Hard Pink Lemonaid

This actually came out good! I rushed it because my friends were coming up for the weekend so I racked it and put it in the fridge after only about 5 days of fermenting, but it was pretty good then, and now, after settling in the fridge for a few days its actually really good! Has a good flavor, and just about the perfect amount of alcohol bite.

I was just screwing around with 1 gallon batches made in glass Carlo Rossi Wine jugs with rubber stoppers and airlocks

Here was my makeshift "hey, that sounds like it should work" recipe:

Ingredients:
0.9 gal Water
2.5 lbs Corn Sugar
4 oz Extra Light Malt
2x 12 oz cans of pink lemonaid concentrate (without preservatives)

Boil Sugar and Malt for 15 min
Add Pink lemonaid concentrates and bring back to a boil for 1-2 min

Used a 60 cent packet of brewers yeast

OG 1.094
FG 1.022 (yeah I rushed it I know, but it actually has just about the perfect amount of residual sweetness)
ABV: 9.3%

That sounds like it would be really good. I'll give that a try here some time. Could you taste much of the malt extract in there?

It gave it a very sudble malty taste, I was trying to duplicate mikes hard lemonaids taste, but I dont even know what type of malt they use, if its barley or rice or whatever...

Only thing I can think of noting (besides I'll be doing this this summer) is that rushing a fermentation can help you make grenades, not prematurely stop the fermentation. I'd guess that either the high gravity with a non-hg yeast, or large amounts of fermentables would be the cause of you stopping at 1.022, if it indeed had stopped.

O no, it was still bubbling ever 20-30 seconds when I stopped it. And i put it in a plastic container in the fridge and kept an eye on it for a while to make sure nothing bad happened lol. It didnt even swell up though, the fridge stopped the dry yeast almost immediately...

I just wanted to have it for the weekend, I think when actually letting this go all the way it would need more sugar though, because stopping it that early gave it just about the right amount, if it went much further it would have tasted like strait up flavored alcohol, at least I would think...

Might need to throw some carapils in when I do it then just to give it a bit of body. IIRC, there's a chemical that is ok to ingest that stops yeast, but I'd have to keg and force carb it then, but that'd give the residual sweetness desired. Or just a low-attenuating yeast.

It's a stupid question, but how does the carbonation of a Mike's compare to that of a BMC brew? I'd buy some, but I'd probably drink about 3 oz and the rest would sit in my fridge.

i am on my third batch of this recipe - its pretty good
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=12104&highlight=mikes+lemonade

it's not my recipe - lorena's help made it work

Good info, guys. I'm watching this thread. See my thread on making coolers.

Strange there were so many fermentation problems. I had no problems and I just dumped some dry yeast, I didnt even rehydrate it lol.

I plan on using some white labs cider yeast next time around.

But a tip for those looking at making this, I bought the cheapest brand there was, I think it was flavorite or something, the minute maid and others like that are not only more expensive but probably had preservatives in them. The cheapo stuff I bought had 3 ingredients, Water, Corn Sugar, and Lemons lol, try looking for something like that, it worked great.

I also did shake the crap out of it before, and during pitching, and then every so often for about 2 days.