Lemonade

[Kai]

I love limcello. Great drink and easy to make.

 

[Simon W]

My mum brought back a small blue pyramid shaped bottle of limoncello from the Island of Capri, apparently the best. It was very very good, and I've not tasted anything like it since. One that I bought a year or so ago, apparently made by an old italian guy here in Perth, was close, very good, but not to the standard of the Capri one.
Theres a licenced restaurant in Fremantle called Limoncello, I went in one day and asked if they could sell me a bottle, I was greeted with blank stares. I then asked the manager and she said "what is it exactly?" sheesh!! They've got shelves full of alcohol and not a bottle of limoncello!
Might have to try making it, mum's going thru withdrawls!
Thanks for the links.

EDIT: speling

 

[DrewCarey82]

Does anyone have any idea what lemonades alcohol strength will turn out like?

It had 16 large lemons in it - everything except white bit.
and 3kg's of dextrose. Starting gravity of 1.055.

Cheers.

 

[DrewCarey82]

Come on guys u's are experts should be a pisser for u's to work out

 

[Bobby]

what is the final gravity??
use this
http://www.grumpys.com.au/brew_analyser.php3

 

[DrewCarey82]

Not sure I actually found a caculator on the liquorcraft website and it should end up presuming its around the 1.005-1.010, @ around 6-7% which will certainly be what I was after.

 

[kungy]

Here is the recipe i used, bearing in mine that there are stacks of family recipes etc floating around on the net. The following recipes sweetness can be altered by altering the level of sugar syrup added at the end of the process. Bear in mine that you can make it to suit your tastes or you could do both a sweet and dry version. Also make a good size batch as you and your friends are sure to like it (and so you don't drink the whole batch in only a week)

The following recipe is based upon the recipes found at http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/notes/food/dh_limoncello.htm and http://www.whc.net/rjones/index.html to match Australian Ingredients etc

- One Bottle (750 ml) good but not necessarily premium vodka (40% alcohol) (I found the cheapest generic vodka perfectly acceptable)
- 12 large thick skinned bright yellow lemons (without scars or flaws in the skin if possible.) Cleaned well, trying not to damage the rind during cleaning.
- 375 ml (about 1 1/2 cups) filtered tap water (not mineral water)
- 2 cups pure cane white sugar

Remove only the yellow part of the lemon rinds, add alcohol and let it steep for 4 weeks. I did this process in a large airtight glass container that commerical quantities of pickles come in.

Filter the rind away from the lemon infused vodka. I used a coffee filter.

Boil sugar and water to make syrup. Let cool to room temperature. And add bit by bit, tasting as you go, to the vodka until you reach the desired level of sweetness. Bottle in a clean bottle, a gin or the vodka bottle itself is perfect.

Leave for at least 4 weeks to flavours to mellow, and put in freezer. I found at the end of the bottle, that the flavours appeared to be a lot smoother.

Give it a go, its well worth it.

Will

 

[Guest Lurker]

Not sure I actually found a caculator on the liquorcraft website and it should end up presuming its around the 1.005-1.010, @ around 6-7% which will certainly be what I was after.

[post="103191"][/post]​

With just dextrose, unless the yeast gets shagged out from alcohol it should get lower than that, closer to 1.000.

 

[Burchman82]

Nosebleed hard lemonade.

2.5-3 kg lemons, washed in steriliser & roughly chopped.
5 g pectinase
2kg white sugar, glucose or dextrose
10g champagne or wine yeast- I used Lanvin.

Put chopped lemons- peel, stalks & all- in a large saucepan, adding pectinase and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, mash a few times with a potato masher or similar, cover, and leave, preferably overnight.

The next day, start the yeast in 500ml of warm water, with 100g of the sugar dissolved in it. Stir well, cover and leave for at least 30 minutes.

The heat and pectinase should have reduced the lemons to a kind of thick pulp. Bring back to the boil, then take off the heat and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth. Do not worry if there are a few large chunks in the mix.

Allow pulp to cool enough to handle, and then squeeze through a piece of boiled muslin. This will be easier if you lay the muslin in a colander placed on top of a bucket and gently pour the pulp in. When the bulk of the liquid drains, then gather the corners of the muslin in and squeeze.

You should now have at least a litre and a half of cloudy lemon must, and a big blob of dryish pulp. Add 50 grams of the pulp to the bucket and stir.

Place the must in a sterilised fermenter with remaining sugar, and top up to 15 litres with warm water. Stir well to dissolve sugar before pitching yeast starter (and a pinch of yeast nutrient if you are feeling nervous). Seal and add airlock.

This takes at least 2 weeks to ferment out. If hydrometer readings over two or three consecutive days indicate fermentation has stopped but FG is still above 1000, add more yeast.

Prime and bottle as usual- 1 tsp sugar or carb drop per stubby. It comes out fairly strong, and initially has a bit of a yeasty taste, but smooths out after a couple of weeks. Best served very cold.

I Did this recipe yesterday, put it into a 25L fermenter, used Lanvin 1118 yeast (i think thats what it was :unsure: ) and now, it is still not bubbling! i added nutrient (pinch or 2) what should i do!?!?!??! dont want all that effort going to waste!

 

[DrewCarey82]

My lemonade still brewing away 8 days later, gravity on sat was only @ 1.030-35, I hope its done this week.

Cant believe its taken so bloody long.... Better taste good....

 

[DrewCarey82]

Guys bottled my lemonade last night.

It had a rather ordinary taste still lemonady but not too good, temp was around 25-28 degrees though so does it just need to carbonate for a couple of weeks and be served chilled for it to come good?

Cheers.

 

[mike_hillyer]

Decided to revive this old thread. I have heaps of oranges and some lemons at the property we moved into 2 years ago. I have read the lemon recipes and will use the info for a brew.

Questions:

1. How are the lemon brews coming along.

2. Has anyone brewed oranges or any other unusual choices. I will ferment some oranges because I have so many.

3. I have 2 champagne yeasts to do a few brews but was going to use some kit ale yeasts to brew a couple has anyone used ale yeasts on fruit. How were the results?

 

[chimera]

Made a batch of lemonade about a month back, my first foray into this field, and will likely be my last for some time.

Its been a damned cold july in Melbourne this year, not condusive to wanting to go outside, or I guess for lemons to ripen and sweeten. Despite this our lemon tree is going beserk with big yellow lemons (hmm, beer brewing, high beer consumption, lemon tree... ).

Anyway, ingredients list:
25 lemons from the posessed tree, peeled & juiced
2kg dex
500g lactose
S-04 safale yeast

boil time 30 mins.
since my kettle is small (7L stock pot) i had to split and boil the ingredients in two batches.

fermentation took about a week at a controlled 18.5 degrees, dont have my brew log here so i cant tell you anything more.

When it came time to bottle the flavour was so tart as to be undrinkable. Since it was a lazy sunday experiment from the outset i wasn't that upset, i decided to bottle a dozen longnecks and put them into storage for experimentation on guests, the rest i dumped. I cant say what it tastes like now, to be honest i forgot i even had it until i read this thread.

One observation from the GF about this insanely savage tartness was that in winter lemons grown in low temp & low sunlight are much more bitter than in summer months.

 

[DrewCarey82]

1. How are the lemon brews coming along.

Was about 12% alcohol, nice enough flavour though way to dry and way to sweet. Actually sent me loopy! Got 2 longnecks left that I am too scared to touch.

2. Has anyone brewed oranges or any other unusual choices. I will ferment some oranges because I have so many.

No, though would be interested to here anyone elses ventures into this.

3. I have 2 champagne yeasts to do a few brews but was going to use some kit ale yeasts to brew a couple has anyone used ale yeasts on fruit. How were the results?

I've used this with my lemonade and it wasnt the best highly believe that the champagne yeast would be the go..

CHIMERA, dont use the white bit of the lemon thats what gives the tartness, just juice and the yellow bit.

 

[chimera]

My omission, didnt mention anything about method, but i peeled off the zest, left the pith behind, same way as making lemon cordial.

If i gave you one of the lemons i used to make the lemonade you'd take one lick and your mouth would pucker up like a cats bum, they were posessed by the god of tartness.

I considered distilling the results, if its not drinkable at 5%, it couldnt be any worse at 30%, but mates still is currently out of service.

 

[DrewCarey82]

Mine turned out shit as well have to admit I'll be giving it a miss in future, have the Ginger Beer and depending on how my Cider goes that to for something a tad lighter.

Though some peoples have turned out great apparently so....????

Might just be us.

 

[mike_hillyer]

The old man made a lemon and orange wine with some of my juice. I sampled it just before bottling and I would judge it reasonable.

I have done an all orange juice with raw sugar with an all purpose champagne yeast. I was talked into the yeast by the brewshop bloke and I am experimenting with a orange juice and raw sugar with a left over muntons yeast. Both brews are going in plastic coke bottles and are just a way of using some of the orange and lemon trees on the 5 acres we bought 2 years ago. Hey I'm a city slicker! :blink:

 

[Barramundi]

have two bottles of Drews lemonade chilling in the fridge downstairs at present , will give them a bash shortly and let ya know what its like , from drews explanations its a bit nasty but im brave ....

 

[InCider]

Kaaa-Bump!

It's my turn on the merry go round and I have a desire to make some lemonade tart-fuel. :beerbang:

After just reading the whole thread, I'm pretty sure I'll grab some lemons, wine yeast, nutrient and lactose or whatever comes to mind (redskin lollies as flavoured primers?)

Has anyone done a lemonade since, or found a reliable recipe? If so I'd be glad to hear what you've found. Does anyone use a kit they've found or just lemons?

Cheers,

In(lemon)Cider.

 

[stillscottish]

Lemonade!!!

HTFU


Campbell