chill/carb 2 weeks on 11# co2

and i agree: that mass-produced garbage is eating our dust

I was looking at this for a basic recipe. I have a batch of Irish Red ale in my 5 gallon carboy right now (Nottingham Ale yeast cake). I've scaled the recipe back for 5 gallons to this:

3 lbs Sugar
3 cans frozen lemonade concentrate
4 cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate
3 cans frozen limeade concentrate
water up to 5 gallons volume

1. Does this look about right for the conversion?
2. Do I pitch this directly in to the carboy after I have transferred the Irish Red to the bottling bucket? Is there anything I need to do in particular? I could instead do a Nottingham pitch (since that's what I have on hand currently)

 

[Vallan]

Inspired by this forum I started my first ever brew batch of cider 2 weeks ago. Stumbling into the wine forum by accident I see this thread on hard lemonade which I love. So before bottling my first batch I'm venturing off into a hard lemonade trial The ladies of our group like sweet wines (muscatos) so I thought this was perfect.

I had some concerns about acidity levels and yeast viability so I began with

6 Frozen Lemonade concentrates (GV brand Walmart)
4 Frozen White Grape Raspberry concentrate (Welches)
10 lbs of table sugar
6 gals of water (SG was higher than I wanted at 5 gals, i'd cut sugar for 5 gals)
1 pkg Red Star Champagne yeast (rehydrated per pkg)
5 teas Yeast Nutrient

65 degrees F and 24 hrs later not much activity so bought another pkg of champagne yeast and pitched it along with some yeast energizer (whatever rate was recommended) and put a small heater in my brew closet to get temp up to 70F. 24 hrs later and its bubbling like crazy. I'll update again later when I'm further along.

 

[brazedowl]

Keep us posted sounds good

 

[Vallan]

6 Frozen Lemonade concentrates (GV brand Walmart)
4 Frozen White Grape Raspberry concentrate (Welches)
10 lbs of table sugar
6 gals of water (SG was higher than I wanted at 5 gals, i'd cut sugar for 5 gals)
1 pkg Red Star Champagne yeast (rehydrated per pkg)
5 teas Yeast Nutrient

Update
When done fermenting at 1.0 it tasted "off". It was like the lemonade and white grape/rasp both hadn't meshed well. I let it sit another 10 days and although I didnt see any airlock activity it finished at .992. The off tastes are gone, no raspberry flavor, tart and strong alcohol taste (15-16% ABV). Next time I will stop the ferment earlier BUT...I mixed 40% extra hard with 60% Simply Raspberry Lemonade hitting a 6% ABV and its good!
My 6 gals can effectively make 15 gals of hard lemonade now (40/60 mix).
Thoughts
I'm going to filter the pulp out of the lemonade to make more like store bought
Using this as a base you could mix it with the mango lemonade, a minute made cherry limeade, etc and end up with a great mixture of flavors. I may try and carb up some diff flavors in 2L bottles using my carbonator

 

[Vallan]

I'm using a 40% base 60% back sweetening to hit 6% abv, so adjust your own % accordingly.

My other thought: assuming I wanted 2.5 vols of CO2
Carb just the base 15% ABV hard lemonade to 6.25, add in the 60% volume for back sweetening (uncarbed lemonade or ?) would give you a 6%ABV 2.5 vols of CO2.

If that works well I could make a number of different "wine cooler" type drinks with 1 carbed keg and a variety of flavors to back sweeten with.

Force Carb Calculator
Example above would be almost 50 psi at 38 degrees F

 

[hubs731]

~~Ingredients~~

10# Regular Cane Sugar

7 Containers off brand lemonade concentrate

3 Containers limeade OR pink lemonade concentrate

1pkt Redstar Montrachet Yeast (have used yeast cake left from the cherry pie wine as well)

1 tbls Energizer

1 tbls Nutrient

Water to 5-6 Gallons



~~Prep~~

1) Dissolved sugar in 3-4 Gallons of H2O.

2) Placed concentrate in primary while sugar dissolves over med-low heat.

3) Added sugar water to primary

4) Started yeast in mason jar of combined solution at ~85F.

5) Pitched yeast into brewbucket and added water to bring to 6 gal



~~Primary~~

Sat in an Ale Pail on my kitchen counter for two weeks. Regular room temp 70F-75F



~Secondary~~

Used blue plastic 5gal water jug (the type found at lowes etc).



Continued fermenting at 70F-75F until bubbling has almost completely ceased



~~Bottling~~

Bottled into 12oz beer bottles with crown caps



~~Notes & Comments~~

- Limeade version tastes so much like mikes hard lemonade it's crazy

- Pink lemonade version is still bubbling... I'll report back later



~~Moral of the story~~

Cheap. Yummy. Enjoyed by all.

Did you have airlocks on primary and secondary? Also...in the mason jar with the yeast, did you just combine the nutrient and energizer with it in water?

 

[brazedowl]

Wow this was like years ago... always airlock. Always. And a pinch of nutrient in the jar.

 

[CyderSilverblade]

I want to get a batch started so its ready for summer.
For clarification please:

*Instead of using 10 lbs of regular sugar wouldnt it be better to use Dextrose?
It should dissolve way better than cane sugar

*10 lbs of sugar/dextrose sounds like a lot.
Are we sure we need this much?

*Yeast
Is Montrachet the best choice, it seems some have a slow ferment on this?
Is there a better choice?

*Is everyone adding the limeade or have you done just straight lemonade?

 

[CyderSilverblade]

Also will this carb in the bottle?
Assuming there will be enough sugar left over it will.

 

[hubs731]

I want to get a batch started so its ready for summer.
For clarification please:

*Instead of using 10 lbs of regular sugar wouldnt it be better to use Dextrose?
It should dissolve way better than cane sugar

*10 lbs of sugar/dextrose sounds like a lot.
Are we sure we need this much?

*Yeast
Is Montrachet the best choice, it seems some have a slow ferment on this?
Is there a better choice?

*Is everyone adding the limeade or have you done just straight lemonade?

I am doing a 1 gallon trial with just plain lemonade concentrate. I scaled everything down from the original recipe with a packet of Red Star Montrachet. I have a layer of krausen and she's bubbling away. The airlock bubbles maybe 1-2 min apart. My SG was 1.080.

 

[CyderSilverblade]

Will be curious how this turns out!

 

[hubs731]

I've had mine in the primary for 13 days now and it's still vigorously bubbling. In anyone's opinion...should I wait for the bubbling to slow down or rack to secondary after a certain gravity?

 

[Meadrol]

I always do it to taste...taste it and see if you like where it is. Mine is always pretty much there at around 19 days.

 

[hubs731]

I tried it last night...my OG was 1.080 and 13 days later it was 1.070 so not much change. I tasted decent, a little tart. I'll give it some more time...

 

[CyderSilverblade]

1

 

[GwedoKCCO]

I'm going to try the original recipe on the 18th of July. This will be my first batch of any brew. Fingers are crossed.

 

[MaxStout]

Just bought the ingredients today. Seven cans of Wallyworld lemonade concentrate, 3 limeade, 10 lbs. sugar and a packet of EC-1118. I plan to rehydrate with Go-Ferm and add some must to the yeast before pitching, as this thread has lots of posts about stuck fermentations.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

I've had a set back and will be making it next weekend instead. This weekend is a Stir Plate Project weekend.

 

[MaxStout]

Just made my batch this morning with 7 cans lemonade conc, 3 cans limeade conc, 10 lbs sugar. Added 1 tbsp each of yeast nutrient and energizer, then topped it with water to about 6 gallons. O.G. was 1.120. Rehydrated EC-1118 with Go-Ferm, then added some must to the rehydrated yeast. Pitched at 80F, then brought it down to 75.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

Thanx. I'm going to use EC-1118 as well. Keep us updated. I should be about a week behind yours.

 

[MaxStout]

About 22 hours after pitching. There's a thin layer of krausen, approx. 1/8" thick. Airlock is bubbling about once every 20-30 seconds.

 

[MaxStout]

A couple days after pitching, the airlock was showing good activity. About 1 bubble per second. This went on for a few more days, then it tapered off.

I took a gravity reading today, after 20 days in primary. It's only down to 1.080 (OG was 1.120). I repitched with another packet of EC-1118 that I rehydrated with Go-Ferm.

Hopefully this one will keep going.

 

[MaxStout]

Three days after repitching with 1118, and not a bit of activity in the airlock. Too acidic for the yeast to survive. I'll give it some more time, but it looks more and more like I'll be pouring it down the drain.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

Made this up on Sunday. Problem is it is at my father in laws and I have no pics. Lol he says it is bubbling, so that's a plus.

 

[MaxStout]

Made this up on Sunday. Problem is it is at my father in laws and I have no pics. Lol he says it is bubbling, so that's a plus.

Nice. I hope you have better luck than I have so far.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

I'll know more tomorrow. I will never leave a batch for someone to babysit. Lol

 

[CyderSilverblade]

I have had mine in carboy for several months.
Ive had to repitch once.
Gravity is slowly moving however I have no hopes this will ever be done.
Im so dissappointed.
It tastes good just no detectable alcohol.
Not sure what to do at this point.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

Mine is going strong.

 

[GwedoKCCO]

It is wonderful and it's not even finished. Thanx for the recipe.

View attachment 1440366930337.jpg

View attachment 1440366943118.jpg