Stuck Lemon

[Hi In The Pines]

Well, im now getting a burp every 2 minutes at least!!

 

[peterCooper]

Is it always a mistake to water the lemon wine down? Depends on what
you're making it for

 

[Hi In The Pines]

Well, its hard lemonade and my goal is to get it at 6% alc. Is this still wrong?? I was under the assumption that if the S.G. is too high, all you do is water it downand if the S.G. is too low, you add more sugar. Correct?

 

[Hippie]

Well...ok. Your assumption might work in the case of hard lemonade, but don't count on that theory with any must.

 

[masta]

Try using this calculator to determine the appropriate amount of sugar for the size of the batch you are making. It was designed for making mead but will work for wine also:


http://www.gotmead.com/making-mead/mead-calculator.shtml

 

[peterCooper]

If you water down the must to adjust the alcohol level, aren't you also
watering down everything else that makes it worth drinking?

So it would be OK to adjust the sugar level up, but not down.Edited by: peterCooper

 

[masta]

Yes adding water will dilute everything (raise pH, lower TA, thin out the wine) not just the specific gravity resulting in a lower alcohol wine.


If you don't have a good recipe you need to do some work ahead of time to determine all the amounts of each ingredient needed for the particular wine. You also have to have the ability and equipment to test things like TA and pH because even the best plans can go wrong!

 

[Hi In The Pines]

I wonder if Martina would be so kindas to share her recipe for her hard lemonade??? I know I would appreciate it!!

 

[Stevo1]

Miss Martina.........
Hard Lemonade has been difficult to ferment, due to the acidic nature of lemons. My suggestion is to make the whole batch a “starter” and then slowly add the lemon juice over a 48 hour period. This would allow the yeast to fully engage and get at proper population density without the stress of the acidic environment. Then when the little buggers are ready and at full strength, they will be slowly acclimated to the lemon juice. Hopefully this will provide a quicker and healthier ferment and should hopefully also allow the full flavor of the lemon to be more apparent as additions are made toward the end of vigorous fermentation. In other words your making sugar water must, then using Realemon as an additive. I’m thinking of a regimen like this:
<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">1 Gallon Hard Lemonade[/B]
<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">[/B]
Mix together following ingredients with water tempeture about 104 degrees and sprinkle yeast on top.
7 - Cups water
2 # - White sugar for a SG of 1.080 [after Realemon addition]
1 - Tsp nutrient
1/8 - Tsp energizer
1 - Packet <?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><st1:State><st1lace>Champagne</st1lace></st1:State> yeast

Let sit for 12 hours and when yeast shows good activity add:

1 cup Realemon Lemon juice [total] at the rate of 1/3 cup every 12 hours, so at the end of 36 hours you will have added the total of 1 cup of lemon juice.

Ferment to dryness SG &lt; 1.00, rack to settle for 2 or 3 weeks, then stabilize and back sweeten to taste. Then find a likely victim to taste before you do!

Any thoughts on this procedure..............

Stevo

 

[Stevo1]

Follow up to above post............


Couldn't resist testing my theory, so I started a two gallon batch. I deviated from procedure by adding a can of IGA whole berry cranberry sauce at initial mixing. [so much for scientific controls

]


So far has worked great....... about sixty hoursfrom pitching yeast, all ingredients added and bubblin' along fine with SG dropping from 1.080 to 1.039as measured thisAM. The addition of the two cups of Realemon would drop SG a bit, but not that much. Iset it on top of refrigerator for extra warmth and so I could keep an eye on it. Has been interesting to ferment in a clear container and see how volatile the fermentation is at bottom of container.

One interesting thing was how horrible the color looked when I first put cranberries in must, an ugly purple drab color. As I added acid [lemon juice] the color returned to a nice reddish color as in photos.


I'll update when ferments to dry.............


Stevo

 

[MedPretzel]

Yikes,





Sorry about the late reply!





I will post soon. I've been having major DSL "issues" and have been zoning in and out of DSL-land for the past week. Just nerve-racking and terrible and horrible and just plain awful this week.





I will get back to you on this.





Stevo is right about the difficulties in fermenting the hard lemonade. I've had mixed results this year...





I will give you a starter recipe, which may help you:





3 cans of frozen lemonade concentrate (make sure no sulfites)
water to 1 gallon
1 tsp nutrient
1.5 tsp energizer
sugar to a starting SG of 1.085


I've had good luck with Montrachet yeast.





I'd make a yeast starter (make about 2-2.5 cups of it) a day before you mix in the must. Add a little OJ, sugar and nutrient/energizer to it to give it a kick start. Add about 2-4 cups everyday to it, until you get a good fermentation going with a lot more lemonade than OJ. And then add a couple of more cups to be sure that the yeast can take the acidity.





Sorry about the late and short response, but I think Stevo's got you on the right track already.





Martina

 

[Stevo1]

My first Hard lemonade is doing great........ SG 1.032 today, it is slower than I thought but progressing nicely. I started another 2 gal batch following the same guidelines, but this time I found pound of sweet cherries in the freezer........ so in they went. It is bubblin' away just fine. I do believe the plain must for the first 12 hours really helps get around the stalled lemonade fermentation.

Stevo

 

[Hi In The Pines]

Thanks to both of you, Martina and Stevo. These ideas are very useful. I originally started with the frozen lemonade concentrate. I finally used 3 packages of yeast to get it going. I think that when I diluted the mix to give me the lower S.G. and I left the yeast for 3 days without stirring it, it finally took off!! Before, I would stir it good every day or 2x daily, then it would just die off. Now that its going good, every thingis working out better now. Thanks again.

 

[Stevo1]

Howdy...Hi!


I too had the same experience with frozen concentrate. My hunch is that the frozen concentrate was loaded with SO2 [sulphate's] and it takes a few days for the levels to come down to reasonable levels. That's just a guess though, not fact. All my research has indicated that a period of 3 or 4 days from pitching yeast and the start of good fermentation is normal with frozen concentrate. Glad to hear your is going good for you now. Let us now how you like it after the yeast settles out and you imbibe.

Stevo