I'm a beer guy, but decided to give hard lemonade a try for my wife, and whoever comes over who doesn't like beer. I read a few threads on the forums here, and decided on a recipe. Using some champagne yeast, I whipped it up, and let it ferment. A week later, I began to think about the fact that if I let it finish fermenting, it's going to have more alcohol than I was wanting (I don't want more than about 5%, so it doesn't take your head off, but still enjoyable). So I took a reading, and I had already hit that point. So now I'm a little stuck, I don't want to let it finish fermenting, yet I do want carbonation in the bottles, and I don't have any C02 gear. I'm thinking about racking it, mixing some sorbate along with some more lemonade concentrate (for back sweetening and carbonation), and bottling it immediately. It already is partially carbonated, being in the middle of fermentation, and the sorbate should stop any bottle bombs, while still allowing some carbonation in the bottle. Does this sound like it would work? Any better ideas?
Hard Lemonade carbonation, with no C02 gear
- Thread starter rhoop
- Start date
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I do not believe that sorbate will stop a fermentation in mid process. If it does then you will have no yeast to bottle carb. if it were me, I would let it ferment dry ( it is quite good back sweetened) and tell everyone who drinks it that it is potent so watch out lol....I would back sweeten with splenda or whatever you like for artificial sweetener that is non fermentable...then add priming sugar and bottle.
DrJerryrigger
Well-Known Member
I'd say let it go dry, add K-meta rack it a few times (take your time, it's not beer). Then when everything is nice and stable (and dead) dilute it to your target with lemonade, bottle and refrigerate.
If you want to bottle carb you don't understand yeast at all. All beer is like a super dry wine. The yeast have eaten everything they can. To carb you add sugar the yeast can eat, they eat it, you have CO2 and a little more ethanol. With a wine made of simple sugars, there are only a few ways to pull it off. Let it go fully dry, then add a little food. Or bottle it sweet, and try to drink them before they explode.
There are some more complex tricks. For example; if you keep it very cool, say in your fridge, and keep it fermenting at that temp it will hold a good deal of CO2 with out being sealed. If you can get it into a sealed container it would have a little carbonation.
If you want to bottle carb you don't understand yeast at all. All beer is like a super dry wine. The yeast have eaten everything they can. To carb you add sugar the yeast can eat, they eat it, you have CO2 and a little more ethanol. With a wine made of simple sugars, there are only a few ways to pull it off. Let it go fully dry, then add a little food. Or bottle it sweet, and try to drink them before they explode.
There are some more complex tricks. For example; if you keep it very cool, say in your fridge, and keep it fermenting at that temp it will hold a good deal of CO2 with out being sealed. If you can get it into a sealed container it would have a little carbonation.
Oh, I didn't realize yeast makes C02 and a little ethanol. Thanks for the insight!
I bottle carb all my beer. You prime it with sugar before you bottle, the yeast re-activates and eats the sugar, thus carbonating the bottle. I was hoping to do something similar with the wine, but not letting it ferment dry. I was under the understanding that potassium sorbate doesn't kill the yeast, it causes it to not be able to reproduce, thus severely limiting it's effects. So because there is already a decent amount of C02 in the lemonade from being in mid fermentation, and combine that with the hampered yeast, it should slowly carbonate the bottles, but if kept in the fridge after a couple days, it would take months and months to actually over carbonate. It wont last that long over the summer...
That's my hope anyway, and I was hoping someone might have some insight into whether or not that would actually work. Or I misunderstand the effects of sorbate.
I bottle carb all my beer. You prime it with sugar before you bottle, the yeast re-activates and eats the sugar, thus carbonating the bottle. I was hoping to do something similar with the wine, but not letting it ferment dry. I was under the understanding that potassium sorbate doesn't kill the yeast, it causes it to not be able to reproduce, thus severely limiting it's effects. So because there is already a decent amount of C02 in the lemonade from being in mid fermentation, and combine that with the hampered yeast, it should slowly carbonate the bottles, but if kept in the fridge after a couple days, it would take months and months to actually over carbonate. It wont last that long over the summer...
That's my hope anyway, and I was hoping someone might have some insight into whether or not that would actually work. Or I misunderstand the effects of sorbate.
