hard lemonade problem

[blackcows]

Rod,

Since you hav made a few batches of this I was wondering if the recipie from the orginal post is the one that you have settled on? Do a lot of people like this or just one? I am looking for something other than beer to have around for non beer drinkers.

Mike

 

[JnJ]

Well I finely bottled mine. It turned out very good. It was very dry and bitter, but we added a can of pink lemonade and a bunch of sugar to sweeten it up. I ended up with 11% ABV.

 

[FatMonsters]

I noticed that postings here are discussing how to sweeten it. I added Lactose so that I can add priming sugar to carbonate in the bottles as normal. Of course, if your lactose intolerant that won't work well!! I also started with fresh lemons and a few limes with 6 .lbs of corn sugar and malto-dextrin for body. The primary went 8 days and it was dry and low on lemon taste. I added two cans of concentrate and a little more lactose and it is still bubbling away in the secondary (only been a week in secondary). I didn't use malt and I didn't have any trouble with primary fermentation starting. I did add yeast nutrient and was using SAFale dry yeast. Secondary fermentation is took off right after the airlock was added!

 

[strangebrewer]

Hard lemonade has been my toughest ferment. I actually planned for it to be difficult, so what I did was this- I made a starter just out of some water and sugar and yeast, along with yeast nutrient. As it took off, I very gradually added some of the diluted lemonade and sugar mixture, using more sugar water than lemonade. When that got going, I added more and more lemonade mixture and sugar water, and it was a little less diluted each time. When that was well underway, I pitched that mixture into my primary with the rest of the lemonade and sugar water. I don't have my notes handy right now (they're in the home computer) but I'll look at that and see if anything else stands out. It's a bugger to get going, probably because of the high acid and low nutrients, along with a high s.g.

Lorena

Thanks! I used this information to get my cranberry hard lemonade started fermenting with the beer yeast (wyeast 1056). I used about 1/4 cup of corn sugar with about 200 ml of water. Then I used a turkey baster and added about 2 full basters of the hcl mixture, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient and pitched my yeast. After about 30 mins it started fermenting, so I added a few more basters full of the hcl mixture and waited for that to show signs of fermentation again.I did this about 3 more times before I felt I was ready to pitch it to my jug. It took off within 1 hour.:rockin:

 

[devaspawn]

I am now reviving this. Yooper, what do you think about adding 5 or 6 packages of crystal light lemonade mix as a back sweetener? It would allow the whole thing to finish it's ferment and then you could bottle as well as keg without worries of bottle bombs.

 

[Duckfoot]

I just mixed up a batch of hard lemonade somewhere along the lines of the forementioned recipes... Here is what I did....

9 cans lemonade concentrate
4.5 gallons water
.5 gallons organic strawberry lemonade
1.5 pounds dextrose
1 pound light DME

Made a starter of Munton's Gold dry yeast w/ 2 cups light DME... Let that settle out (24 hours), added 1/4 cup of the mixed lemonade, let that stand 24 hours and pitched to the pail....

OG was somewhere around 1.060... Currently sitting in the 'brew closet' @ around 70*... See how the fermentation is progressing tomorrow...

Any ideas / suggestions / comments?

 

[scsmith64]

OK I tried this recipe but subsituted limeade concentrate for lemonade concentrate. I made a healthy starter with Cotes de Blanc and pitched. airlock was bubbling within 12 hours and has been fermenting for almost three weeks. My question is regarding the use of sorbate and/or campden to halt fermentation as I am planning to back sweeten with more concentrate and sugar water or possibley roses lime juice. How long do I need to wait after adding the sorbate and campden to allow it to kill the yeast before back sweetening and bottling ???

 

[Yooper]

OK I tried this recipe but subsituted limeade concentrate for lemonade concentrate. I made a healthy starter with Cotes de Blanc and pitched. airlock was bubbling within 12 hours and has been fermenting for almost three weeks. My question is regarding the use of sorbate and/or campden to halt fermentation as I am planning to back sweeten with more concentrate and sugar water or possibley roses lime juice. How long do I need to wait after adding the sorbate and campden to allow it to kill the yeast before back sweetening and bottling ???

Wait until fermentation is completely finished, and then stabilize it. I'd wait about 3-5 days after that before sweetening. Then I'd wait a few more days just to make sure it's really not going to stop up again!

 

[scsmith64]

Yooper

Thank you for the info. I read I should use a half tsp of sorbate per gal and 1 campden tablet per gal also does that sound right??

 

[Yooper]

Yooper

Thank you for the info. I read I should use a half tsp of sorbate per gal and 1 campden tablet per gal also does that sound right??

Yes, that does sound about right!

You can boil a little water in the microwave to help dissolve the campden tablets, and then add the sorbate to that. Put that in your carboy, then rack the lemonade into it.

 

[malagabeer]

Lorena,

I have some questions and I would like you to help me with them Acording to your experience, Have you have ever feel a kind a harsh aftertaste in your hard lemonade.

After fermentation is done and backsweeten the hard lemonade, I have felt in every batch a kind a feeling of constriction, a dryness and even a roughness in the oral cavity exactly back in your tongue. I´ve been searching and investigating ( i do not remember where lol) and my conclusion so far it´s been that weird aftertaste may be caused by the high tannin levels that lemon has. Have you ever feel that aftertaste with your hard lemonades? If you do, how do you get rid of that aftertaste feeling?

Kind Regards,

 

[zman]

How much priming sugar do you use to bottle 5 gal.?

 

[zman]

Lorena,
I have some question about the recipe.

Added yeast nutrient. When looking and smelling yeasty, I added some sugar water and lemonade mixture. All the sugar was disolved in about 1/3 of the water, with a can of lemonade mixed in. So #5 of Sugar was boiled in roughly 1.5g water and you added 1 can of Lemonade Concentrate to this mixture and put it in the carboy?I added 1/4 c of this mixture to my yeast mix, and then added some more water and lemonade to the primary so that about ½ the water or less is in the primary with all of the sugar and 1/3 of the cans of lemonade. I assume that you are mixing the lemonade before adding it to the primary, or are you just thawing it out and mixing it in the carboy? I took some of this out of the primary and put it in a measuring cup, and I’ll gradually add that to the yeast. I’ll add the rest of the cans of the thawed lemonade and the rest of the water tomorrow. S.g is 1.080, at the start after all ingredients are added. On 5/13/06, s.g. is 1.064, on 5/18/06 s.g. is 1.046. It hasn’t changed much the last few days, so I racked it into 5 gal carboy. Not much sediment. It is fermenting well, room is 63 degrees. On 5/28.06- siphoned some off and drank. Very good, but still fermenting as well. Did not check s.g. On 6/3- racked into 3 gallon carboy, drank the rest. (some


Thanks,

Steve

 

[glockfan16]

If I make this and don't plan on carbonating it, can I just store it in like 2 liter soft drink bottles? Would that be a problem?

 

[cimirie]

Quick question from somebody who has no familiarity with either sorbate or Camden tablets. If I plan on bottling something like this in standard glass bottles, do I need to use either of these? So as to make this less dry, I'm planning on upping the malt factor a touch (more 2-row and some honey malt) so I don't think I'll need to backsweeten with any sugar post fermentation. If I do, maybe some splenda will do the trick?

As always all your help is appreciated!

 

[zman]

My versions of Yoopers Hard Lemonade appears to be stuck @ 1.054 for the last two weeks. I am getting airlock activity every 5 seconds but not seeing any other signs of activity. I have not taken an actual hydro sample yet ( I have the 1.055 brew ball in there). I have had an airlock in there since It started. Should I inject it with some CO2? Add another packet of yeast? Just leave it alone and hope for the best? I am going to take an actual hydro sample tonight and see what it is.

 

[Blackgaurd_Brewing]

Is it possible to make this without sulfites? 2 of the people I drink with cant tolerate them. Makes mead making rough.

 

[zman]

HELP!!! I am stuck at 1.035 for the last 2 weeks. OG was at 1.085 or so. I have added yeast energizer and stirred fairly vigorously when I added it. I am still getting airlock activity once every 5-8 seconds. The temp is holding at 68F. I am wondering if I should pitch another packet of yeast or make another starter? I know that it is a long ferment but I have read where others have had faster results.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[zman]

I am on batch #2 and I do not want to carb this batch. I used #2 of light DME in addition to the other ingredients. My OG was 1.100 and I am presently at 1.051 (6.4 ABV). I want to stop it at 1.035 (8%) How much potassium sorbate and K Meta do I need to add for 5g and how long after I rack onto it can I bottle it?

 

[cweinbrew9]

I'm home now, and here's my notes and the recipe I used:


7 cans of lemonade concentrate
Sugar to an SG of 1.100 (1.5 pounds per gallon, more or less- see below)
water to 3 gallons
3 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp yeast energizer
3 crushed Campden tablets or 1/2 tsp K-meta
Wine yeast

Seems to me that I made 5 gallons of this, not three, so I must have used more lemonade, sugar and water. I used Cotes de Blanc yeast, and it fermented completely dry. This was WAY too tart for me, but my husband liked it so I bottled 1/2 and sweetened half. I sorbated/sulfited and then sweetened with sugar syrup. Yes, I think you should start a new starter, gradually making it more and more acidic so you don't traumatize the poor yeast! I don't know about gypsum as I've never used it- I just always use my tap water for everything.

By the way, this molly-coddling was well worth it. Everyone loves this hard lemonade.

Here's my notes- if they're incomprehensible, let me know and I'll try to figure it out:
What I did on 5/6/06:
In 1/4 or so warm water, sprinkled cotes de blanc yeast. Added yeast nutrient. When looking and smelling yeasty, I added some sugar water and lemonade mixture. All the sugar was disolved in about 1/3 of the water, with a can of lemonade mixed in. I added 1/4 c of this mixture to my yeast mix, and then added some more water and lemonade to the primary so that about ½ the water or less is in the primary with all of the sugar and 1/3 of the cans of lemonade. I took some of this out of the primary and put it in a measuring cup, and I’ll gradually add that to the yeast. I’ll add the rest of the cans of the thawed lemonade and the rest of the water tomorrow. S.g is 1.080, at the start after all ingredients are added. On 5/13/06, s.g. is 1.064, on 5/18/06 s.g. is 1.046. It hasn’t changed much the last few days, so I racked it into 5 gal carboy. Not much sediment. It is fermenting well, room is 63 degrees. On 5/28.06- siphoned some off and drank. Very good, but still fermenting as well. Did not check s.g. On 6/3- racked into 3 gallon carboy, drank the rest. (some sweetened, some not. s.g. is .990)

Sorry to re-quote the whole thing. I'm a little confused on your yeast starter process so I was curious if my plan is going to work...

I was thinking I'd take 1 liter of boiled and cooled water with a tsp each of yeast nutrient and energizer and put it in the bottom of a 3 gallon carboy. then i'd sprinkle the yeast in (at this point just a tin foil "cap" right?) after that yeast got going i was going to add about 1 L of 1.040 S.G. with 1 can and another 1 tsp addition each of yeast energizer and nutrient and 1 can of lemonade into the carboy. Once that yeast was going I would add another 2 liters of 1.040 and another can of lemonade, plus the last tsps of nutrient and energizer. After that I think I will keep adding 2 liter increments each with a can of lemonade and just bump the specific gravity up by 20 or thirty points each time (i'm thinking once or twice a day). once I'm at three gallons, I will stir up the wort real well and then I was going to siphon off into three 1 gallon jugs each with a different can of frozen concentrate in the bottom. (one cranberry, one raspberry, and the last pomegranate?) I'll have a little extra at the end because of the end, but I figured taste test and gravity readings. I was thinking the 3 gallon carboy would be only tin foil and i'd air lock everything once I got to three one gallon carboys. Also because yooper said the results very extremely tart before backsweetening, I was going to substitute some DME for some sugar, I'm thinking a 3:1 ratio (3 sugars to 1 Dme) For fermentation, I have a chest freezer, I'm only doing ales so I keep them at around 65, but because of the smaller volumes of liquid these will probably end up being around 63 or so. I'm not at all familiar with wine yeast so I am not sure if this is too cold? I can of course just leave them out of the chest freezer, but my small apartment has big temp swings sometimes. Finally, when do I use the camden tablets? I am new to them.


Any suggestions?

Thanks, Colton

 

[bdharstad]

Going to have to try this one! I have been lookin for a recipe to try.

 

[kurtisbaker]

Hard lemonade has been my toughest ferment. I actually planned for it to be difficult, so what I did was this- I made a starter just out of some water and sugar and yeast, along with yeast nutrient. As it took off, I very gradually added some of the diluted lemonade and sugar mixture, using more sugar water than lemonade. When that got going, I added more and more lemonade mixture and sugar water, and it was a little less diluted each time. When that was well underway, I pitched that mixture into my primary with the rest of the lemonade and sugar water. I don't have my notes handy right now (they're in the home computer) but I'll look at that and see if anything else stands out. It's a bugger to get going, probably because of the high acid and low nutrients, along with a high s.g.

Lorena

I just rehydrated my yeast added nutrient and energizer to my lemonade before pitching the yeast. It’s been 48 hours and nothing yet. Would love some help thanks

 

[Yooper]

I just rehydrated my yeast added nutrient and energizer to my lemonade before pitching the yeast. It’s been 48 hours and nothing yet. Would love some help thanks

I don't have much advice, except to do what I did. The acidity make it a difficult fermentation for me.