My Hard Limeade Recipe- Delicious and Potent

I just completed a batch of hard limeade and figured I’d share my experiences for those trying this themselves.

The inspiration for the hard limeade was a cocktail I often drink over summer:
2 parts minute maid limeade
2 parts coke
1 part vodka

My recipe:
10 cans hard limeade
8 cups regular table sugar
water to 23L (6 gallons US)
champagne yeast EV-1118 4-packs

The formulation:
I attempted to find a way to have a sweet, bottle carbed drink without splenda or lactose (hate both their flavors) but realized this was not possible so I decided it would be extra strong and then could be carbed by adding club soda or coke.

Start by mixing the defrosted minute maid, sugar and water I ended up with a sg of 1080.
The only real problem I had with this is getting the yeast to start in the supper acidic environment I initially just used 1 packet and made a starter and nothing happened.

The second time around I made a HUGE starter with 3 packs of champagne yeast. I started by rehydrating it in warm water and then added ½ cup of must to it every couple hours for 24 hours. I let this sit for another 12 hours to where I had a 3 cup starter 36 hours old I then dumped it in and it took off nicely.

The SG dropped rapidly for the first 2 weeks to around 1020. I then moved it to a secondary, it fermented down to 1.000. At this point I added potassium sorbate (bought from LHBS) to kill the yeast and moved it to my garage (at around 40F) to clear as much sediment as possible.

After 3 more days I backsweetened it. I was looking for a fairly sweet beverage that tasted just like minute maid limeade with vodka in it. I took a 2 cup sample and sweetened to taste, I ended up using 500mL of wine conditioner and 7 more cans of limeade concentrate ending up with a fg of 1040. I should also add I strained the minute maid concentrate as it’s full of pulp that I hate drinking. I bottled the limeade and it was ready to drink.

To serve:
As I mentioned I love it mixed with coke it sounds awful but is it quite delicious and cuts the tartness of the lime nicely.
Others have mixed it with club soda to get some carbonation in or sprite to add sweetness and carbonation
A few brave souls get it ice cold and enjoy it straight on ice, its good but potent.

This is what I will try

Inspired from Yooper Hard lemonade

My recipe: (sorry for my bad English, I'm French Canadian)

8 cans hard limeade (I use minute maid)

1# of Dextrose

2#of honey malt extract

champagne yeast Ec-1118 1 Pack

Yeast nutriment (very important)

3 Gallons of Water (I use tap water with chlorine)

Start the mix using a Bucket put the water and the leamade in it, start using only 5 cans. Boil the dextrose and the malt with about three liters of water, wait until the mix get cold again.

Poor in the bucket with the water and leamade.

Put 2 tables spoon of Yeast nutriment in it.

Make a starter using the yeast, Yeast nutriment (1 table spoon) and sugar with about 2 cups of water, wait 30 minutes.

Put the mixture in the bucket.

Wait,

Now you should stir the leamade about 1 time a day using a giant spoon, it will help the co2 go away, so the yeast will be healthier.

Put the last 3 cans when your sure the leamade is fermenting, 1 can every 12 hours aproximatly. So the yeast will have the time to get stronger and adapt because too much leamade concentrate in the same time and it could be too acid.

After 4-5 day or when the O/G reach 1.030 put it in the fermenter (add another 1 ts of Yeast nutriment in the fermenter after) for about 2 weeks .

Bottle or keg.

Anyway, I will tell you if it's any good,

After 1 day the SWMBO like it a lot. (very good sign) and there is a lot of bubble coming from the mixture.

The yeast nutriment help your yeast to be happy and not make any off flavor.

Update soon.