Hard Lemonade Experience?

[Surgeon General]

Ok, so I am admitting here that I'm not sure where my red-headed step child of a topic belongs.. but here goes.

My wife doesn't enjoy beer. She only likes a few select wines. But she's always vulnerable to a cold Mike's. So as a husband who only wants to serve my deserving wife , I've attempted a Hard Lemonade.

My plan was to ferment a 100% cane sugar "wort" with WLP001 from about 1.040 down to ~1.000 and then add some lemonade extract to flavor, some splenda to back sweeten, & bottle. Well, I made the wort with some yeast nutrient, pitched a vial of Cal Ale (proofed, but no real starter) & waited. And waited, and waited. I went over a week with no activity. wtf? I've brewed plenty of batches, never had an underattenuation issue, much less a complete lack of activity. Why might this have happened? Any ideas? Temp @ pitching, fermentation, was normal (~68F), I proofed the yeast, included nutrient..

[seanhagerty]

I tried this last summer with mixed results.

I used 4 pounds of DME, 10 cans of frozen lemonade, yeast nutrient, and S-05, then just topped off with tap water. It fermented slow, don't recall the gravities and I'm too lazy to look. It ended up being pretty very citrusy. Had a very nice flavor I was happy with, but I wanted it a bit sweeter.

SO, I decided I wanted to back sweeten with splenda. This is where I went wrong. I just dumped in about 2 pounds of splenda. I should have added a small amount and tasted. then added more if needed. I ended up with Splenade, something thats way to over the top in the Splenda flavor. I have this on tap preiodically, and call it "Beer Tax". Cause if you want to drink my homebrew, you have to pay the tax. I want this keg emptied and can't bring myself to dumping it out.

I think its an easy brew to make.

[Mylo]

I'm guessing that there is not enough protein for the yeasty boys to grow in your "wort". I'm sure the nutrient helped, but they need more. Maybe try growing up a huge starter in several steps (with a mixture of DME and cane sugar) decant the malt, and pitch the slurry? Just a thought...

Sounds like a fun project. Let me know how it works out for you. My wife digs the malternative beverages as well.


Mylo

[Thirsty Boy]

I've done that, toss a couple of packs of dried yeast (rehydrated) at it, should go. Dont know why your original yeast wouldn't play though ... surely they should have done something????

Oh, and I dont know what your thoughts on clarity are, but I just couldn't get the hard soda I made to be clear, I'd suspect you might need to filter it.

Might be easier to just mix some vodka with normal lemonade.

Thirsty

[Mylo]

Might be easier to just mix some vodka with normal lemonade.
Thirsty

And then toss it in to keg to carbonate.



Mylo

[seanhagerty]

Might be easier to just mix some vodka with normal lemonade.
Thirsty

And then toss it in to keg to carbonate.



Mylo

Now thats an idea. Whiskey sours on tap!!!

[drewbage1847]

My way of doing hard lemonade depends upon a keg, but at least it's mostly natural. I squeeze about 2 liters of fresh lemon juice when I get cheap lemons from the farmer's market.

I'll mix that with enough water and sugar to come up into the 1.060 area. Pitch with Cotes d'Blanc to handle the low pH.

Ferment out to zero. Dose with Potassium Sorbate and then sweeten with one small bottle of karo corn syrup. Shake to mix. Chill and force carb to ~3.5 volumes.

[macgruffus]

My way of doing hard lemonade depends upon a keg

Okay, now I'm hooked. I'm not a big alcopop fan but your recipe Drew has got me thinking all kinds of things. Are you willing to share some more details?

• How many pounds of lemons does it usually take to get 2 liters of juice?
• Do you strain out the pulp or just let it ride through fermentation?
• What's your pitching rate on the wine yeast? One packet? Two? More?
• At what temp do you ferment?
• How long does your fermentation usually take?
• What's your clarity like?
• Do you use any fining agents?

Since I'm preparing for a house move I've had to pack away a lot of my all-grain stuff so I'm limited to doing some extract batches, ciders and now something like this.

David