Hard Lemonade + Energizer/Nutrient Questions

So, I figure I haven't asked enough dumb questions here, so let me start off with another.

I recently tried a hard lemonade recipe I found here, it was basically 10 cans of concentrated lemonade, 4 gallons of water, 4 pounds of sugar and US-56 Dry yeast, which I believe is an ale yeast.

So, it came out REALLY sweet, but people really enjoyed it, to me it lacked flavor so I went and looked at what "Mikes Hard Lemonade Was" and saw it had malt in it.

I decided to try a new recipe, but I noticed a few problems with the old one. First off, the fermentation was way too long, it didn't start for almost a week and then barely went for 3 weeks after that. There were points where I almost dumped it, but would sit there for 30 seconds and wait, then I would get a couple bubbles.

So, I adjusted the recipe, first off, knowing that the common recipe for Hard Lemonade used malt, I went with a pound of Light DME, and used 2 pounds of Corn Sugar in addition. Then went with White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast (80%) instead of the Ale Yeast. The Wife wanted to toss in the pound of frozen Rasberries so we went with that too, the way i see it, as sweet as the previous hard lemonade came out, it couldn't hurt.

So, my recipe, is as follows:

1 LB Light DME
2 LBS Corn Sugar
8 Cans Concentrated Lemonade
1 LB Frozen Rasberries
4 Gallons Water

I, of course, boiled the water for the DME and Corn Sugar. But when I went to my local brew shop I told him what I was doing, and asked what would help. I was thinking yeast energizer, he told me no, to use nutrient and to leave a towel over the fermenter for the first night then to put the top on.

So, I did that, and 2 days later, it's going like crazy.

The thing I don't quite understand, excuse me if this is a noob question, is when do I use nutrient and when do I use energizer for my yeast? I have done 1 batch of mead, like 30+ batches of various beers and probably 20+ batches of cider, and other than the mead never needed any, actually, the only reason I had these ingredients is for the mead.

So... my question is 2 part, what can I expect with the hard lemonade? my plan is to wait 3 weeks, toss in some potassium sorbate, wait a couple days them toss in 3-4 cans of concentrated lemonade to bring out a lemon flavor that was lost in the original recipe. The goal is to have something that has that lemon taste and isn't just pure sweet that hurts your stomach.

Also, the second part, is when do you use yeast nutrient and when do you use yeast energizer? I am really confused about these two, I don't do a lot of "out of the box" experimenting, since I do mostly beer and ciders, I have not, as of yet, really needed either beyond the one experimental batch of mead.

Hrm... Thought I posted this in the general forum, that'll teach me the lessons of drinking and posting

Hmm, I'm kind of curious about when to use one instead of the other too. I only had energizer until a couple weeks ago.

Is the lemonade still fermenting?

Hmm, I'm kind of curious about when to use one instead of the other too. I only had energizer until a couple weeks ago.

Is the lemonade still fermenting?

It fermented for about a week, it wasn't a slow fermentation like the normal recipe, and it's completely dry. I tossed in some Potassium Sorbate today, I figure I will Keg it on Monday or Tuesday, so in about a week I should be able to sample the finished product.

Im also trying a Mikes recipe. The recipe can be found here (on the last page):

http://www.brew-wineforum.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=12&MessageID=58751&TopicPage=3

My idea is a little different tho... Im gona ferment dry to 14%, then backsweeten with an equal ammount of lemonade, then force carb. The recipe I came up with is only a geuss, but I hope it comes close in profile.

After starting this batch, I did some Googling, and came up with the following that I am gonna try next:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipa ... &item=5022

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipa ... &item=4907

My only disagreement with those recipes is with the lack of lemon type fermentables in the recipe. I will be Modifying the above to include some lemonade concentrates, and changing the yeast to a Malic tolerable strain.

A Piccy of the current experiment:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/238 ... faa2_b.jpg


As for the difference between yeast nutrient and energizer, I know nothing of... Gonna have to do some research. But, I ferment nothing without nutrients since my first failed batch. (Never want to see 5g of wort going down the drain again!)

I'll let you know how my recipe comes out... what you have on tap has me curious.

On Tap:Summit EPA Clone, UJSM, Welches White grape Rasberry

What's the Welches White grape Rasberry?

Recipe was 2 cans of Welches White Grape Rasberry, 1.5 Cups Invert for a total of 1.10, airated, nutrients, Premiere Cuvee. Turned out very tasty. My only issue was that Welches used sulphites as a preservative, So I airated overnight to help them gas out.

just a thought, instead of using corn sugar to carbonate, you can try the same amount of powdered lemonade mix instead

So, I kegged it tonight, when it first came out it was pretty sour on the intake, so we added a cup of sugar and 2 cans of lemonade concentrate to the finished product (I used yeast killers last week) and the final product, even still, is dangerously tasty. I let my wife try it, now I have to keep her away from the keg. It tastes like a nice lemonade with a slight bite to it, overall, no taste of alcohol what-so-ever. It's about 8%, fully dried in a little over a week and a half, can't wait to give some to the neighbors

just a thought, instead of using corn sugar to carbonate, you can try the same amount of powdered lemonade mix instead

I kegged it and used yeast killers so the carbonation is forced.

did the berries affect the taste much? how would you compare it to mikes hard lemonade?

The effected the taste, it's hard to explain the flavor, but there's a big difference there, it's got a sweet front end and a tangy back end, the berries are obvious on the front end, on the back I think they bring a lot of the tang. The previous hard lemonade recipe I tried had a flavor that was really sugar heavy and after a few glasses left my stomach hurting, this stuff is a lot lighter and seems to be more of a nice summer drink.

For the record, I purchased 8 cans of generic, ralphs, concentrated frozen lemonade. I used 2 more after the yeast killers had taken place, so the lemon flavor is pretty obvious in it, it tastes like a lemonade. Overall, I think I will keep the recipe and make it a few times during the summer for bbq's and get togethers, I think it will be a pleasant surprise to bring to any summer occasion.

did you add the raspberries after the wort cooled?

how does it taste now?

did you add the raspberries after the wort cooled?

how does it taste now?

Well, it lasted about a week, and there wasn't much cooling to the wort. I kept 3 gallons of water in the fridge and boiled the sugar and malt into one gallon, poured it into my fermenter, poured in the cold water and then added the raspberries.

The good news, it tasted great and knocked people on their asses, the bad news, it's really popular in my neighborhood and they keep asking me to make more, but the heat hasn't really permitted me to brew and I haven't seen a decent chest freezer on craigslist in the past few weeks

New at the lemonades so here is my "Noob" question. Will regular cane sugar work?