Crystalized lemon is surprisingly hard to find. Hibiscus is super easy to find however and you can get big bags of it online. I made a nice bret beer that had 1.5 oz at the end of the boil and 3 oz in the fermenter as a dry hop. The color is incredible and the hibiscus is just present but not overwhelming.
Edit: I just ordered some True Lemon to try…(from Amazon because they are sold out on their website)
Rather than tea bags, you could have also tried some combination of lemongrass, corriander, and/or lemon zest? Possibly a little bit of lactose, just to sweeten the ordeal and bring out the lemon shandy type flavor?
For a shandy just add lemonade to the glass
So maybe a little history is in order here… Lemon Zinger is a nice herbal tea, it’s probably my favorite beverage that has no alcohol, caffeine, or calories. Anyway when we started shutting down we ran low, so we went shopping on Amazon and didn’t pay attention to what we were ordering and WAAAAAAY overbought. It was one of those, “that’s way more expensive than the grocery store, but I guess covid-gouging is in effect… get a couple anyway…” it was actually way more expensive because it was a case, not a box.
SO with more tea than we could drink, I immediately went to, “when life hands you lemons, figure out how to make beer”. Not quite what the nuns taught, but close enough.
So yea, not the best choice for a beer ingredient, but why not?
How would you know if you didn’t try it… right? There is why being a very good home Brewer, the bigger craft brewers just can’t/won’t do?
Sneezles61
I like lemon zinger but I really like Jammin Lemon Ginger. Never put it in a beer though. You could make 5 gallons ice tea of it put it in a keg.
I mean it’s not a bad idea. I have had some great beers made with tea. Shipyard in Maine makes a few that I loved. Especially since you had such a… Surplus.
I’ve had some good beers with tea in them as well. Very refreshing. Not something I would regularly drink but still nice for a change.
This thread inspired me to try my own pink lemonade.
I already have a very pink and delicious Brett recipe
10 lbs Pale Malt
8 oz corn sugar
1.5 oz Hibiscus 5 min
2 oz Hibiscus dry hop
.25 oz Southern Star 60min
.50 oz Souther Star 20 min
I use The Yeast Bay 261 for this Brett beer
I’m add 16 packs of crystallize lemon at 5 mins to this batch.
Oh yea, I like the cut of your Jib.
I used to put a couple of them in water, then I just sort of stopped finding them in the local grocery store and assumed they stopped making them. I tried adding one to a diet Coke once though, that was a bad idea, it caused the coke to fizz-out, not as violently as mentos, but flat diet coke is not a good beverage.
so 16 packets is like 2 lemons right?
It might be equal to 2 lemons. I’m going to sneak up on the right amount slowly. My wife has picked this recipe as her favorite of the 100s I’ve made and she doesn’t want me messing with it. I wonder if 16 packs will be even noticeable.
I think 48 packs would be noticeable, 1 per beer, but I’m hoping get a hint will be right in this.
Happy Wife; Happy Life!
A 12g packet comes with the NB Summer Squeeze 5 gallon kit and it is very balanced. I like those variety packs on Amazon!
That recipe looks pretty good.
