I\u2019m a strong believer in having a non-beer option on tap as part of my homebrew lineup. I like to make homebrew tasting a large part of the experience of visiting my home, and I think that having a non-beer option is a great way to avoid excluding people who don\u2019t drink beer from the experience. Even beer lovers will enjoy a glass of this light, refreshing hard lemonade!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I brewed all of the beer for my best friend\u2019s wedding this summer, which is an awesome experience for any homebrewer! We decided that we needed to have a non-beer option on tap for those at the wedding who wanted an alcoholic beverage but did not drink beer. We had discussed doing a cider, but some of my ciders have turned out really well and others have…not. I\u2019m still working on getting my cider dialed in, but until then I needed something that was less of a gamble. We finally settled on a hard lemonade. My thinking was that it was light, sweet, and easy to drink, and that the final product will be backsweetened with enough lemon juice and sugar that it would be forgiving in case it didn\u2019t turn out with the exact flavor I was looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was pretty surprised to find that there are not a ton of homebrew recipes out there for hard lemonade. Several people recommended Skeeter Pee<\/a> to me, but after looking at the recipes I was worried about the high ABV (8-9%) which is a dangerous thing to bring to a wedding. I pulled together all of the recipes I could and made some changes to them to hit a flavor and ABV closer to what I was shooting for (about 5%, light, and not overly sweet). Here\u2019s what I came up with!<\/p>\n\n\n\n