What would happen if you added an 8oz can of frozen lemonade to a 5gl batch of wheat or pale ale in a secondary fermenter?
8 oz is not enough For any significant lemonade flavour you would probably need 4 cans
The sugar in the lemonade is going to ferment out and leave your beer dry and astringent the solution for this is to add a malt with a high ratio of unfermentables like Gambrinus Honey malt or melandonin malt you can either add them to the initial mash or do a mini mash cool it with your frozen lemonade and add to the secondary
If you are really keen on alcoholic lemonade check out some articles on short meads I haven’t tried any my self but it seem like a quick and easy way to get grownup lemonade
No, an alcoholic lemonade is not what I’m after.
Yes, I think balancing with more unfermentables is a good solution. I’ll give some thought to 32oz of frozen concentrate as opposed to 16 or 24.
And just a touch of hops as a preservative.
Fruity hops like Citra Amarillo and Nelson Sauvin would be nice
I’m not sure if this applies in this situation but in making fruit and berry beer yeast selection is critical for retention of fruit flavour and aroma avoid clean fermenting strains like US-05 and choose something that leaves fruit aromas even when fruit is not present like a wheat beer yeast or a Belgian ale
Keep in mind that the “lemonade” in a true shandy is Sprite, not what we think of as lemonade.
Personally, I prefer to approach shandys etc like a soda jerk/bartender and mix them prior to serving. IE spoon some concentrate into a pint and then pour your wheat over it. Incidentally, one of my favorite summer drinks is a margarita mixed with beer.
Interesting. What do you find to be the best beer to mix in?
Apologies for going off topic…
Posting in your new thread ;D