I've been doing a 4 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy.
This was adapted from a 5-gallon recipe found on HomeBrewTalk.com
Sanitize where appropriate.
Ingredients:
- 10 cans lemonade concentrate (important---no potassium sorbate) - original recipe called for 8 cans and I used this many in my first batch, but I didn't think it was lemony enough.
- 1.6 pounds white cane sugar
- 0.8 pounds Light Dry Malt Extract
- Dry yeast (champagne yeast had good results with a nicely fizzy carbonation), liquid yeast smack pack would work too
- Pitcher of mixed up lemonade (if doing a yeast starter)
- Extra DME for yeast starter
- 3.4 oz. of corn sugar for priming if bottling
I strongly recommend a yeast starter with DME (not included in qty. above) 24+ hours before. Let the yeast get going good (6+ hours). After this gradually add 1/4 cup lemonade to yeast starter every 2-3 hours, repeating 4-6 times. This will (theoretically) allow yeast to adjust to high acidity.
Boil 4-6 cups water with sugar for 15 minutes.
Slowly add DME to water. Boil for 10-15 minutes until DME is dissolved (being careful not to boil over).
Cover and cool wort.
Add lemonade concentrate to carboy. Fill water to about 3 gallon mark.
Add wort.
Top off water to 4 gallon mark.
Pitch yeast after carboy has reached room temperature.
Let the yeast do it's thing. My first batch took 7 days before showing any sign of fermentation. Spent a total of 24 days in the primary carboy. No secondary, racked right into bottling bucket. My second started fermenting after 3-4 days. It's been in the carboy about 13 days now. I'll start taking gravity readings in a few days.
During fermentation, the lemonade never really clarified with my first batch, and the citrus pulp in the carboy sure worried me because it sometimes looked like something was growing on top---but it was just the citrus pulp floating near the top. The lemonade recipe has a LOT of pulp floating in there (1.5+ inch). After bottle conditioning the lemonade clarified a lot.
To bottle, I primed by boiling 2 cups water and adding 3.4 oz of corn sugar.
Bottles spent 7 days at room temperature and were thoroughly carbonated by this time. Check at one week and judge for yourself.
The hard lemonade was a bit boozy when it was young. After being in the fridge for 3 weeks the hard lemonade greatly improved. After about 6-8 weeks in the fridge the stuff really go great.
That's about it. Fairly simple recipe.
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For the experimental brew I'm working on now I did a 4 gallon hard lemonade as described above. I also did a 4 gal. hard cherry limeade (half cherry juice concentrate, half limeade concentrate), a half gallon limeade and a half gallon of cherry. I used the same recipe above for all, adjusting quantities to make wort for a 9 gallon batch and divided accordingly. Did a nice big yeast starter and added lemonade to acclimatize yeast. Divided yeast among carboys. Both brews containing cherry juice were bubbling away in a matter of hours. Limeade within 2-3 days. Lemonade in 3-4 days.
After 6-7 days both brews with cherry juice smelt of rotten eggs (just as a hard cider does). The smell is clearing up now. I'm blaming this on the small quantity of apple and pear juice found in commercial cherry juice concentrate. Could just be the cherry juice doing it's thing though. I'm not worried about this.
Here are the OG readings from the 4 experiments:
- Hard Lemonade: 1.068
- Hard Cherry Limeade: 1.074
- Hard Cherry: 1.060
- Hard Limeade: 1.070
My wife took the last of my Panty Drop Lemonade to a girls-night party and it was well received. 
