My cider is still fermenting, thought going quite slow. But I have purchased a second fermentation bucket to make some hard lemonade. The recipe was 10 cans of minutemaid lemonade concentrate, 5lbs Sugar, enough water to make 5g volume, red star pasteur champagne yeast(bloomed 2hrs) and 1lb frozen strawberries. I ended up with a temp adjusted SG of 1.096, giving potential alcohol of 13%. I hope it turns out ok.
This has been a slow ferment. I opened it up, checked the SG, and tasted it. It is still chugging slowly along. The SG is 1.080, but it didn’t taste too sweet. It could stand to lose some sweetness and pick up some kick. I figure the current ABC is 2.43%. I think I might get it up to 5-6, taste it and then maybe rack it.
You probably should have added some yeast nutrient. Also, letting yeast sit in water for two hours can’t be good for it - pitch 15-30 minutes after re-hydrating.
The yeast was sitting in sugar/water it was going pretty good when I pitched it. I did add nutrient a few days later.
