I read this thread over a year ago wanting to make a hard lemonade and have since made 4 batches: 3 lemon and 1 raspberry lemon.
This is a tough fermentation to get started, i originally used 3 yeast additions (champagne yeast cake from applewine, US05 then another US05. I thought that first batch was going to fail, but over time it did its thing. Just took patience.
I switched to using DADY (distillers active dry yeast) and have since made 3 batches with it. I compared side by side the flavor and have good result (in flavor profile) with the dady versus champagne.
I have yet to have a batch of the straight lemon flavored finish in under 4 weeks, the raspberry/lemon batch was done with primary in 2-3 weeks.
I use a lot of nutrient along with the high alcohol tolerant dady, i degass every day for the first 4-5 days and add more nutrient at about the end of the first week. Final abv on the lemon flavored has been between 15% and 17% and the raspberry/lemon i bottled at around 13%.
I have not backsweetened any of the batches, the pink version i bottled in Bud Ice 40 oz bottles with new PET soda bottle caps. It stayed pretty sweet and carbed up litely without any priming.
The plain lemon i have been bottling in Baltika 16oz bombers and enen though it attenuates out to under .990, it will still carb in the bottles without any priming sugars added. It is fairly dry but very drinkable.
at 16% ABV it is not a good idea to drink more than one. I like it in a big glass of ice, but it is great with a nice splash of citrus soda.
6 Gallon batch "Insanity Lemonade"
4 cans frozen limeade
8 cans frozen lemonade
7 lbs white cane sugar
1 Tbls DADY yeast
4 Tbls yeast nutrient
Thaw frozen juice cans to room temperature, open and add to 6.5 gallon brew bucket and add water to make 6 gallons. Add yeast nutrient and stir well with degasser attached to drill. Pitch dady yeast. Agitate/ degass every 1-2 days for first week. OG should be over 1.100, check it weekly to see progress. Add more yeast nutrient after first week.
Give this recipe time, it is worth it. The SG has a long way to go if you are going to try to get >15%, so dont get too frustrated if it seems to take off at first and then stalls out around 8-10%. A couple more weeks and it will do its thing.