# Rules For Brewing With Lemon?



## greg_549 (24/8/08)

Hey all. I figure summer is on its way and the home brew crates are running low, wanted to make a brew with lemon as an ingredient. I wasn't sure how adding lemons would affect the sugar content and other important things i wont recognise. I had a search through the forums and couldn't find any information. I also bought citric acid from the shops just incase.. but im not sure about that gear, just figured it wouldnt be sugary.

I'm using a coopers mexican cerveza and brew enhancer 2. I can get my hands on any gear from a local brew shop.

I also have heard that adding rind makes it bitter? What yeast if not the dodgy one under the lid?

Anyways, hope im not cloggin up the forums, let me know any tips or tales of success and miserable failure.

Thanks- Richo.

PS- I'm just a goo and brew in a fermenter brewer, used hops once with poor results.


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## razz (24/8/08)

Rules for brewing with lemons.....Don't !
Just joking Richo, good luck with this. You may well be out there with captain Kirk on this one. It might be safer to make the cervesa kit and use a slice of lemon in the bottle neck.


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## shawnheiderich (24/8/08)

Rind will give you the lemon taste, give it a boil first to kill the bugs. The pith is the bitter part keep away from it. I tried somthing similar a while ago with a poor result, no head retention and a dry taste with puckering lemon overtones. I reckon brew a normal beer and put a slice of lemon in it or brew a lemonade and add a dash. Search lemonade on the forum, a drink I enjoyed brewing for sure.

Shawn


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## greg_549 (24/8/08)

OK thanks for tips. Anyone have any recipes or quantities of ingredients?


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## dr K (24/8/08)

Bitburger (German for McDonalds) have lemon beer out atm, get it while you can..the advert sucks "Hungry for the Jack..Down a Lemon Bit Burger today"


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## Aaron (24/8/08)

Try using glacier hops. They can give a distinctly lemon flavor. Kai has had some success with a light lager style beer and glacier hops. Not really my thing but he would have some good advice if he sees this thread.


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## greg_549 (24/8/08)

dr K said:


> Bitburger (German for McDonalds) have lemon beer out atm, get it while you can..the advert sucks "Hungry for the Jack..Down a Lemon Bit Burger today"



Yeah, i got a 6pack of that when it was on clearance from BWS- $7. It is 2.4% alcohol and 50% regular bittburger and 50% a lemonade brewed by bittburger. Rubbish stuff.


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## jojai (24/8/08)

Isn't that Miller Chillada shit something like that too? 

I reckon fresh lemon slice in the neck of the bottle, slam em down at the beach.


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## Kai (24/8/08)

Glacier is indeed tasty and delicious. I've used it in an all-grain attempt at a lemonade before, turned out fairly similar to Kirk's bitter lemon and wasn't far off being a ginger beer. I know it's not a goo recipe but for what it's worth I'll post it here:



> *Lemonade*
> 
> OG 1.042
> FG 1.006
> ...



Turned out to be an excellent summer quaffer if not quite what I wanted. Brewed this a couple years ago now and have been meaning to turn it into a ginger beer ever since.


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## turto77 (25/8/08)

I did a Cerveza with lime last year with great success, I zested 4 limes (make sure you don't get the white part) and boiled it in a couple of litres of water and the juice from the limes, added it to the fermentor with the kit and BE2 and a lager yeast, ferment took 2 weeks, kegged and was very drinkable from the 2 week mark.


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## drsmurto (25/8/08)

> Lemonade
> 
> OG 1.042
> FG 1.006
> ...



Interesting recipe there Kai, have added it to the list. I reckon that would work well for a base for a GB.


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## bconnery (25/8/08)

greg_549 said:


> Hey all. I figure summer is on its way and the home brew crates are running low, wanted to make a brew with lemon as an ingredient. I wasn't sure how adding lemons would affect the sugar content and other important things i wont recognise. I had a search through the forums and couldn't find any information. I also bought citric acid from the shops just incase.. but im not sure about that gear, just figured it wouldnt be sugary.
> 
> I'm using a coopers mexican cerveza and brew enhancer 2. I can get my hands on any gear from a local brew shop.
> 
> ...



I made a wheat beer with limes and lemons as one of my very early brews back in the day. 

These are my highly detailed notes from then. 
Morgans Wheat kit
40g Coriander in stocking bag. 2 or 3 limes and or lemons - rind & juice. Kaffir lime leaves. 200g honey. 1kg wheat beer blend from store

Rind in boil at 15. Honey and juice and coriander and kaffir lime leaves in at 10. Sieve into fermenter. Add kit and blend and cold water as usual. Coriander added in stocking bag to fermenter.

It was a very tasty summer beer, did not last long at all. 

As has been said, aim for only the rind, try and avoid the white pith, a little wont hurt but it's best without it.


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## greg_549 (25/8/08)

bconnery said:


> I made a wheat beer with limes and lemons as one of my very early brews back in the day.
> 
> These are my highly detailed notes from then.
> Morgans Wheat kit
> ...



Great help guys, thanks. juice + rind of 3-4 lemons boiled and bunged in the fermenter. Exactly the details i needed. What is with the coriander here? I did also want to make a honey wheat beer but i didn't think of honey+lemon in the same beer.

Miller chill is lemon, lime and salt infused, very nice summer bevo (i work at a bottle-o)


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## Pennywise (25/8/08)

I have only made one lemon beer which turned out very nice for summer drinking

1 mex cerveza kit
half kg light malt
half kg dex
kit yeast  
juice of 2 lemons boiled with malt and dex for 15 mins
made to 21 ltrs if I remember correctly

I would have to recomend that if your cerveza kit comes with dry enzyme not to use it, nasty nasty stuff


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## bconnery (25/8/08)

greg_549 said:


> Great help guys, thanks. juice + rind of 3-4 lemons boiled and bunged in the fermenter. Exactly the details i needed. What is with the coriander here? I did also want to make a honey wheat beer but i didn't think of honey+lemon in the same beer.
> 
> Miller chill is lemon, lime and salt infused, very nice summer bevo (i work at a bottle-o)



It's from a wit type beer idea, I thought it would go with the citrus and kaffir lime...


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## wakkatoo (25/8/08)

On the citrus theme, I've recently kegged a grapefruit lambic. Was modified from a Lime Lambic as there were none in the shops! Not to sure about this beer, but having never done a lambic before, I will need to compare to a commercial variety. I used the flesh, not the skin and boiled it for 5 mins to kill any nasties (i hope!). Had a strong grapefruit aroma, but seemed to have poor head retention coming out of primary. It's currently cc'ing so I'll see how it goes.

The original recipe called for 6 limes and I substituted in 2 grapefruit which might help in determining how much lemon to use.

Chris


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## greg_549 (25/8/08)

Sweet, just rind'ed and juiced 4 lemons and a randomn orange lying around. currently boiling on stove, question- to sieve or not to sieve? Thankyou all for the help.

PS- no dry enzyme under lid.


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## Kai (25/8/08)

DrSmurto said:


> Interesting recipe there Kai, have added it to the list. I reckon that would work well for a base for a GB.



Yeah, I reckon it definitely would. It's also worth noting that I added both the juice and the essence to taste (add a bit, have a sip, add a bit...) so you may find yourself wanting to add more or less.


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