Extra Hard Lemonade

[DoctorWho]

Has anyone made this recipe and skeeter pee?

Which one do you prefer or do they taste similar? I have been doing a lot of reading, and with summer approaching I want to start my first hard lemonade and would love some input on which is better tasting.

From what I have gathered, I don't think I could go wrong with either but wanted to ask.

Thanks,
The Doctor

 

[brazedowl]

I've got skeeter pee going now also. I made a batch of this but with some cranberry concentrate thrown in there. They should be good to go come summertime.

 

[Brewmiser]

Just threw a batch of this together can't wait...

 

[Brewmiser]

never made hard lemonade before, did you guys use a Blow off tube or just an air lock?

 

[vballdrummer]

no blow off needed

 

[brazedowl]

agreed. Just airlock it and let it sit till it's clear(ish) and pop it into bottles.

 

[Brewmiser]

Dang thing never started, I hydrated & stepped up with the Lemonade mixture twice. I got a krausenish head on top but that's started to go away. never bubbled (that I saw) I'm going to repitch today. going to try ec-1118 this time see if that works better.

 

[brazedowl]

I just use some Montrachete (spelled awfully)

 

[Jota21]

The first time (lemon-lime) it sort-of carbed itself in the bottles. This time I'm going to add sugar and make sure it does. It get a very soda-like carbonation.

I just made a 5 gallon batch of this following the limeade recipe. Did you end up making a second batch and carbonating it more? If so, could you walk me through it?

I have it in an 'ale pail' now. Is secondarying in a carboy neccessary? I know a lot of people on here just go straight from the primary to the bottle.

I'm toying with the idea of leaving it alone in the primary for about 3 weeks, then bottling, but I want to make sure that it's A) done fermenting to avoid bombs, and B) carbonated properly.

Any advice for a first timer?

 

[brazedowl]

a) I put mine in a secondary just so I could judge the clarity (it won't COMPLETELY clear well which is ok).

b) Never got around to adding more sugar to make it carbonate. I just waited until there was only a tiny ring of bubbles around the edge of the mouth of the carboy then bottled it.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Finally got around to bottling mine this weekend. Looking at my last post I can't believe it's been over 2 months. Anyway, I started with 2 gallons of lemonade-limeade mix and pitched Montrachet. The Montrachet didn't make it, so I diluted with more lemonade-limeade mix giving me 4 gallons at about 1.088. Pitched another pack of Montrachet. It still didn't go so I finally pitched EC1118. It made it, but what a slow fermentation. I checked somewhere about a month in and was only in the 1050's. So I sat it aside and figured I'd just let it go for awhile. It's looked fairly clear for a few weeks now and at last check it was at 1.034.

The sample tasted pretty good. I think with some carbonation it will be even better although I could also see a splash of lemonade or 7-up helping also. We'll see how it goes. It came out to be 6.9% ABV, but doesn't taste like it, so this could be sneaky!

The main lesson here I think is Montrachet is definitely not the best choice unless you take a lot of effort to get it healthy first or you've got a ready-to-go cake of it. EC1118 was slow to work everything down although I didn't do it any favors by just pitching it in. I'm hoping for a light carbonation so I only went with a little less than a 1/2 cup of priming sugar. We'll see how it goes in a couple weeks!

 

[Jota21]

Primary: 18 days

Secondary: 1 month

Bottle Conditioned: 2 weeks

Did you check the gravity when racking to the secondary? Will the gravity go down in the carboy

The reason i ask is that after 19 days, i just racked to my carboy and the gravity was 1.096. How much lower can I expect it to drop? My OG was either 1.112 or 1.122 (i can't remember) so if my math is correct, my abv is somewhere between 2.1 and 3.4%. Now, i'm not looking for rocket fuel, but i was hoping for something around 7 or 8% based on how much sugar was in this stuff.

I used 1 packet of Montrechete (sp) with a tablespoon of nutrient/energizer. The airlock is still floating, but at least for the amount of time i'm willing to stand there and stare at it, no longer bubbling. Should i RDWHA-hard lemonade or should i do something to get this going again?

Thanks

 

[brazedowl]

That was back before I had a hydrometer. If you wanted to let it sit until it's mostly clear or you could take out a sample and use it to start another packet of yeast. Mine was still bubblin' pretty good when I put it in the carboy.

 

[Jota21]

Can you elaborate a little on how you would 'start' another packet? Should I take a few cups of what i have in the carboy, sprinkle the EC1118 onto that and let it start doing it's thing, then gently pour that sample back into the carboy?

Do you think EC1118 is the way to go?

 

[brazedowl]

a) I would take a couple cups like you said and pitch the yeast to rehydrate it and ease it back into the carboy if it shows signs of life. You may want to taste a little and judge for sweetness and see if sugar isn't an issue. If it's super sour it may be too concentrated you can always dilute it a little if you think the pH is having an effect on the yeast.

b) I'm lazy when it comes to yeast and always just use Montrechete. One less veriable to worry about. So I'm not sure how EC1118 would or would not work.

 

[brazedowl]

When I get home from work I'll try to remember to post the ingredients for my cranberry varient on this. I took good SG readings on it and it's still going strong in the carboy.

 

[scotched]

Can you elaborate a little on how you would 'start' another packet? Should I take a few cups of what i have in the carboy, sprinkle the EC1118 onto that and let it start doing it's thing, then gently pour that sample back into the carboy?

Do you think EC1118 is the way to go?

Start the yeast with some DME or sugar, THEN slowly add a little bit of must at a time.

 

[Brewmiser]

just checked mine again & it stalled once again, so I added some more water, repitched with a ec-1118/champagne yeast blend plus energizer/nutriant...

I'll get this going yet....

 

[brazedowl]

I'm not sure why yours is struggling so much. Does it come to a complete stop or just a VERY slow bubble?

 

[Brewmiser]

complete stop... it started to bubble very slowly @ 1st but died out within a day. having not made it before I wasn't sure what to expect & then got to busy to mess with it so I just checked it today & I was still sitting around 1.100 I think it was just too acidic that's why I added water this time & I have bubbles again. crossing fingers hoping for the best.

 

[brazedowl]

Hope so too. I'd hate to have given you bum directions.

 

[Brewmiser]

i'm sure the directions were fine. I do think that the ph levels in these cans of concetrate may not always be same. maybe I got a batch of extra acidic ones??? i'm sure I'll get it to work. it's still bubbling....

 

[Jota21]

Another question here: I made the same recipe posted in the first post on 4/30. My OG was 1.122. It was in the primary for 3 weeks, then I transferred it to a carboy. At that point, my FG was showing around 1.095. The bubbles had stopped, so I repitched with a dry pack of EC-118 (just sprinkled into the carboy and gave it a little stir - no starter). I checked on it an hour later and it was bubbling pretty rapidly, so i thought I had the problem solved.

It has slowed down, but has continued to bubble every 10-20 seconds since around May 21st, however, my FG is still 1.095 - the exact same.

I've calibrated my hydrometer, and it does read zero in tap water. How is it possible that all of those bubbles have been occuring, but the gravity not changing?

Also, it is not clear at all. I cannot see through it. This seems to be another problem.

I want this to be ready, delicious, and somewhere between 6-8% ABV for my family's vacation 1 month from today.

Any tips?

Thanks

 

[brazedowl]

Well as far as clearing goes I ended up with about the clarity of mikes-hard lemonade when mine was done with the original post. I've got a cran-lemonade going that has cleared up pretty nicely.

As far as the SG goes... You took a SG reading when you racked, did you take the sample from the primary or the secondary? I've found that some times if I pull a sample from the top of my primary it is less dense (and has a lower SG) then the overall SG. The same is true if you have a tap and draw off the bottom fluid first and take a sg sample towards the end. So your total SG at time of racking may have been higher then 1.095 and you just happened to snag a sample that wasn't representative of the whole. That would mean that if it bubbled down to 1.095 it did indeed go down. Keep watching it and try to gently stir it or get a deeper sample if you can next time you take a reading.

I hope that made sense.

 

[scotched]

Hey Jota - what temperature are you fermenting at?
Warmer temps definitely kick things up a bit for me.

I recently did a hard lemonade with 10 pounds of sugar, 10 cans, pitched some US-05 (using yooper's start method). It actually took off against all odds. After a month gravity was stalled at 1.030. I then pitched EC-1118 directly, and reluctantly raised fermenting temps to around 78F (brought it indoors). I'm currently at 1.020 with little sweetness.

I think stirring (degassing) has helped the yeast, but this is definitely a slow batch.

 

[brazedowl]

I recently did a hard lemonade with 10 pounds of sugar, 10 cans

By some twist of fate that's exactly what this recipe calls for

 

[scotched]

LOL!

The kicker is the US-05 then, which managed to survive most of the ordeal

 

[brazedowl]

Yea the montrechet punks out early on that one.

 

[Jota21]

it's at room temperature, but the weather has been wild lately - i dont have a FC, so the temps probably vary from 67-75 on any given day.

I'm just stumped as to why it's still bubbling, but not dropping the FG....

 

[brazedowl]

If it's bubbling the SG has go be dropping. You can't take CO2 out and have the density stay the same. Unless I've totally lost my grasp of physics and chemistry. lol