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I started something I have been thinking of doing for a while now- a nice hard lemonaide. I have a party/picnic to go to Sunday so it's going to have to be quick! Having never made one before I had no real clue how to do it, so I thought a while how I wanted it to be. I like my hard lemonaide nice and pulpy so a good juice concentrate is a "must". I also like it sort of like a strong beer, so yes, I need a beer yeast. I also needed some Dry Malt Extract- preferably light. I want it to be around 7% ABV so about 1.065-1.070 should do it with maybe just a hint of sugars left.
Here's what I used
20 cans Lemonaid mix- this is the rags- 79 cents a can at Aldi's
2.5 pounds sugar
1 pound Light Dried Malt Extract
1 packet Windsor Brewing Yeast from Danstar
Can't get much simpler than this.
I heated the malt extract in a couple quarts water to get dissolved good. I figured I needed the 2.5 pounds sugar and figured it would dissolve better in the water/extract mix, so in it went. Once all hot, I poured it in the 7.9 gallon primary and started adding the semi-frozen concentrates (that's why I left the mixture hot). Once I got 19 of them in there (reserved one for slight sweetening at the end), I stirred it all up good and added warm water to bring up to 6 gallons or so. I then took the SG and WHOAAAAA, it was 1.110! Wowsers that will never finish up in a week- what to do. I went out and got another bucket that holds five gallons. I calculated my mistake and figured I needed to dilute to 9 gallons to get the proper juice concentrate to water mixture and should be close to my target 1.065. I took out two gallons and brought that up to 3 gallons. I checked the SG and it came in at just under 1.070- good enough. I then brought the four gallons in the other bucket up to 6 and checked- 1.070 again.
I checked the temp and it was fine so I mixed up the yeast for a starter- waited till it got going good and added an equal amount of the lemon juice. Let that get going and repeated until I had two quarts going good and divided it up between the two buckets. So now I have 9 gallons of the stuff going! I started it Sunday and today- Tuesday, it is bubbling happily along. I'm crossing my fingers it is going to be close to done on Sunday morning. I will then rack off three gallons in gallon jugs, chill it good and bring it next door to the picnic. That should keep me happy, I just hope the others bring their own!
I will report on how it turns out!
Here's what I used
20 cans Lemonaid mix- this is the rags- 79 cents a can at Aldi's
2.5 pounds sugar
1 pound Light Dried Malt Extract
1 packet Windsor Brewing Yeast from Danstar
Can't get much simpler than this.
I heated the malt extract in a couple quarts water to get dissolved good. I figured I needed the 2.5 pounds sugar and figured it would dissolve better in the water/extract mix, so in it went. Once all hot, I poured it in the 7.9 gallon primary and started adding the semi-frozen concentrates (that's why I left the mixture hot). Once I got 19 of them in there (reserved one for slight sweetening at the end), I stirred it all up good and added warm water to bring up to 6 gallons or so. I then took the SG and WHOAAAAA, it was 1.110! Wowsers that will never finish up in a week- what to do. I went out and got another bucket that holds five gallons. I calculated my mistake and figured I needed to dilute to 9 gallons to get the proper juice concentrate to water mixture and should be close to my target 1.065. I took out two gallons and brought that up to 3 gallons. I checked the SG and it came in at just under 1.070- good enough. I then brought the four gallons in the other bucket up to 6 and checked- 1.070 again.
I checked the temp and it was fine so I mixed up the yeast for a starter- waited till it got going good and added an equal amount of the lemon juice. Let that get going and repeated until I had two quarts going good and divided it up between the two buckets. So now I have 9 gallons of the stuff going! I started it Sunday and today- Tuesday, it is bubbling happily along. I'm crossing my fingers it is going to be close to done on Sunday morning. I will then rack off three gallons in gallon jugs, chill it good and bring it next door to the picnic. That should keep me happy, I just hope the others bring their own!
I will report on how it turns out!
