First Home Brew

I had some videos regarding home brewing show up in my YouTube feed recently. While I’m not much of a beer or wine drinker, I do like things like limoncello, hard lemonade, hard iced tea and the like. So when I saw the video about how to make a hard lemon soda, I was captivated. I enjoy cooking, so this is right up my alley.

The recipe is fairly simple: lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, yeast, non-fermentable sweetener (I’m using monkfruit sweetener) and of course water. My first batch is about 40 ounces, in a washed and sanitized BPA-free orange juice container. Lots of sanitizing involved with home brewing, I had no idear!

For my brew, this is technically my second batch-the first didn’t work. I decided to add some grapefruit juice and some bits of the fruit itself and decided against the zest this time and bought a heating mat to keep it a more constant temp. Hold onto your butts!

When I did my first batch, I did a few things wrong, so I decided to stop it, throw it out and start fresh. First off, I didn’t prepare my yeast in warm enough water and I think that might’ve messed it up. Second, I don’t think I kept it up to temp properly, so the yeast wasn’t active during the entire time. I’ve kept it on our 3 season porch and while it’s been in the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit during the day, it’s been cooler some nights so maybe it didn’t like the inconsistent temps. That’s why I added a heating mat and I’m keeping the brew on that. Once I do my next, larger batch, I’ll use a glass container with a proper air lock on it. This batch I screwed the cap on lightly (per the video’s direction) so the gasses escape and the bugs don’t get in. When I checked the gravity of the first batch after 4 days, it was the same as the start, so it hadn’t done anything. So far this time, even after 12 hours, I can see a noticeable difference in how the liquid is reacting. I’m anxious! See you in a few days!