Fermenting 4 Gallons of Turkey Hill Lemonade

Well friends, we’ve gone and done it - we’ve officially set out to make our first Hive-hooch together from start to finish, and what better way than to base it on cheap lemonade from the gas station, loaded with preservatives!?

DAY 1

I picked up 4 gallons of Turkey Hill lemonade after dropping my kids off at school. I swung home and stuck them in the basement (no refrigeration), and I headed out to work.

Later that night, once my family was comfy cozy in their beds, it was time to get cookin’. I opted to go for the heavy gamble and skipped sanitization. The fermenter was cleaned with soap after it was last used, and was stored upside-down. Also, this lemonade is loaded with preservatives, so I am hoping this was low risk and has no effect on the outcome, but we’re here to learn so let’s just get into it and see what happens!

I use dry champagne yeast almost exclusively. Perhaps some other time I’ll round up samples of the full range of yeasts that I like to use and do a comparison round, maybe make a gallon of the same brew with each type of yeast…I also really want to try using bread yeast. I’ve been told that it should be avoided because it creates off-flavors, but if you know old Alby at all, you already know that being “told” will never suffice where experimental data can be collected.

• Knowing trumps believing by orders of magnitude.

Anyway, I digress but let me know if there are particular yeasts you’d like to see included in the roundup and if I can afford it, I’ll include them.

Next, since this lemonade has preservatives I wanted to boost my yeast army. I believe the faster you can get fermentation going, the less likely you are to suffer the repugnant wrath of infection. To do this, I chose to use the swill from our last batch, the Aldi Strawberry Lemonade. Reusing yeast like this is one of my favorite insider moves; I like to think I’m creating a new heirloom yeast when I do this, but I don’t have data to back that up. In any case, it probably goes without saying but you shouldn’t do this with flavors that don’t line up. For example, I wouldn’t use the trub from a coffee stout to kick start a lemonade.

In addition to considering the flavor profiles you’re combining, I’d say it’s also important to make sure you’re not dumping a bunch of dead-ass yeast corpses into your brew. I am willing to assume that would introduce a handful of risks that aren’t worth taking.

To test the viability of the swill, I just dumped in a cap full of sugar. I like corn sugar because it seems to give a cleaner flavor than other sugars, but in general (and especially for testing yeast viability), I tend to use whatever sugar I have around, typically leaning towards brown sugar. Corn sugar is harder to find outside of brewing stores, and I don’t like making special trips.

Dump it in, and look for a reaction. If the yeast is healthy, it should fizz and give some signs of life. Outside of a small amount for testing, I typically find that adding extra sugars to these juices results in over sweetening. There’s probably a balance point at which I could raise the ABV and not end up with an over-sweetened end product, but the best way to get there would be to take gravity measurements, and I don’t do that. I’m all about lazy, intuitive brewing. But I’ve got some friends who love that whole regimented approach - if that’s you, I would LOVE to see some of your recipes and work. I enjoy reading about meticulous brewing measures and I admire the hell out of it, it’s just hard for a lower case j to shake the dot, namsain?

Excellent. So we know with confidence our swill is alive and kickin’, and now it’s time to get this show on the road. IMO, the order here doesn’t matter, but I will say that when I add dry yeast after my liquids are in the fermenter, I often see scattered yeast carcasses dried to the wall of the fermenter above the meniscus or whatever. Don’t set your troops up for failure…or do. It won’t matter much in the end honestly, this is just how ol’ Alby does it ;)

So dry yeast goes into the fermenter first for me.

Next I drop in the first gallon of lemonade. This saturates the dry yeast and seems to give it better odds, but again this advantage isn’t typically critical to the mission.

Now I shake and dump in the swill. Since this yeast is already active and working, this helps kick things off quicker.

Now that that’s all in, I add the other three gallons, stabbing shotgun holes in the jugs to speed up the process a bit.

If you’re using an airlock, some folks fill it with vodka or everclear, I don’t know about all that. I use water. By the end of fermentation, the water is usually full of fruit flies, but they stop there and the fermenter is positively pressurized by the CO2 generated, so it’s functionally equivalent to a check valve - just don’t let the water evaporate to the point that your valve isn’t working anymore and nothing should be making its way into your brew.

Finally, give it a hug and tell it you love it. Actually, I’ve heard that Vikings would shout and curse violently at fermenting mead to toughen the final product. No idea if that’s true or not, and It sounds a bit nutty perhaps, but some would say they may have been into something…if you want to know more about that (not the Viking part, but the idea that speaking to waters can affect them), check out this awesome read:

Image Source

Anyway, that’s it for DAY 1. If you’re on the fence about trying this, it may be worth noting that writing this post took at least 5x as long as doing the actual work, which only took like 7 minutes in total.

DAY 2

I came in to check on the brew, after work on DAY 2.
There wasn’t much to be said, and there was less that I should do.

The offset between water levels in the airlock implies that the fermenter is now charged with a positive pressure.
(Recognize the pictures on the wall from this post?)

Foam on top of brew is another healthy indicator. As the yeast consumes the sugar and puts out CO2, the gas rises to the top and creates a foamy surface. I think based on this, it’s very unlikely we’ll be dealing with the disappointment of infection.