Hard Seltzer anyone? (includes recipe)

[Gerryjo]

Just kegged a batch of Hard Seltzer for my second eldest who turns 18 on Friday and she wanted me to make her something for her birthday.She will have 3 or 4 friends over Saturday social distancing off course and all in her school group and got the thumbs up for my efforts so chuffed to bits.
We had a sampling session and she likes it with natural as there is like a country wine flavour from the yeast which was CML five and their country wine yeast and is quite nice uncarbonated.
I force carbed the keg then served plain and also then added the flavours she chose which were Hazelnut and chocolate with the other being pineapple.
Pineapple won but I shall leave the keg unflavoured and they can dose it themselves to suit their taste plus there is some lowicz raspberry there.
What and easy brew day and only used tap water but added lemons and salts to bring the pH down.

 

[Leon103]

Recipe?

 

[marshbrewer]

Was is a bit of a tricky ferment? I listened to an episode of Basic Brewing Radio about hard seltzer, and there was lots of talk of needing nutrients for the yeast repeatably over the first few days as you are basically fermenting a sugar wash?

 

[Gerryjo]

Recipe?

Big pot
3 litres of tap water if it's drinkable as mine is.
2kg of granulated sugar
2 unwaxed lemons
Brewing salts to bring the pH down to around 4.6 using a brewing calulator for 20l
Yeast will be of your choosing as I used a leaking fermenter and pitched both ale and wine yeast in that order several days apart and I added around 3 teaspoons of yeast nutrient.

Boil the water and remove from the heat to add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Return to the heat and cut the lemons in half and vigurously juice them.
Add the juice and the lemons to the boil for ten minutes.
Remove from heat and add to the fermenter and top up to 20 litres which will be enough to bring your temp into spec with the current temps.
Pitch yeast and wait until completed.
Now bear in mind mine stopped at 1.002
Others may stop higher or lower yeast strain dependant.

Enjoy.

 

[Gerryjo]

Was is a bit of a tricky ferment? I listened to an episode of Basic Brewing Radio about hard seltzer, and there was lots of talk of needing nutrients for the yeast repeatably over the first few days as you are basically fermenting a sugar wash?

This was my second attempt as my first stalled at 1.020 and wouldn't budge and I had only added 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient.Collect some yeast slurry from your next brew and use that in the boil.

 

[Gerryjo]

For what it's worth it is cheap as chips and although I thought mine was cloudy it was not and is clear as day using tap water.On my first attempt I had used 4 bottles of LIDL spring water but using tap water some lemons and yeast,nutrient and sugar it's literally only a couple of quid for 20 litres and a half hour of your time to get it on the go.
I will be doing this again and it will be great for summer plus it's neutral and can be flavoured to taste.

 

[clyne]

Resurrecting an old thread here but planning to try this on Friday evening (Saturday's the real brew day!). I don't have any way to measure pH - how important do you think lowering the pH would be in terms of affecting the end product?

 

[Gerryjo]

Resurrecting an old thread here but planning to try this on Friday evening (Saturday's the real brew day!). I don't have any way to measure pH - how important do you think lowering the pH would be in terms of affecting the end product?

Try chucking in a sliced lemon or lime plus juice as this will help bring the pH down.My water is a pH of 7.3 and with that I added 2 lemons to the boil pan to make up the sugar solution and it dropped within range.Its more suitable environment for the yeast and helps prevent other wee nasties taking hold.

 

[clyne]

Ah brilliant @Gerryjo thanks. I wonder if I can use the Salifert alkalanity test to give me an idea of what kind of adjustments I should make. I wonder if @strange-steve is hanging around, he seems to be the resident water expert

 

[Gerryjo]

Ah brilliant @Gerryjo thanks. I wonder if I can use the Salifert alkalanity test to give me an idea of what kind of adjustments I should make. I wonder if @strange-steve is hanging around, he seems to be the resident water expert

It will certainly help to adjust your water profile but aim for a balanced one to help keep it neutral