Good Hard lemonade

[bernerbrau]

After stabilizing and backsweetening, this tastes almost dead on like Mike's Hard Lemonade.

 

[BearStein]

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

 

[bernerbrau]

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.

 

[freebeernhotwings]

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?

 

[AImhoff88]

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)

 

[bernerbrau]

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.

 

[freebeernhotwings]

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?

 

[bernerbrau]

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.

 

[freebeernhotwings]

(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

 

[freebeernhotwings]

Sorry, the calculator was on kotmf.com

 

[bernerbrau]

I see. Well hard lemonade is technically wine, so you should be degassing it. If you do, the residual CO2 would be zero.

 

[divi2323]

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

The Ferm temp really is irrelevant. You should be degassing your wines before stabilizing them and for me at least, the same holds true for skeeter pee

 

[knappetak]

Ok so made of 10 gallons of this stuff, using 2 of my 5 gallon ale pails. Can't beat the cost per gallon of this stuff. Two slightly different recipes to start.

Recipe 1

10 cans lemonade concentrate
1lb light DME
2 Lbs organic cane Sugar
8oz corn sugar
ec1118 yeast
yeast starter

Recipe 2

5 can lemonade concentrate
1.5 cans limeade concentrate
1lb organic cane
8oz corn sugar
1lb light dme
Montrachet yeast.
yeast starter.

After 6 days Recipe 2 seems at a dead stop. I racked it into a glass carboy this morning and took sample before racking. Gravity looks like we're at 1.000. No bubbles in secondary so far.

My question is really with the second one...Should I leave it? Let it set for a few days or week and then backsweeten? Anything else I can do, or need to? I am going to keg this and it will be in a beer fridge if it doesn't taste like a Bums A$$.

Recipe 1 is still bubbling along although slowed a bit. Gravity yesterday was 1.003. Thoughts on this one? How long to let it go? Till done done. Kicking my own a$$ for not taking a SG when I started.

Anyway, hope this stuff is good, as love Hard Lemonade, and well love to drink a good lemonade during the summer months...

 

[JimBrewer]

I asked this question on another recent post, and I'm wondering maybe if there is a universal answer. Most recipes call for concentrated juice and I was wondering if this would work with fresh lemonade?

Haven't been at this very long and I hear that fresh juice can be used in certain recipes and was wondering if it can always be substituted. I ask because I simply like the taste of fresh juice much more than from concentrate (especially lemonade).

Also yes, do you serve it carbonated like a sparkling beverage or simply serve it still?

 

[joelrapp]

Question. I put this together 2 days ago and pitched w/ harvested S-04 ale yeast. I harvested from a conical so I had more than enough yeast to get going. Checked after 24 hrs nothing. Picked up 2 packets of champagne yeast and pitched, thought I saw some krausen and then took gravity reading, again nothing. I've stirred sloshed and have it capped with a paper towel. Any suggestions on getting this going?

6 cans of concentrate - no sorbates.
1 lb dme
1 lb sugar
3 tsp yeast nutrient

 

[bernerbrau]

Mine took off almost immediately. I injected pure O2 with an aeration stone and oxygen tank, plus I added yeast nutrient and energizer.

 

[Bookem15]

Question. I put this together 2 days ago and pitched w/ harvested S-04 ale yeast. I harvested from a conical so I had more than enough yeast to get going. Checked after 24 hrs nothing. Picked up 2 packets of champagne yeast and pitched, thought I saw some krausen and then took gravity reading, again nothing. I've stirred sloshed and have it capped with a paper towel. Any suggestions on getting this going?

6 cans of concentrate - no sorbates.
1 lb dme
1 lb sugar
3 tsp yeast nutrient

How big a batch is this? If you only added a little bit of water then it may be too much acid for the yeast to get going. Also as stated above you need yeast energizer along with your nutrient. Good luck

 

[HoboBrewing]

Instead of postassium sorbate, could I just cold crash or stove top pasteurize? Thanks.

 

[BearStein]

After stabilizing and backsweetening, this tastes almost dead on like Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Can you post your compete recipe you used then? You did the 2 packs of wine yeast instead of the champagne right? I'm going to attempt this soon, but am going to try and bottle carb it at the end. Thanks

 

[water2beer]

I made a 4 gallon batch for my wife and it tastes great; however, it smells bad. I plan on adding some fresh lemons for the secondary. Hopefully it will smell better after that.

8 cans frozen lemonade
5lbs of cane sugar
2 packets montrachet yeast
2 weeks of fermenting = 11% abv

 

[Pandaren]

Hey guys,

It's recently gotten really hot where I'm at (past 3 days 98+) and apparently won't be getting much lower than 91 for a while. I'm in an apartment with no a/c, so I've had to make due with temps as best I can, but it's not really cooling off much in the night either. Anyway, it's been going about 4 days now and has been fermenting between 74 and 85 for the majority of the time.

Are these high temps a big deal for something like lemonade? I used champagne yeast, not beer yeast.

 

[Captive]

Hey guys,

It's recently gotten really hot where I'm at (past 3 days 98+) and apparently won't be getting much lower than 91 for a while. I'm in an apartment with no a/c, so I've had to make due with temps as best I can, but it's not really cooling off much in the night either. Anyway, it's been going about 4 days now and has been fermenting between 74 and 85 for the majority of the time.

Are these high temps a big deal for something like lemonade? I used champagne yeast, not beer yeast.

Use your nose as a guide. If you get any bad smells coming off the batch, the yeast are likely stressed. In an emergency, you can cool your batch with ice bombs. Take a couple of clean water bottles, fill them 7/8 full of water, cap and freeze them. You can now float these in your batch without the ice diluting it. Float one and keep the other in the freezer. It'll help to wrap your batch in a blanket too to keep it the cool in and the heat out.

 

[Pandaren]

Awesome, thanks for the advise. No odd or bad smells off it yet, just the normal fermentation smells. I've been keeping an "eye" out for that SO2 smell of bad eggs, but haven't had any yet.

 

[arivera]

is it carbonated? Im looking for a Mikes Hard Lemonade type clone. I am new to brewing but have enjoyed every step of the process thus far... My wife doesn't drink beer, so i am trying to find a simple mikes type recipe for her. Thanks!

 

[CrimsonBrew]

It can be. Its great stuff. For a more elaborated guide check out skeeterpee.com. Yes its about lemonade wine making.

 

[JimBrewer]

I believe it doesn't begin carbonated, but that it can be added with the right apparatus. You may want to check the resources to see if there is any difference between the original post and the various sites listed afterwards.

 

[SnowBird]

Can you give us your hard tea recipe?

 

[kansascooker123]

I'm new at this, do you add the dme without doing anything to it first( right from the bag?)

 

[madwilliamflint]

First: I'm VERY new at all of this. I have a lot of things fermenting (mostly meads/melomels/fruit wines, etc.) But they're all technically my first round. I have no successes under my belt as of yet.

I set this down on 6/1, directly into a 6.5 gallon carboy, with measurements adjusted to a little shy of 6 gallons (which came in handy as you'll see.)

We tried it 2 weeks ago and it was dry as... it was too dry.

So I added about 4 pounds of sugar (boiled it into a very dense simple syrup to prevent frothing over.) I'm very glad I had space in the carboy to add that syrup. Otherwise I'd have had to divide it across a couple 5ers.

I bottled 4 little grolsch bottles and brought them to work. It was a raving success.

It's VERY drinkable and smooth. The added sugar I found critical (as I didn't crash the fermentation.) I'm not sure what the ABV is, but I'm sitting here right now at my desk in work, having consumed less than 12oz, loopy.

This is a screaming success. I can't wait to get home and bottle it so I can start another batch. Because THIS batch is going to go...fast.

Thanks very much to OP for posting this.

If you're on the fence at all about doing this, get off. Do it. Next time I may add a couple vanilla beans. But frankly, I'm worried about how smooth that will make it. This is going to just get people drunk.

Okay, sure. Maybe I should have a target ABV and work with that. It's funny. I want to be able to enjoy more of this at a time. But I clearly can't.

 

[madwilliamflint]

I screwed up. I made my 5 gallon batch of this and it was a bit yeasty for my taste, so I ran some "super kleer" in to it. Now it tastes like a slightly carbonated medium-sweet white wine, with subtle hints of lemon.

And now I've got 3 cases of the stuff in grolsch bottles for a party in 2 weeks. Eh. We'll see.

It's really strong. I like it. But it's definitely not what I was shooting for. I'll probably start again as soon as I can get ahold of more DME.