Full Hard Lemonade recipe

[paulster2626]

On day 10. Gravity down to 1.000 and still getting some air lock action.

Wondering if anyone could give me a little more direction on the bottle carbonation procedure mentioned in this thread. After reading the sticky in the cider forum it seems simple enough. Here's my elaborate plan.

1. On bottling day make the sugar, concentrate, water mixture per the instructions, but omit the sorbate.
2. Bottle in beer bottles.
3. Open a bottle every day until I find the carbonation level is right for me.
4. Stove top pasteurize per the sticky in the cider forum.

Sound about right? Somebody please chime in if I'm way off on anything!

And one more question. Will the bottle carbonation process reduce the sweetness? I'm trying to figure out if I need to add a little extra sugar to offset what gets converted to alcohol and CO2 during the bottle conditioning. Maybe it's an insignificant amount, but thought I'd ask.

Sweetness change is insignificant.

I'd bottle a few (like, 4?) in plastic just so I could easily see if they were carbing up by giving them a squeeze. Better than opening a bottle every day.

 

[TexasWine]

Sweetness change is insignificant.

I'd bottle a few (like, 4?) in plastic just so I could easily see if they were carbing up by giving them a squeeze. Better than opening a bottle every day.

Thanks for the info. I'll pick up a few water bottles between now and bottling day to do just that.

 

[paulster2626]

2 weeks is up! Got her down to 1.001 - tastes PFG already.

In the ferm chamber now for a good cold crash for a couple days, then will rack on to back-sweetening mixture and bottle er up.

I'm leaning to 1/2 the amount of cane sugar - anyone do this with less sugar and get good results? Not really in to sweet things - when I make lemondade for example, if it says to fill with 4 cans of water, I'll use 6.

 

[FTG-05]

Can I substitute regular cane sugar for the corn sugar? If so, how much?

Thanks!

 

[brazedowl]

I'm leaning to 1/2 the amount of cane sugar - anyone do this with less sugar and get good results? Not really in to sweet things - when I make lemondade for example, if it says to fill with 4 cans of water, I'll use 6.

I thought the same thing on my first batch, and cut back the sugar two cups. Everyone loved it, but I found it a bit too tart.

Can I substitute regular cane sugar for the corn sugar? If so, how much? Thanks!

I switched it out the same amounts in my second batch and was just fine.

 

[thejudge]

Can I substitute regular cane sugar for the corn sugar? If so, how much?

Thanks!

It's 1 for 1,

 

[thejudge]

Omg! Just pulled a noob!! I just brewed this and flippin added 2lbs xldme instead of 1. I wonder how its gonna turn out, any ideas?

 

[FTG-05]

Thanks braze and judge, I appreciate it!

:rockin:

 

[paulster2626]

Bottled with 4 cups sugar instead of 8. Tastes perfect!

I only had 2 packs of potassium sorbate though - 11 grams. Hope that was enough. I put some in a plastic bottle so I can see if fermentation kicks in again. If so will pasteurize the rest (they are safely in the ferm chamber to keep those yeast it's sleepy).

Thank you for the recipe. This is good - I've had 3 small glasses just bottling it!

 

[TexasWine]

I've got a couple questions for those of you who have gone the carbonated route. How long did it take for it to reach your desired carbonation level? And what did you bottle it in?

Been thinking about swing tops vs champagne bottles vs beer bottles. Beer bottles seem to be the cheapest/easiest route, but not crazy about drinking this tasty yellowish drink from an amber bottle. If I could buy clear beer bottles that's the route I would go, but my local shop doesn't carry them and the ones I've found on the interwebs have crazy expensive shipping.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[paulster2626]

I've got a couple questions for those of you who have gone the carbonated route. How long did it take for it to reach your desired carbonation level? And what did you bottle it in?

Been thinking about swing tops vs champagne bottles vs beer bottles. Beer bottles seem to be the cheapest/easiest route, but not crazy about drinking this tasty yellowish drink from an amber bottle. If I could buy clear beer bottles that's the route I would go, but my local shop doesn't carry them and the ones I've found on the interwebs have crazy expensive shipping.

Any help is appreciated!

Pour in to a glass with ice.

Or buy a case of bud light lime or twisted tea or something and use those.

 

[TexasWine]

Pour in to a glass with ice.

Sometimes the simplest solutions escape me! Thanks paulster.

 

[Paschendale]

Paulster, I'd go with the glass idea too but if you really want to bottle, buy you some good beer in clear bottles and reuse those.

 

[TexasWine]

Bottled today. Decided to go with amber beer bottles and a nifty American flag cap (seasonally appropriate). 20 minutes after bottling I walked over to a neighbor's house warming party with a dozen bottles in hand. They were an absolute hit!

I halved the sugar to 4 cups. Everyone that tried it said that was the right decision.

OG 1.064
FG 0.996
ABV after bottling day additions 8.2%

Plan to pasteurize here in a few days once carbonation hits the right level. Hopefully all goes well!

One note. It turned out a lot browner and cloudier than I anticipated. But it still tastes AMAZING.

 

[kingogames]

I bottled mine on Thursday, and I have been drinking it this weekend. Very good!! I also steeped some culinary lavendar in a cup of water with a tablespoon of sugar. Then I mixed that with three bottles (16 oz) of the lemonade for hard lavendar lemonade. SWMBO LOVED it!! I did too. It was a big hit!!!
This recipe is so much better than any of the other hard lemonade recipes I've done.

 

[Jacinthebox]

On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy

 

[TexasWine]

On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy

I bottled Saturday so I'll let you know in a few days. I'm guessing I'll be pasteurizing tomorrow or Wednesday. I did four PET bottles so I could squeeze test. Opened one yesterday and and got a little "pffffttt".

 

[Jacinthebox]

awesome...sub'd and thanks

 

[Jacinthebox]

so is everyone using 4, 6, or 8 cups of cane sugar at bottling?

 

[paulster2626]

I used 4. Next time, I'm going for 6. After that, probably 5.

 

[Jacinthebox]

Great thanks....maybe 5-6 will be good....I don't want it too sickening sweet...

 

[paulster2626]

Great thanks....maybe 5-6 will be good....I don't want it too sickening sweet...

Well, what you can do is take something like 1 cup of sugar and dissolve it in 1/2 cup of water (heat it up). Then take that mixture and measure out a small amount and add it to another measured amount of the unsweetened lemonade. Just keep track of the additions and when you get to what you want, you can easily figure it out with some simple math. Even if you don't get it exact, you shoudl still have a good ballpark estimate. I wish I did this. My batch is so close to perfect, but it's not 100% there. Next one will be though!

 

[TexasWine]

Great thanks....maybe 5-6 will be good....I don't want it too sickening sweet...

I went with 4 cups. Everyone that's tried it has said it was perfect. Just the right amount of tart to be recognizable as lemonade, but not so much that it makes your face pucker.

 

[TexasWine]

On average, how long are people letting this carb up before pasteurizing?
she's popping away in the carboy

So I ended up pasteurizing over two evenings. Bottled Saturday, pasteurized half Monday and the other half Tuesday. Looking back I could have waited and pasteurized it all Tuesday, but this is my first attempt at carbonating anything and I got a little nervous. Was thinking about bottle bombs all day yesterday, hoping I wouldn't get a call from the wife telling me to come home because the kitchen was a war zone.

All that to say, next batch I'll let sit for three days before pasteurizing. Hope this helps.

 

[Jacinthebox]

So I ended up pasteurizing over two evenings. Bottled Saturday, pasteurized half Monday and the other half Tuesday. Looking back I could have waited and pasteurized it all Tuesday, but this is my first attempt at carbonating anything and I got a little nervous. Was thinking about bottle bombs all day yesterday, hoping I wouldn't get a call from the wife telling me to come home because the kitchen was a war zone.

All that to say, next batch I'll let sit for three days before pasteurizing. Hope this helps.

It helps tons...now I have a good timeframe.

what was the temp that you carb'd at?

also, what plan did you follow? 160, 180 or 190 degrees for 10 min?

 

[TexasWine]

It helps tons...now I have a good timeframe.

what was the temp that you carb'd at?

also, what plan did you follow? 160, 180 or 190 degrees for 10 min?

I just let it sit at room temp, which in my household is around 76F. I almost exactly followed the sticky in the cider forum. I did two things differently. I loaded up my pot with 9 bottles at a time. And I put some of the lemonade in plastic bottles so I could do a squeeze check every so often rather than opening a bottle every time I got nervous about bottle bombs.

Here's a picture of the fizzy results!

 

[Jacinthebox]

Looks great

 

[gt_andy]

Ok I have just made this exact brew but used minute maid lemonaid. My gravity at 85 degrees is 1.031.

Doesn't that seem a bit low?

 

[TexasWine]

Ok I have just made this exact brew but used minute maid lemonaid. My gravity at 85 degrees is 1.031.

Doesn't that seem a bit low?

Seems low to me. I used minute maid as well and started out around 1.062. How many cans of lemonade did you use?

 

[gt_andy]

10 12 oz cans. Like the recipe on the first page called for