Help ballparking my alcohol content

[scotched]

I made a hard lemonade and screwed up my sugar amount:

10 cans of lemonade concentrate
10 lbs sugar
4.5 gals of water
Safale US-05

I'm guessing this won't be drinkable on it's own. What do you think my alcohol will end up at?

 

[Pommy]

no idea but its going to be strong. Did the yeast manage to get through all the sugars or did the alcohol kill it?

 

[scotched]

Yeast is still kicking at day 5

 

[Pommy]

well at a guess Id say you would get 5% from the sugar then if the concentrate is 80% sugar thats going to make it 9% at least. I dont know what lemonade concentrate is but I presume its a sugary syrup sort of thing so its probably more than 80% sugar. somewhere around 9-10% is my guess

 

[mc_eric]

If sugar gives 46 gravity points per gallon, that gives a gravity of 1.102 from the sugar alone by my calculation. I don't think the US-05 is going to get through all of that before it gives up, especially lacking nutrients. I'm guessing it'll stop somewhere in the 8% abv range.

 

[jaycount]

If sugar gives 46 gravity points per gallon, that gives a gravity of 1.102 from the sugar alone by my calculation. I don't think the US-05 is going to get through all of that before it gives up, especially lacking nutrients. I'm guessing it'll stop somewhere in the 8% abv range.

:rockin:

That US-05 is going to die from exhaustion :cross:

 

[scotched]

:rockin:

That US-05 is going to die from exhaustion :cross:

I suppose this is good news then. I should be able to bottle it finished, without fear of bottle bombs then?

I should add that did use campden tabs and nutrient before pitching the yeast and I've been giving it a stir everyday.

 

[Calder]

Quit stirring, it can get oxygen into it. Don't want that after it has started working.

10 lbs of sugar in 5 gallons = 1.092.

I'm guessing the lemonade concentrate was 12 ozs cans that make up 3 pints each, effectively giving you 4 gallons of lemonade. I'm guessing the sugar content is similar to apple juice at 1.046. With these assumptions, I'm guessing your starting gravity was somewhere in the region of 1.130.

If it ferments to dryness (1.000), it would be 17% abv. Unfortunately that yeast is going to poop out around 10%, so you will be left with a very sweet drink with a final gravity somewhere around 1.050-1.060.

It will not carb in the bottle, so it will be a still drink.

 

[Pommy]

you could always pitch a wine yeast once the S-05 dies to get a bit more out of it.

 

[Yooper]

Quit stirring, it can get oxygen into it. Don't want that after it has started working.

10 lbs of sugar in 5 gallons = 1.092.

Sure, you want to stir it! I stir my hard lemonade in primary until it gets to 1.020. It's a tough ferment, because of the very acidic must, so you need to give it nutrients and stir. Once you get to 1.020, then it's time to airlock and stop stirring, and put into secondary.

Take a look at my hard lemonade recipe (for three gallons) for instructions on yeast, stirring etc.

 

[beerkrump]

Quit stirring, it can get oxygen into it.

It's not wort/beer. You'll need to stir it.

 

[scotched]

Sure, you want to stir it! I stir my hard lemonade in primary until it gets to 1.020. It's a tough ferment, because of the very acidic must, so you need to give it nutrients and stir. Once you get to 1.020, then it's time to airlock and stop stirring, and put into secondary.

Take a look at my hard lemonade recipe (for three gallons) for instructions on yeast, stirring etc.

I actually used your recipe as my guideline, hence why I've been giving it a stir every day. I had no problems getting it to start.

So, my yeast will quit before my sugars are done fermenting, and I'll be left with a sweet/alcoholic drink that cannot be carbonated by bottle?

I was trying to avoid wine/champ yeast (EC-1118) because I didn't want to deal with having to halt the yeast for bottling.

 

[Yooper]

I actually used your recipe as my guideline, hence why I've been giving it a stir every day. I had no problems getting it to start.

So, my yeast will quit before my sugars are done fermenting, and I'll be left with a sweet/alcoholic drink that cannot be carbonated by bottle?

I was trying to avoid wine/champ yeast (EC-1118) because I didn't want to deal with having to halt the yeast for bottling.

EC1118 can go to 15%-18% or so. You never have to "halt them" unless you're sweetening, though.

 

[scotched]

So the EC-1118 will finish dry, and I can bottle them w/o worry?

 

[Yooper]

So the EC-1118 will finish dry, and I can bottle them w/o worry?

You can bottle them with ANY yeast once the SG isn't dropping any more. The EC1118 may go to .990 while the S05 may go to 1.005 for example. But once it's not dropping any more, and it's clear, it's safe to bottle.

To carbonate, though, you have to ensure your yeast isn't all done. An ale yeast may or may not work for bottle carbonation due to the ABV tolerance limit.

 

[mky375]

scotched your yeast will keep eating until all the sugar is gone or they die because they can't tolerate the alcohol in your must (other things can stop them like a low temp but that's only temporary).

US-05 is an ale yeast and wasn't breed to tolerate high alcohol so odds are they won't make it though the whole fermentation. But if you put in a champagne/wine yeast that was breed to handle that much alcohol it "should" eat all the sugars and only stop when there is nothing left to eat.

The reason for adding sugar when priming is the yeast ate all the sugar and went to sleep (hibernation due to lack of food), add some priming sugar and they wake up and go on eating (producing c02 and alcohol) carbonating your beer.

[edit]
Forgot to say that's why we let it ferment out and then add sugar so we can control the level of c02.
[/edit]

Does that make sense? If anybody wants to correct me please do I'm no expert.

 

[scotched]

Well I'll give it a taste once the fermentation burns out to see if I want to re-pitch it with champ yeast.

 

[howabouttheiris]

EC-1118 then sweeten with @2 cups of splenda (non fermentable).

IMHO 7 cans lemonade 3 cans limeade is even better than all lemonade.

 

[scotched]

^ I had a ramdom mix of pink, lime, and regular lemonade

 

[howabouttheiris]

So I happened to be putting down a fresh (not on a previous yeast cake) batch of this tonight. I had not actually measured this in the last 20 or so batches, so I did this time.

5 gallon final volume, 8 cans of lemonade, 3 cans of limeade and 5lbs of dextrose = 1.092 With 1118 it will go to effectively 1, or about 12%.

I caution about going any "harder" on this lemonade. It starts to get very hot if taken beyond this.

 

[brewd00d]

I made a hard lemonade and screwed up my sugar amount:

10 cans of lemonade concentrate
10 lbs sugar
4.5 gals of water
Safale US-05

I'm guessing this won't be drinkable on it's own. What do you think my alcohol will end up at?

holy christ. Lol. thats a lot of sugar. i cant believe the yeast is still kicking. hard to say what the end result will be with out an OG hydro reading

 

[janivar123]

If botteling with a high persentage of fermentables and the yeast stunned by alc content
i would worry about the yeast adapting and slowly starting to eat again

 

[koerd85]

I made a hard lemonade and screwed up my sugar amount:

10 cans of lemonade concentrate
10 lbs sugar
4.5 gals of water
Safale US-05

I'm guessing this won't be drinkable on it's own. What do you think my alcohol will end up at?

Abc 7.0%

 

[scotched]

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to re-pitch with EC-1118 once the US-05 poops out.

I still have concerns about bottle bombs, but this thread just made some more sense of it.

Basically the yeast has to be alive with little to no fermentables, in order to add priming sugar and bottle. If my yeast dies (in it's own alcohol waste), then adding priming sugar and bottling would be useless, as there is nothing viable to eat the sugar. Right?

I got trashed off of a pitcher sample last night. The excess sugar made it taste like homemade lemonade (water, sugar, lemons) and hid the alcohol almost completely. Definitely some hoochy stuff I got going on here.

 

[scotched]

If anyone is still reading this:

I took reading today on 5/13 (11 days) and I was at ~1.060.
I checked it today 5/16 (14days) and I'm at ~1.052.

The US-05 is still kicking, and the temps have been consistently lower (68F or less).

I'm not sure if I should start the EC-1118, or just let the US-05 finish first....

Also, this sounds strange - but it seems like the hard lemonade is slightly carbonated, even though it's not sealed or anything...

 

[Pommy]

the yeast are eating the sugars and pooping out alcohol and CO2 so I would assume that's where you're getting the slight carbonation from.

 

[ENS]

I'm intrigued

 

[koerd85]

Seems
Like
A
Recipie for mikes hard lemonade.