Hard Lemonade

[Linny]

Anyone have a link for a Hard lemonade ? been looking around and cant find a good recipe or even review on AHB.

so far looking at a 21L batch:

20 odd lemons
2kg Dex
500g lactose
e-1118 yeast
yeast nutrients

maybe some stevia .... plan is to grate and juice the lemon -leave the white pith and boil it for a bit then cool it then add it all together. Any thoughts ? Was going to put down a Cerveza for summer but BIGD and I were talking today and im liking the idea of this more and more. I would prefer it sweet, thinking of cutting down the lactose to 250 and adding stevia/nativa

[Zak Griffin]

No idea, but I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!

[Sam.]

For 23L

5kg lemons cut the skin off and get rid of all the white pith ends up about 2.4kg
Simmer 10 min in about 5L water and I chuck in a couple of old coopers yeast packs for a nutrient
2.4kg dextrose
500g lactose
EC1118 fermented @ 18 degrees.

Did this in July and taste tested in October and it is the best I have made to date :dance:

I think the yeast does this wonders :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Also quality of lemons ;-)

[BIG D]

This could keep princess happy witch in turn keeps me happy :text-lol:

[Redux]

This could keep princess happy witch in turn keeps me happy :text-lol:

Freudian slip there D?

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[tipsy]

Haha nice catch Redux.

[BIG D]

This could keep princess happy witch in turn keeps me happy :text-lol:

Freudian slip there D?

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Well it was Halloween, that is some funny shit. 8-} :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[bt1]

Had a crack at this one this morning as like many ppl had plenty lemons.

The Go
25 SA medium lemons. (Like they are not the juiciest bastards ever grown)
Zest 10, fairly fine avoiding pith. Cut skins and pith off, sliced fruit, put aside
Juice the rest of lemons, put in with zest put aside

Wash prep
1 teaspoon DAP and Epsom, 1 Vitamin B tablet, into 2lt water aerated, parked for a few hours
70gm Bicarb (re calc'd suggestion) well stirred in to rebalance some of the acid. I used 90gm but it's too much and pulled the pH back up to 7.

375gm lactose - non fermentable sugars
100gm Maltin Dextrose - mouth feel cos it will be 'thin" by the looks
2kg Dex - suggest start with 1.5kg and then re check your SG as this lot needed 30lt fill to get back down to SG1038 which is still too strong for a summer belter imho
375gm pkt Brown sugar

combine this lot in a stockpot with 2lt water, dissolve all and bring to gentle boil
Add the zest, juice and fruit for a short 5min simmer
Strain into fermenter, recheck your SG adjust to suit abv prefs
EC1118 pre hydrated @35c in 200ml Spring water, pitched after 15mins.


See how it goes :handgestures-thumbupleft:
cheers
bt1

Oops edited: For volume

[Linny]

Well Started this .... ended up with about 15 good lemons , decided to make a smaller batch to experiment

Recommend zesting first the juicing LOL, and wear gloves while juicing/zesting shit goes everywhere

so far its 15L 1 dex and 250g lactose.... didnt buy enough sugars was thinking adding 0.6kg of raw sugar to bring it up to 4% used a safale cider yeast

[bt1]

Howdy,

A few reflections on this one.

I reckon a good cider yeast would be better. EC1118 finishes dry and fairly "flat". I'd also suggest crash chilling as a method to stop the fermentation early to achieve two things;
1 Control final abv
2 Preserve the fresh tangy bite of the lemons.

I've tweaked the keg this morning with adding 3 x lemons zested = more bite/freshen the taste, Maltin dex = thin mouth feel as expected, Stevia = non fermentable sweetener.

It could be about expectations, mine are a super lively, tangy, intense flavour, slightly sweet drop... see how it tastes after a few weeks in the keg.

bt1

[tipsy]

I'd also suggest crash chilling as a method to stop the fermentation early to achieve two things;
1 Control final abv
2 Preserve the fresh tangy bite of the lemons.

But only if kegging hey Bt1. Nothing worse than bottle bombs ;-)

[bt1]

Not sure Tips...

No doubt crash chilling would increase the probability of bottles going off...trouble is I've never had one ... ever. I do use Polychlar to drop the yeast(Pils style of work) and it does that well so active yeast in each may be lower than normal.

I suspect the small amount of residual sugars left in the ferment would be a small % of what a bottle is primed with ... say 1 carb drop instead of two as a offset? A carb drop is what 6 -7 gm?

I use PET ex soft drink 2lt bottles for storing/maturing the excess from fermenters weekly and not seen an issue so far.

On the lemonade itself can't tell as yet as it's only been put down for a few days but I'll keep an eye on it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bt1

[tipsy]

No worries Bt1, I just thought I'd put the warning out there.

A few people have had bottle bombs on the beer sites, one had a picture of a shard of glass embedded in his ceiling :shock:

PET would be the go if not kegging :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[bt1]

Yeh fair point Tips, tend to get caught up in own PET scenario...

forgot ppl still use glass and the most bastard of an invention - crown seals.

bt1

[Marbled]

I bottled a batch too early and had lots of fun with bottle bombs, although safe with PET (Aldi lemonade bottles... cheaper than HBS jobbies, and full of lemonade) They make a nice bang on the ceiling of the garage, otherwise known as the floor underneath our bed.
It gave us a laugh.

as for Hard Lemonade, I take a bottle of Aldi lemonade, take a swig out of it, pop in 50-60ml of 90%, job done.

then i get back to brewing an English bitter or a TPW

[Linny]

Well Bottled it today and added some stevia ... even though i didnt really need it , wanted it more like a softdrink this is the results

If i was to do this again i would strain the zest through a bag before fermenting ,,,, made a bit of a mess

[Linny]

Well its been 8 days ... pretty happy with flavour, might need less lactose and more stevia. But its a tad flat , but its only been 7 days ,,, could use more time i reckon, since the cider yeast was slow to ferment in the first place.

[bt1]

I still hold hope...primed the keg with max dex @ 165gm so should self carb like a troll on FB

Here's hoping the Chrissy opening salvo for the 20+ lads is a winner or I'm F'd

Only other highlights will be a Hop Hog clone and possibly a Gose... then it down to AG lagers

A nervous
bt1