Well, in the hope that Clarissa might enjoy it, it’s time for an alcoholic lemonade. This one’s going to be dumped in the fermenter, then I’m going to go skiing for a week, so I hope it’ll look after itself 😉
Date of brewing: 13/7/06
Date of bottling: 13/8/06
Ingredients:
- 3kg lemons
- 700g frozen raspberries, thawed
- 2kg sucrose (because we don’t have to worry about the fruity aftertaste!)
- 1kg lactose
- 5g yeast nutrient
- Yeast sachet, taken from my Cascade Heritage Lager kit. Apparently it’s a blend of lager and ale yeasts. Code: 011-06 PS.
- 180g dextrose, for bulk prime
Method:Make yeast starter out of some sucrose, the yeast nutrient and the yeast, using well aerated water.
Wash and juice lemons, grate rind off half skins, the other half of the skins chop up. Add lemon juice, skins and raspberries (mashed) to 2L water. Boil for 20 minutes. Strain into fermenter, add sugars, make up to 20L. Temp was 17 degrees C, so put it straight on the heat pad while the starter gets going. Once the starter kicks off, I’ll pitch it.
This is a lot more work than a beer, primarily because of the preparation that the lemons need, with the grating of the rind and the juicing.
3kg lemons = 20 lemons = 1.2L juice.
Raspberries are RED!
Numbers:
Specific gravity at 13/7/06: 1.043
Specific gravity at 20/7/06: 1.050
Specific gravity at 24/7/06: 1.050
Specific gravity at 30/7/06: 1.030
Specific gravity at 13/7/06: 1.010
Comments:
Pitched kit yeast on 13/7/06. Not fermentation. Pitched a Coopers Bitter yeast a week or so later. No fermentation. Pitched a starter made from mixture of yeast slurry from a saflager S-23 brew and a Cascade ale brew. No fermentation. Pitched sparkling wine yeast EC-1118 10g on 24/7/06, which finally is fermenting 🙂 Bulk primed with 180g dex and bottled into a mixture of softdrink bottles and lognecks with Frosty’s help. He learned about not twisting twist top bottles clockwise to get them out of the capper! 🙂
