Hard Lemonade!!!

2/15/2011

I went to the brew shop and picked up a couple of 2 Gal. primary fermentation buckets and a few more airlocks. Yes, when I went in I didn't know what I was going to try next but I knew I was going to try something. My one year old, Katie, and I went to the grocery store after that. We had a few items that we needed to get so we strolled around looking for what we could turn into a brewed adult beverage. Walking through the frozen concentrates we saw some Country Time pink lemonade. My son, Jon, who is 10, had said he would like to see some lemonade wine. When I looked into it I found hard lemonade. I grabbed two containers and the rest of the list and came home. I ma not sure if two was over kill but this is the Great Experiment isn't it.

Here is what I added to the mix:

• One gallon of water
• Two tea spoons of Yeast Nutrient
• One tea spoon of Yeast Energizer
• LALVIN K1-V1116 Yeast
• OG=1.106

This is pretty much from a recipe off YouTube. Yes I do a LOT of research on YouTube. What is interesting is that the man that was giving the tutorial actually said he liked the K1-V1116 and when I looked in my little yeast bowl in the fridge there it was. I though if he had good luck with it I would try it. Anyway I don't believe in coincidences. I was really supposed to use this stuff. I looked up the yeast and it seems to be a good one for this. I highly suggest that you look into what yeasts there are and make a educated decision before you use the yeast. Simply put in the yeast maker and the numbers in Google. It is so east to get this info that a gecko could do it. hehehe.

Now unlike some of the juices that I have been doing I left this mixture in my 2 gal. bucket so I can stir it regularly. I am really concentrating on oxygen in the wines that I will be making unless the recipe calls for it to go straight into a jug.

Things that I plan on doing in the near future. Well, today while at the brew supply I placed an order for dried elderberry. I found a recipe for it and thought I would take a try at it. This will be a long and laborious wine taking a great deal of time in the bucket and months in being racked and re-racked. The recipe I found has taken 1st, 2dn, and 3rd place at different wine challenges. We will see if it tastes that great in about 6-8 months. Other than this I have noting planned but you never know with me. I wasn't planning on making hard lemonade either.

Keep it bubbling!
Chuck