Good Hard lemonade

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Sounds good, thanks! I have one other question. How horrible would it be if I used active dry yeast that is used for bread? I'm planning on using this lemonade for a college party where the people wouldn't know the difference between Bud Light and Pilsner Urquell. I'm not even going to use any DME, only granulated sugar and off-brand lemonade concentrate. I guess my main question is: Would bread yeast damage the flavor greatly and could it even handle 12% alcohol perhaps?
 
I'm not a pro, but I've only used regular bread yeast and have made gallons & gallons of hard lemonade, it turns out fine. In fact, if you Google yeast nutrient substitute, it'll say to use bread yeast because it's loaded with nutrient.

It's not like Lemonade is gonna be mistaken for fine wine.........

Good luck,
Tim
 
I'm not a pro, but I've only used regular bread yeast and have made gallons & gallons of hard lemonade, it turns out fine. In fact, if you Google yeast nutrient substitute, it'll say to use bread yeast because it's loaded with nutrient.

It's not like Lemonade is gonna be mistaken for fine wine.........

Good luck,
Tim

Sounds good, man. Besides, it's mostly girls that are going to be drinking it ... they won't know the difference between bread yeast and champagne yeast.
 
Sounds good, man. Besides, it's mostly girls that are going to be drinking it ... they won't know the difference between bread yeast and champagne yeast.

I really suggest you do not cheap out. If you are going to make it make it right. You do not want to known as a crappy brewer...lol. Cote de Blanc yeast is $2.00 at most and if you do not want to use DME then you are going to need to back sweeten it with some non fermentable sugar, ie splenda, purvia...etc. That will cost more than 1.5 -2 lbs of DME. There are some threads on here that I glanced at where people made the lemonade with bread yeast and they were not happy with the result.
 
OK now comes the carbing and bottle questions.

1. Can I stop the fermentation and still Bottle Carb with priming sugar?
2. If I just bottle it as is will it still Carb?
3. If I cannot just stop the fermentation and bottle carb what do I do? How do I carb it Safely? Can I reduce the amount of priming sugar?
 
OK now comes the carbing and bottle questions.

1. Can I stop the fermentation and still Bottle Carb with priming sugar?
2. If I just bottle it as is will it still Carb?
3. If I cannot just stop the fermentation and bottle carb what do I do? How do I carb it Safely? Can I reduce the amount of priming sugar?

1. Yes you can by racking to a secondary container, and or cold crashing. Both ways have worked for me. I carb it to 2-2.3 vols of CO2

2. Yes it will still carb to some degree since CO2 is one of the by products of fermentation.

3. You can stop fermentation by adding K Meta, but , then you have to bottle it "still" since the K Meta will stun the yeast.
 
1. Yes you can by racking to a secondary container, and or cold crashing. Both ways have worked for me. I carb it to 2-2.3 vols of CO2

2. Yes it will still carb to some degree since CO2 is one of the by products of fermentation.

3. You can stop fermentation by adding K Meta, but , then you have to bottle it "still" since the K Meta will stun the yeast.

What do you mean bt carbing it to 2-3.3 Vols? Forgive me I have only been at this a few months and some things are still confusing or new.

So what if I racked it to a second container, let it sit for two weeks and then cold crash it? I imagine this to be an ice bath like in a swamp bucket or can I just put the Carboy in my garage fridge and crank it down to 38 or so? After 24 hours rack it to a bottling bucket with priming sugar and then bottle?

Just trying to mak euse of what I have and still have a drinkable finished beverage.

Thnaks for all the help and advice.
 
LloydRenee;3034035]What do you mean bt carbing it to 2-3.3 Vols? Forgive me I have only been at this a few months and some things are still confusing or new.
This means that you want to carbonate it to 2.-2.3 volumes of CO2. Use a calculator like this, http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php, to calculate how much priming sugar to use. Note: You want to enter the temperature during fermentation into the calculator and not the temperature after cold crashing (Boil this amt. in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes and add to lemonade as you siphon into the bottling bucket)

So what if I racked it to a second container, let it sit for two weeks and then cold crash it? I imagine this to be an ice bath like in a swamp bucket or can I just put the Carboy in my garage fridge and crank it down to 38 or so? After 24 hours rack it to a bottling bucket with priming sugar and then bottle?

After racking to the secondary you do not need to let it sit for two weeks (unless you have to for some reason). Putting it in the garage fridge @ 38 for 48-72 hrs should be sufficient and is the best way. an Ice bath would work also but would not be as efficient. This is the procedure I use and it works like a charm

Just trying to mak euse of what I have and still have a drinkable finished beverage.

Thnaks for all the help and advice.[/QUOTE]
 
I really suggest you do not cheap out. If you are going to make it make it right. You do not want to known as a crappy brewer...lol. Cote de Blanc yeast is $2.00 at most and if you do not want to use DME then you are going to need to back sweeten it with some non fermentable sugar, ie splenda, purvia...etc. That will cost more than 1.5 -2 lbs of DME. There are some threads on here that I glanced at where people made the lemonade with bread yeast and they were not happy with the result.

I see you mention back sweetening, but I thought table sugar is not 100% fermentable. Does the wine yeast ferment more sugars than beer yeast? How would bread yeast compare to wine and beer yeast in terms of fermenting sugar?
 
I see you mention back sweetening, but I thought table sugar is not 100% fermentable. Does the wine yeast ferment more sugars than beer yeast? How would bread yeast compare to wine and beer yeast in terms of fermenting sugar?

I thought Cane Sugar is 100% fermentable? I never used bread yeast so I cannot say but wine yeast will handle 12% at the very least. If you just use sugar it is going to be very dry and might go to an OG of 1.000 or below. My information is based off of Yooper Brewer's recipe. I use DME because I want the malt balance to all of the tartness in the Lemonade. I let a batch go all they way down from 1.100 to 1.000 and it was not good so I would up back sweetening with 2 cans of frozen lemonade at bottling. It really did not help.
 
Ok now I am confused. I took an OG reading that was 1.084 and one week later I am taking another reading that says 1.092. That cannot be right. I dont see myslef having a negative alcohol level lol. What am I doing wrong? Maybe I shoudl go learn to read my hydrometer properly now. What should the regular or average OG be for this concentrate mixture? I drew about 2 oz out from about a third of the way down in my bucket. I know its got alcohol I can taste it. I put it in the fridge and you can really see those yeasties working adn going to town on it. Any hints or clues?
 
Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to brewing, so I have a couple questions about this hard lemonade.\

1. Is any secondary fermantion necessary, or is it OK to drink after primary fermentation? I guess a follow-up question is whether or not bottling is necessary or can you drink it straight out of the primary plastic keg if you're using it for a party?
It is not necessary per se but it will keep fermenting if you do not rack it off the yeast or add K Meta. I had it go form 1.020 to 1.010 in 3 days (OG was 1.100). You can drink it right away. I prefer to bottle mine so I secondary, cold crash and carb to 2.3 volumes of CO2. I would bottle it in a growler, jug, or a pitcher instead of out of a carboy or bucket


2. I've seen from this thread that champagne, wine and beer yeasts have been used. Is it OK to use any kind of yeast or will the flavor be affected greatly?

Yes it is. Some people on here have used Beer Yeast I believe. I have always used Cotes de Blanc (yoopers recipe) You want something that is going to tolerate up to 12%ABV. The batch I just bottled is in the 11% area

3. What exactly is yeast nutrient and how important is it when making hard lemonade?
Yeast Nutrient and energizer, is very important. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-1.html. It is really important to the Hard Lemonade because the lemonade is very acidic and you need to get the yeast acclimated to the environment and give them the extra nutrients. I think the starter is the most important part of this beverage.

I made batch 2 last night for a party we are having in a few weeks.

Thanks for your help guys!

10char[/QUOTE]



For some reason or another It took a bit longer to get the Lemonade to where I want it. As of this morning it is at 1.035ish. I am using the Brewballs to measure my gravity and the 1.035 ball dropped like a stone overnight. Should be done real soon
 
Im confused, dont quote me on this but I thought I saw that ultra light DME doesnt ferment? does that mean the target alcohol level will be really high for the first reading but in actuality its not????
 
Ive had it finish anywhere from 5 days to 3 weeks. Fermentation normally starts out slow because of the high acidity.

Using a hydrometer, Adjust the amount of sugar and water to get your target original and finished gravity, to control your alcohol percentage. And add potassium sorbate to stop fermentation once done.

I try to keep the alcohol between 5-8% (depending how the wifes mood has been)

Tastes great, especially on hot days.

I mix it with the Hard tea I make to get a hard Arnold Palmer. Nothing is better on a hot day than a sweaty Hard Arnold Palmer ;)

This can also be done in those 1 gallon glass wine jugs. Of course you'll need to adjust the recipe.

Any other questions just ask

What is this Hard Tea that you speak of?
 
Hello,

First post here, great board.

I am going to brew this recipe in a 1 gallon version:

I notice everyone asks how it tastes and what not after after asking questions on how to do it and not many people answer. I will try and remember to let folks know how mine tastes when its done. Whenever that may be. Hopefully this goes well!

What I did:

7 Minutemaid Lemonade concentrate
3 Minutemaid Pink Lemonade concentrate
5 Lbs Cane Sugar
5 Gals Spring Water
1 Package Montrachet Yeast
1 6.5 Gal Ale Pail
1 5 Gal Pastic Carboy

Step 1:
I added the 10 Minutemaid Concentrate containers after they were defrosted to the bottom of the Ale Pail

Step 2:
I warmed a gallon of Water in a brew pot and added 2.5 lbs of sugar to it disolving the entire contents. (Repeat with remaining sugar)

Step 3:
When the solution suagar solution was done I poured them into the ale pale mixing with the concentrate.

Step 4: Add the remaining 3 gallons of water to the pail. Stir gently if needed. Take OG. Mine was 1.084.

Step 5: Extract 2 to 3 cups of mixture in a sanitized jar or Pin Glass or whatever. Pitch your yeast into it, stir it up a little. Cover with plastic wrap (I put a rubber band around it to keep sealed). Let sit for 20 minutes plus.

Step 6: If the yeast has activated and started working its magic in your jar then pitch it in the pail. Stir lightly.

Step 7: Cover pail and insert airlock.

So thats what I did. My yeast didnt take as well as I liked (no airlock activity) so at day 3 I extracted another two cups of the mixture and pitched a different yeast (Champagne). The air lock started right up and has been going well since. I will take a reading this weekend to see where we are.

I plan to rack it to a secondary carboy in two weeks and let it sit for at least two more. From there I will rack it to a bottling pail with a priming sugar and hope for the best!!

Any suggestions or thoughts?

My amounts will be:

2 Minutemaid Lemonade concentrate
.75 Lbs Cane Sugar
.25 LDME (looking for that malty aspect)
1 Gals Spring Water
1 Package Montrachet Yeast
1 1 Gal glass Carboy

I think I will attempt to bottle this but in P.E.T. 1/2 Liter Beer Bottle (plastic) as I am afraid of bottle bombs. Once I get to this, probably in a week or so I will post (in detail) the during and outcome of this project.

Wayne
 
LloydRenee said:
I notice everyone asks how it tastes and what not after after asking questions on how to do it and not many people answer. I will try and remember to let folks know how mine tastes when its done. Whenever that may be. Hopefully this goes well!

What I did:

7 Minutemaid Lemonade concentrate
3 Minutemaid Pink Lemonade concentrate
5 Lbs Cane Sugar
5 Gals Spring Water
1 Package Montrachet Yeast
1 6.5 Gal Ale Pail
1 5 Gal Pastic Carboy

Step 1:
I added the 10 Minutemaid Concentrate containers after they were defrosted to the bottom of the Ale Pail

Step 2:
I warmed a gallon of Water in a brew pot and added 2.5 lbs of sugar to it disolving the entire contents. (Repeat with remaining sugar)

Step 3:
When the solution suagar solution was done I poured them into the ale pale mixing with the concentrate.

Step 4: Add the remaining 3 gallons of water to the pail. Stir gently if needed. Take OG. Mine was 1.084.

Step 5: Extract 2 to 3 cups of mixture in a sanitized jar or Pin Glass or whatever. Pitch your yeast into it, stir it up a little. Cover with plastic wrap (I put a rubber band around it to keep sealed). Let sit for 20 minutes plus.

Step 6: If the yeast has activated and started working its magic in your jar then pitch it in the pail. Stir lightly.

Step 7: Cover pail and insert airlock.

So thats what I did. My yeast didnt take as well as I liked (no airlock activity) so at day 3 I extracted another two cups of the mixture and pitched a different yeast (Champagne). The air lock started right up and has been going well since. I will take a reading this weekend to see where we are.

I plan to rack it to a secondary carboy in two weeks and let it sit for at least two more. From there I will rack it to a bottling pail with a priming sugar and hope for the best!!

Any suggestions or thoughts?

I am planning on doing this recipe, but use the 10 cans of Minutemade. I have this raspberry syrup I wanted to flavor this with. 1 can I even use something like this and 2 when should you suggest I add it? During fermentation? At bottling? I am wanting to carbonate it in the bottles just like this recipe. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Enough lemonade concentrate(check label to make sure there is no potassium sorbate) and water to make 5 gallons. (10 cans)

2 pounds sugar, 1 pound ultra light dme

(more or less depending on target alcohol percentage)

1 pack champagne yeast

Ferment, add potassium sorbate when finished gravity is reached, enjoy.

This stuff is awesome, and the ladies love it.

Just started a batch using this recipe last weekend. Bought a lb of wheat DME by mistake, but no big deal. Used EC-1118, Minute Maid and distilled water. Boiled the DME and sugar in a gallon of water for 15 minutes and used 2 gallons of distilled water to cool the wort before transferring to Better Bottle, adding thawed concentrate and topping up.

To help get it started I used 2 packs of wine yeast, injected pure O2 for 2 minutes, and added energizer and yeast nutrient. No rhino farts yet and I had a thin krausen within a few hours. Excited to see how this turns out.
 
Just put this together at lunchtime. OG seemed low but I didn't use as much sugar. Got about 1.070 on OG. Figured if it goes down to 1.010 it will be about 8%. Not too shabby.
 
I did the recipe above with the 5 lbs of sugar. My yeast didn't take well at first and had EXTREMELY SLOW airlock activity. I tried a few things (warmer temp., stir every day) to keep from having to repitch, but didn't react the way I really wanted and I ended up having to re-pitch. ( I probably should have just re-pitched earlier) Got good airlock activity after that. I took an OG reading on 4/3 and it was 1.080. Checked it tonight and now it's down to 1.070. Any idea how long really this should take, or just let it keep going till I reach a certain OG? I first started this whole thing back on 3/15 but figured it was almost like just starting over when I re-pitched on 3/26.
 
Mine took nearly 2 months to ferment. I think that my must was too acidic. Think I would have benefited from using some yeast energizer. Did you energize with your batch?
 
divi2323 said:
Mine took nearly 2 months to ferment. I think that my must was too acidic. Think I would have benefited from using some yeast energizer. Did you energize with your batch?

Nope I didn't energize. What was your final OG reading?
 
BearStein said:
Nope I didn't energize. What was your final OG reading?

My brew started at 1.084. Used 8 cans of lemonade concentrate, 5 lbs cane sugar, and enough water to bring it to 4.5 gallons total.
 
Mine has been fermenting for one week now and I checked my gravity just now. It is at 1.001. Started at about 1.070. I did use yeast nutrient. Wonder if that made the difference.
 
I did a batch of this a few weeks ago using a gallon of store-brand organic lemonade. Added about half a pound of sugar and fermented with an ale yeast (two leftover pouches of MrBeer yeast I had laying around). Gravity was about 8%. Racked to secondary and cleared with a little gelatin. Racked again when it was clear. Then batch primed and bottled on top of some pitted sweet cherries. It was amazing. Pinkish yellow in color but still pretty clear. Very well carbonated, and just sweet enough. Took it to a party and it was gone in 20 minutes.

Im going to try it again soon, but with lime-aid instead of lemonade. I have a few pouches of dry yeast to choose from this time. I have some red start pasteur champagne yeast, some k1v-1116 wine yeast, and some wb-06 wheat ale yeast. Tempted to use the ale yeast again (I've been saving the wine and champ yeast for some fruit wines I'm making soon)... but I have enough of each that I could do a few batches and try them all.
 
So, this is finished out, tastes great (if a bit dry) and I need to backsweeten it for Sunday.

It's a 5 gallon batch, so if I add 5 crushed campden tabs and 2 1/2 tsp Potassium Sorbate to primary tonight, then on Saturday, I should be able to rack over 1 lb sugar dissolved in boiling distilled water, force carb and serve. Will this work? I've never backsweetened with fermentables before.
 
This sounds amazing...I am on the hunt to try and make my own hard lemon/limeade. I am wondering if I juice lemons and limes myself and then add a whack of sugar and some yeast if this will end up making some nice hard limade.
I will put it on my list of experiments and try a gallon and see what happens :D
 
bernerbrau said:
So, this is finished out, tastes great (if a bit dry) and I need to backsweeten it for Sunday.

It's a 5 gallon batch, so if I add 5 crushed campden tabs and 2 1/2 tsp Potassium Sorbate to primary tonight, then on Saturday, I should be able to rack over 1 lb sugar dissolved in boiling distilled water, force carb and serve. Will this work? I've never backsweetened with fermentables before.

Could you do a bottle carb instead on this? Just start with 3 pounds of sugar? Or still add the 1 pound at the end? Do you need a priming sugar then if you add that at the end? Lots of questions!! Thanks for the post
 
Could you do a bottle carb instead on this? Just start with 3 pounds of sugar? Or still add the 1 pound at the end? Do you need a priming sugar then if you add that at the end? Lots of questions!! Thanks for the post

The problem is you have to keep the yeast alive to eat the priming sugar so you can't stabilize it, but by not stabilizing it, there's nothing to prevent the yeast from consuming the sugar you used for sweetening. Instead of stabilizing you would have to let it ferment completely dry, then sweeten with something unfermentable like lactose or an artificial sweetener before bottle carbing.
 
Question, I actually done a six gal batch of limeade but my recipe is similar and the question is on priming sugar. My temp varied from 68-74F and the calculators don't provide info for this type of brew...how should I compensate?
 
I have read this entire thread, but I have a couple quick questions.

1. I plan on bottle carbing my hard lemonade. If, after fermentation, the drink is too sour, is maltodextrin the best way to sweeten it before adding carb drops or priming sugar? I know that cane or corn sugar would probably add way too much sugar, resulting in bottle bombs.

2. Some posts have mentioned using twice the carb drops or priming sugar. What have most of you guys done in terms of bottle carbing? I know Mike's Hard is heavily carbonated and most people will be looking for that when I ask them to try mine.

3. What are the benefits of secondary fermentation?

4. What all do you guys boil or heat up? (dme, lemonade concentrate, cane sugar, etc)
 
1. I plan on bottle carbing my hard lemonade. If, after fermentation, the drink is too sour, is maltodextrin the best way to sweeten it before adding carb drops or priming sugar? I know that cane or corn sugar would probably add way too much sugar, resulting in bottle bombs.

No. If the drink is sweet at all, it's not done fermenting and you will get bottle bombs. You must let it ferment completely dry, and sweeten with lactose or artificial sweetener.
 
Gonna try this again, my fermentation temps varied from 68-74F what should i enter into the priming calculator? And which type of beer Shd I enter, as hard lemonade isn't a choice?
 
Gonna try this again, my fermentation temps varied from 68-74F what should i enter into the priming calculator? And which type of beer Shd I enter, as hard lemonade isn't a choice?

(a) This is not my thread. I have made hard lemonade all of once in my brewing career.
(b) What does fermentation temperature have to do with priming?
(c) I don't know what software you're using so I can't tell you what to enter into it.
(d) It's entirely up to you how much priming sugar you want. If you want it really fizzy, use about 3/4 pound of sugar. If you want it only lightly sparkling, use 1-2 ounces. But measure by weight because density of priming sugar varies.
 
bernerbrau said:
(a) This is not my thread. I have made hard lemonade all of once in my brewing career.
(b) What does fermentation temperature have to do with priming?
(c) I don't know what software you're using so I can't tell you what to enter into it.
(d) It's entirely up to you how much priming sugar you want. If you want it really fizzy, use about 3/4 pound of sugar. If you want it only lightly sparkling, use 1-2 ounces. But measure by weight because density of priming sugar varies.

Someone said the lower the fern temp the more residual CO2 left in the brew thus requiring less sugar to carb it...too much and boom. The calculator I checked out was northerns site I think and it makes you enter a beer type :/....still new to this
 
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