Lemonade: The saga continues

Well finally transferred the lemonades off of the sediment and into clean jugs.  As you can see all of them fermented pretty far except for the limeade.  Not sure why that is but I am going to let it go for a while longer and see if it gets started again.  The other three are right around 10.5% ABV so they should do for a nice kick. All taste really good too.  I killed the fermentation with potassium sorbate so I can add sugar to taste and not have to worry about fermentation kicking in again.  Will keep updating as they get drank and I get drunk. :)

Lemonade--("B lock" 1.002)
Limeade--("C" 1.030)
Pink Lemonade ("A" 1.004)
Blueberry Pomegranate Lemonade ("therm" 1.002)

Put to the test...

Well we had a party the other night for my girlfriend's birthday.  Alex came over a bit early and we decided to try out one of the lemonades.  We took the SG and found it to be at 1.032, this would give the lemonade about a 5% ABV.  The taste was actually pretty good.  A bit on the sweet side with a yeasty smell, but overall pretty good.

When the party got started the stuff actually went over pretty well.  People enjoyed it and judging by the state of the apartment in the morning it did the job.

Definitely looking forward to the other 4 gallons being ready for the hot summer days to come.

Hard Lemonade

This post pretty much sums it up!
Hard lemonade

In the On Deck Circle

Next up we have the hard hitting yet feel good story of the summer.....Hard Lemonade! Now that our glass jugs are empty, Alex and I are going to be making hard lemonade this coming week. It should be ready just in time for the (hopefully) hot late June summer days. The recipe is going to be a fairly straightforward easy one so it should come out pretty well. Cans of lemonade concentrate, sugar, malt extract, and yeast.

I am actually really looking forward to this one. The cider turned out well for what it was. Next time I won't put the spices in it. It would be great warmed up on a cold day though. Nothing better than drinking hot hard apple cider, especially when you don't have to add any alcohol and change the taste.

Anyway, will keep you all updated about our lemonade progress.

Cider Bottling Day!

Well today is the day that the cider makes its journey to its final resting place (other than my GUT!). So this is where the cider has been for the past month.

First came the sterilization of everything. This took awhile as I had to let everything air dry. I tried to use the space heater to speed the process up but even after a couple hours it didn't work too well.

Then I realized what a dummy I had been and cleared out the dish washer and put the bottles upside down on the bottom rack, pointed the heater at them there and they were dry in about 30 minutes.

Siphoning was the hardest part and I ran into some difficulty at the end with air getting into the tube and botching it up. Oh well. I decided to bottle half as is and carbonate half of each batch. This will be interesting and I am hoping I don't have bottle-bombs at a later date. I placed the bottles that will hopefully carbonate, into plastic bags just in case though. So here is the final product. There is only one thing to do........."Relax, and have a homebrew!!"

Cider Update

Conducted a status check on the cider tonight. A is sitting at about 1.010 gravity giving it a ABV of about 7.7%, with a great taste and just a hint of the alcohol in the back of the throat. B is at 1.032 giving it a ABV of 5.1% with a sweeter taste and the alcohol is barely perceptible. This was to be expected as B contained the wine yeast which was to give it a sweeter taste without as much kick.

One more week in the primary and I will switch to the secondary, and then get started on the lemonade with Alex. So far so good. :-)

Well, how's it taste??

So I checked the cider and mead tonight. The cider is still active, but I am going to be switching that into a secondary as soon my 3rd jug of apple juice has been drank. The A jug appears to be a bit more active as can be expected with the champagne yeast.

The mead.....well let's just say it wasn't the best tasting stuff in the world. The alcohol is definitely there though. The readings indicate it should be about 9% ABV right now. I think that is about right. It has a bit of a fizz to it, but the taste just isn't that great. I am not very good describing taste so I will have to let Alex do that next time he comes over. Maybe he can give a better description. Maybe adding some fruits or spices will help spruce it up and getting it tasting better. Either way I think we are going to be wrapping that one up soon.

Will keep you (if anyone actually reads this) updated as they progress.