Lemon-wine recipe updates

[shot0rum247]

Hey All, I decided to try my hand at making some alcoholic lemonade, which should be more like lemon-wine when all is said and done as there is no malt in it. The recipe is pretty simple, what do you all think?

2 packs rehydrated montrachet wine yeast (red-star)
5.5 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 27 lemons)
5.5 cups water + 5.5 cups table sugar made into simple syrup base

added probably about 15 cups of water, to taste like good lemonade before adjusting gravity with extra sugar to about 1.060 (I think about 2 cups extra)

This makes a little under 2.5 gallons, not trying to make anything big the first test. I boiled for about 30 min to kill any nasties, cooled, aerated via shaking, and pitched at 75*F.

Bubbling slow, even for wine yeast after 24 hours so I added some yeast nutrient and all seems to be well now. I'll taste it after a week and let you know what the gravity is and how its tasting.

So, depending on how this turns out I may end up going with something like a corn sugar instead of cane and I may have to consider making a pH adjustment to raise it up a bit (right now I just am using 2 packets of yeast to compensate).

 

[shot0rum247]

Still really slow on bubbling after a few days, nearly nothing...gravity is only at about 1.050... :-( I'm thinking about adding another pack of hydrated montrachet but if I do that I want to cut the acidity...what can I use to raise the pH? I'm not a wine guy so any advice is appreciated.

 

[indy]

I did some lemonaid a while back, took over a week to really take off if I remember right.

 

[Yooper]

Lemonade is my hardest ferment. Keep stirring it daily (or even twice a day) and it should get going. If it stalls, you could make a starter as outlined in my hard lemonade recipe and repitch.

Not much you can do to raise the pH without changing the flavor of the must, so try to be patient at this point.

 

[shot0rum247]

Good stuff, I just gave it a stir and there were a decent amount of bubbles that raised from the trub, so at least its doing something. If I dont see more activity in the next few days I'll repitch according to your advice. Thanks!

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

My first batch of lemonad was horrid IMO....pitched THREE times before it took off and the dead yeast ( I think) ruined the whole thing. The second attempt is/was awesome! I mashed 2 pounds of 2 row malt and pitched a packet of champagne yeast in that. In the meantime I mixed up 10 cans of frozen lemonade according to directions. Once the malt started fermenting I added a little of the lemonade every so often until it was going really good then dumped the whole thing into the lemonade with 3 pounds of sugar.Basically yoops recipe with the malt added.... It is very popular. As a matter of fact my wife is mad because I give too much of it away lol.

 

[Frank_The_Magic_Hobo]

The trick to lemon or lime wine is letting the yeast acclimatize. Make a standard yeast starter. Once it's looking healthy, add 1/2 cup of must to it every few hours along with a few tsp of sugar to keep the yeast going. Once you've got half a gallon of starter, you can add it to the must. Also add a pinch of nutrient to the starter if you don't already.

It also helps if you start with only 1/3 of the total lemon juice in the must, then add the rest of it over the course of a day or two.

Using that method, my lemon wine is by far the fastest starter, and quickest to ferment of all my wines. SG of 1.082 to 1.010 in 5 days.

Best part is, the moment it's clear, this stuff is good to drink! No benefit from aging, so dig in.

 

[shot0rum247]

looks like my problem is definitely in the started, I treated it pretty regularly. Thanks for the help, I think the next batch will be much better.

 

[brazedowl]

I had made a batch using lemonade and limeade concentrate from walmart... and it really did take a while to start bubbling and never did get to vigorous... Eventually did them up in beer bottles. Tasted like wine-strength mikes-hard lemonade with a lime bite.

My next batch is in the secondary right now...

10 pink lemonade concentrate, 10# sugar, energizer, nutrient and water to just about 6 gallons. The yeast was actually three batches old. Started in a batch of cranberry grape, that yeast cake went into my cherry pie wine, and that cake went into the current lemonade batch. The fermentation started up MUCH more quickly and lasted much longer with the recycled yeast then with a fresh packet. Racked into a secondary with 2# more sugar. and it's been bubbling steadily for a week now. I'm looking forward to this one.

Once it's done and tasted I'll throw a more comprehensive recipe up