Lemonade

[chappo1970]

Seeing this thread alive again reminds me I should get under the house and dig out a bottle from the 2003 experiment

Doc

And post a sample to me Doc? I'm game!

Actually this is going to be my next diversion brew. I did a ginger beer from scratch this weekend and it turned out pretty good IMO. So maybe in the next week or two I will give this a run!

Hey Doc I would be interested to know how it is now so 6 years down the track...

 

[chappo1970]

WooHoo!

Well finally been able to get the lemon and lime crop off the trees. So fingers cross I will be doing a version of this on Monday. Been plotting and planning this one so I am hoping the waits gunna be worth it.
Final Recipe looks like this:

30 lemons juiced
15 limes juiced
zest of 10 lemons
zest of 5 limes
2kg brown sugar
1kg Ironbark honey
500g lactose
2 sticks cinnamon
Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead

Boil 21lts say for 30mins

Add brown sugar 30 mins
Add lactose 15 mins
Add cinnamon
Add zest 5 mins
Add honey 5 mins


Cheers Chappo

 

[Supra-Jim]

Recipe looks quite nice there Chappo. Keep us posted on the result.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[peas_and_corn]

hehehe
finally, an out of towner

Mate, a while back a bloke called Duncan made alcoholic lemonade and sold it in kegs around Adelaide. It was a pretty big hit. We bought a keg of the stuff once and drank it until we almost drowned. The batch must have had about 2% alcohol. But generally it was pretty good stuff. Tatsed like lemons, not dishwashing liquid. He later sold it to the bigwigs who changed the recipe and fu<ked up the whole thing.
Anyway, it was called "Two Dogs" after the old joke about the Indian names.

Well there you go! I remember that drink, my sister was just nuts about it. I didn't see what the fuss was all about.

Worked up P&C's recipe. BTW how is it going P&C? Thanks for the inspiration.

I've been meaning to get around to that- could you let me know how it goes? I haven't made it yet, whenever my source of lemons is good my fermenters are all full.

 

[chappo1970]

Well there you go! I remember that drink, my sister was just nuts about it. I didn't see what the fuss was all about.




I've been meaning to get around to that- could you let me know how it goes? I haven't made it yet, whenever my source of lemons is good my fermenters are all full.

Sure will P&C.

Just spent 3hrs juicing all these bloody lemons... Phew now for the limes <_<
Sooooo much fun making stuff from scratch huh? Kitchen is a mess.... hmm maybe blame the kids?

 

[manticle]

metabisulphite (sodium or potassium) should do the job. Campden tabs are just this. From memory tab per 30L. Never tried it tho but its what used to kill the wild yeasts in freshly squeezed/crushed apple juice.

Sulphites have no place near apples in my opinion. I'm far from expert I'll grant but the couple of times I've tried has been like Mr Giant Apple Farmer held me down and made me play dutch ovens inside a bottle of fizzy drink.

I use sodium met to sanitise but I will never again allow it unrinsed near a brew.

 

[Verbyla]

Hey chappo.

If your going to be using 2kg of brown sugar and 1kg of honey its going to be a pretty strong drink once its fermented don't you think?

OR

Do you reckon the strong lemon taste will compensate for this?

Just wonder what your reason behind choosing those qualities of fermentables was.

 

[mika]

......I use sodium met to sanitise......

I wouldn't even use it to do that <_<

 

[mfeighan]

i personally wouldnt boil the lemon juice as the flavor changes with a boil. sad thing is if your anal about infection from unboiled stuff you are a little screwed.
Haven't tried it with lemonade but the family recipe of ginger beer (thanks grandma) uses fresh unboiled lemons with boiled lemon zest.

Unboiled lemon juice, my 2c

 

[chappo1970]

Hey chappo.

If your going to be using 2kg of brown sugar and 1kg of honey its going to be a pretty strong drink once its fermented don't you think?

OR

Do you reckon the strong lemon taste will compensate for this?

Just wonder what your reason behind choosing those qualities of fermentables was.

Ok brown sugar and honey will give it a more mellow flavour (or so I have found in my ginger beers)and yes the ABV will be highish. I don't know if you've boiled fresh lemon or used it in cooking but once boiled it goes intensly bitter so the sweet mead yeast should balance sweetness with bitterness from the lemon juice, well that's the plan unchartered water ATM. Think of it like a bittering hop addition.

The zest addition is where the lemon/lime flavouring will come from not the juice. I don't if anyone has blanched lemon zest and tried the result? But that's what I am aiming for in the result (crossed fingers)

 

[manticle]

I wouldn't even use it to do that <_<

Works fine for my small set-up.

If I had had numerous pipes and valves and bits and bobs I'd probably look elsewhere but for bottles, stock pots and 3 plastuic fermenters it does the trick.

 

[Verbyla]

Finally got my lemonade down last night after wanting to do it since April.

Took a hell of a lot longer than what the beers and ciders do but hopefully its gonna be worth it!

Here's the recipe and the predicted brewing schedule.
30 Lemons juiced
10 Limes juiced
Zest of 20 Lemons
Zest of 10 Limes
1kg Dark Brown Sugar
1kg Ironbark Honey
500g LME
300g Lactose
2 Sticks of Cinnamon
3 Cloves
1 Tea Spoon of Nutmeg
1 Tea Spoon of Yeast Nutrient
Nottingham Yeast Starter

Boil Cinnamon for 40 minutes
Add Brown at 30 minutes left
Add LME at 30 minutes left
Add Lactose at 30 minutes left
Add Zest at 25 at minutes left
Add Clove at 25 minutes left
Add Honey at lower than 70C

Add the entire boil to the fermenter and then top up to the 21L mark.

Add the yeast nutrient to juice and add to the fermenter

Fermented at 20C for 2 weeks
Room Temperature for 1 week
Rack to Secondary and Cold Crash for 2 weeks

Zest and Cloves in hops bag will be removed after 2 weeks

Bulk Prime with Ironbark Honey

SG Roughly 1.054
FG at 1.0??

 

[yyeessno]

This afternoon I was making a small batch of mead, and my mate came round to help, and brought box of lemons from his tree for me. While I was in a brewing mood I whipped up the following:

(more a lemon wine than a beer)

Made a yeast culture with 5g VIN13 White Wine yeast, about a tbs of white sugar and some blood temperature water.

Zested 7 lemons and juiced them plus a few more.

I added the zest to a fermenter and put 3l of boiling water over the top. I let this sit for a minute and then added the juice, 500g powdered corn syrup, 500g dextrose and 500g white table sugar.

I dissolved all of this, topped up to 5l and chilled it down until it was nearly cool. Pitched my yeast culture which was, by now, bubbling strong.

I will wait and see what happens. I presume that the yeast will conk out before it gets dry but this is not the end of the world. Next time, I may try some champagne yeast that can deal with the high alcohol. This one is quite neutral.

Once ferment has been going strong for a few days I will strain this into a demijohn, by then the foaming (if any) will have subsided and it will bubble away ok in there. It is quite cold at the moment so I may do some insulating.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

:icon_offtopic: a six year old thread? - what an effort AHB!

 

[enoch]

:icon_offtopic: a six year old thread? - what an effort AHB!

Well it goes further than that. I found the original post I used for my two dogs clone on HBD in 1997.

Date: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 13:00:46 +1100
From: Brad McMahon <brad at sa.apana.org.au>
Subject: Alcoholic lemonade recipes

OK, by popular request here are two recipes that
emulate Two Dogs lemonade. Enjoy.

Three Dogs Alcoholic Lemonade

thanks to Nirvana Farm, Longwood Rd, Heathfield, South Australia.
And to the Hills Homebrew Centre, 2/312 Mt Barker Road, Aldgate SA.


Ingredients
1kg rough lemons
2kg Meyer lemons
2kg Dextrose
1 sachet ale dry yeast

Method.

1. Grate the zest(rind) off of a few of the lemons. Do not grate the
white pith.
2. Chop up all the lemons into chunks.
3. Cover the lemons and zest with dextrose and a few litres of water.
4. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Dilute out to 20 litres in your fermenter, and pitch yeast at below
30C
6. Ferment out at 20-25C for 7-10 days or until fermentation is
complete.
7. Bottle and prime as for beer. Wait 14 days for carbonation and enjoy.

Note:
Meyer lemons are sweeter lemons. Use them if available but 3kg
of whatever lemons you can find will work just as nicely.
Don't worry, relax and enjoy a Three Dogs!

The other was a K&K job which I didn't go near.

 

[zephon]

WooHoo!

Well finally been able to get the lemon and lime crop off the trees. So fingers cross I will be doing a version of this on Monday. Been plotting and planning this one so I am hoping the waits gunna be worth it.
Final Recipe looks like this:

...

Cheers Chappo

How did this one turn out Chappo? I have a tree full of lemons that are just waiting to be fermented by Christmas and this recipe looks pretty tasty on paper.

 

[tez]

Yeah chappo!
How did it turn out???

I just read 5 years worth of posts in hope to eventually get the holy grail of lemonade recipes... and... nothing!
A shitload of dodgy or "should be good" recipes.... wheres the perfect recipe???? WHERE????

lol i also have a tree full of lemons and i would love this for chrissy... Cmon fellas someone must of perfected this

 

[Bumpoh]

indeed very interested in how some of these turned out!

been working things out in my head a little bit over the last couple of weeks (looking at my very full lemon tree) and started taking what looks like the best part of everyones recipes...
started assembling ingredients yesterday, hoping to get it done either this weekend or sometime next week.

Rough thinking at the moment is something along the lines of

A bucketload of Meyer lemons... probably around 25 but maybe a few more as they are a little bit smaller than eureka lemons or something. (and will definitely avoid the pith, seems to be some consensus that its baaaaad)
4 kilos of raw sugar. plans are for this to be a summer festival drink, so want that extra kick ;-)
yeast and yeast nutrient (probably the vintners harvest SN9
500g lactose
ginger not sure how much yet.

any extras that i have lying around at home in the way of golden syrup/honey nutmeg cloves and anything that looks interesting (maybe some frozen raspberries?)

questions still to be answered before it goes down.
how much does boiling the juice change the flavour? how time sensitive is that heat change? and will simmering avoid it? probably have to determine it by trying it in different fashions. hmmm.
and how much difference would changing to a sweet mead yeast make to the eventuall sweetness?

 

[Bumpoh]

indeed very interested in how some of these turned out!


Rough thinking at the moment is something along the lines of

A bucketload of Meyer lemons... probably around 25 but maybe a few more as they are a little bit smaller than eureka lemons or something. (and will definitely avoid the pith, seems to be some consensus that its baaaaad)
4 kilos of raw sugar. plans are for this to be a summer festival drink, so want that extra kick ;-)
yeast and yeast nutrient (probably the vintners harvest SN9
500g lactose
ginger not sure how much yet.

any extras that i have lying around at home in the way of golden syrup/honey nutmeg cloves and anything that looks interesting (maybe some frozen raspberries?)

got this down earlier today as part of a bigish brewday for me

almost exactly as planned

did a 30 min boil for the sugar and 3 litres of water.
added lactose, about 50g of grated ginger and lemon zest ofr about 15 lemons at 15 mins
combined with lemon juice from 25-30 lemons + yeast nutrient in fermentor and filled to 22 litres
temperature ended up at about 33 degrees and i was having trouble cooling it down to pitch the yeast so i chucked in about 1.5 kilo of frozen raspberries, cooled it down enough to pitch vintners harvest sn9 yeast.
standard gravity was around 1073 (if that sounds right? only just got a hydrometer test jar so is my second time attempting to take readings)

is getting darker and darker from the raspberries, and is bubbling away merrily.

currently having some debate about wether to seconday ferment to get off the raspberries and ginger and everything.
and also didnt really taste lemony enough from the sample i tried, so thinking about priming with lemon cordial, and maybe adding some if i end up doing a secondary ferment.

excited about this one

 

[Dazza88]

OG of 1073? That is going to be a pretty high alcohol content when it has finished fermenting. Could be up to 9% depending on final gravity reading. Most/all of the sugars (including sweetness from fruit) will be fermented except the lactose.

I made a raspberry lemonade. It is OK but better when i put a dash of raspberry cordial in with the glass of lemonade i am pouring. That might be cheating somewhat. If you put the lemon cordial in the fermenter, the sugars in it will probably be fermented also. Priming i suppose you would need to drink it before it fully fermented out.

 

[Bumpoh]

OG of 1073? That is going to be a pretty high alcohol content when it has finished fermenting. Could be up to 9% depending on final gravity reading. Most/all of the sugars (including sweetness from fruit) will be fermented except the lactose.

I made a raspberry lemonade. It is OK but better when i put a dash of raspberry cordial in with the glass of lemonade i am pouring. That might be cheating somewhat. If you put the lemon cordial in the fermenter, the sugars in it will probably be fermented also. Priming i suppose you would need to drink it before it fully fermented out.

yeah i think 1073 was right, still not 100%. the rough maths i did before the brew had it coming to about 10-11% alcohol or something depending on how much sugar comes out of the fruit.
just transferred this to another fermentor to get all the muck out of it, and am about to bottle it. had about 3-4 weeks in the primary (didnt really end up racking to a secondary, except for about half an hour today)
had a little taste, the raspberries came through much more than i would have expected, thinking i should have probably removed them after a week, but i kept getting distracted by other things :-s
its quite acidic, but not really bitter or anything, so think the lactose sweetened it enough for that at least.

think will probably be delicious cold with soda water and a squeeze of lime... shall see.
will try and update with final gravity readings in a bit, and tasting notes in a couple of weeks (if i can wait that long ;-))

will do another gravity reading when i bottle in a sec, and try to put ta

 

[goatus]

OG of 1073? That is going to be a pretty high alcohol content when it has finished fermenting. Could be up to 9% depending on final gravity reading. Most/all of the sugars (including sweetness from fruit) will be fermented except the lactose.

I made a raspberry lemonade. It is OK but better when i put a dash of raspberry cordial in with the glass of lemonade i am pouring. That might be cheating somewhat. If you put the lemon cordial in the fermenter, the sugars in it will probably be fermented also. Priming i suppose you would need to drink it before it fully fermented out.

If you were kegging this is there something you could put in the brew that would kill off all the left over yeast after primary, so they wouldnt ferment your cordial sugars? Then you could just add cordial to your keg and force carbonate? Or would that destroy the brew?

 

[Bumpoh]

so final gravity was dead on 1.000
so if ive got my sums right, then its about 9.6 % alcohol (assuming a starting point of 1073, which i think is right)


anyone got any advice to give about pectin? i.e what it does and would it help next time i did something with raspberries or other fruit like that?
just i saw this kilo pack of CSR jam setting sugar at the supermarket today and was wondering if i could use a kilo of that next time to do something fancy with a fruit alcohol

 

[Hefty]

I'm going to revive this thread yet again as I have a tree full of bush lemons nearly groaning under the weight of fruit on it.
I know I'll get a great flavour out of the zest as even more than most other other species, bush lemon zest is thick and strong (like Matt Preston )
The flesh of the fruit is considerably sweeter than others but then I assume this will ferment out dry.
So my question is how much lactose or are their other appropriate (read: reasonably natural tasting) sweeteners I could use?
The consensus seems to be 500g in a 20L batch but most people who have posted recipes say "I'll report back on taste when it's done" and then don't report back.
I'm looking for something between your normal soft drink lemonade and an "old traditional" lemonade because I want it fairly sweet and "neutral" (IE not too many funky flavours/aromas) for the missus but I realise I won't get crystal clear sugar water from a homebrewed lemonade.

This is the recipe I'm looking at (it's the one from the liqourcraft website but I'm still not sure about whether this is enough lactose to resemble a normal soft drink lemonade) :
2kg dextrose *
500g lactose *
12-24 lemons, sliced or chopped fine including peel
up to 50g crushed or grated fresh ginger (optional)
5g yeast nutrient *
1 sachet SAFale yeast *
Water to make up 22 litres of wort *

Any advice or overdue reports from past lemonade brewers?

HABAHAGD! :icon_cheers:
Jono.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

I found that same recipe a couple weeks ago when I thought about hard lemonade. I wouldnt mind trying it after the current brews are drunk and a spare keg pops up.

Probably aim for 5% and flavour with something for a UDL/Cruiser style drink.

 

[smilinggilroy]

Hi, just about to bottle my first "lemonade". I added limes as well but next time I will cut this amount down by at least half as the lime taste was a little strong. There is no strong bitterness, just a nice overtone. If you wish to play around with this feel free. This will be finishing dry. I used the SN9 yeast to ferment at low temperatures to stop the citrus juice flavor from changing. Can't answer your question about lactose/sweetness, as I prefer it dry. Whatever you do,DON'T use the pith of the citrus as the flavor from it is quite harsh and not a pleasant bitterness at all. So far the samples have been good, can't wait to bottle condition to taste the end product. PM if you need anything further.

Cheers

HARD "LEMON-LIME ADE"

The Recipe:
Brewers Sugar 1kg
Dextrose 1.3kg
White Sugar 700g
Raw Sugar 500g
TOTAL SUGARS 3.5KG

Fresh squeezed lemon juice 3lt
Zest from all lemons used..(approx 50+ largish lemons)
Fresh squeezed lime juice 1.25lt
Zest from all limes used..(approx 22+ Tahitian limes)
Cinnamon sticks x 2
Filtered water to make up to 22 litres

METHOD:

Peel the zest from fruit (I used a good veggie peeler) and place into a large bowl lined with cheese cloth with enough overhang to tie up into a bag later. (Best done in batches). When finished add the cinnamon sticks and tie up bag. Ensure the contents of bag are loose enough for a bit of movement, for infusion purposes.

Extract juice using a citrus juicer. DON'T use an all purpose vegetable juicer (the result tastes crap).
Discard carcasses and ALL seeds. (Retain pulp, its good).
To a suitable boiler, bring to boil approx. 6 litres of water. When hot enough sir in sugars until dissolved.
As liquid comes to boil, place in bag and return liquid to a rolling boil.
Boil for 10 min.
Cool pot in water bath to desired temperature.
Remove bag and let it drain over the pot for a bit and then place it in a sanitized bowl (this will go into the fermenter later after volumes are reached).
Pour liquid into fermenter and add some filtered water, then add juices, then top up to 22 litres.
Sparge and stir etc.
Place in zest bag and residual juices from the bowl.

YEAST:
SN9
P.S. Also used a dried yeast nutrient as per instructions
S.G 1056 @19deg.C
TRY TO FERMENT AT 14-18 DEGREES

 

[blekk]

^^ Hows it looking??

 

[smilinggilroy]

^^ Hows it looking??

Hi All,
Bottled on Sunday(18/7). So far it's looking good, had a FG of 1004 @ 18deg.
Bulked primed 20.6lt. with 140g dex for light carbonation.
Will definitely back off on the lime zest next time as it is a bit "perfumy" to the nose.
The lime does cut the harshness of the lemon and gives a sweetening effect.
Hope this helps,
Keep you posted as I start to taste/consume the brew.

 

[Housecat]

Bumpity bump bump

Looks like this thread doesn't want to die!!!

Now on to my question, Smilinggilroy, how did it turn out? have you tried it yet?


hc

 

[jonocarroll]

I've been tempted to get a lemonade going for some time now, but hadn't heard of enough success in a single recipe (and I'd tried some not-so-great efforts). Last week I decided to bite the bullet, grab the bull by the horns, and wuss out... I have now made an awesome soft lemonade.

- 1 large bag of big lemons (from a neighbour... a bulk potato bag I think)
- 3-4 limes
- 2 cups dextrose
- 1kg white sugar
- water to taste

Zested 6 large lemons with a parmesan grater (only getting the bright yellow bits) and a couple of the limes, rolled the fruits on the bench to loosen them up then juiced the lot and poured through a colander. Poured boiling water over the zest and pulp through the colander then added 1L of boiling water, the sugaz, and brought to the boil on the stove. Cooled, then added to a keg via a sieve with a sufficient amount of water (roughly 14-16L), force-carbed and chilled.

I had been hoping it would be something like the American-style traditional lemonade I found all over the USA, and I'm happy to say it is dead on target. Big lemon tang, not too sweet. Summer, here I come.

Why a soft lemonade you ask? Apart from already having plenty of good beers on tap, I now have a drink that the tee-totaling SWMBO will gladly drink. One glass and I got approval for purchasing another 4 kegs. WIN! I reckon I'm going to keep making this so long as I can find the lemons.