Extra Hard Lemonade

Hessenhelles. How's yours comin along? Mine givin me grief aroun the 1.05 mark. Won't go any farther.

I racked to secondary on 3/2, and is still bubbling away. But, in the last two days I've noticed a lot of sediment on the bottom. I read in this thread about sugar on the bottom of fermenters. Take a look. Do you think I should stir it up and rack it again?

Sorry, it was down to 1.109 from 1.130 when I racked it to secondary.

HessenHelles said:

I racked to secondary on 3/2, and is still bubbling away. But, in the last two days I've noticed a lot of sediment on the bottom. I read in this thread about sugar on the bottom of fermenters. Take a look. Do you think I should stir it up and rack it again?

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That's SUGAR?? Wow. I normally dissolve all my sugar in like two or three gallons of water on the stovetop, let it it cool to room temp and proceed.

brazedowl said:

That's SUGAR?? Wow. I normally dissolve all my sugar in like two or three gallons of water on the stovetop, let it it cool to room temp and proceed.

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I did just that. Boiled sugar in 3 gallons of water. I'm not sure if its sugar or not on the bottom??? It's still fermenting, ill take a gravity reading some time this week.

if you dissolved the sugar ahead of time I highly doubt it came out of solution and crystallized on the bottom. Sometimes these lemonade concentrates can have pulp in them that can settle out or it just might be a good sized yeast cake. Not likely sugar. You'd notice an incredible falloff in your sg.

EZCyclone said:

Allanyork If you want exactly what we are doing for a 1 gallons scale here is the recipe.

1.5 cans of lemonade concentrate
.5 can of limeade
2 pounds of sugar
.5tsp of yeast energizer
.5tsp of yeast nutrient
one gallon water

IF you wanted to do what I would, which would give you a drink very similar to Smirnoff Ice, but a bit more flavorful do this.
2 cans of lemonade
1 can of limeade
2 pounds sugar
.5tsp yeast energizer
.5tsp yeast nutrient
one gallon water

This stuff is so cheap to do, pick one of these and go for it, it's AWESOME stuff!

Good luck!

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OK this sounds good. But what about carbonation? Wouldn't this ferment down to a point where there's no sugar and it wouldn't be sweet anymore?

Yes, you would think so. My plan is to stabilize it when I get it where I want it. It has so much dissolved CO2 in it when you pour some out it fizzes right up. This may not be the right way, but it will be my way..

Well it looks like my Lemonade stalled out at 1.114 after a week. I just kegged a beer that had used US-05 so I scooped up what seems like two cups of the cake and stirred it into the lemonade. It's bubbling away again two hours later at a very nice fast rate!

Also I tasted the hard punch today and it's down to 1.050 from 1.130ish,. It's GOOOOOOD! but it's right where I want it, I have to decide what I want to do. It's VERY fizzy, very packed with CO2, and I love it that way. One thought was to pasteurize it. But that of course would drive off my beloved CO2, maybe I should bottle it and then heat it? hmmm, what to do, what to do...

If your gunna bottle pasteurize, check out the link. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

You know, I was thinking about 3 liter bottles just tonight. They will hold upwards of 200 PSI. But then I will have an over carbed issue. and dry juice, hmm

Just pitched my yeast today on a 4 gallon batch of this hard lemonade. Used 6 lemonade, 2 limeade and 8 lbs of sugar. OG was at 1.134. Started my EC1118 yeast the day before in a sugar water/apple juice solution. Slowly added some of the must throughout the evening. The next morning yeast were still going strong so added to must. Eight hours after pitch have good activity in the airlock. Hopefully my little yeasties stay healthy, I know others have had issues with this recipe.

Well, it stalled out AGAIN, that's three times. Thrice I got it going and it died! Only down to 1.098. BLAH no idea what I'm going to do. I pitched again today, the yeast cake from the Fruit punch, which turned out amazing BTW. Bottled it today. I guess wait and see. I would drink it the way it is but it's WAYYYYYY to sweet damn, damn, damn!

I started this recipie a week ago(10 cans lemonade concentrate etc...) I made a starter out of EC1118, a teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon nutrient. Once that was happy(about an hour) I added 2 tablespoons of must every 30 minutes for 3 hours then pitched. First 24 hours no bubbles, next day one bubble every 30 seconds, next day on bubble every 15, next day one every 5 and today bubbling every second. Stick with it, it's a tough ferment but mine still hasn't dropped below 1.060(need to buy a hydro tha measures above that).

jetmech_63 said:

I started this recipie a week ago(10 cans lemonade concentrate etc...) I made a starter out of EC1118, a teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon nutrient. Once that was happy(about an hour) I added 2 tablespoons of must every 30 minutes for 3 hours then pitched. First 24 hours no bubbles, next day one bubble every 30 seconds, next day on bubble every 15, next day one every 5 and today bubbling every second. Stick with it, it's a tough ferment but mine still hasn't dropped below 1.060(need to buy a hydro tha measures above that).

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Mine has been going for three days now and still only at 1 bubble every 30 seconds....hope it picks up soon. I guess I should be happy it's still going.

At this point I have literally tons of yeast in there. Between the first three pitchings and the 3 CUPS of yeast cake I pitched in I'm worry about wildly off flavors. After bottling the punch, I thought I should have cold crashed it before bottling. Cause there was zero trub left in the bottom, and it has a very yeasty flavor. I'm sure after pasteurizing and chilling it will be better, but still with a yeasty slug in the bottom of the bottle. Worse case this is already 5%ish so I may just wrap it up and use it to make a summer brew. Eh, we shall see. Next time I will definitly only go with 5# of sugar for lower ABV and dryer feel.

EZCyclone said:

At this point I have literally tons of yeast in there. Between the first three pitchings and the 3 CUPS of yeast cake I pitched in I'm worry about wildly off flavors. After bottling the punch, I thought I should have cold crashed it before bottling. Cause there was zero trub left in the bottom, and it has a very yeasty flavor. I'm sure after pasteurizing and chilling it will be better, but still with a yeasty slug in the bottom of the bottle. Worse case this is already 5%ish so I may just wrap it up and use it to make a summer brew. Eh, we shall see. Next time I will definitly only go with 5# of sugar for lower ABV and dryer feel.

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Looks like you started your punch on the 7th? So you bottled it already?

brazedowl said:

The first time (lemon-lime) it sort-of carbed itself in the bottles. This time I'm going to add sugar and make sure it does. It get a very soda-like carbonation.

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What do you recommend for the amount of sugar to use for priming?

I just checked out my notes and I started it on the 6th. And yes, it's bottled as of yesterday. It was so very very very carbonated straight from the carboy that I tried one tonight and it's perfectly carbonated in the bottle. I'm heating up the Pasteurizing water now. The lemonade just bubbled beside me though. lol

And the first. Bottle just exploded!!!! Scared the holy @#$% outta me!!! Thank god the lid was on the pot!!

aschupner said:

Mine has been going for three days now and still only at 1 bubble every 30 seconds....hope it picks up soon. I guess I should be happy it's still going.

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Doing much better now, going at about 1 every 10 seconds.

Another question...I am running short on bottles. Would it be ok to bottle this stuff in 20-24 oz plastic soda bottles??

aschupner said:

Doing much better now, going at about 1 every 10 seconds.

Another question...I am running short on bottles. Would it be ok to bottle this stuff in 20-24 oz plastic soda bottles??

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Wouldn't be a problem.

EZCyclone said:

I just checked out my notes and I started it on the 6th. And yes, it's bottled as of yesterday. It was so very very very carbonated straight from the carboy that I tried one tonight and it's perfectly carbonated in the bottle. I'm heating up the Pasteurizing water now. The lemonade just bubbled beside me though. lol

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I tried this one a few days ago on Sunday. 2 fruit punch, 1 apple/raz, 5# sugar. In a 3 gal carboy. It's bubbling away quite nicely right now. But it tasted a little light on flavor, did you add any more concentrate before bottling?

Nope, and im sure every fruit punch is different. What I used was HyVee Fruit punch, and I used three of them, and the flavor was great. I guess, I could of added more, but I don't think it was needed. Maybe I will try that next time. Adding one more can of fruit punch at bottling. Also there really is a high level of "alcoholness" It's not bad, and we will see how it mellows, but what I really want out of this is a 1 maybe 2 week production. So the next batch I may try 4 cans to start with and only add 2.5-3# of sugar. Something that is ready to drink say 4 days after bottling or something. We will be drinking this stuff in Ernest at my birthday party on the 6th.

EZCyclone said:

Nope, and im sure every fruit punch is different. What I used was HyVee Fruit punch, and I used three of them, and the flavor was great. I guess, I could of added more, but I don't think it was needed. Maybe I will try that next time. Adding one more can of fruit punch at bottling. Also there really is a high level of "alcoholness" It's not bad, and we will see how it mellows, but what I really want out of this is a 1 maybe 2 week production. So the next batch I may try 4 cans to start with and only add 2.5-3# of sugar. Something that is ready to drink say 4 days after bottling or something. We will be drinking this stuff in Ernest at my birthday party on the 6th.

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I think what im going to do is let it ferment down, kill off the yeasties, and add more concentrate, then bottle. I too, plan on making this one again. Let us know how your next batch goes.

Hessen, are you planing on bottle carbing? Might keep that in mind. I found that adding sulfates to this just gives it a wang I didn't like. So if you can, try the pasteurizing instead. I have been thinking of adding some grenadine syrup at some point in this brew. Maybe after fermentation to add some fresh fruitiness. Who knows.

So. I took a gravity reading on my lemonade today. It is still bubbling away in the carboy, but it had only come down to 1.095 from the 1.109 when it was racked to a secondary 22 days ago. It does taste a lot better now, but had a rubbing alcohol smell. Man, this fements slow!

Well, I cracked open a bottle of this last night and let me tell you Rocket fuel! lol This is to be expected as it's so hot, and so young. I don't really care to have a hard punch that must rest for months and months before it is drinkable. I must say I'm a bit embarrassed, I drank this one and that's all she wrote for me. But at around 14% I guess that's not so bad. It was tasty, but very hot. Next time I will cut the sugar down (maybe half) and go ahead and up the fruit punch. With the massive alcohol heat it's a bit weak in flavor. I shall see how that goes, I will do another 3 gallon batch to try it out. Remember that this was a complete off the cuff experiment and for what it is, this is not a bad turn out. Now time to tweak.

You can see how pink it ended up being after all the stuff settled out. It was WAY lighter until I stirred up the bottom and poured that in too. You see the difference here from glass to carboy.

Checked gravity today. Down to 1.040 and actually tastes almost drinkable. Closer to 1.030 and she might be ready to kill and carb.

I havn't looked at the lemonade for over a week. Damn thing stalled out again I'm sure of it. So I will just give up and use it as a mixer of some kind. I'll take a grav and report back sometime.

Mine had totally stalled out too, after I had repitched. I figured I would give it another shot and racked it from a bucket to a carboy to see if that might make a difference. It did...an hour after moving it I started getting action in my airlock. Slow, but at least it's moving again.

EZCyclone said:

Well, I cracked open a bottle of this last night and let me tell you Rocket fuel! lol This is to be expected as it's so hot, and so young. I don't really care to have a hard punch that must rest for months and months before it is drinkable. I must say I'm a bit embarrassed, I drank this one and that's all she wrote for me. But at around 14% I guess that's not so bad. It was tasty, but very hot. Next time I will cut the sugar down (maybe half) and go ahead and up the fruit punch. With the massive alcohol heat it's a bit weak in flavor. I shall see how that goes, I will do another 3 gallon batch to try it out. Remember that this was a complete off the cuff experiment and for what it is, this is not a bad turn out. Now time to tweak.

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Couldn't you just add a couple more cans of concentrate to add some flavor and chill the heat a bit??

Oh I'm sure you could, wish I would have done that before bottling. Its sou ds writes but the taste was not so bad before bottling. In the bottle, most if the pulp and color settled out. My guess is a lot of the fruit flavor was in the grub.

The Hyvee fruit punch is pretty citrusy. Think wedding fruit punch, as opposed to coolaid fruit punch. I'm going to try to add some grenadine to some and see what that does.

This question has probably been answered somewhere on these threads. I was wondering if anybody had pitched onto

a belgian yeast cake or cider cake? I have both. Should i wash the yeast? Add some nutrient? Wine soaked raisins keep

dancing in my head. I'm in the process of tapping a few maple trees, not sure if using the sap in hard lemonade is a good

idea. Going to get some boiled down sap into my cider though. Thanks for any anwers.

diodeart said:

This question has probably been answered somewhere on these threads. I was wondering if anybody had pitched onto

a belgian yeast cake or cider cake? I have both. Should i wash the yeast? Add some nutrient? Wine soaked raisins keep

dancing in my head. I'm in the process of tapping a few maple trees, not sure if using the sap in hard lemonade is a good

idea. Going to get some boiled down sap into my cider though. Thanks for any anwers.

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I know somewhere in this thread someone said they pitched on an apfelwein yeast cake which is a cider/apple wine. Can't recall how successful they were with it, you'll have to go back in the thread and check.

Lemonade fermenting for over 6 weeks, and only down to 1.090. Any suggestions before I dump it? I think this one has tied up one of my 5 gallon carboys too long.

Take out a gallon, dilute it, and see if it'll go. You don't have to add back a whole gallon of water, but just take some of the stress off the yeast. Save the gallon and add it back in when you rack to the bottling bucket. If it doesn't take off for you.... sad times

sounds like a good recipe!!

Well its been a long ass time, lemonade is down to about 1.020. Tastes awful. Not too sure if I'm gunna bottle and see what happens or just toss it. Too bad, I was excited for this one, maybe give skeeter pee a try next time

idrinkstuffnthings said:

Well its been a long ass time, lemonade is down to about 1.020. Tastes awful. Not too sure if I'm gunna bottle and see what happens or just toss it. Too bad, I was excited for this one, maybe give skeeter pee a try next time

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Don't know why we're all getting such mixed results.

I'm starting this brew up soon and see what the deal is.