Need some help with brewing Hard Lemonade!

[Yotebeth]

Okay, so I've spent the last hour pouring over the various hard lemonade recipes here, and I'm just feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. I'm a newbie at brewing, having only one batch of cider under my belt. It seems like a lot of these recipes are (rightfully) intended for a more advanced brewer, or they are in the wrong size, or in the metric system!

Can someone help a girl out?

I have a couple of 5g carboys, and I'd really like to make a hard lemonade I can brew in one. Would anyone mind helping me with a clear, easy to follow recipe?

-Yotebeth

 

[Hammy71]

This one seems pretty easy and has been on my 'to do' list for a while.....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/extra-hard-lemonade-187035/

 

[lumpher]

easiest recipe:

11 cans of frozen lemonade
1-4 lbs of regular sugar (depends on how strong you want it)
montrachet yeast

cap it, and let it brew for a month

 

[bhambrewer]

Your from bellingham!?!?

I have made a few gallons of this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/good-hard-lemonade-27966/ but scaled down to one gallon.

I always used one extra can of concentrate than needed, because I noticed that the lemon taste ferments out easily.

 

[Veinman]

Most of the recipes are basically the same:
Sugar, Lemonade concentrate, water to batch size, yeast (usually wine or champagne yeast). You can control the final ABV of the beverage by setting your OG, realizing they will almost always ferment to 1.000.

The tricky party to hard lemonade is getting the yeast to start fermenting in the super acidic environment that lemonade concentrate produces.
Read Yooper's comments on getting fermentation going here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/hard-lemonade-68144/

Basically you want to rehydrate your yeast in water and then slowly start adding a little of the lemonade mixture at a time, like a few tablespoons every couple hours, then after about 24 hours pitch the yeast and hopefully it will take off. If after pitching the yeast fails to start fermenting after 48 hours try again with a new pack of yeast. Good luck.

 

[AHJbrew]

i made my first batch of hard lemonade yesterday and i still haven't had my airlock pop up. i used minute maid lemonade and it said no preservatives. i made it with five gallons of the minute maid, four pounds of sugar with yeast nutrients and champagne yeast. its been 24 hrs. and still no movement with the lock, is this normal? and if not how long should i wait before re-pitching?

 

[Yooper]

i made my first batch of hard lemonade yesterday and i still haven't had my airlock pop up. i used minute maid lemonade and it said no preservatives. i made it with five gallons of the minute maid, four pounds of sugar with yeast nutrients and champagne yeast. its been 24 hrs. and still no movement with the lock, is this normal? and if not how long should i wait before re-pitching?

If you just mixed it up and added the yeast, it may never get going. Lemonade is extremely acidic, and yeast don't like acidic environments.

To solve that, I recommend a yeast starter, out lined in my recipe here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/hard-lemonade-68144/

 

[AHJbrew]

i heated 1/4 cup of water to 100 F added the yeast and waited 20 mins then pitched. the lemonade itself was around 80 F when pitched

 

[Yooper]

i heated 1/4 cup of water to 100 F added the yeast and waited 20 mins then pitched. the lemonade itself was around 80 F when pitched

Yes, but that's not what I mean. Lemonade is very acidic and a very tough ferment. If you don't make a starter with it, gradually acclimating it to the high acid environment, it won't go.

 

[AHJbrew]

ah gotcha. thanks, ill try that and let you how it works out.

 

[AHJbrew]

Made a starter with the lemonade and fermentation is now going strong. Thanks again