What have I created....

[Andy - Go Hawks!]

Hi all - Im new here.
Started a batch of alcoholic lemonade on 12/09/08 and used the following recipe.

15 lemons - zest and fruit only - no white pith
3 kg Brown sugar
500g Maltodextrin
Lalvin EC1118 Champagne Yeast

Put fruit in stocking and boiled up with Sugar and MD.
Put all into a 15 litre fermenter (inc Fruit in stocking) and filled with water.
The starting SG was 1080 but over the course of the next 2 weeks this has only dropped to 1060.
I know I have used a lot of sugar (I was aiming to get a 7-8% Two-Dogs style lemonade) and expect the brew to take time but I thought it would drop a bit quicker.
It is still bubbling away and tastes progressively less sweet each time I take a hydrometer reading but I was wondering if I have used enough Yeast to convert all the 3kg of sugar ( and fruit sugars too).
I am happy to let nature take its time (and the temp has not been too helpful here in 'sunny' Melbourne!) but should I think about adding another yeast satchet if the fermentation stops and the SG is around the 1050 - 1040 mark?

Thanks All

Andy

[Chris]

I think you may have an error as far as your gravity readings go. I personally would expect a final grav aroud 1000 or (maybe) lower.

As far as yeast goes, you have enough in there to do the job- I'd leave that alone.

[KEG]

you may be a bit short on yeast nutrition. might be an idea to get hold of some yeast nutrient, or at the VERY least give approx 10g of cheap brewers or baker's yeast a 1 minute boil, then add that to the fermenter.

[Andy - Go Hawks!]

Thanks for the advise guys.I will post later to let you know how it turned out.

Andy

[Andy - Go Hawks!]

Just a quick update on this lemonade.Its now at about 6.1% and still fermenting.It has a sweetish initial 'softdrink' flavour with a wonderfully tart Lemon aftertaste.
It will probably end up at about 10% so should be great in a tall glass with ice and a slice.

Cheers all

Andy

[corks]

wow sounds good, might have to try it.

[Andy - Go Hawks!]

Well its finally finished.
Bottled today with a FG of 1003 making it about 9.2%.
Lessons learnt on making alcoholic lemonade with this recipe were as follows (well lessons for me anyway!)
1) Leaving the lemons in the fermenter really did leave an almost 'Lemon Juice' tartness.It really was quite sharpe but NOT bitter.
2) It would have been better in hindsight to use an extra 1500g of MaltoDextrose to add more sweetness to the lemonade.
3) The clarity of the drink was quite good - the stocking certainly helped keep the Lemon pulp from diffusing into the drink.

Onwards with a 100% juice scrumpy!

Andy

[corks]

not sure about adding 1500g of maltodextrin, i've read that it adds a soapiness when too much is used.
lactose can be used for sweetening, though watch out for lactose-intolerant drinkers...

[Chris]

1500g of EXTRA maltodextrin? That'd be revolting!

As for the stocking, I really wouldn't bother. All my lemon pulp drops out into the yeast cake. Crystal clear lemonade without even filtering.