Hard Lemonade Malt Beverage

[coeceo]

So I searched through the forum and put together a Hard Lemonade recipe for the SWMBO. I will probably have some too, heck its summer right?

Heres the recipe:

12 cans frozen lemonade concentrate
(Shaws/Albertson's brand, no preservatives/sorbate)
1# XLDME
2# Corn Sugar

London Ale #1028
OG = 1.060

I boiled about 1 gallon of spring water. Removed from flame and whisked in the 1# DME, added back to flame while mixing in the 2# corn sugar, I let this boil for about 15 min.

I let it cool on the stove while I mixed the 12 cans of lemonade with spring water in my fermenter. This mixture was pretty cool seems how the concentrate was still frozen so I poured in my 1 gallon of wort and it leveled off around 85*.

I took a sterile cup and scooped out some for a hydrometer reading and also some for a starter.

I pitched some washed London Ale Yeast 1028 (at about 80*) and also made a starter with another bottle of washed 1028 in case I dont get any activity.

Some recipes called for a champagne yeast or a dry wine yeast like you would use for Apfelwein which would ferment out to close to 1.000. Some noted that the SWMBOs found them a little bitter and would have to add lactos or splenda. A few posts did mention that a good ale yeast will leave you at about 1.010-1.015 which will help retain some sweetness in the beverage, while keeping the ABV closer to 5% or so rather than the 6+ I would expect from the champagne yeast (I'm guessing at these percentages).

Some also noted that the acidity of the mix could shock your yeast so a starter was recomended in order to ensure a successful pitch. If all else fails I will just pitch the champagne yeast.

Once I bottle this, I will taste test it for sweetness, possibly adding 1/4 cup of Splenda if needed. Now I just need to decide if I want to carbonate or not, I'm leaning towards the carb route. I'll update this if anyone is interested...

 

[Joe C]

Definitely, I'm curious to see how it comes out.

 

[DubbelDach]

Been tossing around the idea of this for a couple weeks... I like your thought process on the ale yeast not completely fermenting out all the sugars.

Keep us posted!

 

[brewssuds]

I've made a recipe almost exactly like the one mentioned above (the only major difference was that I used champagne yeast instead of ale yeast). My only suggestion is to be very careful when sweetening with Splenda. It certainly works, but it imparts that "Splenda" aftertaste. It's not horrible, but it's certainly unmistakable.

 

[coeceo]

Brewssuds: Did you sweeten your batch? Im curious how it came out with the champagne yeast.

The Yeast/sugar idea was mentioned in one of the threads I researched so I can't take credit. There are probably sweeter yeast options, but this is just the one I have been using and have on hand.

So as a quick update, I pitched the washed yeast w/o starter on Monday around 10 PM. Didn't see any activity for the next 2 days, so on Wednesday I pitched the starter around 5:30PM. This morning it was bubbling away pretty good.

 

[coeceo]

We are on 14 days in the primary now, roughly 12 since activity began. The "beer" has finished much drier then I thought fermenting close to 1.000-1.005. I sampled it and I'd say she is close to done. With a nice carbonation bite to her I think she will taste great. I will sweeten at least half of the batch with splenda, as I think it will be more drinkable, it has the lemonade bitterness without the sweet to balance it out. Perhaps more unfermentables, honey maybe (not too sure how that ferments) would help keep some natural sweetness. I will bottle sometime this week as I'm running out of beer stock in the basement and may soon have to gasp... buy beer.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

You can use sorbateK or something else to stop the yeast, then sweeten with honey, splenda, etc.

I'm doing something similar for a hard apple cider, I am hoping the yeast will chill out with some sweetness left my OG was just a little higher than yours and I used 4 lbs of honey, if not I will be in the same boat.

 

[Filter]

Here is what i did, its on tap right know and it is awsome

Cranberry Hard Lemonade



warm 1 gallon of spring water on stove to about 120 deg add 2# of extra light DME and 2# corn sugar
3 cans of minute made lemonade
1 can minute made PINK lemonade
3 cans of minute made cranberry juice
all frozen without any presertives
in fermenting bucket I added all the juice and 4 gallons of water pitched yeast and cover and top with an airlock and give a small shake everyday for the first 5 days fermentation started after 24 hours
White labs 002 yeast but any ale yeast will do might ask for one that leaves a sweet flavor
OG put it at about 8%
after 5 day killed yeast
before kegging i added 1 more pink lemonade and 1 more lemonade and 2 cups of sugar all desolved in 3 cups of water
after 7 days moved to keg and forced carbed, next time i might leave in a secondary for a week or two, but it was good

Lenny

 

[sully]

there is an easier way...just buy some good vodka, throw it in a corny keg with some fresh lemonade to taste and force carbonate! whamo bamo hard lemonade o. dont get me wrong, i love fermenting things but i would rather drink this then some concoction of a beverage.

 

[Nate]

there is an easier way...just buy some good vodka, throw it in a corny keg with some fresh lemonade to taste and force carbonate! whamo bamo hard lemonade o. dont get me wrong, i love fermenting things but i would rather drink this then some concoction of a beverage.

Yeah, the purists won't approve of the method but I've done this several times and everyone loves it. Very quick, tastes great, and fool proof...