Lemon...

[tristan1220]

I tried to make a hard lemonade. So far in 3 days I have had zero reaction. 1 gal of "simply lemonade", 1 cup of corn sugar, 1/2 packet of Red Star's champagne yeast (yellow packet).

What do I do?!!

 

[porcupine73]

I think you're going to need a lot more sugar than that. Like say 2 lbs+ rather than 1 cup. It might have started but not be noticeable with that little of an amount of sugar. Other possibility would be if the lemonade contained some preservative the yeast doesn't like.

 

[lumpher]

I think you're going to need a lot more sugar than that. Like say 2 lbs+ rather than 1 cup. It might have started but not be noticeable with that little of an amount of sugar.

^^ this. you'll really need at least 1 lb/gallon to have any action. i've been making hard lemonade for years, and i use anywhere from 5-8 lbs for 5 gallons, depending on what version i want to make. current 1 is the skeeter pee, and it has 7 lbs sugar for 5 gallons

 

[JtotheA]

If you have the other half pack of yeast left, maybe you should prepare a starter with some watered down lemonade with sugar. I actually had a delay with mine starting to ferment and had success with moving it to a warmer area and once it started, I moved it back down to the basement and it kept going and finished...and that was without a starter.

 

[ACbrewer]

does he need any yeast nutrient with all that lemonade?

 

[tristan1220]

I have added more sugar. Lets see what happens.

 

[porcupine73]

Hm that's true, yeasts can have trouble getting going in acidic environments. What you're trying to make does sound a lot like skeeter pee, probably should check out skeeterpee.com to see how to start it when you don't have yeast sediment from a previous batch to work with.

 

[tristan1220]

Thank you. I've never heard of skeeter pee.

 

[lumpher]

the recipe and instructions are at skeeterpee.com. i didn't use a starter (if you want to, use 2 packs; they're like 95 cents apiece), or a yeast cake, but i just use 1 pack, and it works great

 

[tristan1220]

I won't use a starter if I don't after to.

 

[Golddiggie]

Check the PH. Chances are it's too low (below 3.2 and the yeast have major issues). Get some bicarb to lift the ph (less acidic) a bit and things should do much better.

I did this for my latest batch of skeeter pee/hard lemonade and it did much better than my first batch.

 

[ACbrewer]

mainly I think it is yeast nutrients that you need. Did you take a gravity reading at the start? best way to tell if something has fermented is to take a gravity reading. anything else is just guessing (ok flavor test, but I actually had one batch of skeeter pee where you couldn't taste any alcohol, so back to the hydrometer)

 

[Yooper]

Lemonade can be a bugger to start! 1/2 package of yeast isn't enough, and you may need a yeast starter. I have instructions here on how to get a hard lemonade started: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/hard-lemonade-68144/\


Do NOT add more sugar! It'll just get higher alcohol in the end, stress the yeast more now, and not help with the acidity at all.

 

[tristan1220]

Thanks. I'll check this out.