Making wine with storebought lemonade

[Huntry]

long story short i'm about to get over 20 gals of lemonade, I don't really know what to do with it all so im considering attempting to ferment some of it. The lemonade is preserved with sodium benzoate which I read can be overcome in brewing through dilution.

So my plan is to make a 1 gal yeast slurry about a week in advance and then mix it with 4 gallons of the lemonade along with either sugar or honey (haven't decided which), oranges, raisins, and k1-V1116. I was also planning on using baking soda to raise the pH of the must.

will the addition of a 1-gallon slurry be enough dilution for the sodium benzoate?

is there something else I should consider when attempting a brew like this?

again, I realize using preserved lemonade isn't really ideal but I would rather try to do something with it, otherwise, most of it will probably just go to waste.

 

[cmac62]

You may want to look up skeeterpee on HBT it should get you close.

 

[bernardsmith]

You can dilute a concentrate enough to neutralize the preservatives but I am not so confident that you will be diluting this lemonade enough to inhibit the activity of the sorbates. What you MAY need to do is pitch many more packs of yeast than you would normally add- My (limited) understanding is that the sorbate binds to the yeast cells and if the number of yeast cells available for binding is greater than the molecules doing the binding then your fermentation will be successful.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Pour some vodka in it. Enjoy.

 

[S-Met]

long story short i'm about to get over 20 gals of lemonade, I don't really know what to do with it all so im considering attempting to ferment some of it. The lemonade is preserved with sodium benzoate which I read can be overcome in brewing through dilution.

So my plan is to make a 1 gal yeast slurry about a week in advance and then mix it with 4 gallons of the lemonade along with either sugar or honey (haven't decided which), oranges, raisins, and k1-V1116. I was also planning on using baking soda to raise the pH of the must.

will the addition of a 1-gallon slurry be enough dilution for the sodium benzoate?

is there something else I should consider when attempting a brew like this?

again, I realize using preserved lemonade isn't really ideal but I would rather try to do something with it, otherwise, most of it will probably just go to waste.

For the energy you are thinking about putting into this, I would consider adding 2 handles of 80proof rum or vodka into 4.5 gal juice will end up around +/-7%abv lemming-aide. Kegged in 5 min.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Another option, is to take about four to five pounds of sugar, heat some water and dissolve all of the sugar in it making simple syrup. Add some water to your fermenting vessel, about half full, pour in the simple syrup, then fill it with water and add yeast. I'd go with EC-1118 or K1V-1116. It will need nutrients, when you pitch the yeast, on day one, day two and day three. Let it finish and blend it with the lemonade, in kegs. For 20 gallons of lemonade, my guess would be that you would need two maybe 3 batches to blend in with the lemonade. Now with all this being said, you will have 30-35 gallons of finished beverage. Some additional ideas would be to add some instant tea to a keg, some strawberry koolade to another keg or teazone flavor concentrate (look on amazon), some frozen limeade to a keg, some frozen margarita mix to a keg just to have some variants instead of seven kegs of the same thing. As for ratio of the hard seltzer (that's what it will be) to the lemonade, it will just have to be something to figure out by blending and sampling as you go. I've used the teazone stuff in ciders, at packaging, seems to be good stuff. I've tried both the green apple and the peach. For the frozen limeade and margarita mix, three to four cans per keg seems to be about right.

Good luck.

BTW - with the EC-1118 you could add even more sugar, I believe that it is rated to ~18%. So you could have a higher alcohol base and use less of it in each keg.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Skeeter pee (hard lemonade from concentrate) is best down with an active colony that is already use to low ph, which is why the original recipe calls for a yeast cake from a recently finished batch. But it can be done with a proper starter. Lots of info here too https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/skeeter-pee-starting-with-dry-yeast.212915/

 

[Huntry]

Another option, is to take about four to five pounds of sugar, heat some water and dissolve all of the sugar in it making simple syrup. Add some water to your fermenting vessel, about half full, pour in the simple syrup, then fill it with water and add yeast. I'd go with EC-1118 or K1V-1116. It will need nutrients, when you pitch the yeast, on day one, day two and day three. Let it finish and blend it with the lemonade, in kegs. For 20 gallons of lemonade, my guess would be that you would need two maybe 3 batches to blend in with the lemonade. Now with all this being said, you will have 30-35 gallons of finished beverage. Some additional ideas would be to add some instant tea to a keg, some strawberry koolade to another keg or teazone flavor concentrate (look on amazon), some frozen limeade to a keg, some frozen margarita mix to a keg just to have some variants instead of seven kegs of the same thing. As for ratio of the hard seltzer (that's what it will be) to the lemonade, it will just have to be something to figure out by blending and sampling as you go. I've used the teazone stuff in ciders, at packaging, seems to be good stuff. I've tried both the green apple and the peach. For the frozen limeade and margarita mix, three to four cans per keg seems to be about right.

Good luck.

BTW - with the EC-1118 you could add even more sugar, I believe that it is rated to ~18%. So you could have a higher alcohol base and use less of it in each keg.

Thanks for the input, thats probably a much better method to get a good product in this case.

 

[Huntry]

For the energy you are thinking about putting into this, I would consider adding 2 handles of 80proof rum or vodka into 4.5 gal juice will end up around +/-7%abv lemming-aide. Kegged in 5 min.

Ah, but what would be the fun in that.

 

[S-Met]

Ah, but what would be the fun in that.

Not fighting the sorbate already in the juice