Originally posted by: Journer
Originally posted by: DanFungus
Made a 5 gallon batch of the hard lemonade today since I already have all the homebrew equipment. Used wine yeast, fermaid k for yeast nutrients, corn sugar, water and an assload of lemons. I'm going to bottle it, so it'll take some time till it's done, but definitely not bad at ~$12 total for two cases.
nice! can you give me some info on it? the proccess...things i should know since i've never brewed...where to buy a good kit, etc.
🙂 thanks
I got mine locally - look in the phone book under the beer section if there are any homebrew shops. Read up on brewing, most people talk about
Charlie Papazian's The Completely Joy of Homebrewing. Great book, easy to follow and remember: relax and have a homebrew
😉
Howtobrew.com also has a ton of information.
The kit I got came with a 6.5 gallon glass carboy (big jug), a 5 gal carboy, some siphoning equipment, an ~8 gal bucket with a nozzle-like attachment (for bottling), bottle cap crimper, some bottle caps, bottles, carboy brush, bottle brush (cleanliness is key), 5 gallon pot, and sanitizer (ok to consume, doesn't leave residue behind like regular soap might). Might be forgetting something, but those are the main items.
Talk to HomeBrewerDude - he's the resident homebrewing master.
This is how I did it today:
6 cups (2lbs) corn sugar
1 packet EC-1118 Champagne yeast (good for 5 gal)
1 packet Fermaid K Yeast Nutrients(for 5 gal)
35 lemons (might be too many, no idea at this point-went with the ratio the other recipe used)
Cut up lemons slicing each into 6 pieces
Bring 3.5 gallons water to a boil
Add in all of corn sugar little by little and stir to mix in (make sure to not let sugar sit on the bottom of the pot, or else it will burn)
Toss in ~5 lemons worth into the pot and stir them in too for 5 minutes (for more lemon flavor? No idea, but it seemed like a good idea)
Turn off heat and start cool down to ~70F (I used a wort chiller, brings cooling time down to 15-25 minutes)
Add packet of yeast to 2oz water in a bowl and let sit for 15 minutes
Stuff rest of lemons into 6.5gal carboy
Siphon lemon/sugar/water concoction into carboy
Pour yeast/water combo into carboy
Add Fermaid K to some water in a bowl and pour into carboy
Add water to bring up to 5 gallon mark on carboy (the bottom row of lemons sit at 5 gallon mark)
Put on airlock and clean everything up
In about a week, I'll siphon everything into the 5 gal carboy (leaves most of the excess yeast and other junk at the bottom of the 6.5 carboy)
About two weeks after that, I'll siphon the 5 gal carboy into the bucket, bring 1oz corn sugar and some water to a boil in a pan, add the cornsugar into the bucket and stir it in carefully without making too many bubbles (oxygen can introduce bacteria at this stage), and then bottle it! It'll be ready to drink in > 1.5 weeks after bottling.
Also be sure to sanitize all equipment that touches the liquid (with exception of pot, stirring spoon.. anything that is used while the liquid is boiling - they just need to be cleaned, but bacteria is killed from the boiling water so sanitizing is not needed)
I'll update when it's finished, hope it's good!
