Raspberry Hard Lemonade

[camonick]

Looks great. What brand of concentrate did you use?

It’s a generic brand I discussed in post #112 called “Our Family” I find it at a small local grocery store.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I started a new batch yesterday. I ferment RHL in a 6 gallon fermenter, and move it to a 5 gallon secondary when I add the raspberries. So this time, in order to make lifting easier, and to eliminate waste, I only cooled down with 2 gallons of cold water rather than the 3 gallons called for in the recipe. This resulted in a higher OG, and of course should result in a slightly higher alcohol content. It'll be interesting to see if the change is noticeable on the palate.

I re-hydrated two packs of 1118 yeast this time, (one was 15 months past its expiration date), and had airlock activity within 5 hours, the quickest of any batch I've made so far. I originally planned to try fermenting with just the expired pack to see if it would work, but I chickened out.
I have a couple more expired packs that I picked up for 75 cents each a while back, so I may yet try it on a future batch.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

My take-away is that the malt (or DME) is a KEY ingredient, "normal" lemonade, even with Fermaid, is just going to be a bit too sour for EC-1118 to perform well, especially with RO water, unless it's got the buttload of nutrients that actual grain contributes.

Finally got around to revisiting this!

Some research and edumacated guessing leads me to think that "Proper Seltzer Nutrient" is probably just Fermaid-K plus some Baking Soda for buffering the RO water.

So, I made a 1046 sugar wash with RO water, added 1 gram of Fermaid K per gallon, and 1 gram of Baking Soda per gallon. Sprinkled in EC-1118 yeast (full pack for 3.5 gallons), will follow up as results arrive... If all goes well, I'll see how this same idea works for something really sour, like lemonade!

 

[beren]

Look up skeeter pee, backsweeten with raspberry. The key is you don’t add all the lemon until after fermentation is done. It’s about 1/3 to keep the ph low, but not too low. Mine is about 11-12%

It’s literally lemon, sugar, water, wine tannins, yeast and nutrient.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

So, I made a 1046 sugar wash with RO water, added 1 gram of Fermaid K per gallon, and 1 gram of Baking Soda per gallon. Sprinkled in EC-1118 yeast (full pack for 3.5 gallons), will follow up as results arrive... If all goes well, I'll see how this same idea works for something really sour, like lemonade!

Been 48 hours since I added the yeast... It's going quite slowly, certainly slower than I'd hoped: currently at 1040, with tiny bubbles drifting to the top of the test-tube (aka poor man's tilt hydrometer).